SimpliSafe vs Ring Alarm: Which DIY Security System Should You Buy?

SimpliSafe and Ring Alarm are two of the best-known DIY alarm systems. Both install in an afternoon with peel-and-stick sensors, neither needs a contract, and an 8-piece starter kit from either costs around $225 to $250. So the SimpliSafe vs Ring decision comes down to three things: what each system does if you never pay monthly, what professional monitoring costs, and which smart home platform you already use.

This guide compares the free features, the plans, the hardware, and the smart home support, then answers whether SimpliSafe is worth the higher monthly price. If you’re still deciding whether you want either one, our guide to the best DIY home security systems covers other options too.

SimpliSafe vs Ring: The Short Answer

Quick answer: choose SimpliSafe if you want to arm the system from your phone for free, use Google Assistant, or want monitoring agents who can check your cameras and talk to an intruder. Choose Ring Alarm if you want the cheapest professional monitoring ($19.99 a month), already own Ring cameras or Echo speakers, or want to add Z-Wave smart locks. Neither works with Apple Home.

If you already know which way you’re leaning, these are the products worth looking at:

• SimpliSafe 8 Piece — Best SimpliSafe kit, with four entry sensors, a motion sensor, a keypad, and a panic button.
• Ring Alarm 8-Piece Kit — Best Ring kit, with four contact sensors, a motion detector, a keypad, and a range extender.
• SimpliSafe Smart Alarm Indoor Camera — The camera that lets SimpliSafe’s agents check an alarm before calling the police.
• Ring Alarm Pro — Ring Alarm with a built-in eero Wi-Fi 6 router.
• Aqara Camera Protect Kit Y100 — The alternative for Apple Home users, since neither SimpliSafe nor Ring supports it.

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What SimpliSafe Does Best

SimpliSafe is still useful when you don’t pay anything. With no plan, you can arm and disarm the system from the SimpliSafe app and open live view on your SimpliSafe cameras. The siren still sounds when a sensor trips. Ring Alarm can’t do any of that from your phone without a subscription.

SimpliSafe also works with more voice assistants. With a paid plan, you can arm the system with Alexa or Google Assistant and ask either one whether it’s armed. (For safety, neither can disarm it by voice.) Ring Alarm doesn’t work with Google at all.

Its biggest strength is what the monitoring team can do. On the Core plan and up, SimpliSafe’s agents can use the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera to see what triggered an alarm, which helps the police treat it as a confirmed break-in rather than a possible false alarm. With Intruder Intervention turned on, they can also speak through the camera. The Pro and Pro Plus plans add Active Guard, where agents watch your plugged-in outdoor cameras, talk to anyone on your property, and trigger the camera’s siren and spotlight (overnight on Pro, 24/7 on Pro Plus).

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What Ring Alarm Does Best

Ring Alarm is the cheaper system to run. Its basic plans, Ring Solo ($4.99 a month) and Ring Multi ($9.99 a month), already let you arm and disarm Ring Alarm from the app, keep 60 days of alarm history, and add cellular backup when your internet goes down. Ring Pro adds 24/7 professional monitoring for $19.99 a month, and it covers your Ring cameras’ video history too.

Ring also has the bigger camera lineup. If you already have a Ring doorbell or Ring cameras, everything shows up in the same app, and your cameras can follow the alarm’s Home and Away modes. If you’re still choosing cameras, our Ring vs Blink comparison covers Amazon’s two camera brands.

The Ring Alarm Base Station is also a Z-Wave hub. You can pair more than 35 Z-Wave smart locks from Schlage, Kwikset, and Yale at no extra cost, then lock the door from the Ring app or with Alexa. If you’re shopping for one, our guide to the best smart locks covers the main models.

Alexa support goes further than SimpliSafe’s, too. With a Ring subscription, Alexa can arm Ring Alarm and also disarm it after you say a four-digit voice PIN. And if you also need a new router, Ring Alarm Pro puts an eero Wi-Fi 6 router inside the base station.

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SimpliSafe vs Ring Alarm Side by Side

Here’s how the two systems compare on the points that matter most:

Factor	SimpliSafe	Ring Alarm
8-piece kit price	About $224 (often on sale)	About $250
Contract	None	None
App arming with no plan	Yes	No (keypad only)
Alerts with no plan	Not listed	No
Cheapest plan with app control	Free	Ring Solo, $4.99 a month
Cheapest professional monitoring	$22.99 a month (Standard)	$19.99 a month (Ring Pro)
Monitoring with camera recording	$32.99 a month (Core)	$19.99 a month (Ring Pro)
Internet backup	Included with monitoring plans	Included with every Ring plan
Backup battery	Up to 24 hours	Up to 24 hours
Base station siren	100 dB	104 dB
Live agents on cameras	Pro ($49.99) and Pro Plus ($79.99)	Virtual Security Guard ($99 a month)
Alexa	Arm only, with a plan	Arm and disarm with a PIN, with a plan
Google Assistant	Arm only, with a plan	No
Apple Home	No	No
Z-Wave smart locks	No	Yes

What you get without a monthly plan

This is the clearest difference in any Ring Alarm vs SimpliSafe comparison. Without a plan, SimpliSafe still lets you arm, disarm, and check your cameras from your phone. You won’t get recordings, police dispatch, or internet backup, and SimpliSafe doesn’t list push alerts as a free feature, so treat it as a local alarm you can control remotely.

Ring Alarm with no subscription is much more limited. According to Ring’s own plan guide, you can arm and disarm it from the Ring Keypad only, and while the siren sounds, you and anyone you share the system with won’t get any notifications. In practice, Ring Alarm is built to be used with at least a $4.99 plan.

Monthly plans and professional monitoring

Once you pay, Ring is cheaper at almost every step. Ring Solo at $4.99 a month gives you app control and cellular backup. SimpliSafe’s closest plan is Self-Monitoring with Camera Recordings at $9.99, which adds 30 days of video from up to 10 cameras but has no internet backup.

For 24/7 monitoring with police, fire, and medical dispatch, Ring Pro costs $19.99 a month. SimpliSafe’s Standard plan costs $22.99, but it doesn’t record your cameras, so if you want your SimpliSafe camera video saved, you need Core at $32.99. Over three years, the difference between Ring Pro and SimpliSafe Core is about $470.

What SimpliSafe adds for that money is video-checked alarms. On Core and up, agents can look through the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera when an alarm goes off, and on Pro and Pro Plus they can watch your outdoor cameras and talk to intruders before anything is broken. Ring’s equivalent, Virtual Security Guard, costs $99 a month on top of a Ring plan.

Hardware and installation

The 8-piece kits are close. SimpliSafe’s includes the Base Station, a keypad, four entry sensors, a motion sensor, and a panic button. Ring’s includes the Base Station, a keypad, four contact sensors, a motion detector, and a range extender. Both base stations have a backup battery that lasts up to 24 hours, and both kits install without tools.

Ring’s base station is a little louder (104 dB against 100 dB). SimpliSafe’s sensors use their own radio, so you can only add SimpliSafe sensors. Ring’s sensors use Z-Wave, which is why Ring can add third-party locks, and Ring’s newer Sidewalk sensors can work without a base station at all.

Both companies sell add-on glass-break, smoke, carbon monoxide, and water sensors, plus extra keypads.

Smart home and HomeKit support

If you’re hoping for SimpliSafe HomeKit support, there isn’t any. SimpliSafe’s support site says it doesn’t integrate with Apple Home, and Ring doesn’t either. Neither has any Matter devices. The only way to see either system in the Home app is a Homebridge plugin (homebridge-simplisafe3 or homebridge-ring), which runs on a computer you leave on and isn’t supported by either company. We explain the Ring version in does Ring work with HomeKit.

If Apple Home matters most to you, an Aqara Camera Protect Kit Y100 is the simpler option. Its camera hub shows up in Apple Home as a security system with all four alarm modes and supports HomeKit Secure Video, though there’s no professional monitoring. Our guide to HomeKit security cameras covers more cameras that work natively.

For Alexa homes, Ring is the better fit because Alexa can both arm and disarm it. For Google homes, SimpliSafe is the only one of the two that works.

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Is SimpliSafe Worth It?

Yes, for two kinds of buyers. If you never want a monthly fee, SimpliSafe is the better choice, because it still lets you arm and disarm from your phone and check your cameras for free. And if you want monitoring where agents can see what’s happening before they call the police, SimpliSafe’s Core and Pro plans do something Ring only offers at $99 a month.

It’s less worth it if you just want basic professional monitoring at the lowest price. Ring Pro does that for $19.99 a month and includes camera recording, while SimpliSafe’s Core plan costs $13 more each month. It’s also a weaker fit if you already have Ring cameras, since they won’t work in the SimpliSafe app.

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Which Should You Choose?

When people ask whether to buy SimpliSafe or Ring, the answer usually depends on these situations:

• You won’t pay a monthly fee: SimpliSafe. You keep app arming and live camera view.
• You want the cheapest professional monitoring: Ring Alarm with Ring Pro.
• You want agents to check your cameras and talk to intruders: SimpliSafe Core, Pro, or Pro Plus.
• You already have Ring cameras or a Ring doorbell: Ring Alarm.
• You use Google Assistant: SimpliSafe.
• You want to add a Z-Wave smart lock: Ring Alarm.
• You use Apple Home: neither. Look at Aqara instead.

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Which SimpliSafe or Ring Products to Buy

SimpliSafe 8 Piece — Best SimpliSafe Kit

The standard SimpliSafe starter kit: Base Station with a 100 dB siren, keypad, four entry sensors, a motion sensor, and a panic button. It works without a plan and adds monitoring whenever you want it, with no contract.

Best for: anyone who wants free app arming, Google Assistant support, or SimpliSafe’s monitoring plans.

Price: ~$224 (for an 8-piece kit)

Ring Alarm 8-Piece Kit — Best Ring Kit

The current second-generation Ring Alarm kit: Base Station with a 104 dB siren, keypad, four contact sensors, a motion detector, and a range extender. Plan on at least Ring Solo to get app control and alerts.

Best for: Alexa and Ring camera homes that want the cheapest professional monitoring.

Price: ~$250 (for an 8-piece kit)

SimpliSafe Smart Alarm Indoor Camera — Best SimpliSafe Add-On

The indoor camera that makes SimpliSafe’s monitoring stand out. On Core and up, agents can use it to check an alarm and, with Intruder Intervention turned on, speak to whoever is there. A privacy shutter closes over the lens when the camera isn’t recording.

Best for: SimpliSafe owners on the Core plan or higher.

Price: ~$103

Ring Alarm Pro — Best Ring Upgrade

The same 8-piece Ring Alarm kit, but the base station is also an eero Wi-Fi 6 router. With a Ring Pro plan, it adds backup internet so your devices stay online during an outage.

Best for: Ring homes that also need a new Wi-Fi router.

Price: ~$300 (for an 8-piece kit)

Aqara Camera Protect Kit Y100 — Best for Apple Home

Not a SimpliSafe or Ring product, but the simplest way to get an alarm in Apple Home. The kit includes a pan-and-tilt camera hub with a built-in siren, plus motion, door, and vibration sensors, and it supports HomeKit Secure Video. There’s no professional monitoring.

Best for: Apple Home users who are happy to self-monitor.

Price: ~$100 (for a 4-piece kit)

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The Bottom Line

The SimpliSafe vs Ring choice mostly comes down to monthly cost against monitoring features. Ring Alarm is cheaper to run, with app control from $4.99 and professional monitoring for $19.99 a month, and it fits best in Alexa homes with Ring cameras. SimpliSafe does more for free, works with Google Assistant, and offers video-checked monitoring that Ring can’t match at a similar price.