Readers' Choice Awards 2019: Home Security Systems, Cameras

FBI statistics tell us that property crimes and violent attacks are on the decline, but that doesn't mean crime is non-existent. According to a Gallup survey on crime in America, most people feel there's more crime now than last year. Want to feel safer? Home security systems and video surveillance can help. Plus, they can alert you to other issues in and around your home, such as fire and water damage.

If you've been holding off on purchasing these systems because of the cost of installation and long-term monitoring contracts, know that most of our survey respondents have turned to DIY systems, especially in this smart home era. Only 37 percent of home security systems and 13 percent of cameras were professionally installed. There's certainly value in having expert assistance, but at least you have options to get a system that fits within your budget and needs.

(In addition to these systems, you might want a smart lock and video doorbell. These were covered briefly in our recent smart home survey.)

Home Security Systems 2019

Readers' Choice 2010 Award SimpliSafe
SimpliSafe, a pioneer in DIY home security, wins our Readers' Choice Award for the second year in a row. According to survey respondents, SimpliSafe achieves its goal of providing affordable and easy to set up security.

SimpliSafe revolutionized the home security market a decade ago when it showed that consumers could install a system themselves to protect their homes. Not surprisingly, that approach resonates with PCMag readers. For the second year in a row, SimpliSafe wins our Readers' Choice Award. (Last year was the first year of this category.)

One respondent said of his SimpliSafe system, "It was super easy to install, and works flawlessly. You can't ask for more than that." That comment was echoed by several others, who also cited excellent support and monitoring service. (SimpliSafe doesn't require that you sign up for monitoring, yet 86 percent of respondents said they utilize its monitoring service.)

SimpliSafe received the highest ratings in our survey on nearly every measure. Its rating for overall satisfaction was 8.8 on a scale from zero (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied), the same score the company received last year. The likelihood to recommend was also the same as in 2018 at 9.0. SimpliSafe had several other ratings of 9.0 or better, including satisfaction with setup (9.1), window and door sensors (9.0), power outage protection (9.4), and with smartphone and tablet control (9.0).

2018 was an eventful year for Ring. It was purchased by Amazon and expanded beyond video doorbells into home security. Ring didn't have enough respondents to be included in last year's results but this year, it fared well, although not quite up to SimpliSafe's standards. Ring rated highly in satisfaction with the cost of monitoring, receiving a score of 9.1, compared to SimpliSafe's 8.5. Ring charges $10 per month or $100 per year for monitoring compared to SimpliSafe's plans, which range from $15 to $25 per month.

ADT is one of the oldest names in security, having been around for nearly 150 years. Its systems include professional installation and monitoring…and expensive, long-term contracts. Monitoring plans start at $37 per month, according to ADT's website, so it's not surprising that the company only received a rating of 6.3 for satisfaction with the cost of monitoring (although that's actually an improvement from last year's dismal 5.2).

Said one respondent, "We wanted to change security companies but could not make the switch because [of] the fees." System reliability was decent at 8.4 and not far behind SimpliSafe and Ring, but ADT customers are not eager to recommend the company to someone else. The company only received a likelihood to recommend rating of 6.9.

For more, read The Best Smart Home Security Systems.

Security Cameras 2019

Readers' Choice 2010 Award Wyze Labs
Founded by a group of former Amazon engineers, Wyze has created a winning formula according to our readers: dirt cheap, reliable cameras with no monitoring fees! It's a formula that also helped Wyze earn our Editors' Choice.

For $20 and no monitoring fees, you can get Wyze Labs' Wyze Cam V2 with 1080p resolution and lots of powerful surveillance features. What's not to like? According to PCMag readers, not much. Wyze wins our Readers' Choice Award this year, unseating SimpliSafe, which won in the video surveillance camera category last year.

Wyze received an excellent overall satisfaction rating of 8.9 and an even better result for likelihood to recommend: 9.4. Despite how inexpensive Wyze's cameras are (the company's more advanced Wyze Cam Pan is only $30), we're still blown away by Wyze's near-perfect rating of 9.8 for satisfaction with the cost of the cameras. That 9.8 is probably the highest rating ever seen in any category or sub-category in PCMag Readers' Choice survey history. Readers love low prices with high quality.

The lack of subscription fees doesn't mean you don't get cloud storage: Wyze gives you two weeks of rolling storage. Said one respondent, "The cost is amazing. The product is phenomenal. Free 14-day cloud event recording is awesome!"

It's not all about price with Wyze, either. The company also received ratings above 9.0 for satisfaction with setup (9.2), reliability (9.2) and with smartphone and tablet control (9.1.)—the highest ratings for all of these measures.

SimpliSafe had the second-best satisfaction ratings on every measure for which it received the requisite minimum number of responses, but most of these ratings were down slightly from 2018. For example, overall satisfaction dropped from 8.8 to 8.6 (which is still a very good result). However, even if SimpliSafe had been able to repeat its performance from last year, it still wouldn't have touched Wyze's scores.

Wyze was founded by four engineers who left Amazon, but Amazon is still a major player in home video surveillance. The company owns two brands—Ring and Blink. Respondents were very satisfied with Ring's customer service (8.4) and tech support (8.3), especially compared with Arlo, which only earned marks of 5.8 and 6.3, respectively, on the same measures. However, respondents weren't as happy with the cost of their Ring cameras (7.8) or the monitoring fees (7.9). Monitoring is optional with Ring but 76 percent of respondents pay for it.

Blink, like Wyze, doesn't charge any subscription fees. It received a very good rating for satisfaction with the cost of their cameras: 8.7, behind only Wyze and SimpliSafe. Blink cameras, unlike Wyze, are built to be used outdoors as well as indoors and start at $70.

Google Nest and Arlo (which used to be a Netgear brand) brought up the rear of the survey. Google Nest had the lowest rating for satisfaction with the cost of the system (6.6). The company's Nest Cams start at $200, 10 times the price of Wyze's basic offering. Arlo cameras, which are also on the expensive end, received the lowest ratings for satisfaction with reliability at only 7.4.

For more, read The Best Indoor Home Security Cameras.

The PCMag Readers' Choice survey for Home Security Systems and Cameras was in the field from October 14, 2019, through November 4, 2019. For more information on how our surveys are conducted, read the survey methodology.

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About Our Expert

Eric Griffith

Senior Editor, Features

My Experience

I've been writing about computers, the internet, and technology professionally since 1992, more than half of that time with PCMag. I arrived at the end of the print era of PC Magazine as a senior writer. I served for a time as managing editor of business coverage before settling back into the features team for the last decade and a half. I write features on all tech topics, plus I handle several special projects, including the Readers' Choice and Business Choice surveys and yearly coverage of the Best ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs, Best Products of the Year, and Best Brands (plus the Best Brands for Tech Support, Longevity, and Reliability).

I started in tech publishing right out of college, writing and editing stories about hardware and development tools. I migrated to software and hardware coverage for families, and I spent several years exclusively writing about the then-burgeoning technology called Wi-Fi. I was on the founding staff of several magazines, including Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine. All of which are now defunct, and it's not my fault. I have freelanced for publications as diverse as Sony Style, Playboy.com, and Flux. I got my degree at Ithaca College in, of all things, television/radio. But I minored in writing so I'd have a future.

In my long-lost free time, I wrote some novels, a couple of which are not just on my hard drive: BETA TEST ("an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale," according to Publishers' Weekly) and a YA book called KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. Go get them on Kindle.

I work from my home in Ithaca, NY, and did it long before pandemics made it cool.

The Technology I Use

My first computer was a Laser 128, an Apple II-compatible clone with an integrated keyboard, matched with an eye-straining monochrome green monitor. I used it to type papers in college for other people for money...until I discovered the Mac SE in the college computer room. That changed my life. My first cellphone was a Samsung Uproar—the silver one with the built-in MP3 player from the Napster days (the pre-iPod era).

I use an iPhone 15 Pro hourly and an iPad Air infrequently (but I'm always in the market for a cheap Android tablet). I have a PlayStation 5 just to play Spider-Man, and several Windows machines, including a work-issued Lenovo ThinkPad. I talk to Alexa and Siri all day long. I do the majority of my computing on a 15-inch LG Gram laptop attached to a Thunderbolt hub to run a multi-monitor setup—I overdid it on the power needed to simply work from home.

I'm most at home in Microsoft Word after decades of writing there. More and more, I turn to services like Google Docs, using tools like Grammarly. I use Google's Chrome browser due to an addiction to several extensions I think I can't live without, but probably could. I use Excel extensively on data-intensive stories, but for chart creation, we've switched over entirely to using Infogram for interactive features that are hard to find elsewhere. I do a lot of graphics work for my stories, but limit myself to the free and amazing Paint.NET software to edit images.

I'm a firm evangelist for using the cloud for backup and syncing of files; I'm primarily using Dropbox, which has never failed me, but I also have redundant setups on Microsoft OneDrive, plus extra picture backups on Amazon Photos and iCloud. Why take chances? For entertainment, mine is a streaming-only household—my kid has never seen network TV and barely been exposed to commercials, thanks to Roku and Amazon Music. The house is peppered with smart speakers from Amazon for instant gratification and control of smart home devices like multiple Wyze cameras and Nest Protect smoke detectors. I've got accounts on all the major social networks, to my horror. I have a robot vacuum for each floor of the house. I want a 3D printer, but not sure what I'd use it for.

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