Home Security System Buying Guide

Home Security System Buying Guide


That means traditional security companies have had to adapt as they face a wave of tech-savvy do-it-yourself competitors, such as Abode, Amazon-owned Ring, Cove, Eufy, SimpliSafe, Vivint, and Wyze. For example, professional security stalwart ADT acquired DIY security company LifeShield in early 2019 and rebranded it as its own DIY offering, called Blue by ADT. The company then partnered with Google in 2020 and integrated its security offerings with Google’s Nest smart home products. Later that year, Google discontinued its own Nest Secure DIY system.To get more news about smart home security system, you can visit securamsys.com official website.

What does all this upheaval in the industry mean for you? Lower prices and more choice as manufacturers seek to beat the competition. According to a 2021 report from market research firm Mintel, 29 percent of U.S. consumers are interested in owning a smart security system. That’s compared with 21 percent who are interested in owning smart speakers—currently one of the most popular categories of smart home products.
Many home security systems now double as smart home hubs, centralizing controls for lights, thermostats, locks, and more within one app on your smartphone. And because a lot of the systems on the market now are DIY, you can install them—and even monitor your home—yourself.

DIY security systems are generally sold as starter kits to which you can add more components and sensors à la carte. This makes it tough to comparison shop. In this guide, Consumer Reports will break down everything you need to know when choosing a wireless security system for your home, regardless of whether you go with a professionally installed system or take the DIY route.

How We Test DIY Home Security Systems
Because of the complex nature of DIY home security systems, Consumer Reports’ test engineers have spent a lot of time fine-tuning our test methodology. We rate each system for security essentials, security add-ons, smart home add-ons, ease of use, ease of setup, and motion detection. Our ratings also note flexibility of professional monitoring options (where an alarm center dispatcher responds to triggered alarms 24/7 year-round), whether systems offer two-factor authentication to prevent unauthorized access, and more.

For security essentials, our test engineers evaluate each system for features and functionality that Consumer Reports believes every system should provide. That includes motion sensors, contact sensors for doors and windows, key fobs, keypads, remote sirens, and smartphone apps.

Next, our testers assess security add-ons. These are features that offer extra forms of protection, such as panic buttons and pendants, as well as security cameras that trigger the alarm with motion detection.

Because many security systems now double as smart home systems, we also examine their add-on smart home features—namely, their ability to integrate compatible smoke/carbon monoxide detectors, water and temperature sensors, thermostats, and lighting.

Our ease-of-use test looks at how easily you can interact with the systems through apps and keypads. The evaluation includes checking for features like the ability to adjust the sensitivity of motion sensors, as well as the ability to use geofencing (which can tell when you leave and return home using your phone’s location data) to arm and disarm the system automatically. We also judge how difficult it is to set up each system.
Jamming attacks involve a burglar using a laptop and a portable radio frequency (RF) transceiver to block the signals from door/window or motion sensors and enter a home without triggering the alarm. (Note: Any wireless device can be jammed, but there are methods and technologies that, when implemented, can make it harder to pull off.)

Replay disarm signal attacks involve a hacker capturing and recording the disarm signal from a key fob and later broadcasting it to disarm the security system, also using a laptop and an RF transceiver.

Our Digital Lab testers attempt these attacks on all the systems to see whether they’re vulnerable and determine which safeguards they have in place. These attacks are quite rare, but they’re possible, and some systems stand up to them better than others.

For our data privacy and data security tests, we evaluate each brand’s public documentation, such as privacy policies and terms of service, to see what claims the manufacturer makes about the way it handles your data. The tests include inspection of the user interface and network traffic from each system and its companion smartphone app to make sure it’s using encryption, adhering to manufacturer policies, and not sharing your data with irrelevant third parties.