Home Security Advice, Tips and Reviews

Checkable claims only

The enforcement record is the one review nobody can buy

Most home security review content is written by sites paid on referral. This guide does not use them, which leaves three things you can actually verify about a company: whether it holds the licence it needs, what regulators have found it doing, and what it publishes as its own price. Those three are enough to make a decision, and all three are free to check.

The enforcement record in this category is not thin. Vivint agreed to pay $20 million in April 2021, a $15 million civil penalty plus $5 million for consumer redress, over FTC allegations it misused credit reports to qualify unqualified customers for financing². In December 2024 the FTC sent its first payments to 470 consumers who filed valid claims, averaging $1,056 each³. Ring agreed to pay $5.8 million in consumer refunds in 2023 over surveillance and account security failures⁶.

The advice that follows is mostly about resisting a sales process rather than choosing a gadget. The FTC publishes a page specifically on shopping for a home security system, and its concrete instruction is worth doing before you talk to anyone: "Contact your police and fire departments. Ask whether you need to register your system, if there's a fee to register, and if there are fines if they respond to false alarms"¹.

Six checks worth more than any star rating

Each of these can be done before a salesperson reaches your door, and each replaces an opinion with a record.

Check the individual, not just the brand

California allows a temporary alarm employee registration valid for 120 days, and states that "individuals working with a temporary registration have not undergone a criminal history background review by the Bureau"⁷. Ask the person at your door for their registration, and ask whether it is temporary or permanent.

Read the door script before it is read to you

The FTC names the two common ones. Dishonest agents may "falsely say ... or imply ... they're from your existing security company" and offer to "upgrade" or "replace" your system¹. The second: "Doubt anyone who claims your security company has gone out of business. Scammers often lie, saying they've taken over your security company's accounts"¹.

Treat free equipment as a price, not a gift

The FTC states that businesses "might try to get you to sign a contract right away by telling you that the equipment will be free if you do (a lie)", and that to get it "you may have to sign a long-term and expensive system monitoring contract"¹. Price the whole term, then compare.

Look up the company in the FTC record

It is a public search. One home security telemarketer made more than two million calls in about eight months, at least a million to numbers on the Do Not Call Registry, and took a $3.4 million penalty judgment suspended to $320,700⁴. The same operator was later banned from telemarketing permanently⁵.

Distrust any national average price

No government body, trade association or manufacturer publishes an average installed cost for a home security system. The figures circulating in this category come from referral-funded comparison sites. Four providers do publish real monitoring prices on their own pages, and those are checkable in a minute¹¹.

Distrust any insurance discount percentage

Regulators confirm the discount exists and decline to size it. The Texas Department of Insurance lists that companies "may offer discounts for having a monitored burglary or smoke alarm system" without publishing a number⁸. Any specific percentage you are quoted should come from your own insurer, in writing.

Average FTC redress payment, Vivint$1,056, first round December 2024

Published insurance discountNo regulator publishes a percentage

What does it cost?

The honest answer to what a home security system costs is that only part of it has a published price. Monitoring does: SimpliSafe lists Standard at $22.99 a month, Core at $32.99, Pro at $49.99 and Pro Plus at $79.99, and states plans are "paid monthly, with no contracts or hidden fees"¹¹. Installed system cost does not. No government body, trade association or manufacturer publishes one, and the equipment prices on provider sites were generated in the browser rather than served in the page, so they could not be verified either.

The dollar figures that are solid in this category are enforcement figures and consumer protections. Vivint's settlement was $20 million², the first round of redress reached 470 consumers at an average of $1,056³, and Ring's refund total was $5.8 million⁶. On the protection side, California caps an alarm contract down payment at "$1,000 or 10 percent of the contract price, excluding finance charges ... whichever is less", and requires any contract over $250 to disclose local permit fees⁷. Those are the numbers to hold a salesperson to.

Every figure here comes from an FTC press release, a state agency publication, or a provider's own pricing page fetched on 7 August 2026. No aggregator or comparison site was used, and no installed system cost is stated because none is published.

Hiring

How to hire without getting sold

1

Who does the work

Three parties are usually involved and they are frequently different companies: the salesperson, the installer, and the monitoring station holding your account. California's licensing bureau reports complaints spanning "unlicensed activities, contract and installation agreement issues including rollover or evergreen renewal provisions, and unauthorized monitoring services"⁷. Ask which company each person works for and get it written on the order.

2

What pros will ask

A legitimate seller asks about doors, windows, pets, and who holds codes. They should also know whether your city registers alarms, because in California a contract over $250 must include information about local permit fees⁷. If the conversation is entirely about today's discount and nothing about your local rules or your ongoing obligations, that itself is the review you needed.

3

What to check before signing

Check the contract package against the FTC's list: installation price, monitoring fee, contract period, discounts, written warranty, owner's manual, an explanation of your right to cancel, and cancellation forms¹. Check the auto-renewal terms. Then check that nobody is pressuring you to sign tonight, which is the tell the FTC's own guidance describes¹.

Buyer questions, answered straight

Can I trust home security review and comparison sites?

Treat them as advertising until proven otherwise, because most are paid on referral. This guide excludes them entirely, and the practical consequence is that it carries no average installed cost, since no independent body publishes one. What it can carry are prices providers publish themselves, such as SimpliSafe's plan list running from $22.99 to $79.99 a month¹¹, and the public regulatory record. Those two sources cannot be bought and take a few minutes to check.

Someone knocked and said my alarm company went out of business. Is that real?

The FTC names that exact script as a lie. Its guidance says: "Doubt anyone who claims your security company has gone out of business. Scammers often lie, saying they've taken over your security company's accounts"¹. The related script is a claimed upgrade or replacement from your existing provider¹. Close the door, call your current provider on the number from your own bill, and ask them directly. Never verify a stranger's claim using a number the stranger supplied.

How do I check whether a company has been in trouble?

Search the FTC's press releases and case listings by company name. That record includes Vivint's $20 million settlement in April 2021², the December 2024 payments to 470 harmed consumers averaging $1,056³, a home security telemarketer's $3.4 million penalty judgment in 2014⁴, a permanent telemarketing ban with a suspended $9,845,021 judgment in 2019⁵, and Ring's $5.8 million in consumer refunds in 2023⁶. Then check your state licensing bureau for the licence itself.

Is there a federal rule making it easy to cancel monitoring?

Not as of August 2026. The FTC's 2024 click-to-cancel rule was vacated by the Eighth Circuit for procedural insufficiency, and the Commission restored the earlier Negative Option Rule effective 12 February 2026⁹. The surviving rule covers prenotification merchandise plans, where a seller announces goods it proposes to send and bills subscribers for them¹⁰, not monitoring subscriptions. State law is where that protection now lives, so read your contract's renewal clause closely.

Will a monitored system lower my home insurance?

Insurers do offer this discount, but no regulator publishes how large it is. The Texas Department of Insurance lists it among available discounts, noting companies "may offer discounts for having a monitored burglary or smoke alarm system"⁸, and does not quantify it. Discounts are set per company. Call your own insurer, ask what it would credit for a monitored system at your address, get the answer in writing, and only then treat it as an offset against the monthly fee.

Sources

Where these facts came from

Every figure on this page was read out of the page linked below. We do not cite cost aggregators.

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