Customer Ratings & Reviews

The SimpliSafe - Outdoor Home Security System lives up to its name. It certainly is simple to set up. The app created to support the system is also quite simple for the most part. The system I received has the Base Station, a Keypad with a small LCD screen, four (4) entry sensors for doors and windows, 2 indoor/outdoor wireless cameras and a motion sensor. It also comes with some signs and some stickers stating this house is protected by SimpliSafe. I read it’s not a good idea to announce the exact system protecting your house because thieves will know what system they need to look for and how to deactivate it. A generic sign would be a better idea. As with most things these days, you start by downloading an app (or going online) and setting up an account. There you need to give them your info (address, phone numbers, who lives at the home, secondary contact info, etc). Be careful when you set this up and make sure you let your secondary contact know that they will receive a text regarding your alarm. I did my setup at 1am and it sent a text to my brother. He told me it woke him up and he almost blocked the number. Luckily, he saw my name and didn’t. After that, you need to select a monitoring plan to use with the system. They have 3 plans. The low-cost, self-monitoring plan basically stores video and sends you alerts from the system. The standard monitoring plan eliminates the video storage and verifications but gives you the professional monitoring where they call you in the event of an emergency. If they can’t get you, they will call the police. The Fast Protect plan costs about $1 a day and includes the professional monitoring. It also includes cellular backup in the event of a blackout/internet outage, extends the equipment warranty as long as you ae subscribed and give you a 10% discount on additional hardware purchases. Setting up the devices is also quite simple. The app will guide you through the process for each device. Basically, tell the app which device you are setting up, pull the battery tab (or install a battery), press a button on the device, give it a location/name and install the device. They have videos in the app and online. Very convenient. Using the keypad is easy enough as well. There are 3 modes OFF, HOME & AWAY. Home and Away activate the system, however, different sensors will be activated. Away mode will turn on everything. Home Mode deactivates the motion sensors and the camera(s) will only turn on if there is a trigger event. These settings can be modified for your requirements. I did have a few issues with my setup. First, one of the cameras was missing a mount. I may have received a refurbished kit as the seals had some wrinkles in then but I can’t say for sure. However, the cameras do have an option for a threaded mount which I will likely use. I did try the online customer service, but there were issues with the links they sent me. I needed to call them to fix my issue. Additionally, the sensors are all white. If you have dark painted trim or paneling, like I do, the sensors really stand out and don’t look good. An option for black & colored sensors would be great. Finally, the cameras are very heavy. My house has aluminum trim everywhere I might want to mount the cameras. I’d rather use two-sided tape to mount them so I don’t need to put holes in the trim. My current security cameras are very light weight and I was able to mount them with automotive grade mounting tape. I don’t think I’ll be able to do that with the SimpliSafe cameras. I’ll need to think of an alternative way to mount these. All-in-all, this is a very affordable and easy to set up system. I’ve already received offers for additional components at 40% off. I will probably buy a couple more cameras, a remote keypad for my side door, some smoke/CO alarms and a panic button for my father. I would definitely recommend this to someone looking for a reasonably priced home alarm system.

SimpliSafe is truly a simple self install home security system. Most of the included parts can be installed with the pre-attached sticky pads or some small screws. Once you get the app and make an account, the install process takes you step for step on getting everything connected. They have so many other products that can be attached to the system that are not in this particular kit, but this is a good start. It has 4 door/window entry sensors, 1 motion sensor, 2 outdoor cameras, the central hub and a keypad. The only thing that needs to be plugged up is the central hub and it even has battery backup that will last about an hour should it lose power. Once you get everything added and the keypad connected, you are pretty much done. You can use the app for managing most things or the keypad with PIN. You can quickly arm it for home, which does not use the motion sensor and has different delay times, or away which does include the motion sensor. You can adjust the delay times from the app, for instance if you live alone, you can drop the entry delay way down for the home setting and after 10 seconds the alarm will sound. Or, if you have multiple family members and you know it might take them more than 30 seconds to get to the PIN pad, you can increase it. There is also the ability to set reminders or schedule it to auto arm itself. For instance, you know you will be at work at 9am every weekday, you can have it arm away whether you remembered to do it or not. The added feature of the two outdoor cameras is nice. You can have 2 way communications from practically anywhere around your residence. I put one about 60 ft from the front of my house and it still shows as a good connection. However, as with most wireless security cameras, there is a slight delay. Depending on the placement and when something comes into frame, you might be 2 seconds too late to see what it was. Image quality is pretty decent and has a really wide angle to it. The biggest issue I have with it, and the reason for the title, is that the cameras are practically useless unless you have the monthly protection plan for $29.99 a month. They have no local storage, so anything that is detected, you can’t go back and look at unless you have the monthly plan. You can still access them live and still use two-way communications, but the only other way you can record is while you are watching it live and recording to your phone. There is no way to manage your subscription through the app or site without calling them. Cancellation is on the day of cancellation and not post dated to the end of your trial or paid subscription. When you cancel, there is no more recording, no text notifications but push notifications only and your system becomes fully reliant on your Wi-Fi. Should your Wi-Fi go out and your alarm goes off, even in a power outage, you will not know unless you have an active subscription. Also, it removes the system completely from your account and you have to set it all back up and decline the subscription to go basic. If you have the cameras and want to drop from the Pro to Basic plan, remove them from your account first, then call and cancel your plan as they end up in a strange state of still being on the pro account but not working with your now basic account as you try and add everything to your account, again. Overall, this is a good system, so long as you pay for the monthly Pro plan. There is no contract needed, but if you want the 30 days access to the camera recordings and text notifications, you have to have the plan. With everything being minimally installed they are great for people that don’t want to damage a rental property from drilling holes.

Guessing that a lot of these purchases are event driven and mine certainly is. We have a 1000 sq ft Apartment and 2 acre of property behind us that is all dirt & empty space. The space is where we I have a Storage Shed the shed is where we store the supporting tools and supplies. The Shed was recently broken into and everything of value was taken. While that is deeply disheartening, it really only affects me. If the apartment were to be robbed and ransacked like the shed was, I would be devastated! I do consider myself handy when it comes to mechanical and electronic projects. I also believe that I am a good researcher and analyst. I found that there are a lot of great alarm systems available at very affordable prices today including DIY professional systems. Several of the professional systems now have videos on installation and configuration—configuration used to be the tough part of installing one of those. In my case, I was looking for a balance of price, ease installation and options for monitoring. Given the recent break-in, I also wanted to get this project started and completed quickly as the Apartment is just as vulnerable as the Shed. This next statement may make you question my research, or at least, reading abilities. While I did plan to have the system monitored, I didn’t realize until after I received my SimpliSafe system that you can’t monitor the system remotely at all with the app without one of the SimpliSafe plans, and, at the time of this writing, October 2023, you have to have the $25/mo. plan to do any serious monitoring. I would have put off having the system monitored for a while if that were not the case. Perhaps it is better that I was forced into a plan earlier than I wanted. As an aside, SimpliSafe gives you 3 days of ‘practice’ use after you activate your system. This means they won’t contact local law enforcement if the system detects and alarm. On the one hand I wanted my system monitoring to start immediately but, do understand the logic of giving me time to learn to use the system without causing false alarms. The installation was truly easy. Once you plug in the base station and pull the battery tab on the keypad, you are off to a great start. Installing any of the sensors is as easy as removing a paper battery tab, using the keypad to tell the base station that you are installing a new device and naming it from a list once the base station announces that a new device has been detected. The preinstalled double sided tape makes mounting the sensors easy. Our shed has numerous unfinished rough hewn wood surfaces and I decided to mount sensors that had to be on those surfaces with the included screws. I didn’t try the included self-adhesive on the rough hewn wood which, may have worked perfectly. SimpliSafe tells you how far away you can mount sensors like the glass break and motion sensors but it was less clear about how high to mount them given the space I was working in or, for the glass break in particular, the angular range that it could work with. For example, if you have windows on opposite sides of a room with no option to mount the sensor in the middle, can it detect glass breaking behind it or beside it? SimpliSafe sensors are relatively inexpensive, and, as such, perhaps an extra sensor or two isn’t a bad thing. The App is easy to set up and use and definitely slanted to the easy side rather than the comprehensive side. That said, if a sensor were to drop off the app will alert you to that. I am not looking forward to changing batteries but would rather that to running wires through an older structure. SimpliSafe has done a great job making system purchase, installation and operation easy and straightforward. They even sent me an email letting me know that the county where my Apartment is located requires a form and payment to be completed and sent to authorize monitoring and, more specifically, response. Not only did they tell me about it, they sent me the exact link to the form. They also let me know that no paperwork or fee was required for the fire monitor. The Apartment can be a relatively harsh environment with high humidity in the summer and relatively cold nights. I am hoping the sensors, base station and keypad are rugged enough to function for years to come. If you are looking at one of these systems, read all you can to understand what you can and can’t do with and without Simpli-Safes monitoring options. Watch or read about sensor placement and plan your own install. I don’t think you have to become an alarm expert but each install has its own challenges. I found plenty of good information available from a lot of sources on the Internet to address those challenges. I have not interacted with SimpliSafe customer service at this point and can’t comment on that aspect of the product. Overall, I believe I made a good decision for my family and have only positive things to say about the installation and operation of my SimpliSafe system.

We love this security system for our home. It was easy to set up and monitoring from the app is great.

Growing up, I have always had an alarm system in my home. It was one of those hardwired systems. When thinking about an security system for my home now, which I rent, the best solution is a wireless setup. This 9 piece set from Simplisafe is pretty nice. It has all the things that a hardwired system would have but it's wireless and doesn't require and difficult installation or running of wires. That makes my life easier. The design of everything is pretty nice. Simple and I love the soft white color. The keypad feels good to the touch and doesn't require much effort to input my code. The main base station is nice and sits next to me router. It fits in well and isn't an eyesore. All the sensors I setup on my windows work as they should and send an alarm quickly without delay. The motion sensors and cameras are great. They pick up important things and not just an animal running around or wind blowing something around. The picture quality is okay. It could definitely be better but it does the job. I like the two way audio. I don't have to open my door to deal with people. This works especially well for solicitors and such. The sirens also work well and are pretty loud. The app on my phone is excellent and I am easily able to do everything I need from there. All in all, I enjoy this security system and feel a little bit safer knowing I can depend on it doing what it's supposed top do.

First the quality of the components are rock solid. WiFi connectivity and cellular connection all were strong, stable and no loss of signals to date. The package comes with free full monitoring service for 3 months so that is really a big plus and good way to work out kinks in issues. The install took all of 90 minutes, really less as I was testing various locations for the two outdoor cameras. The keypad is a breeze to use and can be placed anywhere and is moveable off its base so easy to move from interior of house to front door or reverse. The keypad is very easy to read and where you can make all changes. Even better than the keypad is the app or the web page for your account. The install of various components offer two options in many cases, permanent with screws or with the adhesive strips both seem dependable. I love the cameras and color and clarity…1080p HD video. A 140° ultra-wide field of view. Plus digital zoom and full color vision at night and built-in spotlight + HDR let you see clearly 24/7. 8X zoom. Battery will last 3-6 months, I think will be less during Winter temperatures as battery will be reduced due to cold temperatures. The two way audio so far is pretty good, not very loud but adequate. The camera even has a siren that will go off if other sensors are tripped. These cameras are really the icing in the system. The motion sensor is omg so easy to set up and use…less than 10 minutes to install and activate. I love love the system with it many alarm modes and configuration for home and away bypasses. The numerous methods of alerting you to issues, and the 24/7 monitoring service and the monitoring fee will not in any way break any one’s bank. The internal base station siren is pretty loud but I also got an out door siren coupled with the external cameras…well plenty loud.

Over all the set up and functionality of the system are OK - I didn't encounter anything that was a show stopper however on the other hand nothing really stood out as cutting edge or better than anything else on the market Let's start with set - most to the stuff setup was fairly easy however the cameras were a bit of a pain - for some reason I and to wait 10 -15 mins for the system to allow me to add then next camera - I did try to install them into the system before mounting but this seemed a bit excessive - all of the out sensor and stuff install and then mounted and was ready of the next item by the time i was ready. During the software set up they do push the paid monitoring service quite heavily to the [point that the first time I saw it it took a bit of looking around to opt out Mounting - everything was fairly easy and straingth forward - the camera mounts seemed a bit light for there size however I haven't had any issues with them - I pulled them off and buck on several times Operation - no real issues here it works as advertised - as with all systems the wireless cameras are sensitive to how often they are triggered - this greatly affects the battery life before taking them down to recharge. You can adjust this in the software however just something to be aware. I was able to integrate it into google home and preform basic functionality that been said I found use the app to be the easiest. I will say the the app is very user friendly and fairly intuitive on operation. Overall my impression is that the system will do it's job once set up is complete - just nothing that really seem to set it part form others in the market space - so the two stars down are really for the pain in the set up

I have liked the Simplisafe products because they’re aimed at the average homeowner and don’t require an electrician for even a handyman to install and setup. If you’ve ever looked at a security system for your home you know they can be expensive, require lots of wiring, etc by a qualified professional, and aren’t exactly meant for a home owner to manage. On my old system that was managed by a major company, I couldn’t even turn off one of my motion detector zones without having a company representative come out to reprogram the system. I no longer use that system and now exclusively use this system. Setup was just as the name suggests… SIMPLE! It’s also a very modular system, meaning that you can add on more pieces or parts as you wish down the road or at any later time. I love this. Once I got it up and running it was ready to go! And again, setup was a breeze because the app walked me through every step. Another big selling point over the major BIG brands is the smart capabilities of this system… it knows if you go to work and forget to set arm the system, so it will remind you! My old system doesn’t do that! I decided to go the Pro route and add the monthly subscription to ensure I get the most out of my system and stay protected , I’m glad I did, and the monthly subscription is still cheaper than my old plan that was managing a different company. Highly recommend !