Customer Ratings & Reviews

Before purchasing Simplisafe, please be aware that you cannot receive any email or text alerts and cannot connect your system to Google Home without a subscription. For me, that's a 1 star. I don't want another subscription. I only wanted alerts and to use it with Google Home.

Caneras are poor for real security and viewing. The overall system is good.

The camera battry life is barley two week before it uns out of juice

Sometimes it works ..sometimes it doesn't..you never know

Technician not prepared to install system. Said he he wasn’t prepared to install everything but could do a “partial install” which I said was unacceptable.

Just pulling everything out of the box I was really impressed with the quality of everything. You really get a lot for your money. The kit came with 3 magnetic door or window sensors, the base station, and 2 outdoor cameras. The camera video quality is very respectable and has a nice wide field of view, and they can see pretty well in the dark also. I had my system installed and working in less than an hour, and only experienced one hicup that was easily fixed by removing the base station batteries and reinstalling them. I followed the instructions and used my cell phone and the APP to get everything working. I am able to use the app to view my cameras from anywhere I have service,, and the alarm will notify my phone whenever it detects movement or if one of the sensors is triggered. The base station is plugged in the wall, but it has a battery backup and it also has cellular abilities so it can notify even if the power is cut, or the WiFi is disabled. There are a few different packages for real time monitoring by professional security personnel, and you might be able to offset the cost by saving on your home owners insurance. Unfortunately if you do not subscribe to one of their security packages the cameras only show video when you decide to watch them as they do not record onto anything. So unless you pay the security company, the system you bought and own and installed yourself is basically just for show unless you watch the cameras on the app full time all day. If something happens they will not record it and there is no way to add your own DVR either. The equipment is nice though, and pretty high quality, so if you were planning on paying a security company to alarm your house, then I recommend at least checking Simplisafe out and seeing if it would work for you.

I've decided to give SimpliSafe a try after using the Arlo system for 3 years now... while both system shares similar functionalities... SimpliSafe easy to use and user friendly UI is a bit better than Arlos. However... it is best when you have a service plan. The service plan isn't so bad compared to others. I usually get a annual deal during Black/Cyber Monday when the deals are great. Easy and simple installation with great battery life on the cameras. I would recommend SimpliSafe, although I believe Arlos are a great system as well. It's always nice to switch things up when you are able too. Thanks.

Product is “No GOOD “!!! Do not waste your hard-earned money!!! Rechargeable battery lasted only 1-2 days!

Best Buy and the Simply safe product are great. Mastech, the 3rd party installers should not be in business.

I have the 8 piece system. Base station, Key Pad, Key Fob, 3 door sensors and two cameras. Packaging was nice, tight and decorative on the box. Products have a nice design that doesn't look cheap. This was absolutely very easy to setup. You start off with the app or the key pad to setup the system. I used the app. When you start off it gives you a code to log in without your device if you need to. Then I setup my wi-fi easily even with my SSID hidden. Then you can select your monitoring from Simplisafe. They have a free 30 day trial and 3 payment plans to choose. .33 cents a day to capture 30 days of video. .50 cents a day to monitor for break-ins and dispatch authorities but will not visually verify if an alarm is real. .83 cents a day for their full coverage. Then enter your address. Next you can add up to 12 different devices to your system. Next select which device you want to add, pull the tab out of the battery and then press a button on the device. It instantly recognizes the device and adds it to your system. Give the device a name and you are done. The cameras have a magnetic base that takes two screws to mount to your desired location. The Key Pad has 4 sticky pads for mounting anywhere. The doors sensors can be mounted with the sticky pads or screws. You can have up to a two inch gap between the door sensors. I am choosing to not have monitoring right now. I armed the system which took a minute or two to let you get out of the house. I then opened one of my doors and after a minute or so the alarm went off. It sent me a message to my phone telling me which device was triggered as a notification. When I turned it off it also sent a notification that it had been disarmed. I can see in the app that the camera noticed motion but since I'm not paying for anything I cannot view the event. So you can only look at an event happening if you were to be on your phone that exact moment and look at a live view with your camera.

The SimpliSafe Outdoor Camera Home Security System is a pretty neat all-in-one package. From the packaging and opening things up, you start with an aesthetically pleasing design with the wow factor going up as you realize all components are wireless and thus will be pretty easy to install without needing to plan out long cable runs. While camera monitoring systems have grown in popularity, the need to potentially drill holes and route the power/video signal continues to be a pain. This avoids that with the tradeoff being that you need to access the cameras to swap/recharge batteries. The components are a base station (wired though with battery backup), two wireless cameras with magnetic mounts (more on this soon), a wireless keypad and keyfob, door/entry sensors, and various paraphenalia (signs, instructions, etc). Installation is pretty quick. First, you'd setup the base station, choosing a location with an outlet. The backbup battery is just good for 24 hours. Once that's done, you'd setup the keypad. There's peel and stick for the keypad "base" or wall bracket. Lifting the keypad out then puts it in a mode where you can install sensors. This is nice as it means you can setup everything without the need for a phone app. Though I think you'd still want to get it. You'd setup wifi using the keypad menu. If you're one of those who became expert in T9, good news, those skills are still relevant! Thats how you'd enter your SSID and wifi passphrase. The keypad also has an emergency button which immediately sets off the alarm. Your keyfob is a slimmed down dumb keypad. Just the alarm enable/disable and emergency buttons. A nice touch for those who tend to jet out the house or if you have your keypad located an a less accessible location from the front door (or if you exit out the back through the garage which I have a 50% chance of doing). Next, I did the cameras. First, check that the batteries are charged. They charge independently using a USB cable. You then install them in the camera housing behind the camera sensor/spotlight module. Once you select a location for the cameras, you screw on the base for the magnetic base. The magnetic cover attaches and it's rounded and it's on this that the camera attaches. Due to the shape and using magnets for attachment, you have the flexibility to angle and change the FOV for the camera. The upside is that when you need to swap batteries or if you ever need to replace a camera, things are pretty quick. Just grab the camera off the base and go. The downside, your camera isn't semi-permanently attached to the wall or siding, so you should plan on installing at a level that's not within easy reach. At that point, grab the keypad to pair them up. The cameras are two way audio capable. So you can talk to someone on the other end. This is cool because that means with the system as-is, you could use a camera covering the front of the home as a doorbell camera. You'll get all the same alerts of people walking up to the house anyway. Finally, you'll set up the entry sensors. The entry sensors are the typical make/break magnetic connection type. There's enough to cover a front and back door plus some other thing - perhaps a garage door into the house or a particularly accessible window. Those are simple peel and stick as well. One cool thing is that these don't need to end up right next to each other in the "closed" position. They can be a couple inches apart. I like this because while the base station chime is actually pleasant when a door or window opens, it's nice sometimes to be able to crack things slightly without having the chime go off or potentially the alarm. Once setup is done, you'll probably spend most of your time playing with the app to configure a variety of things, though mostly with the camera. You can do a lot with the keypad, but I'd suggest leaving that mostly just for wifi, alarm delays, and adding a new sensor and even then, the app works just as well. There's a lot of functionality with the camera, configuring recording, motion detection, night vision, zones, etc. Video quality is great and the spot light does a good job of letting it record in color at night. There's a lot of recommend with this system. But there are some issues, not dealbreakers for sure, but one should be aware. First, the two-way audio with the cameras is half-duplex. This means that only one person can speak at a time. If both are speaking, only one person will actually be heard and the other will need to repeat. Second, when you start, you'll auto enroll in a SimpliSafe subscription. This provides a lot of functionality - aside with monitoring your alarm status also cloud storage of videos. For many, this isn't an issue as you'd use your home security system with remote monitoring. But for me, particularly a person who likes to be free from reliance on third parties, this can be problematic. The good news, you can cancel your initial monitoring/subscription trial (with no charges if within the first month) and use it standalone and you'd still get notifications of events. You just lose the ability for video recordings (though you can still stream). It's annoying that one can't record via the app, but I suspect its a deliberate decision to drive subscription revenue. But the other thing is that even in standalone, you still are relying on simplisafe to make the connection between your base station and the app. Now, to be fair, you don't need to use the app. The alarm system, chimes, camera zones, etc will all still work, it's just that you lose all the interaction with the cameras turning them into glorified spotlights. So in summary, this is a great system. Home security/camera systems have a tough time earning all five stars from me and this one as well just gets the four. There's a lot to love and I feel with some slight rebalancing of the functionality one keeps when going standalone, this would be perfect. Great with the monitoring subscription, but still incredibly useful and functional without.

Got this to replace my older system and it installed easily and setup up quickly as ever! Camera quality is really great and responsive to detection. Batteries on the sensors last forever! Haven't had to use the call center yet, but have heard nothing but great things

Great starter system. I've already ordered additional items like the glass breaking sensors. Super easy to install. Download the app and it walks you through everything step by step, making sure you did things correctly along the way. Great picture on the cameras.

This kit is ideal for getting started on next-level security. Taking things one step beyond just the doorbell cam or just the outdoor cams, and bringing the base station, the keypad/fob some sensors, AND The cameras together. The cameras are where SimpliSafe goes a little awry in my opinion, but they do it in the best way possible. They have long offered unmonitored security, and if you were more interested in self-monitoring or not having a monthly fee, theirs was the best setup in town. Adding the cameras adds some complexity to that, in that you have to pay for unlimited storage of footage and there are limits to the ways you can access/be notified of camera activities if you're not paying for any levels of their service. Basic plans range from $10-$25 a month. The app feels like it was built around the cameras, but that's okay because there isn't really a way to interact with the other sensors anyway, other than arm/disarm/modes. The cameras are what I expect of a company bringing something to market in 2021 however. The battery life so far seems excellent, and I'm hoping it gets close to their reported "3-6 months". They do include some wise tips for maximizing battery life. The camera itself is well made, discreet and stylish, and mounts easily with minimal fuss. The optional power cable is a little steep at $50, but this kit comes in at such a reasonable starter price that I wouldn't mind paying it. Getting the base, keypad, and sensors set up is fairly easy once you realize it wants you to treat the keypad like a mobile device and you visit all your installed sensors. The camera was a little trickier but eventually paired and connected as it should without a phone call for help. Overall I'm loving this system, I think it's well made and well thought out, and I can't get enough SimpliSafe. Just go into the self-monitored/paid monitoring security realm with eyes wide open, as I feel they could do a better job of advertising what the device limitations are on which plans ahead of time, but that's really my ONLY gripe about this system.

Great features easy to set up and crystal clear video!

Make sure you are somewhat tech literate before purchasing anything with the outdoor camera. I was told multiple times by their own support team that my modem would not support these cameras, but as it turns out you must change the network security settings to get past the initial setup. Huge pain, but in the end I am very happy with the quality of goods and how seamless everything else works.

Equipment was super easy to install. Took less than 30 minutes. One draw back to this system is that is only WiFi - there is no cell back up so if the WiFi or electricity go out your system is inoperable. The cameras have a great picture. Free 30 days of monitoring but you pay after that nearly as much as other guys. The app is hit and miss which is the main reason for the 3 stars. I armed our system with the app a few times but the system did not set so the home was unprotected the whole day. Materials seems to be quite durable and well built. Seems like they will last a while.

Outdoor cameras are great! Takes 5hrs to charge the batteries, but after that, everything installs in a half hour. Cameras have good range, and very clear image. I already have a closed circuit system, but this works good for instant notifications and provides security when the power goes out.

Setup was about a hour. Everything was well documented. Had offset door frame trims, sensors were able to cover distance of 3/4 inch gap. Camera image not bad.

The equipment itself is adequate but it takes so long for the camera to "wake up" and the live video is very slow. The system also looses connection often. I wouldn't purchase again