Protect America vs Scout Alarm: An Expert Comparison
Today we will be comparing home security providers Protect America and Scout Alarm, and see how they stack up! We’ll go over equipment, monitoring plans, and more!
Many homeowners across the United States are making the move to invest in home security systems. It seems like every year we see some sort of rise in home invasions, and that is why we are seeing so many homeowners investing in security systems. Today we will be looking at and comparing what Protect America and Scout Alarm have to offer.
Protect America Control Panel
Protect America has an amazing control panel that is totally cellular and wireless. Their control panel sports a 7-inch full colored touchscreen that allows you to completely control your system and connected device by just using the touchscreen. It has a cellular chip that sports LTE data, and it can connect to your home’s WIFI as an extra connection, but you do not need WIFI for this control panel to work. It has a very thin design allowing it to be easily placed, and it is powered by an AC power source with a 24-hour backup battery. Protect America’s control panel has some stand out features like a built-in glass break sensor that will notify you when the sound of breaking glass is heard. It also includes a 5 MP front facing camera, motion sensors, and a Micro SD slot for extra storage. It is super expandable and it has a built-in Z-wave protocol that allows you to use lots of great brands of home automation devices with it. If your Protect America or connected devices are triggered, Protect America will sound its internal siren while sending you an instant alert through the Protect America app. It includes Bluetooth disarming and arming which is a built-in feature that will automatically arm your system when you leave home, and disarm your system when you return.
Recommended: An alternative DIY (do-it-yourself) option, our home security system at Link Interactive >>
Scout Alarm Control Panel
Scout Alarm offers a high-quality control panel that connects all of your security equipment and other devices wirelessly. Their control panel is called the Scout Hub, and it works by connecting to your home’s WIFI network but also includes a cellular backup just in case your internet goes down. The Scout Hub doesn’t have any features that can be controlled directly from the control panel, instead you will use their app, separate keypad, or key fob to arm and disarm your system. You can also use a RFID tag to quickly arm and disarm your system. The Scout Hub includes an internal 105-decibel alarm that can be easily heard no matter where you are in your home. Their control panel is powered through an AC power source, and it does include a built-in backup battery just in case your power goes out. The Scout Hub is very expandable and has lots of zones. The control panel will tell you exactly which zone (sensor) has been triggered which will give you a better idea of where and what is exactly happening in your home. The control panel also includes Z-wave technology which will allow you to expand your system to include the use of some smart home devices.
See our cutting-edge control panel by Qolsys >>
Who wins?
The control panels offered by Protect America and Scout Alarm are quite different from one another. For starters, Protect America’s control panel is a full colored touchscreen control panel while Scouts’s is much more simplistic and doesn’t have a touchscreen. Protect America’s control panel includes a Z-Wave protocol making it way more expandable than that of Scout’s. Due to Protect America offering the better control panel with more features than that of Scout, we are choosing Protect America as our winners for this category.
Protect America Equipment
Protect America offers wireless and battery-operated intrusion and environmental safety sensors. To protect the interior of your home, Protect America offers different styles of door/window sensors, a motion sensor, and a glass break sensor. Their door/window sensors will trigger your system if a door/window has been opened in which these sensors are placed. Their motion sensors can detect motion in large areas of your home, and are pet friendly for smaller to medium pets. Their glass break sensor will listen for the sound of breaking glass, and will trigger your system when this is heard. To keep your home safe from environmental dangers, Protect America offers smoke/heat, CO, and water leak sensors. These environmental sensors will make audible alerts if their designed environmental factor is detected while triggering your system. Protect America also offers extra keypads, key remotes, and sirens. Their key remotes will allow you to quickly arm and disarm your system with a push of a button. All equipment offered by Protect America is DIY (do it yourself), but they walk through the setup process for a fast and easy installation.
Recommended: An alternative DIY (do-it-yourself) option called Link Interactive >>
Home Automation
Protect America really allows you to expand your system due to their control panel including a Z-Wave Protocol and you can buy all you need right from them. Protect America offers several different brands of smart locks for you to choose from like Yale. You can create custom user codes that can be enabled and disabled at any time with their smart locks as well the ability to remotely unlock and lock them. You will receive push notifications for when your smart locks have been locked and unlocked. If your home has garage doors, Protect America offers the Linear Garage Door Controller. This controller will allow you to remotely shut and open your garage doors. You will get alerts for when your garage door has been opened or shut as well through the Protect America app. Protect America has several smart home devices that are great at helping you make your home greener. They offer a few types of smart thermostats, a smart outlet, and light switch control. These devices can be controlled remotely through the Protect America app, and you can set custom timers for when they come on and go off. Their smart thermostats are really great at cutting down on your home’s energy consumption per month which can save you money.
Video Monitoring/Cameras
Protect America also has a nice selection of video surveillance cameras you can use with their system as well. They offer an indoor, outdoor, and video doorbell camera. These cameras include night vision, 2-way audio, motion sensors, and the ability to record video in HD. Protect America’s video surveillance cameras work by connecting wirelessly to your home’s WIFI network.
Recommended: See all of our Alarm.com powered video monitoring options at Link Interactive >>
Scout Alarm Equipment
Scout Alarm offers a nice variety of basic equipment that you can use with their control panel. Scout Alarm offers a Door Panel which is a pretty different type of intrusion sensor compared to other intrusion sensors that are out on the market today. The Scout Alarm’s Door Panel is a larger sensor meant to be placed on the outside of an entryway door. This sensor will alert you to anytime it has been opened and closed. This sensor can also be used to quickly arm and disarm your system tapping a RFID sticker to the Door Panel or using a Scout’s key fob. These stickers can be placed on anything that is easy to move around. When you tap these stickers on your control panel or Door Panel, they will automatically arm or disarm your system. The Door Panel also includes a 105-decibel alarm built in.
The next basic sensor that is offered by Scout is their Access Sensor. These sensors are used to protect the door and windows of your home. They are battery-operated and will alert you to anytime a door or window has been opened. Scout also offers motion sensors that a wireless and battery operated. Scout’s motion sensors use PIR technology to detect motion and have a 90-degree field of view. Scout Alarm offers glass break sensors that are wireless and battery operated. Scout Alarm’s glass break sensors are used to detect the sound of glass breaking within a 15ft range of the sensor. Scout Alarm offers key fobs remotes for that are batter operated and have a push button design. Their key fob remotes allow you to quickly arm and disarm your system with the touch of a button.
Scout Alarm offers Smoke, CO, and Flood sensors to help protect your home from environmental disasters. These sensors are battery operated and wireless, and they will make an audible alert anytime they are triggered. These sensors along with Scout Alarm’s other sensor will all trigger your system to cause an event anytime they are triggered. All equipment that is sold to you by Scout Alarm is DIY (Do it yourself), but everything is included for a quick installation.
Recommended: An alternative DIY (do-it-yourself) option called Link Interactive >>
Home Automation
Scout Alarm has a limited variety of what they actually offer on their website for add-on equipment so it is important to keep in mind that Scout’s control panel has Z-Wave technology which means you can use other branded home automation and security products that are not offered on the Scout Alarm’s website. They do offer Yale Automated Door Locks. The Yale automated door lock offered by Scout has an illuminated touch pin pad that allows you to create custom user codes. It is battery operated and allows for quick one-touch locking and unlocking of this lock. The Yale automated door lock offered by Scout Alarm can be unlocked and locked on the go, and any user codes for it can be enabled or disabled at any time. Scout Alarm also offers an indoor camera as a part of their add-on equipment.
Monitoring/Cameras
When it comes to video surveillance equipment Scout Alarm offers an indoor camera and video doorbell camera that work by connecting to your home’s WIFI network. Scout Alarm’s indoor camera is powered through an AC power source, but they do not state how their doorbell camera is powered. Their indoor and video doorbells camera record in full 1080P which lets you capture crystal clear video clips. Their indoor camera has a 155-degree field of view while their doorbell camera has 180-degree field of view. They both come with night vision built-in so that you can view video even when there is limited or no light around the camera. The Scout indoor and video doorbell cameras have built-in motion detectors that will trigger the cameras to start recording whenever motion is detected near them.
Recommended: See all of our Alarm.com powered video monitoring options at Link Interactive >>
Who wins?
There are a lot of similarities between the basic equipment offered by Protect America and Scout Alarm. They both offer battery-operated and wireless intrusion and environmental safety sensors. They only differ slightly with Protect America having a few different types of door/window sensors while Scout Alarm only offers the one type. Due to Protect America having a larger selection of basic equipment than that of Scout Alarm, we are choosing them as our winners for this category.
This category was an easy one for us to call a winner for. Scout is a great company, and they have some great basic security equipment but are really lacking in the home automation department. However, Protect America has a ton of home automation for you to choose from, and you can use other branded home devices with their system unlike Scout Alarm. For these reasons we are choosing Protect America as our winners for this category.
Protect America vs Scout Alarm App
Protect America and Scout Alarm offer professional, self, and video monitoring services. Their self-monitoring services are done through their apps which are free to download and work for Apple, Android, and PC devices. Their apps allow you to control your system while on the go. You can arm and disarm your system, stream live and recorded video clips, add/remove devices, customize system features, and receive push-notifications for events all through their apps. Protect America’s app is powered by SecureNet which means you will have more features to use than Scout’s app. Their professional monitoring services work the same in where you have a 24/7 professional monitoring station watching over your home for security, environmental, and medical emergencies. Scout does have lower month to month monitoring costs than that of Protect America. They also, do no require a contract (or offer any) which means you will be paying for your equipment upfront - which can get pretty pricey. Protect America month to month monitoring costs may be higher and they have contracts, but their monitoring services have more features and by going with a contract you will get get some pretty big discounts on the upfront equipment costs.
Recommended: Check out Link Interactive. With Link Interactive you’ll get the Alarm.com app (the gold standard in home security), and top of the line security equipment at great affordable prices. See details >>
Protect America vs Scout vs Link Interactive
Protect America and Scout are really great security providers. We really like that Scout made an easy to use control panel, and that their month to month monitoring costs are some of the lowest out on the market. Protect America offers a really premium control panel, and they have a huge selection of basic, add-on, and video cams that you can use with their system. Due to Protect America offering a better control panel, more add-on equipment, and a better app, we are choosing them as our overall winners.
Recommended Alternative: Link Interactive
If you want to pay less without skimping on features and quality of service, take a look at the Link Interactive home alarm system.
Link Interactive and Protect America are very similar in terms of equipment and monitoring services. At Link we offer a more feature-laden control panel in the the Qolsys IQ 2 Panel, complete with Alarm.com self-monitoring and third-party 24/7 professional monitoring. We also offer cutting-edge video monitoring services and cameras, all at a much better price point than Protect America.
We have thousands of 5-star reviews on various reputable third party review sites complimenting our awesome after-sales support! We encourage you take a look at our offer here, get a quote and compare. You can also call us direct at 1-877-826-5443 for further details and speak with a rep!
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