How this site makes money
Short version: this site earns money through affiliate commissions - links that pay us a fee if you buy something, at no extra cost to you. Rankings and recommendations are never for sale. As of September 2026 we have exactly one affiliate relationship, with Vivint through the Awin network, and this page names every one we ever join.
Current status: one active partnership
As of September 8, 2026, this site has one active affiliate relationship: Vivint (US), through the Awin affiliate network. Where a Vivint link on this site is an affiliate link it is labelled "affiliate link" beside the link itself and carries a disclosure in the same section. If you click one and buy from Vivint's online shop, Vivint pays us a commission; your price is unchanged. As of September 18, 2026 such links appear in three places: on our guide to choosing a system, in the section for readers who specifically want professional installation; on our video doorbell comparison, in the section on professionally installed doorbells; and on our monthly monitoring cost comparison, in the section on professional installation. On that last page Vivint also appears in the main price table alongside ten other providers, at the prices Vivint publishes; the affiliate relationship did not change its position, its price or what we say about it. Our guides to cancelling Vivint and using Vivint equipment without Vivint service carry no affiliate links and were written before this relationship existed; they have not been softened and will not be. We have no other affiliate relationship with any company named on this site. When that changes, this list changes first.
Awin is a third-party network that tracks affiliate sales with a cookie set when you click; see our privacy policy. Vivint's program is administered on Awin under advertiser ID 21822.
How affiliate links work
An affiliate link is an ordinary link with a tracking code attached. If you click it and buy something, the seller pays us a commission. Three things worth knowing:
- You pay nothing extra. The price you see is the same with or without our link. The commission comes out of the seller's side.
- We may be paid whether or not the product was our top pick. That's why the separation described below matters.
- You can always avoid them. If you'd rather not use an affiliate link, go to the seller's site directly. The information in our articles is yours either way.
Rankings are not for sale
The rules we operate under, spelled out in more detail in our methodology:
- Comparisons are researched and ranked before anyone checks whether an affiliate program exists for the products involved.
- We recommend products with no affiliate program when they're the better choice - including free and hardware-store solutions.
- No company can pay for placement, a better position, or a favorable review.
- We do not accept free or discounted products from companies we cover.
- Sections containing affiliate links carry a clear disclosure beside the link, not only in the footer, and affiliate links are marked
rel="sponsored"so search engines treat them as paid.
Why we bother disclosing this much
Home security is a high-pressure industry, and much of the advice online is written to funnel you toward whichever company pays the highest commission. We can't fix the industry, but we can be transparent about our own incentives so you can weigh our advice accordingly. If you ever see a page on this site that seems to conflict with what's written here, please tell us.
Questions
Anything unclear about how we make money? Email contact@homesecurity-systems-alarms.com and we'll give you a straight answer.