Home Security Systems & Alarms

What Alarm Monitoring Costs Per Month, Across Every Provider We Track

By the Home Security Systems & Alarms editorial team · Research-based (no hands-on testing) - see how we evaluate · Last updated September 18, 2026

For a plan that includes a monitoring centre able to send help, the published monthly prices we could read in September 2026 run from about $19.99 to $59.99. The cheap end is camera companies that added a monitored tier (Wyze and Ring, both $19.99); the expensive end is ADT at $59.99 with a 36-month contract. In between sit SimpliSafe at roughly $23.12, Cove at roughly $23.42, Vivint from $24.99, Abode Pro at $26.99 and Frontpoint Interactive at $44.99. Two things distort almost every comparison you will read. First, the cheapest plan on a price list is usually not the plan that dispatches anyone. Second, SimpliSafe and Cove no longer publish a monthly price at all, only a daily rate, so any monthly figure for those two (including ours) is arithmetic rather than a quoted price.

This page exists because monthly monitoring cost is the single question buyers ask first and the one the industry answers least directly. Some companies publish a price list. Some publish a daily rate. Some publish a "starting at" figure in the fine print of a promotion. One of the largest publishes no price list on its own site at all and expects you to take a sales call.

So rather than average them into a meaningless "$30 to $50 per month" range, we list what each company published, on the date we read it, with the source linked. Every figure below was read in a browser on the company's own page. We do not conduct hands-on testing, we have not held any of these contracts, and where a company does not publish something we say so instead of filling the gap from a competitor's blog.

Monthly monitoring cost, provider by provider

Two price columns, because they answer different questions. Cheapest plan is the lowest monthly figure the company publishes for that product line. Cheapest plan that dispatches is the lowest tier whose own description includes professional monitoring or emergency dispatch. Where those two are not the same number, the gap is the thing worth knowing.

Provider Cheapest plan Cheapest plan that dispatches Contract Read
Wyze $2.99/mo (Cam Plus, one camera) $19.99/mo Cam Unlimited Pro, the only tier listing 24/7 emergency dispatch ($16.67/mo billed annually at $199.99) None stated 2026-09-17
Ring $4.99/mo (Protect Solo, one device) $19.99/mo Protect Pro, which adds 24/7 professional monitoring and cellular backup ($16.67/mo billed annually at $199.99) None stated 2026-09-15
SimpliSafe 33c/day self-monitoring with camera recordings (about $10.04/mo, our conversion) 76c/day Standard, about $23.12/mo by our conversion. Core $1.10/day (about $33.46). Pro and Pro Plus $1.66 to $2.66/day (about $50.49 to $80.91) No contract 2026-09-16
Cove Every Cove tier includes 24/7 professional monitoring with dispatch. $0.77/day Basic (about $23.42/mo, our conversion), $1.10/day Cove+ (about $33.46), $1.43/day Premium (about $43.50) No contract, 60-day trial 2026-09-18
Vivint "Vivint Monitoring starts at $24.99/mo" on a 36-month agreement with $199.99 equipment (HomeProtect), or $29.99/mo with no long-term contract and $349.99 upfront, pro install then an additional $199 36 months at $24.99; none at $29.99 2026-09-18
Abode $8.49/mo Standard ($79.99/yr, about $6.67/mo), which Abode describes as the self-monitoring plan $26.99/mo Pro, where the alarm is forwarded to the monitoring centre automatically and cellular backup is included ($245.99/yr, about $20.50/mo) No contract 2026-09-15
Frontpoint "starting at $14.99/mo" Video-Only. Frontpoint's page does not state whether this tier includes alarm dispatch, so we do not claim it does $44.99/mo Interactive, or $49.99/mo Ultimate, both described as regular monthly prices 36 months on all three, ETF of 80% of remaining monthly charges 2026-09-17
ADT "Pro Monitoring Plan starting at $59.99/mo", the only monitoring figure ADT publishes, and it appears in promotional fine print 36 months, subject to credit approval 2026-09-18
Arlo $9.99/mo Smart Aware, single camera ($95.88/yr, about $7.99/mo) Not established. Arlo's Secure page sets out four tiers ($9.99, $19.99, $29.99, $49.99/mo) but we could not confirm from it which, if any, includes professional dispatch None stated 2026-09-16
eufy Local-first with no mandatory subscription. An optional monitoring add-on is offered at roughly $9.99/mo, a figure we have not re-verified on a first-party page and therefore do not present as current None stated 2026-09-17
Reolink No mandatory subscription. Local microSD, Home Hub and NVR recording are free. We publish no Reolink cloud price: the company states none before sign-in, and its only price-bearing page contradicts itself n/a 2026-09-16

The gap between the advertised price and the price that sends help

This is the most useful line in the table and the one most comparisons flatten. Look at the three camera-derived providers:

  • Wyze: $2.99 advertised, $19.99 to be dispatched. A 6.7x difference. Wyze's middle tier, Cam Unlimited at $9.99, sounds like the security plan and its own security line reads "Self-monitoring: arm / disarm & daily stats". Arming and disarming is not somebody calling the police.
  • Ring: $4.99 advertised, $19.99 to be dispatched. Ring Protect Multi at $9.99 covers every device at one location and still has no monitoring centre attached.
  • Abode: $8.49 advertised, $26.99 to be dispatched. Abode is unusually straight about this: it calls the $8.49 tier the self-monitoring plan, and on Standard the alarm reaches the monitoring centre only if you forward it yourself.

The pattern holds in the other direction too. SimpliSafe's 33-cent-a-day tier is self-monitoring with camera recordings; the first tier with a monitoring centre behind it is 76 cents. Cove is the exception worth naming: every Cove tier includes 24/7 professional monitoring, so its cheapest plan and its cheapest dispatching plan are the same number.

If you are comparing on price alone, compare the second column. A $9.99 plan and a $19.99 plan that both say "security" can be different products entirely, and in a city that requires verified response even the $19.99 one may not produce a police car without a guard or a camera to confirm the alarm.

The two companies that stopped publishing a monthly price

SimpliSafe and Cove now show daily rates and no monthly figure anywhere on the pages we read. A daily rate is a smaller, friendlier number, and it makes cross-shopping harder in a way that is not accidental.

Our method, stated so you can check it: we multiply the published daily rate by 30.4167, which is 365 divided by 12, the average length of a month. So Cove Basic at $0.77 per day becomes about $23.42 per month, and SimpliSafe Standard at 76 cents becomes about $23.12.

Published daily rate Our monthly conversion (rate x 30.4167) Provider and tier
33c/dayabout $10.04SimpliSafe, self-monitoring with camera recordings
76c/dayabout $23.12SimpliSafe Standard
$0.77/dayabout $23.42Cove Basic
$1.10/dayabout $33.46SimpliSafe Core, and Cove+
$1.43/dayabout $43.50Cove Premium
$1.66 to $2.66/dayabout $50.49 to $80.91SimpliSafe Pro and Pro Plus

Treat these as estimates, not quotes. Neither company publishes them, a company that bills monthly may round differently, and a 30-day billing month would produce a slightly lower figure than a 31-day one. We are showing the arithmetic rather than a number we cannot source.

What the monthly price does not include

A monitoring price is only one of four numbers, and for the pro-install companies it is rarely the biggest one.

  • Equipment. Vivint publishes equipment "starting at $199.99" entirely separately from monitoring, and its own pricing article lists packages at $649.99, $999.98 and $1,549.97 before a single monthly payment. SimpliSafe's packages run from $250.96 to $733.90 at list.
  • Installation. Vivint's $349.99 no-contract HomeProtect option states professional installation is an additional $199. The $199.99 version includes free professional installation but requires the 36-month agreement.
  • The contract, and what leaving it costs. Frontpoint attaches a 36-month contract to all three of its plans and an early termination fee of 80 percent of the monthly charges remaining in the term. On Ultimate at $49.99 with two years left, that is roughly $960 to walk away. ADT's $59.99 figure comes with "With 36 mo. contract. Subject to credit approval."
  • Add-ons that are not optional in practice. Ring publishes 24/7 continuous recording at $3 per month per camera, smoke and CO monitoring at $5, and Pro Intelligence at $5 per camera on top of the plan. Wyze offers Cloud 60 at $2.99 per camera to extend history from 14 to 60 days.

The five-year number is the one that actually separates these companies, and it frequently reverses the monthly ranking. Our five-year cost calculator takes equipment, fees and monitoring and gives you the one-, three- and five-year totals for two setups side by side.

If you want professional installation rather than DIY

Most homes do not need it, and our default recommendation remains DIY equipment with no-contract monitoring. The honest case for pro install is a large house, existing hardwiring, deep smart-home integration, or simply wanting one company to own the whole thing. Two names dominate that end of the market, and they sit at opposite ends of the price table above.

The two full-service names, at the prices they publish today

Disclosure: the Vivint link below is an affiliate link (through the Awin network); if you buy from Vivint's shop after clicking it, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. The ADT link is a plain link. Neither company paid to appear here, neither the order nor the verdicts were set by any affiliate relationship, and the commission changes nothing on this page. Full disclosure. Both figures were read on each company's own pages in September 2026 and are shown with their read dates; confirm current terms before buying.

Vivint

Monitoring from $24.99/mo with $199.99 equipment on a 36-month agreement, or $29.99/mo with no long-term contract, $349.99 upfront and pro install at an additional $199 (read 2026-09-18). Vivint publishes no named package tiers or full price list on its main buying page, so a real total still requires a sales quote36 months at the $24.99 rate; no long-term contract at $29.99

Best for: A professionally installed, deeply integrated smart home (locks, garage, thermostat, cameras) designed, installed and monitored by one company

Avoid if: You would finance the equipment without reading the payoff terms first. Read how cancelling Vivint works before signing, not after

Visit Vivintaffiliate link · we may earn a commission

ADT

"Pro Monitoring Plan starting at $59.99/mo", stated in offer fine print with a 36-month contract and subject to credit approval (read 2026-09-18). It is the highest published monthly monitoring figure on this page, and the only one ADT states anywhere on its own site36-month term in most states (24 in California); ETF up to 75% of remaining charges

Best for: Hardwired equipment, the longest-established monitoring network, or a home that already has ADT wiring in the walls

Avoid if: You may move or want out mid-term. Read the ADT termination-fee math before signing

Visit ADTofficial site · not an affiliate link

What we could not confirm

Stated plainly, because the gaps matter as much as the figures.

  • Whether Frontpoint's $14.99 Video-Only plan dispatches. Frontpoint's offer-details page states the price and the 36-month term but does not say whether that tier includes intrusion alarm monitoring. We have not assumed either way. It is worth asking directly, because $14.99 reads like a cheap way in and carries the same three-year commitment as the $49.99 plan.
  • Which Arlo Secure tier, if any, includes professional dispatch. The four prices are published; the dispatch question is not answered on the page we read.
  • eufy's monitoring add-on price. We have a roughly $9.99 figure in our records that we have not re-verified on a first-party eufy page, so we are not presenting it as a current price.
  • Any Reolink cloud price. Reolink publishes none before sign-in and its only price-bearing page contradicts itself in several places. We will not invent one.
  • Real monthly figures for SimpliSafe and Cove. Neither publishes one. The monthly numbers here are our conversions and are labelled as such throughout.
  • Promotional pricing. Every figure above is a regular published price. We deliberately exclude sale layers, which on this sector's sites are near-permanent, because a promotional price is not what you will pay in month 13.

Get the monthly price and permit digest

Once a month we send a short digest of what changed: provider and hardware prices we re-verified and any that moved, cities added to our alarm-permit index, and corrections we made to our own guides. One email a month, nothing in between, no promotions. We never sell or share your address, and every email has an unsubscribe link.

Next step: run your two shortlisted setups through the five-year cost calculator, because the monthly ranking above often reverses once equipment and contract length are included. Then check whether you need a monitoring centre at all in professional versus self-monitoring, whether your city would even dispatch on an unverified alarm, and what the full cost and contract picture looks like. If the monthly fee is the part you object to, home security with no monthly fee and no-contract security systems are the two pages that follow. If you already have equipment from a previous provider, alarm system takeover may get you a lower monthly figure than anything on this page.

About this page

Every price above was read in a browser on the provider's own page, on the date shown in the table, and each source is linked below with that access date. Where a provider publishes a figure we repeat it; where it does not, we say so rather than sourcing a number from a security company's blog or another affiliate site. Monthly figures for SimpliSafe and Cove are our own conversions from published daily rates, marked as such wherever they appear. We do not conduct hands-on testing and have not held a monitoring contract with any of these companies. Prices in this sector move without announcement, so treat the read date as part of the claim. This page is general consumer information and is not financial or legal advice. See our methodology and editorial policy, and substantive changes are listed on our corrections page.

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