Protect America vs Vivint Smart Home: An Expert Comparison
Today we will be comparing home security providers Protect America and Vivint Smart Home, and see how they stack up! We’ll go over equipment, monitoring plans, and more!
There are many benefits in protecting your home with a home security system. Generally, most home owners get some sort of discount with their home owners insurance by having a home security system. Home security systems are also very important to have so that you can keep your family and home safe from home invasion crimes. Today we will be taking a look at and comparing what Protect America and Vivint Smart Home 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 >>
Vivint Smart Home Control Panel
Vivint decided to design a control panel that had a ton of features and is easy to use. Vivint offers their Smart Hub control panel as the main component of their security system. Their Smart Hub control panel is a full colored 7-inch touchscreen control panel. You can quickly arm and disarm your system right from the control panel along with adding new devices and customizing features. The Vivint Smart Hub’s full colored touchscreen will also display your current time and temperature. The Vivint Smart Hub is a wireless and cellular control panel which means you don’t’ need a landline or internet connect for your Smart Hub to work. The Vivint Smart Hub has a cellular chip that transmits all your security data securely, and the Vivint Smart Hub can connect to your home’s WIFI as a backup. It is powered by an AC power source, and it comes with a 24-hour backup battery. The Vivint Smart Hub also includes a 2-way audio feature that allows you to directly respond to and communicate with your central monitoring station. It has a built-in Z-Wave protocol that allows you to use other branded security and home automation devices like smart thermostats and smart locks. If your system or sensors are triggered by an event, the Vivint Smart Hub will sound its internal siren.
See our cutting-edge control panel by Qolsys >>
Who wins?
Protect America’s and Vivint’s control panels are quite different from one another. Protect America’s control panel is the Qolsys, a great cutting-edge home security control panel. Vivint’s control panel is packed full of features, has an amazing display, and its easy to use. But because Protect America’s control panel has a ton of more features than that of Vivint’s, we are giving them the win 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 >>
Vivint Smart Home Equipment
Vivint offers some wonderful basic devices that work seamlessly with their Smart Hub control panel. They offer a variety of intrusion sensors that are used to protect the interior of your home. They offer wireless and battery-operated door/window, motion, glass break, and tilt sensors. These are the main sensors that protect the entryways to your home. Their names pretty much describe their function with the exception of the tilt sensor which is used detect if your garage door has been opened or shut. To quickly arm and disarm your system you can use Vivint’s keychain remote which has a push-button design and includes a built-in panic button. To protect yourself from environmental dangers you can purchase smoke, CO, and flood sensors through Vivint. These sensors are known as environmental safety sensors and they will monitor for dangerous rises in the above environmental factors. If these rises in these factors are detected these sensors will make an audible alert. Vivint’s environmental safety sensors are also wireless and battery-operated. All equipment purchased through Vivint is professional installed so you don’t’ have to worry about setting up the equipment yourself.
Recommended: An alternative DIY (do-it-yourself) option called Link Interactive >>
Home Automation
Due to Vivint’s Smart Hub control panel having a Z-Wave protocol, you will be able to use a lot of home automation equipment with it. Vivint offers smart locks that allow you to create custom user codes for different users. You can quickly lock and unlock your Vivint smart lock through its push button keypad. You can also remotely control Vivint’s smart lock remotely through their app. Vivint has smart thermostats that can have customers timers for when your heating and cooling systems comes on and goes off. You can remotely control your Vivint smart thermostat through their app, and smart thermostats are great at cutting down on your home’s energy consumption per month. To remotely control your garage doors, you can use Vivint’s garage door controller. Vivint’s garage door controller will send you an instant notification anytime your garage door has been opened or shut. Vivint also offers smart bulbs that use custom timers for when they come on and go off. You can also remotely control their smart bulbs through their app.
Monitoring/Cameras
When it comes to video surveillance equipment Vivint offers an indoor, outdoor, and video doorbell camera. Their cameras include 2-way audio, night vision technology, motion sensors, and can produce video in HD quality. Their cameras work by connecting to your home WIFI network with their indoor and outdoor camera being powered by an AC power source, and their doorbell camera powered through your existing doorbell setup.
Recommended: See all of our Alarm.com powered video monitoring options at Link Interactive >>
Who wins?
Protect America and Vivint Smart Home offer a lot of similar types of basic equipment. Their entryway and environmental sensors are battery-operated and wireless. Protect America’s door/windows sensors are smaller than normal door/window sensors making them easier to place. Vivint however offers some basic equipment like their medical pendent that Protect America doesn’t offer. Because Protect America has a larger selection of basic equipment, we are giving them the win for this category.
Protect America and Smart Home have a lot of add-on equipment that lets you expand your system to give it a personalize feeling. Protect America offers a lot of great energy saving devices like their LED bulbs which are great at cutting down on your home’s energy cost per month. Vivint has a really nice selection of video surveillance equipment, and we really like all the features that built into these cameras. However, Protect America gets the edge due to the fact that they use the Qolsys control panel (the exact same panel we use here at Link Interactive) - so the win goes to them.
Protect America vs Vivint Smart Home App
Protect America and Vivint Smart Home 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 and Android devices. Both apps allow you to remotely control your system and all connected devices including arming/disarming your system, adding/removing devices, and getting instant notifications for events. Self-monitoring services work the same where you have a 24/7 professional monitoring station watching over your home. Both Protect America’s and Vivint’s video monitoring services are done through their apps where you can stream live and recorded video.
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 Vivint vs Link Interactive
Protect America and Vivint may offer different products, but both of their systems are really great at keeping your home and family safe from home invasion crimes. Protect America offers a great touchscreen control panel, and also have a ton of equipment for you to choose from including lots of home automation equipment. Their system is also super easy to setup and use. Because Protect America has a better overall value with more equipment, we are making them our overall winner.
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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