SimpliSafe Home Security System 2024 Review and Prices

How much does SimpliSafe equipment cost?

SimpliSafe offers seven home security system packages. The company often runs promotions offering free trials of professional monitoring, free indoor cameras and up to 50% off packages. The prices below are list prices.

You can also customize your own system or add specific items to an existing package. For example, you can add a smoke detector to a basic package for $44.99 or a video doorbell for $169.

How much does SimpliSafe cost per month?

There are six monitoring options, ranging from free to $79.99 a month.

• You can still use a SimpliSafe system without buying a monitoring plan. We like this because some other home security providers, such as ADT and Vivint, require a monthly fee.

• We got a one-month free trial of the Core professional monitoring plan, which comes with all equipment packages.

• There are no contracts, and you can cancel, downgrade or upgrade your plan at any time (we easily canceled the monitoring plan after testing).

We like that SimpliSafe puts the system in “Practice Mode” for the first three days after you subscribe to professional monitoring, so you can get comfortable arming the sensors without accidentally triggering an emergency dispatch. We set off a lot of alarms in the first day or two, so this was very helpful.

SimpliSafe is definitely still functional without a monitoring plan, but there are some special features that made the monitoring worth it for us:

• Emergency dispatch. If an alarm is triggered, SimpliSafe’s monitoring center will contact you, and if you don’t answer and give them your safeword, they’ll dispatch emergency services.

• Secret alerts. With the Self Monitoring and Core plans, you can set up motion and entry sensors in “Secret Alert” mode, which sends you a push notification without making any noise or light. This could be used for a medicine or liquor cabinet, for example.

• Camera recordings. With the Self Monitoring plan, you’ll get unlimited camera recordings and 30-day cloud storage for up to five cameras without professional monitoring.

• Recording and camera access. With the Core plan, SimpliSafe monitoring agents can check your camera recordings to see what triggered the alarm and communicate with emergency services for more accurate and timely help. Monitoring agents can also speak to an intruder through your camera during an active burglary (only if an alarm is triggered) to let them know that police have been called.

• Cellular backup. All plans except Self Monitoring come with a built-in cellular connection for backup coverage in case of a power outage.

How does SimpliSafe work?

Setup

We found SimpliSafe’s setup to be refreshingly straightforward. The system stood out for its sleek design and user-friendly app, which provided detailed, step-by-step instructions for each component.

Even though we ordered a system with every possible SimpliSafe component, including items like cameras and temperature sensors, the box they came in was surprisingly lightweight. Each piece of hardware came clearly labeled in its own box.

It was easy to know that each component was activated because the base station (the system’s hub) lit up and announced the name of each new item when it connected. You can pay for professional installation, but we didn’t find it necessary.

Most of the products are wireless and require no drilling or tools to install, except the video doorbell, which connects to existing doorbell wiring, and the outdoor camera, which needs to be screwed on. The components all connect to Wi-Fi, and the base station has a backup battery in case of power or service failure.

The door and motion sensors that attach to walls had peel-and-stick tabs on the back, which stick very well (but, fair warning, took some of our paint off with them on removal). All of the products are reasonable in size — the base station (the system’s hub) is the largest component, about the size of a water bottle.

The door sensors are less than an inch long. Most of the components are white, except for the wired indoor camera, which is black. Overall, the products look streamlined and blend in well on a wall or shelf.

Security

The SimpliSafe app has several security features to keep you and your system protected. We were especially impressed by the “Safeword” feature, which makes it easy to stop emergency services from coming to your home in case an alarm is accidentally triggered.

When an alarm is triggered, which usually happens when your system is set to “Away” mode, you’ll immediately receive an SMS message with the alarm time, cause and response. Because our system was in a three-day “practice mode,” we received a phone call as a courtesy notice, but when the system is in regular operating mode, a SimpliSafe monitoring agent will be on the other line to request your safeword. If you don’t answer the phone or don’t provide the safeword, SimpliSafe can send emergency services to your home.

You can ask the company to call more than one primary contact to verify an alarm, and you can add a secondary contact for SimpliSafe to notify after an alarm is verified and emergency services are sent. You can also list yourself as a secondary contact to receive a confirmation call.

We were also able to create a password, enter a phone number for two-factor verification, enable fingerprint or facial recognition to sign into the app, and create a unique PIN code to enter (into a keypad or the app) to disable an alarm.

The app generates a long alphanumerical recovery code that you need to copy and keep somewhere safe. You can enter it if you need to log in without your device.

Customization

We like that SimpliSafe’s system is highly customizable, providing a range of potential uses for different homes and families. Here are a few of our favorite ways to customize the system:

• Change the volume of alarms and entry chimes, the duration of the alarm siren and the exit and entry delays (the amount of time you have to exit before the system is armed or enter and disarm the system). 

• Set up a separate panic button in the bathroom and set it to only contact medical services when pushed (rather than set off a loud alarm). 

• Set your cameras to be aware of pets, and choose between “people only” and “all motion.” During our tests, we didn’t find a significant difference between the modes, but both reliably detected a person's movement.

• Click squares of the camera view field you don’t want to receive alerts for if there are high-traffic zones in the view field, such as a hallway.

• Set different responses in each device for Off, Home and Away modes. For example, when you’re home, a motion sensor can only send a push notification, and if you’re traveling, it will set off the home alarm.

• Add a person such as a family member or dog walker as a “familiar face” to allow them to access your property.

Alternatives to SimpliSafe

Read more NerdWallet home security reviews based on firsthand testing:

• Arlo Home Security System

• Ring Home Security System

• Abode Home Security System

• ADT Home Security

• Vivint Home Security System

• Nest Home Security

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