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Today we will be comparing home security providers SimpliSafe and Alder Home Security, and see how they stack up! We’ll go over equipment, monitoring plans, and more!

There are a lot of great benefits of owning a home security system. One of the benefits is that, generally most home owner insurance companies will give you some sort of discount on your homeowners insurance per month for owing a home security system. Also, most modern-day security systems are expandable to include home automation and video surveillance equipment allowing you to do more than just protect your home. Today we will be taking a look at SimpliSafe and Alder Security by going over their add-on equipment, monitoring services, and apps.

SimpliSafe Control Panel

To connect and control all of your security, home automation, environmental, and video cams, SimpliSafe offers their control hub. Their control hub is wireless and cellular panel that works by transmitting your data via cellular chip. The SimpliSafe control panel can connect to your home’s WIFI network as a backup, and it is powered by an AC power source. IF your power goes out, the SimpliSafe control hub includes a 24-hour backup battery. The SimpliSafe control hub has a cone shaped design making it really easy to place. It has an indicator light at the bottom of its base that will change colors to show different system statuses. The SimpliSafe control hub will also make chimes for when your devices or system are triggered, and these chimes can be customized. If you SimpliSafe system or connected devices are triggered, the SimpliSafe control hub will sound its internal siren. The SimpliSafe control panel is controlled through a separate push-button keypad that has a rechargeable battery. You can add devices, customize your SimpliSafe system’s features, as well as customize user codes right from the keypad. The SimpliSafe control panel is limited on how much you can expand it, and it will only work with SimpliSafe branded devices.

Recommended: An alternative DIY (do-it-yourself) option, our home security system at Link Interactive »

Alder Control Panel

Alder Security offers a really nice full colored touchscreen control hub that is packed full of features. The Alder Security control hub sports a 7-inch full colored touchscreen that you can use to control your Alder Security system and any connected devices. This control panel is cellular and can stream data in a 4G LTE cellular signal for a fast and a secure connection. It is powered by an AC power source but it includes a 24-hour backup battery. Alder Security control panel includes a built-in siren for when your Alder Security system or connected devices are triggered, and it includes 2-way audio that allows you to directly communicate with your central monitoring station during an emergency. You can create custom user codes for different users of this control panel, and it allows for one touch arming. Alder Security doesn’t list more specifications other then ones we just listed, and you will need to reach out to them directly to find out more.

See our cutting-edge control panel by Qolsys »

Who wins?

SimpliSafe’s and Alder Security’s control hubs are quite different from one another. The SimpliSafe control hub needs to be controlled through a separate push-button keypad, and it doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles. Alder Security offers a full colored touchscreen control panel that has a lot of great modern features, and it be controlled right from its touchscreen. Due to Alder Security offering the more modern control panel than SimpliSafe, we are choosing them as our winners for this category.

SimpliSafe Equipment

SimpliSafe offers all the wireless and battery-operated intrusion and environmental safety sensors to give your home total coverage. They offer door/window, motion, tilt, and glass break sensors to protect the entryways to your home. SimpliSafe also offers an external siren that is wireless and battery-operated. For a quick way to arm and disarm your system, SimpliSafe offers a push-button key fob remote. To instantly trigger your system, and dispatch emergency services, SimpliSafe offers a push-button battery-operated panic button. To protect your home against the elements, SimpliSafe offers a smoke/temperature, a CO, and flood sensors. Theses sensors will look for environmental dangers such as rises and drops in temperature, smoke, CO gas, and water leaks/floods. If these environmental dangers are detected, SimpliSafe’s environmental safety sensors will trigger your system while making an audible alert. All equipment offered by SimpliSafe is DIY, but they also do offer professional installation for a one-time fee.

Recommended: An alternative DIY (do-it-yourself) option called Link Interactive »

Home Automation

SimpliSafe offers a few devices that you can add on to your system that allows to do some home automation and video surveillance tasks. SimpliSafe offers their smart lock which fits over your existing deadbolt lock. Their smart lock has a push-button keypad and a deadbolt automatic lock that allows you to unlock and lock your doors while on the go. You can also create custom user codes for your SimpliSafe smart lock that can be enabled and disabled at any time. The SimpliSafe smart lock is tamper proof, and if a code has been entered incorrectly too many times it will lock down for 30 minutes.

Video Monitoring/Cameras

To add some extra eyes to your home, you can use some video surveillance cameras offered by SimpliSafe. SimpliSafe offers their Simpli Cam which is a wireless video surveillance camera that works by connecting to your home’s WIFI network. It can be used indoors or outdoors due to its weatherproof design, and it is powered by an AC power source. It can capture video in HD, has night vision technology, motion sensors, and 2-way audio. To keep an eye on the doors of your home, SimpliSafe offers their Video Doorbell Pro camera. This camera can capture video in stunning 1080P, and it works by connecting wirelessly to your home’s WIFI network. You can customize the chimes for your Video Doorbell Pro, and it has motion sensors that will trigger it to start to record. You can communicate with whomever is around your Video Doorbell Pro using its 2-way audio feature. If there is no light around, the Video Doorbell Pro will switch to night mode which allows it to use its night vision technology to capture images when there is no light around.

Recommended: See all of our Alarm.com powered video monitoring options at Link Interactive »

Alder Equipment

Alder security has a nice selection of sensors that you can use with their full colored touchscreen control panel. The sensors that are offered by Alder security are wireless and battery-operated. Alder Security offers door/window sensors and motion sensors to protect the entryways to your home. They have a key fob remote that has a 4-push button design that allows you to arm and disarm your system with the touch of button. It also includes a built-in panic button that will instantly trigger your system and send emergency services to help you. To protect your home against the environmental factors, SimpliSafe offers a fire and a flood sensor. Their fire sensor will look for rises in smoke while their flood sensor will look for water leaks or rises in water. If these are detected it will trigger your SimpliSafe system while making an audible alert. Alder Security offers professional installation for their equipment 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

Alder Security really doesn’t have a lot of add-on equipment for you to use with their system currently. The only extra sensor they offer is their medical alert pendant. This pendant is battery-operated, and it has an easy to push push-button that when pushed will immediately let emergency services know that help is needed.

Monitoring/Cameras

Alder Security however, does have some really nice video surveillance cameras that you can use with their system. Alder Security offers the YI Kami outdoor camera. This camera is wireless, and it is made from weatherproof material so it will work rain or shine. It has a 140-degree wide angle field of view, and it can capture video in 1080p HD video resolution. It has smart motion sensors that can distinguish between human and non-human signatures, and if human signatures are detected it will trigger it to start to record. You can use the YI Kami’s 2-way audio feature to respond to whomever is around your YI Kami cam. The last piece of addon equipment that Alder Security offers is the YI Indoor Camera. This camera is also wireless and it is powered by an AC power source. The YI Indoor Camera has a 112-degree field of view and can capture video in 1080P. It has smart motion detection, 2-way audio, advance night vision, and lens distortion correction. One really standout feature for the YI Indoor Camera is that is has baby cry detection in where the YI Indoor Camera can distinguish the sound of a baby’s cry, and if this is detected you will be instantly alerted.

Recommended: See all of our Alarm.com powered video monitoring options at Link Interactive »

Who wins?

SimpliSafe and Alder Security offer a lot of the same type of equipment. They both offer wireless and battery-operated intrusion sensors. They also both offer some environmental safety sensors that you can use with their systems. However, SimpliSafe has a larger selection of add-on equipment than that of Alder security. For this reason, we are choosing SimpliSafe as our winners for this category.

Neither SimpliSafe nor Alder Security really have a lot of add-on equipment you can use with their system. We do like the fact that at least SimpliSafe has one home automation device you can use with their system, their smart lock, while Alder doesn’t offer any home automation devices. We do really like the YI branded cameras that Alder Security offers due to all of their advanced features. However, seeing that SimpliSafe has at least has one home automation device you can choose to use with your system while Alder Security has none, we are choosing them as our winners for this category.

SimpliSafe vs Abode App

SimpliSafe and Alder Security offer professional, self, and video monitoring services. Their self-monitoring services are done through their apps which are free to download and work for smartphones. Their apps allow you to control your system, devices, and stream live video while on the go. You can also customize your system’s features, add/remove devices, and receive instant alerts for events through their apps. Their video monitoring services are done through their apps as well, and you can view recorded video clips while on the go. Their professional monitoring services work the same in where you have a 24/7 professional monitoring station watching over your home for emergencies. However, SimpliSafe’s month to month monitoring services are way cheaper than that of Alder Security’s month to month monitoring services. Also, Alder Security requires contracts while SimpliSafe is contract free.

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 »

SimpliSafe vs Cove vs Link Interactive

There a lot of great features that both SimpliSafe and Alder Security offer when it comes to protecting your home. SimpliSafe has a simple control hub, and a ton of basic equipment for you to choose from so you can really expand your system. Alder Security has a really great touchscreen control panel, and the YI cameras offered by them are top of the line. However, SimpliSafe has more basic equipment, at least 1 home automation device you can use with their system, and cheaper monitoring services than that of Alder Security. For these reasons we are choosing SimpliSafe as our overall winner.

Recommended Alternative: Link Interactive

If you’d like a better bang for your buck without skimping on features and quality of service, take a at the Link Interactive home alarm system.

Link Interactive and SimpliSafe are very similar in terms of equipment and monitoring services. At Link we offer a more advanced control panel in the the Qolsys IQ 2 Panel with Alarm.com self-monitoring and third-party professional monitoring. We also offer cutting-edge video monitoring services, all at a much better price point than SimpliSafe.

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!