Five-year home security cost calculator
This tool does math on numbers you enter. It gives no personalized financial advice and stores nothing. As of July 2026 we have no active affiliate partnerships and no company paid for inclusion. Read our full disclosure.
The advertised monthly price isn't what decides whether a system is expensive - the total over five years is. Once you count equipment, fees, and monitoring, two setups can land more than $2,000 apart. Put in your own numbers, or load an example, and compare like with like.
Home security marketing leads with a low monthly figure and lets the equipment, activation fees, add-on plans, and contract length hide in the fine print. This calculator adds them all up over one, three, and five years so you can compare two setups side by side, a DIY no-contract system against a traditional professionally installed contract, or any two options you are weighing.
Nothing is submitted or saved. Enter what a provider actually quoted you (or use our examples as a starting point), and read the result as an estimate to verify against current pricing, not a guaranteed total.
Compare two setups
Enter what each option really costs. The totals update as you type - nothing is saved or sent.
Presets fill each provider's verified monthly monitoring price (July 2026) and set the name. The two SimpliSafe presets are different, and you should know how: SimpliSafe publishes no monthly price at all, only daily rates (76¢/day Standard, $1.10/day Core, read 2026-08-26), so those two presets carry our own conversion at 365 days ÷ 12, which is $23.12 and $33.46. They deliberately leave equipment and install blank because those vary by kit and promotion, so add what you are actually quoted. This is an editable illustration, not a live quote. We have no active affiliate partnerships; no provider paid to be listed. Always confirm current pricing with the provider.
| Setup | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | Effective $/mo over 5 yrs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enter numbers above to see the totals. | ||||
How this is calculated: each total is upfront equipment + one-time fees + (monthly monitoring + monthly add-ons) × 12 × the number of years. It does not add financing interest unless you build it into the monthly figure, and it does not subtract promotional discounts or possible early-cancellation fees. For contracts, the honest question to enter is what you actually pay every month for the full term, including financed equipment.
Example figures, and where they come from
The example button loads illustrative July 2026 figures drawn from our own research, not a specific quote: a DIY no-contract setup around $400 in equipment with about $20 a month monitoring and no add-ons, against a traditional professionally installed setup with little upfront but roughly $50 a month plus a $10 camera plan over a 5-year commitment. These are starting points to show the shape of the gap.
The provider presets in each column go a step further: they drop in a specific provider's verified monthly monitoring price (for example Ring Pro at $19.99, re-verified against ring.com/plans on September 3, 2026; Frontpoint Interactive at $44.99, which Frontpoint's offer-details page states as "regularly priced at $44.99 per month, plus tax", re-verified September 4, 2026; and ADT pro-install monitoring at $59.99, re-verified against adt.com on September 4, 2026) and set the name. The Cove and SimpliSafe presets are the exception and it matters: neither company publishes a monthly price on its own plan page, only daily rates, so SimpliSafe Standard is entered as $23.12 and Core as $33.46 from 76¢ and $1.10 a day (read 2026-08-26), and Cove+ is entered as $33.46 from $1.10 a day (read 2026-08-28), all converted at 365 days ÷ 12. Those numbers are our arithmetic, not published prices. The presets deliberately leave equipment and install blank because those swing with the kit you choose and near-constant promotions. Load a preset, add the equipment and any install fee you were actually quoted, and edit anything. A preset is a dated illustration, never a live quote, and no provider paid to be included. Always verify current pricing with the provider, this category discounts constantly. The ranges behind these figures are explained in our costs, contracts, and cancellation guide.
Not sure which two setups to compare? Answer a few questions in our find the right setup selector and it will point you at a category, then come back here to price it. Size the kit itself with our door and window sensor planner so the equipment number is realistic.
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Related
- Security system costs, contracts, and cancellation: the fine print
- No money down home security: what the free equipment actually costs
- Best no-contract home security systems (research-based)
- Find the right security setup: a short selector
- Alarm permits and false-alarm fines by city
Sources
- Our costs, contracts, and cancellation guide (pricing ranges and sources, updated July 2026)
- Our no-contract comparison (per-provider monitoring and equipment figures, accessed July 2026)
- Frontpoint - Offer Details, the Frontpoint preset figure: Interactive "regularly priced at $44.99 per month, plus tax", Ultimate at $49.99, Video-Only from $14.99, each "governed by a 36-month contract", with early termination "80% of the monthly charges for the remainder of the contract term" (accessed 2026-09-04). Frontpoint's own monitoring page now displays daily rates only, so this is the surface that states the monthly figures.
- Ring - Plans, the Ring Pro preset figure of $19.99/mo, which adds 24/7 professional monitoring and alarm cellular backup (accessed 2026-09-03)
- ADT - Residential terms and conditions, the ADT preset figure: "Requires 36-month monitoring contract starting at $59.99/mo." (re-confirmed present 2026-09-04)