Best Home Security System 2021

How We Determined the Best Home Security System of 2021

Our objective is to help consumers cut through the fog of misleading and fraudulant reviews. To that end, we have analyzed and aggregated customer ratings to help find the Holy Grail of pre-purchase information: what actual users truly think of their home security purchases.

After arriving at what we deemed to be the most reliable sources, we compared and analyzed two critical sets of home security reviews:

We did not consider system cost directly because buyers factor cost into their reviews, but we did give a nod to monitoring center redundancy and experience for best home security monitoring.

Learn more about our home security reviews methodology here.

SafeStreets — ADT Authorized Provider

Based on actual customer experiences, this isn’t really a competition:  SafeStreets has vastly more satisfied—and verified—customers on independent review portal TrustPilot, giving it the crown for Best Home Security System.

Our research also determined that the ADT Control app was the obvious choice for Best Home Security App. Additionally, ADT has nine state-of-the-art monitoring centers in North America, with over 146 years in business, earning it the title of Best Home Security Monitoring. Plus, ADT is the most trusted name in security. (Harris Brand Tracker, May 2021)

The reviews are clear: you are more likely to rate this choice ‘Excellent/5 Stars’ than any of the other providers.

Read our full SafeStreets — ADT Authorized Provider home security review here.

Home Security Reviews: 2nd Tier

It’s difficult to rank the other contenders. Although most have strong points, they all have measurable issues compared to the winner. For example, Cove rates high for their product and customer service, but their app is the poorest. Vivint has a strong app, but system users are over six times as likely to rate their experience with the company as “Poor” or “Bad” as those with our winner.

To finish in the 2nd Tier, home security providers needed to have at least 4 star ratings in both TrustPilot’s TrustScore and in averages of their customer reviews. Three companies accomplished that. As mentioned, Cove had the worst app, relegating them to “Not Recommended.” Here are the other two:

Frontpoint

Frontpoint rate reasonably well in user reviews on TrustPilot, but their apps put them in 8th place out of 11, averaging scores on the App Store and Google Play. Think about a score of 3.2 out of 5 stars, which their app has on Google Play. Would you buy a product with that rating? Or hire a home contractor for your home with that rating? Not if there were better options. And there are.

The bottom line is that you are likely to be happy with your initial dealings with Frontpoint, but long after you sign-up, you can expect to be saddled with an inferior app for controlling and monitoring your system.

Read our full Frontpoint review here.

Alder

Similar to Frontpoint, Alder has great reviews on TrustPilot, but while having even poorer reviews for their home security app on the App Store and Google Play.

And as with Frontpoint, you are likely to be happy with your initial dealings with Alder, but you might also expect to be saddled with an inferior home security app for controlling and monitoring your home.

Read our full Alder review here.

Home Security Reviews: Not Recommended

The group is comprised of those home security systems that are shown to have at least one problem too many to be serious contenders. All but one of these had fewer than four stars on TrustPilot’s TrustScore and/or customer reviews (who buys something with less than four stars out of five?), while all but two had poor home security app ratings on the App Store, Google Play, or both.

Vivint

Vivint’s app scores third on a combined App Store and Google Play rating. That puts them close to the top for best home security app.

Vivint’s TrustPilot TrustScore is 5th, which places them in the middle.

Where things get messy, however, is where the reviews are actually broken down. In 23,206 reviews, 19.5% rated them with either 1 or 2 stars. In fact, Vivint’s customers are over six times more likely to rate Vivint as “Poor” or “Bad” than SafeStreets’ customers.

Read our full Vivint review here.

SimpliSafe

When looking for the best home security app in this group, SimpliSafe’s comes in 2nd, which is notable when more and more of our lives is managed through our phones.

What drops SimpliSafe a notch in the competition for best home security system is good-but-not-great customer reviews on TrustPilot, with buyers being over six times as likely to rate SimpliSafe as “Poor” or “Bad” than our Best Home Security System Winner.

Read our full SimpliSafe review here.

Cove

Cove had the second highest rating on TrustPilot, which would normally make them a legitimate possibility for Best Home Security System of 2021. Unfortunately, Cove’s app scored the worst on both the App Store and Google Play.

That earns Cove a “Not Recommended.”

Read our full Cove review here.

Link Interactive

Link Interactive’s customer reviews aren’t exactly terrible at 3.7 stars, but we just can’t recommend any home security providers who don’t have at least four out of five. There are simply too many better choices.

Link Interactive uses the Alarm.com smart phone app, which has a very solid 4.7 star rating on the App Store, but only 3.8 stars on Google Play.

Read our full Link Interactive review here.

Brinks Home

Brinks Home scores 3.7 stars on TrustPilot, which is the same as Link Interactive. As with them, failing to earn at least 4 stars earns them a “Not Recommended.”

Their home security app received 4.7 stars on the App Store, which could have put them in the running for Best Home Security App, but a paltry 3.1 on Google Play is unacceptable.

Read our full Brinks Home review here.

Ring

At 1.4 stars, Ring has the flat-out worst rating on TrustPilot of any of the contenders, excluding the two “Incompletes” we’ve also reviewed.

Averaging their home security app scores on the App Store and Google Play places that app in a so-so 6th place for Best Home Security App, but even perfect scores couldn’t compensate for how customers feel about the company overall.

Read our full Ring review here.

Home Security Reviews: Incomplete

We clearly live in an era of review-driven consumer behavior. Businesses thrive off of positive reviews, while suffering for those negative, especially when in volume. Therefore, we have to ask what to make of any business that can’t be seen making an effort to cultivate positive customer reviews in 2021.

Our last two companies receive grades of “Incomplete” because it’s frustrating and life-force draining to try and determine how their customers feel about them.

Scout Alarm

Out of our 11 prospects, Scout Alarm’s home security app ranks 10th. That alone would be more than concerning, but we’re more troubled by the lack of positive reviews for the company and product themselves.

As mentioned previously, businesses thrive or fail on their ability to earn and collect positive customer reviews. Not only does Scout  Alarm only have just a single review on TrustPilot—1 star—but the positive feedback is lacking elsewhere, too. As an example, Amazon.com had 324 reviews as of the date of this report on Scout’s wireless home security system, with an average rating of just 3.3 stars.

Read our full Scout Alarm review here.

Xfinity Home

The biggest challenge with ranking Xfinity Home is that the home security system is seldom reviewed independently from the company itself. Xfinity is primarily a cable tv, internet, and phone provider, and as such, they don’t get much online love from consumers.

We’d like to believe that their home security offering is somehow more appreciated than the company in general, but we’re not seeing information to support that.

On a positive note, Xfinity’s home security app did finish fourth based on combined App Store and Google Play reviews. Lemonade, anyone?

Read our full Xfinity Home review here.