Ring vs Nest Comparison

Amazon and Google Nest are stark competitors in the smart home space, particularly in the voice assistant category. Amazon has Alexa; Google Nest has Google Assistant. But did you know that the two companies are also battling it out in the home security space?

Google Nest offers security cameras and video doorbells, and they used to offer a home security system called Nest Secure. Now, they partner with ADT to offer their security cameras and video doorbells as part of ADT’s security system. Amazon on the other hand, purchased Ring a few years back, and it has since been its flagship home security brand. Through Ring, Amazon offers more than a dozen video doorbells and security cameras, as well as the two security systems, Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro.

Today, we’re putting the two brands head-to-head in the home security system department based on our personal experience living with both systems in our house: Ring Alarm vs. Google Nest. We declared Ring the winner since Google Nest no longer offers a full security system. Let’s go over the details so you can figure out if Ring Alarm or Google Nest is right for you.

Ring vs Nest Comparison Overview

Before we get into all the details, here’s a quick overview of which company won each category:

Key Differences: Ring vs Nest

Although Ring and Nest offer high-tech cameras, they have some core differences including:

• Ring offers professional monitoring starting at $20 per month while Nest does not offer any monitoring plans
• Nest offers more advanced features and technology than Ring
• Ring doesn’t require a contract, while Nest requires a contract on their low-price security package
• Nest has a more extensive lineup of products than Ring but Ring offers more security products
• Nest offers better customer service than Ring

Key Similarities: Ring vs Nest

There’s a lot more similarities between Ring and Nest than that they both offer security cameras and video doorbells. Here are a few key similarities between Ring and Nest:

• Both are 100% wireless home security systems with DIY installation
• Both alarm systems have a self-monitoring option (no monthly fee)
• No contracts are required for either system
• Ring and Nest boast fast Wi-Fi connections with cellular and battery backup
• They are each owned by multi-billion dollar companies (Amazon vs Google)
• Both Ring and Nest offer a month-to-month, cancel anytime plan

The key takeaways, differences, and similarities between Ring and Nest are just a sneak peek of what this comparison covers. There’s much more to the story! So read on to learn how these two home security systems measure up in our Ring vs Nest comparison.

Video Comparison

Since Ring and Nest have so many components to choose from, see them for yourself in our video review. We’ll show you the camera’s actual footage in day and night, plus so much more.

Home Security Categories We Compare:

• Age and Influence
• Features and Technology
• Monitoring Options
• Emergency Connections / Response Times
• Equipment Included
• Equipment Quality
• Home Automation
• Ease of Installation
• Customer Service
• Contracts
• Cost and Value

Age and Influence

Ring — The Amazon-owned company is making waves and storming the industry. It all started in 2013, when founder Jamie Siminoff appeared on the TV show Shark Tank with his futuristic video doorbell.2 Even though he didn’t get a deal on the show, Siminoff acquired tremendous funding and brought his fledgling home security company into the big leagues with the Ring Doorbell. Sure enough, Amazon took notice and purchased Ring in 2018 for over $1 billion. With millions of customers and a trusted image, there’s no denying Ring’s influence in today’s home security industry. And let’s not forget Shaq is Ring’s mouthpiece — a clever marketing move indeed.

Nest — Nest has a similar upbringing as Ring. In 2011, Nest launched its first product — the Nest Learning Thermostat. The product thrived and the Nest team, led by ex-Apple engineers, kept innovating new smart home technology. Google stepped in a few years later to purchase Nest, and the very next year, the company was offering a full suite of home security products and services. After finding initial success with Nest Secure as their home security offering, they partnered with ADT for complete security systems and ended support for Nest Secure. Now, Google Nest can focus their home security efforts on their camera and doorbell offerings.

Category Winner: Tie!

Without a doubt, Ring and Nest are two powerhouse home security companies. But it’s really a story of Amazon vs Google. Both companies have the deepest pockets imaginable, which translates to the latest in home security innovation to keep your home and family safe.

Features and Technology

Now we’ll let our inner security nerd shine through and go over the features and technology we put to use while testing both systems.

Ring — The Ring Doorbell is what propelled the company to success. But today, Ring offers complete home security and automation with the Ring Alarm and Ring Cameras. We didn’t find the features and technology earth-shattering. But Ring continues to release products that offer easy DIY installation and impress most users. And there are cool features like 3D radar detection that gives us birdseye view of our entryway when using the Ring Doorbell Pro. Have a look at Ring’s features and tech below.

>> Learn More: See our Ring Alarm Review

Nest —Nest home security rivals Ring regarding features and technology. In fact, we give the edge to Nest for its lineup of smart devices. On top of cutting edge security cameras with unique features like facial recognition, they also offer smart home automation equipment. That means we could set our Nest Hub to start playing our favorite playlist when our doorbell camera saw us walking through the front door. With capabilities like that, we get why Nest calls itself ‘The Helpful Home.’ The smart security and automation features definitely impressed us.

Google Nest offers the following features and tech:

• Nest Learning Thermostat
• Nest Thermostat
• Nest Doorbell
• Nest Cam (outdoor or indoor, battery)
• Nest Cam (indoor, wired)
• Nest Cam with floodlight
• Google Nest Mini
• Google Nest Hub
• Google Nest Hub Max
• And more

Category Winner: Nest 

Nest offers a wider range of products compared to Ring. While the now defunct Nest Secure security system is comparable to Ring Alarm, Nest offers the latest in innovation across its entire product lineup. And we’re talking 10+ products with multiple styles. Integrating that with ADT’s premium alarm system gives the best of both worlds thanks to their recent partnership.

Monitoring Options

Ring — Ring customers can self-monitor their systems and save the monthly fee. But that almost defeats the purpose of having the Ring Alarm. After all, Ring has become known for the cheapest 24/7 monitoring on the block. We only paid $20 per month (or $200 per year) to get our system monitored 24/7 by professionals. That was by adding their $10 per month professional monitoring to the $9.99 Standard Protection plan which gave us cloud storage for unlimited cameras too. This is also the least expensive way to get professional monitoring for a Ring system.

Here’s an overview of Ring’s plans and option for added professional monitoring:

The bottom line is that Ring offers reliable monitoring options that won’t break the bank.

Nest —Since Nest Secure is no longer on the market, you can monitor their cameras and the Nest Doorbell yourself through the Nest app. There’s still the option of Nest Aware, which we paid for while testing our Google Nest Cams. It starts at $8 per month for cloud recording and access to Google’s advanced features like facial recognition and smart alerts. Google Nest’s partnership with ADT also lets you subscribe to ADT professional monitoring if you got your Nest Cams with an ADT system. That requires a $44.99 monthly fee for camera support though.

Category Winner: Ring

Considering Nest no longer offers their own monitoring packages and requires an ADT system to get access to monitoring, Ring’s $20 per month monitoring easily wins. Even if you bought your system through ADT, we still like Ring’s price point better. That said, ADT offers our favorite monitoring service available if you have the budget. Or, if you’re planning on self-monitoring, a Nest Aware subscription to expand your system’s capabilities is still available. There are also free self-monitoring options with Ring and Nest.

Emergency Connections / Response Times

Ring — Ring Alarm leverages the latest technology to power your system and communicates with the monitoring center. Ring has a Wi-Fi hookup with a cellular backup, although it didn’t make our cut for the best cellular home security systems. If you have the Ring Protect Plus plan and a burglar or thief targets your home, a Ring dispatcher will call you in about 30 seconds or less.

Nest — Much like Ring, Nest equipment is wireless and uses a Wi-Fi connection with cellular backup. But, Nest no longer offers monitoring unless you buy your equipment through ADT. That means they don’t have a response time to measure.

Category Winner: Ring

Both Ring and Nest offer WiFi connections with cellular backup. This is standard for wireless, DIY home security systems. Only Ring offers monitoring, so they win in the response time part of this section. That’s why Ring won this category.

Equipment Included

We appreciate well-thought out bundles from home security systems. After all, most people aren’t home security experts like us so building out a custom system would require a lot of research. Most of us don’t have time for that which is where bundles come into play.

Ring — The Ring Alarm comes in four variations. We liked the flexibility of Ring Alarm’s equipment bundles. They mostly add entry sensors as they expand in size and then we could add any equipment we wanted. Here’s an overview of the four Ring Alarm equipment bundles:

• Ring Alarm 5-piece kit includes: Base station, control panel, 1 entryway sensor, 1 motion detector, and range extender. This kit costs $199.
• Ring Alarm 8-piece kit includes: Everything in the 5-piece kit, but with 4 entry sensors. This kit costs $249.
• Ring Alarm 10-piece kit includes: Everything in the 5-piece kit, but with 5 entry sensors and 2 motion detectors. This kit costs $279.
• Ring Alarm 14-piece kit includes: Everything in the smaller kits, but with a total of 8 entryway sensors and 2 motion detectors. This kit costs $329.

We recommend adding one or more Ring Cameras and the Ring Doorbell to the Ring Alarm kit that best fits your home. Any kit can also be expanded with a panic button, environmental protection devices (smoke, CO, flood and freeze), solar panels, battery packs, and more. We liked the solar panel for powering our Ring Spotlight Cam. Of course, you can also add more entry sensors, motion detectors, range extenders, and control panels.

Nest — Even though Nest Secure has been discontinued, they used to offer packages like those from Ring, so we can still compare Ring’s prices to Nest Secure’s old prices. This gave us a feel for the overall value we got from each provider. The Nest Secure standard package had all the equipment needed to start. That is, a control panel, a couple of entry sensors, the Nest Guard hub station + motion detector, and two Nest Tag keychain remotes. The cost was $399 upfront, which is more expensive than Ring’s premium 14-piece package. Finally, Nest’s premium bundle packages cost anywhere between $500 and $1,150. Not cheap, but worth it for larger homes. Just like Ring, we could upgrade the Nest Secure packages with any Google Nest product, including:

• Nest Protect environmental monitoring devices
• The Nest Learning Thermostat
• Nest Doorbell
• Nest Aware security cams
• Nest IQ cams
• Smart locks
• And more

Category Winner: Ring

Once again, Ring offers similar equipment, but at a fraction of the price. The straightforward menu options are attractive to most buyers. Go with Ring’s 5-piece, 10-piece, or 14-piece kit (it’s almost as easy as ordering a bucket of chicken) then add a camera or two and a video doorbell. Ring and Nest include everything needed to start, but Ring stacks the value like never before.

Equipment Quality

While Ring offers better prices than Nest, we wanted to find out if that lower price affected its equipment quality.

Ring — The Ring Alarm, Ring Cameras, and Ring Doorbell are manufactured with quality materials. The outdoor equipment is weather-resistant, and the indoor devices boast sleek designs with modern color schemes. Amazon doesn’t cut corners. With that said, we’ve tested higher quality equipment before, for example, from Google Nest. But remember, we paid less than $200 for the starter kit, so we didn’t expect the best equipment quality.

Nest — Google doesn’t cut corners either. In fact, we liked the quality of Nest’s equipment more than Ring. The sleek design of the video doorbells are where Nest shines compared to Ring’s bulky and boxy look. Overall, Nest delivers when it comes to equipment Quality.

Category Winner: Nest

This was a close one, but Nest takes the slight edge. Nest equipment looks better and feels as though it’s constructed of higher-grade materials. But these differences may be inconsequential to the average buyer. Whether you go with Ring or Nest, the equipment beats the industry average.

Home Automation

Ring — Ring truly shines when it comes to smart home automation. We were able to see who was at our front door with the Ring Doorbell, fully automate our lights with smart lighting, remotely control our door locks, garage door, and so much more with Ring. The multi-purpose Ring Cameras — the Stick Up Cam, Spotlight Cam, and Floodlight Cam — let us program their recordings to coincide with our sensors triggering for added protection. And our entire smart home ecosystem could be accessed and controlled with Ring’s mobile app. Ring also works with third-party platforms like Z-Wave, Zigbee, IFTTT, and more. And customers enjoy voice commands by linking Alexa or Google Home.

Nest —Much like Ring, Nest dominates in the smart home world. Google makes loads of smart devices that carry the Nest name, and the system is compatible with several other platforms. We got even more options for native integrations than with Ring thanks to that huge selection of smart home products from Nest. Nest’s smart devices include the Nest Doorbell, Nest X Yale smart locks, The Learning Thermostat, and so much more. Google Nest works on the Google Smart Home platform (no surprise there), so we could fully utilize our smart home ecosystem since it integrates with third-party products too. It’s not cheap, but it can transform your house into one highly intelligent home.

Category Winner: Nest

Both brands offer the latest and greatest in smart home automation, but if you’re planning to go big on a smart assistant-centric home automation system, Google Nest wins. They offer more smart home equipment with unique capabilities like facial recognition you can use to automate your home. That said, Ring still offers great smart home capabilities leveraging Alexa’s power as an Amazon brand. You can’t go wrong with either when it comes to home automation, but we slightly preferred Nest.

Ease of Installation

Ring — All of Ring’s products are wireless, with simple DIY installation. Gone are the days of sitting around waiting on an expert technician. We could install our entire Ring system without drilling into any walls or doing a lick of electrical work. The sensors include velcro mount strips, and the system is all about plug-and-play fun. Anytime we hit a roadblock, Ring’s support team got us back on track immediately.

Nest — Similar to Ring, Nest products offer super-simple do-it-yourself installation. And just like Ring, we were up-and-running in about 30 minutes. We liked the option for professional installation that Ring gave us in case we needed help. To get professional installation with Google Nest products, you’d need to buy them through ADT.

Category Winner: Tie

We could give the slight edge to Ring for the pro-install option, but most users go the DIY route anyway. And who could blame them? Ring and Nest make some of the easiest to install home security equipment.

Customer Service

Ring — Ring gets mixed reviews when it comes to customer service. But the company does have a helpful support center complete with FAQs, setup guides, and more. Ring customers can also reach a representative by email, phone, or live chat. While Ring’s customer service might not be the best, it’s certainly not the worst. And for what it’s worth, every time we contacted Ring’s customer service, the conversation ended with a resolution.

Nest — Nest offers several ways to get help. They have video tutorials, articles, and a full-on Nest community of current users and product experts. You can even message Nest on Twitter or by email and they’ll get back to you. Offline, you can pick up the phone and find help via the Nest service center. They have a live chat that we used a few times too. Nest does customer service right.

Category Winner: Nest

Nest edges out Ring in this category. By no means does Nest offer the best service in the business (that would be Frontpoint), but it’s good enough to keep most users happy. The difference between Ring and Nest customer service is slight.

>> Read About: Frontpoint Home Security 2024 Review

Contracts

Signing a contract is never fun. It ends up taking us hours to read through the legalese. That’s why we’re glad that both Ring and Nest offer no contract options, but that doesn’t mean they’re equal.

Ring — It’s relatively new that security companies are doing away with contracts. And Ring is at the forefront of this development. No contracts. Cancel anytime. That’s the promise of Ring and a big reason why the company is experiencing explosive growth. Even when we signed up for a year of professional monitoring, we still didn’t need to sign a contract and they provided a pro-rated refund if we decided to cancel.

Nest — Nest also offers its Nest Aware subscription without any contracts. We could cancel any time. But, they didn’t offer pro-rated refunds on the annual plan, so we ended up subscribing on a month-to-month basis to limit our risk.

Category Winner: Ring

Unlike Nest, Ring never requires long-term contracts and offers pro-rated refunds if you decide to sign up for their annual plans. This is another point for team Amazon. However, if you’re looking to outfit your home with DIY home security and get hooked up with the best in smart home automation, then Nest is a safe bet, contract or no contract.

Cost and Value

We can’t deny that we love high-quality home security equipment. But, we don’t have an unlimited budget, so we prefer a system that provides good value over the best equipment possible.

Ring — Ring delivers big in the ‘bang-for-your-buck’ department. Customers can protect their homes and families for just $199, $249, or $329 up-front. Go the self-monitored route to avoid the monthly monitoring fee. Or pay just $20 per month for 24/7 professional monitoring. That’s what we did. It’s hard to refuse some of the least expensive monitoring in the industry. Ring also offers loads of upgrades and add-ons which let us build our system out over time avoiding a sudden shock to our bank account. We seamlessly connected new Ring Cameras, the Ring Doorbell, and smart lights to our existing Ring Alarm system. Needless to say, Ring is a great value.

Nest — Nest Secure, when it was available, costs $399 out of the gates. It came with door and window sensors, motion detectors, a base station, and a control panel. That’s everything we needed for basic home protection. Nowadays, we can only buy Google Nest cameras and video doorbells for home security unless we go through ADT. An ADT system starts at $349 and that’s not including any video capabilities. For a Google Nest Video Doorbell too, those packages start at $529. Just like with Ring though, we could start with the basic ADT package and then add Google Nest devices at a later date once we saved up some more money.

Category Winner: Ring

Ring and Nest are neck-and-neck in Cost and Value, but Ring takes the crown for their rock-bottom monthly monitoring prices. You just can’t beat $20 per month for around-the-clock home protection. Ring’s equipment is also cheaper than Nest’s and ADT’s. And the all-around quality, reliability, and affordability puts Ring ahead of Nest (but not by much!).

Who Wins, Nest or Ring?

By now, you should have a good understanding of what each home security company brings to the table. Our side-by-side comparison of Ring vs Nest is the result of countless hours of research, reviewing, and testing these systems. And, like always, there can only be one winner. And that winner is Ring.

Overall Winner – Ring

The Bottom Line

Ring Alarm and Google Nest were once two of the top DIY security systems in the space, but today, only Ring Alarm offers full security systems. When they both offered full security systems, they were evenly matched, and considering they are both from tech giants, they both offered great smart home capabilities.

That said, Ring really is one of the best security systems, even today, so we have no problems recommending it. Plus, Ring security cameras and Ring video doorbells perform greatly in both their fields.

If you’re looking for a Nest Secure alternative, though, you may want to check out our ADT Self Setup review. Right before announcing time-of-death for the Nest Secure, Google in partnership with ADT launched the ADT Self Setup security system. Much like the Nest Secure, this new DIY security system from ADT seamlessly integrates with Google Nest cameras, so if you’re a Google Nest Cam user, it’s a great option in lieu of Nest Secure. And even better, ADT continues to invest in improving their DIY options.