SimpliSafe Security Camera Options and Pricing

So, here are the questions. What exactly do SimpliSafe cameras cost? How do you make the most of their capabilities? And most importantly, are they worth the higher price? Keep reading. We’ve got the answers.

SimpliSafe Security Camera Cost

SimpliSafe does offer an affordable camera. It’s the same one the company’s been selling since the beginning. It used to be known as the SimpliCam. These days, the company calls it the Wired Indoor Camera. Either way, it costs just $99. That’s more expensive than the comparable Ring Indoor Cam we tested, but it’s consistent with industry averages.

The Wired Indoor Cam doesn’t do an awful lot, though, other than provide a video image of what’s in front of it. It doesn’t include person detection software, and as the name implies, it’s only suitable for indoor use. In fact, we used to give SimpliSafe a hard time because its camera selection was so limited.

Enter the Wireless Indoor Camera and the Wireless Outdoor Camera. Both of these devices provide some serious tech to go with their video images. We’ll get into the experience of using these cameras a little later. But, it’s worth pointing out that their AI can not only tell the difference between people and other moving objects, but the outdoor camera is also smart enough to tell when a person has been on your lawn a little longer than they should. As expected, though, better cameras come with higher prices.

At $149, SimpliSafe’s Wireless Indoor Camera (Smart Alarm) actually sits at the higher end of the indoor camera price spectrum. And while there are certainly more expensive outdoor cameras on the market than SimpliSafe’s $199 Outdoor Camera, it’s about average when it comes to price.

One thing to keep in mind: SimpliSafe is always running a sale. Equipment is deliberately priced high, but that’s a sales tactic designed to make sale prices look particularly inviting. SimpliSafe systems are sometimes discounted by as much as 70 percent. Just as importantly, the company likes to throw in free cameras with package purchases. Often, in fact, SimpliSafe offers its cameras for free to new customers signing up for a system. Find the best upcoming sales in our SimpliSafe deals page.

We added the SimpliSafe Wireless Indoor Camera to our SimpliSafe system.

SimpliSafe Subscription Cost

This is where SimpliSafe’s affordability comes into play. Even though their hardware is around industry averages, their subscriptions are both flexible and affordable. We could even operate our SimpliSafe cameras on a self-monitored basis without any monthly fees if we were willing to give up video storage (we weren’t, but appreciated the option). Even if we went the free route, we’d still get real-time alerts and the ability to pull up live video feeds at any time.

The reason SimpliSafe’s hardware seems expensive is because of the software and features they require to work with SimpliSafe’s advanced monitoring options. So, if you plan to self-monitor your cameras, you’re paying for functions you don’t need.

Full monitoring from SimpliSafe starts at $31.99 per month with basic monitoring at $21.99. A similar monitoring plan from Ring with video verification and intruder intervention will run you $100 a month. That makes SimpliSafe’s plan quite a deal. SimpliSafe also offers higher-tier monitoring at $49.99 per month and $79.99 per month. These enable your outdoor camera’s AI to send alerts to SimpliSafe’s monitoring agents so they can manage threats in real-time using your camera’s two-way audio.

There’s also a middle ground when it comes to monitoring in the form of premium self-monitoring. For $9.99 a month, you can sign up for a video storage plan that supports recordings for up to 30 days of video events on up to 10 cameras. This plan also unlocks SimpliSafe’s smart home integrations. Here’s a quick overview of SimpliSafe’s monitoring plans:

One last note: SimpliSafe doesn’t require long-term contracts. Here’s why that matters: It means you can go back and forth between self-monitoring and professional monitoring any time you feel like it. Want professional monitoring while you’re on vacation in July and then jump back to self-monitoring in August? You can do that. You can also purchase a system, self-monitor for now, and add professional monitoring later when you can afford it.

The SimpliSafe Camera Experience

To assess the value of SimpliSafe’s security cameras, you need a firsthand account of how they work in a SimpliSafe security system. That’s why we bought a system with all three cameras — so we could report back to you. Here’s what we found.

Installing SimpliSafe Security Cameras

DIY installation is the norm in home security systems these days, and most companies have perfected the camera installation process. We rarely come across a camera that takes more than half an hour to set up. Our Wyze Cam, for instance, took no more than five minutes.

Even so, we’ve never come across a brand of home security cameras that are easier to install than SimpliSafe. Assuming you’ve already downloaded the SimpliSafe app, you just put your camera where you want it, turn it on, and connect it to the Wi-Fi. We got our Wired and Wireless Indoor Cameras up and running in about 60 seconds. Keep in mind, that speed was because we put our cameras on end tables. That meant no ladder-climbing or screw-turning, unlike with our Wireless Outdoor Camera, which took about 5 to 10 minutes to install. From there, we could adjust any settings in the app, use two-way talk, and view the live feed or any recorded footage (since we also got a subscription plan).

All of SimpliSafe’s cameras take a refreshingly simple approach to the way they work. Most of their tech is behind the scenes — i.e., you don’t need to manage. For instance, the AI capabilities in the Wireless Outdoor Camera are there for SimpliSafe’s monitoring agents to handle threats for you. And the Intruder Intervention capabilities of the Wireless Indoor Camera allow SimpliSafe’s monitoring agents to tell you exactly what you need to do during an alarm to stay safe.

We set up our SimpliSafe Wireless Indoor Camera on the mantle in our living room.

One thing to bear in mind is that the Wired Indoor Camera is the only camera sold by SimpliSafe that can work as a standalone device. To use the Wireless Indoor or Outdoor Cameras, you’ll need a SimpliSafe Base Station and Keypad. If you only want security cameras for your home, check out our roundup of the best home security cameras for some more standalone camera options.

SimpliSafe Security Camera Performance

The technical specifications of any SimpliSafe camera are not all that impressive. They at least meet industry standards now, with even the Wired Indoor Camera offering 1080p HD resolution. That’s an upgrade from the first time we tested it, with the old model only offering 720p HD resolution, which made the videos a bit fuzzy. SimpliSafe makes them sound fancy with marketing speak, like claims that they use Variable Bitrate Compression1 to improve image quality. That’s what most security cameras use, though.

Where SimpliSafe’s cameras really stand out is with the way they use the Wireless Indoor and Outdoor Cameras for their monitoring service. They’re also really easy to use on a day-to-day basis.

As soon as we had the system up and running, we started receiving mobile alerts. Thankfully, we didn’t get messages every time the AC came on and stirred up the papers on our desk. That would get old fast. The Wired Indoor Camera offers smart detection to weed out false alerts like those papers stirring up on our desk, but our large dog walking by would still send an alert. Whereas, the Wireless Indoor Camera and Wireless Outdoor Camera use AI to differentiate people from pets and cars, which cuts down on false alerts even further.

Fielding alerts was easy using the SimpliSafe app. Once a notification comes through, a simple swipe of the finger takes you to the livestream of the camera that detected activity. Note that all three cameras provide two-way talk. The built-in microphone allowed us to speak to the kids through the camera, which is always helpful. To speak through the cam, hold down the microphone icon in the app when viewing the livestream of the camera you want to talk through. Just remember to take your finger off the mic if you want to listen in. Two-way audio is nice, but it’s a standard feature nowadays.

In the SimpliSafe app, we could add our cameras and view a snapshot of each camera’s live feed before clicking into the stream.

So far so good. But again, none of these features is especially innovative. Where SimpliSafe gets innovative is with the way they integrate their cameras into their monitoring. With a plan that supports Intruder Intervention, SimpliSafe’s agents can access the live feed and use the two-way audio in your Wireless Indoor Camera during active alarms to scare off intruders or help you find safety. We forgot about it one time and it gave us a scare when we got back from a late night grocery run, but we just said our safe word and told our agent there was nothing to worry about.

Active Guard Outdoor Protection allows SimpliSafe’s agents to do the same thing except with the Wireless Outdoor Camera, and it doesn’t require an active alarm. Instead, it activates when the camera’s AI detects a potential threat.

Monitoring agents being able to access your live feed could seem like a privacy risk, especially for indoor cameras. Well, that’s why SimpliSafe outfits their indoor cameras with a stainless steel privacy shutter. It makes an audible click when it closes, and we could see it closed. We appreciated that, since it’s controlled with the mobile app and we never trust an app to work 100 percent of the time. With the audible click and visual confirmation, we could know for certain that we had full privacy.

Customer Service

In our experience, SimpliSafe customer service is rock-solid. Their Help Center is pretty robust, and the brand also has service channels via live chat, email, user forums, and good old-fashioned phone calls. We did come across some unflattering reviews citing long wait times, but we never waited more than a few minutes to get a friendly and professional agent on the line.

Money-Back Guarantee

SimpliSafe’s 60-day, money-back guarantee happens to be one of the better guarantees in the business, and it shows that they stand behind their product and service. If you do decide to return your equipment before your 60 days are up, SimpliSafe will even pay your return shipping. Not bad. Take note that if you buy SimpliSafe equipment from a third-party seller, their 60-day, money-back guarantee does not apply.

Standout Features of SimpliSafe’s Cameras

As standalone pieces of equipment, we wouldn’t be too impressed with SimpliSafe’s cameras. The way they work with an overall SimpliSafe security system with professional monitoring like we discussed earlier is what makes them stand out the most. It’s not all they have to offer, though. Here are our favorite features of SimpliSafe’s cameras for protecting our home and family:

Stainless Steel Privacy Shutter

Like we mentioned, the stainless steel privacy shutter on both the indoor cameras prevent them from watching your every move while at home. When you want it engaged, simply switch it to “off” in the mobile app. This activates the stainless steel privacy shutter. Then, switch it to “on” in the mobile app when you leave home and want the camera to capture video again. The privacy shutter still opens back up during an alarm event as well.

Intelligent Motion Detection

All of SimpliSafe’s cameras come with some way to distinguish between motion events. Even the SimpliCam helps eliminate false alarms with a calibrated sensor made to pick up the heat signature of humans. We found out it was still triggered by our large dog, but the Wireless Indoor Camera and Outdoor Camera both got rid of this false alarm with their AI capabilities.

High-Quality Internal Microphones

Every SimpliSafe camera has a built-in microphone that lets you hear what’s happening in your home, even while you’re away. Of course, if you want to record and store that audio, you have to sign up for SimpliSafe’s Cloud subscription service. Call us crazy, but it seems like that sort of perk should be standard. And free.

DIY Installation

Nobody does DIY quite like SimpliSafe. Remember, the company was founded to offer simple security solutions for renters. The do-it-yourself installation of SimpliSafe’s cameras takes about 3 minutes from start to finish, with the Wireless Outdoor Camera taking a few extra minutes to install its base plate. In our experience, it really couldn’t be easier.

Lifetime Warranty

SimpliSafe’s warranty is pretty generous compared to the rest of the industry. This is another advantage with SimpliSafe: Many competitors in this market offer one-year warranties. With SimpliSafe, as long as you hold an active Core, Pro, or Pro Plus monitoring subscription, you get a lifetime warranty on their products. The Standard Monitoring or Self-Monitoring plan comes with a three-year warranty. If you choose to self-monitor without a subscription, you still get that industry standard one-year warranty.

Smart Home Integrations and Monitoring

We found SimpliSafe to be somewhat lacking when it came to customizations with smart home devices. But again, the brand is all about keeping things simple, and this is just part of their business model.

Here we are making sure the privacy screen on our SimpliSafe Wireless Indoor Camera is closed.

Are SimpliSafe Cameras A Good Option?

When testing security cameras, we consider several critical factors like security, privacy, and price. And SimpliSafe’s cameras did well in all those categories. They all have necessary security features — smart motion detection, clear video, and two-way audio with the premium cameras featuring AI capabilities and top-notch integration into SimpliSafe’s monitoring services. And with deals that regularly include free cameras with any new system, it all adds up to make SimpliSafe’s cameras a good all-around option.

SimpliSafe Add-Ons

In addition to their affordable kits, SimpliSafe does offer a few add-ons, like a smart lock and video doorbell called the Video Doorbell Pro. Here are their offerings and what you can expect to pay:

A Snapshot of SimpliSafe

The SimpliSafe story is always a fun one to tell. The company was founded in 2006 by Harvard business students who were looking for a solution to prevent break-ins. They quickly realized no security system offered true DIY installation and no contracts. So they got to tinkering, and they soon created SimpliSafe. Ever since its inception, SimpliSafe has been a go-to alarm system for dorm-dwellers and renters. And from what we’ve seen, the brand fills a hole in the market for no-nonsense home security.

Final Thoughts on SimpliSafe’s Cameras

The bottom line is that SimpliSafe’s cameras work very nicely with SimpliSafe’s security systems. The premium wireless cameras can’t work without a SimpliSafe system, and we’d recommend alternatives like the Ring Indoor Camera we reviewed to a standalone SimpliCam.

When used with a SimpliSafe security system, SimpliSafe’s security cameras offer great value and some unique capabilities. It’s the ideal system for apartment dwellers or people who relocate often since they can be installed so easily and don’t require a contract. Budget-conscious homeowners also appreciate SimpliSafe’s low-cost monitoring plans which cost way less than heavy hitters like Vivint. (Vivint happens to be really impressive in its own right, though. Take a look at our full Vivint system analysis for more info.) Even when adding a SimpliSafe camera or two, you’re not paying much more for a full SimpliSafe system than you would for an individual camera from Vivint, and you get so much more.

Of course, if SimpliSafe’s cameras are too pricey for you, there are other options. There are loads of home security brands like Ring, Blink, and Zmodo that have plenty of camera options in the sub-$100 range. If that’s what you’re looking for, check out our list of the best cheap camera systems.

It’s just that sometimes a whole system is better than the sum of its parts.

SimpliSafe Cameras FAQs