Security Guides

SimpliSafe and Ring both want a monthly fee for the best features. Here’s what each plan costs, what you get for free, and which starter kit is the better fit.

Abode’s free tier is the real deal: no contract, app control, and live video. Here’s what it leaves out, and two kits worth starting with.

Cove undercuts SimpliSafe and ADT on monitoring price, but has no self-monitoring option and no outdoor cameras at all. This guide covers current, verified pricing (much of what’s online is stale), what you actually get, and when it beats a camera-only setup.

Bright, motion-triggered lighting is consistently ranked among the top deterrents burglars themselves say they avoid — more effective than many cameras alone. This guide covers real sizing by lumens and coverage area, and honest picks for hardwired and wire-free solar setups.

Wyze has grown from a single $20 camera into a full budget smart home catalog — cameras, doorbells, locks, sensors, and more, all under one app. This guide covers how the ecosystem fits together, what Cam Plus actually unlocks, and which already-reviewed Wyze products are worth buying.

Vivint is the most locked-in of the major monitored security brands — no DIY installation, no self-monitoring option, ever. This guide covers what that mandatory structure actually costs, what you get for the premium, and when it’s worth it over a subscription-free camera setup.

Reolink and Amcrest are the two names that come up constantly in DIY and self-hosted security forums, and they win on genuinely different things. This guide compares real pricing, ONVIF/Frigate integration depth, and an honest firmware reliability issue worth knowing before you commit to either brand.

ADT is the most recognized name in home security, backed by 150+ years and six company-owned monitoring centers — but that reliability comes at a real, contract-bound price. This guide covers ADT’s actual cost structure, an honest 3-year comparison against DIY alternatives, and when professional monitoring genuinely justifies the cost.

SimpliSafe and the subscription-free cameras covered on this site aren’t really solving the same problem — one provides live, real-time monitored response, the other provides visibility and evidence at zero cost. This guide covers what SimpliSafe actually offers, what it costs, and when paying for monitoring genuinely makes sense over a camera-only setup.

Blink built its budget reputation partly on offering genuine local storage — but its newest flagship camera, the Outdoor 2K+, shipped with a redesigned hub that dropped that option for new buyers. This guide covers exactly what changed, what still works on older Blink hardware, and the subscription-free alternatives that don’t carry this risk.