Gabe Turner: Hey, folks. This is Gabe at Security Baron and I’ve got a cage match for you today with a comparison of ADT, Frontpoint, Protect America, and Vivint home security systems. [music] Gabe: In today’s comparison of ADT, Frontpoint, Protect America, and Vivint home security systems, we’re going to go over the key similarities, key differences, what you get in their respective packages, the installation processes to professional monitoring options, the customer support, and finally delve into their mobile applications so that you have all the information you need to make the right decision. If you’d like to see a list of our favorite home security systems, google “Security Baron best home security systems.” If you have a question about today’s comparison, leave us a comment and I’ll get back to you.
Let’s kick off today’s comparison of ADT, Frontpoint, Protect America, and Vivint by going over their key similarities. Now, with each of these systems, you’re going to have to sign a long-term contract. Unfortunately, there are no flexible month-to-month contracting with any of these companies. The second thing you’ll note is that they basically all come at the same core components for our home security system. That means a hub, motion sensors, entry sensors, and an indoor video camera to make sure you capture anything going on inside of your home.
Let’s check out the differences now between ADT, Frontpoint, Protect America, and Vivint. The first big one is installation. ADT and Frontpoint are pretty straightforward do-it-yourself installation processes. Protect America is do-it-yourself but on the phone with a customer service representative while Vivint requires you to have a professional come in and install the entire home security system. They also differ when it comes to professional monitoring.
ADT and Frontpoint require professional monitoring.
Protect America requires you to pay for cellular backup but gives you professional monitoring for free. Vivint actually allows for you to self-monitor your system. Hold on, hold on. A quick break.
I hope you’re enjoying today’s comparison of ADT, Frontpoint, Protect America, and Vivint. If you want to be kept up to date on the newest in smart home security, password managers, VPNs, please subscribe to our channel. We’re dropping new content weekly. Let’s get back to the video. Now that we’ve gone over the key similarities and key differences, let’s check out the systems themselves.
With ADT, I’ve got the video package. With Vivint, I got the basic security system and I ordered customized systems from Frontpoint and Protect America.
One should note that with each of these systems, I got at the very least motion sensors, entry sensors, indoor video cameras, and security hubs. If you want to see a breakdown of all the components that we’ll find with each of these systems, check out our full written comparison in the link below. Let’s talk about installation.
ADT, Frontpoint, and Protect America have do-it-yourself installation. Vivint requires you to pay about $129 and they’ll have a professional come and install it. Honestly, of the DIY experiences, they’re all pretty straight forward as they had guided setups right there on their mobile applications. One thing that did stand out to me is Protect America does have the do-it-yourself setup but they also require you to call someone on the phone to set it up which is something I actually liked because during that phone call, we went through setting up each piece and actually ensuring that it worked.
It’s the best of both worlds with professional and do-it-yourself installation.
If I have to pick a top system for installation, I got to say one thing. Different strokes for different folks. It doesn’t seem fair to compare pretty similar DIY installation experiences alongside a professional installation experience like that of Vivint. I’m going to call it a tie for system installation. Let’s look at professional monitoring with ADT, Frontpoint, Protect America, and Vivint.
Professional monitoring is important is that team of professionals protecting your home 24/7, 365 to alert the proper authorities if something happens. If you’re someone who doesn’t want professional monitoring, you could look at a company like Vivint which actually allows you to self-monitor. The remaining three companies, ADT, Frontpoint, and Protect America — all require professional monitoring. One thing to note is Protect America includes their professional monitoring for free whereas ADT, Frontpoint and Vivint are going to cost anywhere between 30 and 60 dollars a month for their professional monitoring services.
Aside from professional monitoring, once you really look into cellular backup, this will make sure that you’re still protected in case of a power outage or the Internet going out or anything like that.
This is a bit of an opposite case whereas ADT, Vivint, and Frontpoint actually throw in the side of the backup with their systems. Protect America requires you to pay for that separately. It’s going to be between 20 and 60 dollars a month for cellular backup with Protect America. Let’s talk contracts. These are not the most flexible companies around.
For example, ADT and Protect America only offer three-year contracts. Vivint offers a 3.5 or 5-year contract. At least Frontpoint gives you a little bit less time with a one-year and three-year contract option. I hope you’re not afraid of a little commitment.
What if you move? With ADT, Frontpoint, and Protect America is do it yourself so you can pick up your equipment and move to the next location without any extra cost.
Make sure you let the company know that you’ve moved. With Vivint, you’ve got to pay that whole $129 installation fee again in your new home. When it comes to picking a top system for professional monitoring, I’ll be honest.
None of these really jumped out at me that hard but I will note that if you don’t want to pay for cellular backup, you can get professional monitoring for free going with the Protect America home security system. When it comes to top system for professional monitoring, I’m going with Protect America. Let’s check out customer support for ADT, Frontpoint, Protect America, and Vivint. They all have pretty robust online help centers along with phone support. ADT even gives you phone support with FaceTime.
One thing we’ll note is that ADT, Frontpoint and Vivint all give you live chat feature so you can talk to someone at the same time as you fiddle with your system. When it comes to online reviews, we looked most into Google. They pretty much all have pretty solid reviews except for ADT which only has 2.5 out of 5 star ratings. Speaking of Google ratings, Frontpoint is the far away winner here with 4.
6 out of 5 stars.
Not only from Google but if we have to have a top pick for customer support, Frontpoint is the obvious pick for us. Not only with our own experience but with the reviews that we’ve read online from Frontpoint consumers that far surpass any of the other reviews we’ve read for any other home security systems in today’s comparison. When it comes to a top system for customer support, we’re going with Frontpoint.
The final element of comparison today between ADT, Frontpoint, Protect America, and Vivint is the mobile application for each one of these systems.
You want your mobile experience to be intuitive, aesthetically pleasing, and consistent because it is here where you’re going to be controlling your connected devices, live streaming your footage, arming and disarming your system and reviewing anything that you may have stored in the cloud. This is where everything really lies in your home security system. Experience beyond the actual components themselves. With ADT, Frontpoint, and Vivint, you should be pretty well off because they all score an average above four stars in the Google Play and Apple App Store which is honestly quite impressive.
The one that is struggling is Protect America as a 3.
1 out of 5 stars in the Google Play Store and only a 2.4 out of 5 star in the Apple App Store. 3.1 is may be possible but 2.4 is downright mediocre, almost bad.
Here there is also a clear winner. You have 4.6 in the Google Play Store and 4.5 in the Apple App Store for Vivint. The Vivint app is a pleasure to use.
I still use it every day to self-monitor my Vivint home security system. With it, you have the ability to lock and unlock doors, see who is at your door with the doorbell video camera right there and the app, of course, check out your livestream of what’s happening inside of your home, arm and disarm your system, and you can even set up various lights within the app. On top of it having all that functionality, it is really intuitive and smooth and super consistent. I know day after day, my Vivint app is going to be bug-free and ready to let me make sure that my home is secure. When it comes to a top system for mobile applications, very easy for me to say Vivint.
Let’s do a recap of all the elements that we compared today between ADT, Frontpoint, Protect America, and Vivint. Installation, here we have a tie because it ultimately comes down to a personal preference between DIY or professional installation. Professional monitoring, here we gave the win to Protect America as their professional monitoring can ultimately be free. Customer support, Frontpoint is the winner here with this 4.6 out of 5 star rating on Google and glowing customer reviews.
Mobile application, Vivint is the clear winner here with its 4.6 and 4.5 scores in the Google Play and Apple App stores, respectively. If you’ve been paying attention today, you’ll note that there hasn’t really been a clear winner in today’s comparison of ADT, Frontpoint, Protect America, and Vivint. It’s going to really boil down to a personal preference.
Maybe I can help out and break it down a little bit further for you in super simple terms. You’re going to want to go with ADT if you want the tried and true biggest most popular home security provider in America today.
Along with that they even give you the option to FaceTime with a customer service representative. Frontpoint has the outright best customer support in the game. All of them with a one-year contract option.
Protect America has the most affordable equipment and will even give you someone to talk to on the phone as you go through your do-it-yourself installation process. Finally, Vivint has someone come to your home and very professionally install the system and will provide you with the best mobile app experience that there is out there for home security systems. Overall, four systems, four very different experiences but four solid choices for home security. [background music] Gabe: That concludes today’s comparison of ADT, Frontpoint, Protect America, and Vivint home security systems.
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As always, this is Gabe at Security Baron. Be secure..
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