(Credit: Zain bin Awais/PCMag Composite; Amazon)
Good news: Property crime is down nationwide, according to the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Burglary (when someone steals property from your residence without force) plummeted 10.5% from May 2024 to April 2025. Larceny (theft that involves some threat of harm) dropped 8% during that same time period.
Still, given public opinion, you wouldn’t know all that. Most Gallup polls from 1993 to 2024 show that around 60% of US adults believe crime is on the rise. That mindset is reflected in the growth of security technology—cameras, video doorbells, smart locks, and entire monitored systems that include those devices and more, including motion sensors. SafeHome.org reports that the $56.1 billion industry will grow 8.9% annually through 2030.
“Smart home security devices are popular, which in turn leads to more brands jumping into the fray,” says PCMag senior writer for home and wearables Andrew Gebhart. "You can find plenty of good options for professional and contract-based services, but my preference is for DIY systems. Most still let you add professional monitoring without locking you in, and they're modular, so you can grab just the devices you need and control all of the setup yourself."
The best way to feel truly safe is to get security products and services from a trusted brand. To find out which are the best, we once again turn to you, our readers. The results of our latest survey on home security are below.
The Top Home Security Systems for 2025
A full security system can have many permutations—for our purposes, we consider it any setup that has, at a minimum, intrusion-detection technology and the option for off-site monitoring by professionals. In numbers almost identical to last year’s survey, 86.1% of respondents with a full security system say they use window and door sensors, while 83.6% have motion detectors installed.
About half of our respondents have a home security system that they or a professional can monitor from afar. That's well above the national average: Consumer Affairs reports that 28% of US households have a paid security service. Among our readers, 78.9% with a system pay for a subscription to have someone watch over them. Among those with a full system, 47% use outdoor cameras, 41.6% have indoor cameras, and 38% have a video doorbell. Only 16.5% have a smart lock integrated.
Only 47.3% say their home security systems are professionally installed, down slightly from 50% last year. The do-it-yourself home security era is in full effect, made all the simpler by kits sold by vendors like Ring and SimpliSafe. In fact, less than 6% of readers using those two vendors went for the professional installation.
Perhaps that’s why both of those brands lead with the DIY-inclined PCMag crowd this year. While they’re close in overall satisfaction, Ring—an Amazon-owned brand—comes out slightly ahead. It’s once again the Readers’ Choice award winner for home security systems.
(Note: Click the arrows in our interactive charts to view various elements of our survey results.)
This is Ring’s second year in the top spot, supplanting previous longtime winner SimpliSafe. But while Ring has many outstanding scores in our various subcategories, such as reliability and monitoring, SimpliSafe ties with Ring on setup and ease of use, and does better on the measures for cost, tech support, and, perhaps most importantly, the likelihood to recommend.
“There are a lot of great smart home security brands like Abode, ADT, Arlo, SimpliSafe, and Vivint, but it's no surprise that Ring retains its win for a second consecutive year in the home security system category,” says Angela Moscaritolo, PCMag editor for home security products.
“The Ring Alarm Pro won our Editors' Choice award for DIY smart home security systems, partly for its versatility, because it doubles as a Wi-Fi 6 mesh router," she continues. "As with many of our favorite security systems, you can self-monitor the Alarm Pro system, but if you want professional monitoring, you need to pay for a subscription. Ring charges $20 per month for 24/7 professional monitoring, which is more affordable than SimpliSafe’s similar $33-per-month plan.”
But what do the readers think? “Installation and maintenance are very easy, and the Ring monitoring [team] has been on top of any alarm issues,” says one survey respondent. “Additionally, since our system has been installed for a long time, we've had a few sensors fail. Fortunately, replacement has been fast, cheap, and easy.”
Readers repeatedly praise Ring’s customer service, even though it doesn’t even score as high as runner-up SimpliSafe’s. “Ring consistently has the best customer service I have ever experienced with any company,” says one. Other readers deem it “outstanding,” “phenomenal,” and “the best.”
The other player on the list this year is ADT, a service that once required professional installation (100% of our respondents said they had it put in by pros, though it does have DIY options now) and monitoring (93% of respondents pay for a subscription). However, it scores poorly in general, coming in almost a full point behind SimpliSafe for overall satisfaction.
Note the extra arrows below the chart. You can click through to see how the individual types of surveillance camera products we ask about, both indoor and outdoor, fare when paired with their respective home security systems. Ring also takes the top spot for both types of cameras.
To see which security systems our experts recommend, read The Best Smart Home Security Systems for 2025.
The Top Home Security Cameras for 2025
According to Safehome.org, half of US homes had at least one security camera as of 2024. Moscaritolo understands the need, as violent crimes have occurred in her neighborhood. “I'm not worried about porch pirates," she says. "I’m concerned about someone breaking in. I have layers of defense, including indoor and outdoor cameras surveilling my property—and a pitbull.”
Since we began surveying our readers about security cameras in 2018, Google, Ring, SimpliSafe, and Wyze have all taken the top spot. Last year, SimpliSafe came out on top for both indoor and outdoor cameras.
We have two categories for indoor cameras: one for every kind of indoor camera rated by readers and one for standalone security cameras people use inside. Ring is the winner in both these categories, as can be seen in the chart below (use the arrows at the bottom).
Overall, Ring and SimpliSafe have identical marks for satisfaction, but Ring pulls ahead with a better likelihood to recommend score (a key measure we look at first). Ring is also on top for setup, reliability, ease of use, and mobile control. SimpliSafe has higher numbers for customer service, tech support, and battery life.
When we look at standalone cameras only, SimpliSafe doesn’t make the list—most readers use the brand as a whole system. Eufy and Blink (the latter is also an Amazon brand) tie for second place in satisfaction on standalones, but neither comes close to Ring.
“I have tried a number of indoor home video cameras,” says one respondent. “None works as good as Ring, and the app is great.” Another says Ring’s cameras are “a thousand times better” than other brands and “are so good, I just ordered two more.”
Step outside, and Ring’s wins keep on coming. It’s the top-rated outdoor security camera maker both overall and for standalone devices. The Arlo brand comes in last in the overall chart but ties with Eufy for second place when it comes to standalone outdoor cameras. None of them can overtake Ring for satisfaction, though Eufy does equal Ring when it comes to the likelihood to recommend its standalone cameras. Ring also has the lead in reliability in both charts.
Readers note that Ring’s outdoor cameras have good Alexa integration (no surprise there, since Amazon is the parent company) and, as one puts it, “great integration with other home security devices.” Another respondent tells us, “Camera/video resolution is outstanding. The main issue is that motion-sensing is too sensitive.” Still, Ring has the top scores on all the outdoor security camera charts when it comes to motion detection.
Meanwhile, a couple of other outdoor security camera brands have noteworthy scores: The inexpensive Wyze brand leads in terms of cost, and Amazon’s Blink is first for setup and ease of use.
Whether Ring is right for you might depend on other factors. “Ring is one of the most popular brands of security cameras,” Gebhart says. “The devices are competent, but Ring does have a messy history with customer privacy.”
To see which surveillance devices lead in our lab testing, read The Best Indoor Home Security Cameras and The Best Outdoor Home Security Cameras for 2025.
The Top Smart Locks for 2025
The smart lock market is not as huge as some other high-tech home security categories. The two brands that appear in our survey are the biggest names in the lock world: Kwikset and Schlage. In the US, those two account for 95% of the residential lock market alone.
Schlage triumphs when it comes to smart locks. This is the company’s fourth consecutive trip to the winner’s circle. It has the top scores for satisfaction, setup, ease of use, and likelihood to recommend. Kwikset, meanwhile, scores highly in terms of price and reliability.
“Competition is hot in this category, and some of our favorite recent models support innovative access methods such as facial recognition and palm scanning in addition to more typical options like app and voice control, fingerprint scanning, and keypad or touch-screen codes,” Moscaritolo says. “Schlage makes some of the best-looking smart locks on the market, and offers them in a wide variety of designs, so I can see why many homeowners choose this brand.”
Readers hail Schlage’s smart locks and deadbolts for their longevity. “Our Schlage locks were installed over eight years ago,” one tells us, “and they have never failed despite extreme cold and heat exposure.”
Read The Best Smart Locks for 2025 to see which models win awards in our lab testing.
The Top Video Doorbells for 2025
You might imagine that Ring, which has a name historically and onomatopoetically connected to doorbells, to take this one, but it has yet to do so in five years of video doorbell surveys. Previous winners include Google Nest, for a three-year stretch, and SimpliSafe, which took the award last year.
This year, the top spot goes to Eufy—a brand of Anker Innovations—in its first appearance in all our years of video doorbell surveys. And the competition isn’t even close: Eufy has the best satisfaction and recommendation ratings by a wide margin. Ring comes in second place.
SimpliSafe slips to third place overall this year. Ring’s sister brand, Blink, brings up the rear, but it has the top score for value and even ties with Eufy for setup.
“I love the two-camera system that allows easy package detection at the base of the camera,” said one respondent about their Eufy doorbell. (This is a feature on the Eufy models E340 and S330.)
“If you're worried about porch pirates stealing your packages, the battery-powered Eufy E340 video doorbell is a smart buy,” Moscaritolo says. “It’s dual cameras delivered sharp video in our testing. Moreover, it offers free video storage and smart alerts, features that many competitors charge extra for.”
Which video doorbells currently lead in our lab testing? Read The Best Video Doorbells for 2025 to find out.
Full Results
The PCMag Readers’ Choice survey for Home Security was in the field from May 15 to Aug. 10, 2025. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read our methodology.
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