3 Best Vivint Alternatives in 2026
After testing over 60 security systems, we picked our three favorite Vivint alternatives.
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Last Updated on May 22, 2026
- Advanced security cameras with facial recognition
- Industry’s most reliable professional monitoring with twelve redundant monitoring centers
- Comparable financing options of up to 60 months, although not required
- Active monitoring capabilities provide stronger protection than Vivint’s automated Smart Deter AI feature
- Free DIY installation with affordable professional installation starting at $125
- Constant sales keep equipment costs low
- Fully customizable packages start as low as $99
- All systems include a touchscreen control panel
- 24/7 professional monitoring with camera support costs $32.99 per month with no long-term commitment required
Vivint is one of our top-rated home security systems, and for good reason. But it isn’t the right fit for everyone. If the high-tech feature set feels like more than you need, the pricing gives you pause, or you’d rather avoid a long-term contract, there are strong alternatives worth considering.
Out of the dozens of systems we’ve tested, ADT, SimpliSafe, and Cove consistently stood out as the most compelling Vivint alternatives. We’ll compare each one directly against our Vivint experience so you have a clear basis for comparison.
Comparison of the Best Vivint Alternatives
| System |
ADT
|
SimpliSafe
|
Cove
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
| Ratings | 9.8/10 | 9.8/10 | 8.7/10 |
| Equipment costs | Starting at $269 | Starting at around $250.96 | Starting at $99 |
| Professional monitoring required | Not with Self Setup | No | Yes |
| Monthly costs | Starting at $24.99 per month | Starting at $9.99 per month | Starting at $22.99 per month |
| Contract length | Starting at 36 months or month-to-month with Self Setup | Month-to-month | Month-to-month |
| Read Review | ADT Review | SimpliSafe Review | Cove Review |
Vivint Alternatives
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1. ADT
Product Specs
Equipment Costs Packages starting at $404 Monitoring Options Professional and DIY Monthly Monitoring Costs Starting at $24.99 Contract Lengths Month-to-month or 36 months and up Installation Options Professional and DIY Smart Platform Integration Alexa and Google Home ADT as a Vivint Alternative
Vivint focuses on cutting-edge equipment, while ADT prioritizes reliability. ADT is a brand you can trust, with over 150 years in business—something Vivint can’t match. ADT reinforces that trust through robust monitoring infrastructure: 12 monitoring centers, recently expanded from six. Vivint, by comparison, operates just two monitoring centers.
Pro Tip: The more monitoring centers, the better. If a natural disaster or power outage impacts one region, ADT’s other monitoring centers are sure to keep its customers online and secure.
Equipment
ADT’s equipment has historically lagged behind Vivint’s, but the gap is narrowing. We did miss Vivint’s Smart Deter feature on the Outdoor Camera Pro, which uses LED lights and audible alarms to flag suspicious activity before it escalates. It kept neighborhood kids from toilet-papering our house on Halloween, which counts for something.
That said, our ADT equipment impressed us in areas where Vivint falls short. The facial recognition on the Nest Cams delivered more intelligent alerts than anything we got from Vivint. When our mom stopped by, we received an alert identifying her by name rather than a generic “person at the door” notification.
ADT has also simplified Nest Cam pricing to match what you’d pay buying directly through Google. Here’s an overview.
Product ADT Pricing Google Nest Cam (outdoor or indoor, battery) $179.99 Google Nest Cam (outdoor, wired) $149.99 Google Nest Doorbell (battery) $179.99 Google Nest Doorbell (wired) $179.99 Google Nest Cam (indoor, wired) $99.99 Google Nest Cam with Floodlight $279.99 Monitoring Plans
ADT and Vivint have both brought their monitoring costs closer in line with each other. Vivint now starts at $24.99 per month, and ADT’s entry-level monitoring sits at a similar price point without cameras. Our ADT monitoring plan came to $39.99 per month for the premium camera-inclusive tier, which also bundles Google Home Premium for the Nest cameras that come with ADT systems. A comparable Vivint setup ran us over $45 per month, though Vivint’s top-tier plans now fall in the $40 to $50 range as well.
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2. SimpliSafe
Product Specs
Equipment Costs Packages starting at $250.96 Monitoring Options Professional and DIY Monthly Monitoring Costs Starts at $22.99 Contract Lengths Month-to-month Installation Options DIY or professional Smart Platform Integration Alexa and Google Home SimpliSafe as a Vivint Alternative
If you’re looking for a Vivint alternative because you want the option of free DIY monitoring, SimpliSafe may be the right choice for you. It still features high-quality equipment, and you can either get your system professionally installed or DIY install it for free. SimpliSafe lets you run your home security system exactly how you want. It gives you control instead of acting as the expert who knows what’s best for you, like Vivint.
Equipment
We came away genuinely impressed by our SimpliSafe system, though the equipment doesn’t quite match Vivint’s premium feel. The analog keypad is the most obvious example — it works reliably, but it lacks the touchscreen functionality we appreciated on Vivint, including the ability to pull up outdoor camera livestreams directly on the panel.
SimpliSafe also doesn’t offer a battery-powered video doorbell, which meant replacing our existing doorbell during installation. Worth noting: Vivint doesn’t offer one either. Once we had it set up, the doorbell performed well. Our SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro review covers the full experience.
FYI: It may seem obvious, but wired video doorbells are harder for burglars to steal than wireless options. They also get less interference that can interrupt their Wi-Fi signals. That makes hardwired options more robust and reliable. We can still get annoyed about the longer installation process though.
On the plus side, SimpliSafe’s pricing reflects its more basic equipment. Our Vivint system with three sensors, an outdoor camera, a smart lock, and a smoke and carbon monoxide detector cost nearly $1,200. A comparable system from SimpliSafe costs less than $650. That’s some big savings.
Monitoring Plans
SimpliSafe offers several monitoring plans, but their most popular consist of the Standard and Core plans. Both cost less than Vivint, so we recommend going with the slightly pricier Core plan, as it includes video security features. Here’s an overview of the two monitoring plans.
Standard monitoring Core monitoring 24/7 professional monitoring Yes Yes Intruder Intervention No Yes Video-verified alarms No Yes Cloud storage No Yes Cellular backup Yes Yes Cost $22.99 per month $32.99 per month We recommend the Core plan largely because of Intruder Intervention, a standout feature we found genuinely useful during our evaluation. It allows SimpliSafe’s monitoring agents to temporarily access your security cameras to verify an alarm, and they can use the indoor camera’s two-way audio to warn off intruders or guide you to safety. That combination is what pushed us toward recommending it. The feature requires a SimpliSafe Wireless Indoor Camera at minimum. Upgrading to the Pro or Pro Plus plan extends Intruder Intervention to outdoor cameras as well.
What’s great about SimpliSafe is that you don’t need to get either plan if you don’t want to. You can avoid monthly fees altogether by monitoring your system entirely, or get the $9.99-per-month self-monitoring plan that gives you cloud storage, and more advanced smart-home capabilities.
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3. Cove
See Pricing Links to Covesmart.com
Product Specs
Equipment Costs Systems start at $109.5 Monitoring Options Professional only Monthly Monitoring Costs Starting at $22.99 Contract Lengths Month-to-month Installation Options Professional or DIY Smart Platform Integration Alexa and Google Home
Cove as a Vivint Alternative
When price is a big factor, you can’t go wrong with Cove. It covers all the basics you need to secure your home, plus a few nice additions. Every package is fully customized, ensuring you never end up with equipment you don’t need.
Vivint fully customizes its systems, too, but you need to talk to a Vivint salesperson to get your system. That means you need to tread the water of upsells to avoid anything unnecessary. Cove lets you buy your entire system online so you can take your time picking out your ideal system without any pressure.
Pro Tip: We recommend one entry sensor on every ground-floor door and window, one outdoor camera, one video doorbell, and one indoor camera for most homes. Putting together a list of equipment you need before calling a home security provider for help building out your system can help you avoid pesky upsells.
Equipment
GWhen we tested Cove’s equipment firsthand, the build quality held up better than its price point suggested. It doesn’t reach the hardware standards we observed with SimpliSafe during our side-by-side DIY comparisons, but Cove costs noticeably less — a tradeoff we found reasonable. There’s no wireless indoor camera at the entry level, though the wired indoor camera runs under $60, roughly half of what we’ve paid for comparable units from other brands we’ve reviewed. Cove’s doorbell camera, priced under $100, also outperformed our expectations during live testing.
Door and window sensors are regularly priced at under $15 each, but they’re almost always on sale for under $5. Even at full retail, that’s still less than half the cost of Vivint’s entry sensors, which typically run around $40 or more. While Cove’s equipment isn’t as advanced as Vivint’s, they more than make up for it in value.
Monitoring Plans
Like SimpliSafe, Cove offers two professional monitoring tiers, though one key difference we noted is that self-monitoring isn’t an option. Every Cove system requires a professional monitoring plan. Both tiers come in a few dollars per month cheaper than their SimpliSafe equivalents, which we confirmed when comparing current pricing across both platforms. The higher-cost plan covers systems with security cameras.
Cove Basic Cove Plus 24/7 professional monitoring Yes Yes Text-based alerts Yes Yes App access Yes Yes Equipment warranty 1 year Lifetime Camera support No Yes Alexa and Google Assistant voice control No Yes Price $22.99 per month $32.99 per month Instead of the unique live guard protection you get with SimpliSafe’s monitoring plan, Cove offers some of the fastest response times in the industry thanks to its exclusive partnership with RapidSOS. That cuts three to four minutes off the average six- to 13-minute response time.
Which One Is Right for You?
Vivint is a great home security system. If you want smart-home capabilities and cutting-edge technology, it’s hard to beat. Some people prioritize reliability above all else. For them, we like ADT. It’s one of our favorite security systems overall, and it gets better year after year.
Others want complete control over their security system. In those cases, we recommend SimpliSafe. You don’t get locked into anything, and you can fully self-monitor your security system if you want. If your budget is the main thing holding you back from Vivint, Cove gets the job done. There aren’t nearly as many bells and whistles, but the equipment is about a quarter the price.
FAQs About Vivint Alternatives
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What’s the best Vivint alternative?
The best Vivint alternative depends on why you’re looking for a Vivint alternative. We like ADT for anyone who wants a company with a long-standing history, SimpliSafe if you don’t want to be locked into monitoring, and Cove when Vivint can’t fit into your budget.
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Is Vivint a good security system?
Yes, Vivint is one of our favorite security systems. It features cutting-edge equipment, high-quality monitoring, and white-glove installation.
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How much more expensive is Vivint?
Most of Vivint’s security system is about double the price of the industry norm. In our opinion, Vivint justifies that price increase with its premium-quality products.
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Can I get a Vivint system without a contract?
As long as you’re willing to pay for your equipment upfront, you can get a Vivint system without a contract. Their starter packages begin at $199, but most users will want at least the $599 package to unlock Vivint’s impressive home automation capabilities. Full systems typically cost over $1,000. Just note that even if you avoid the contract, you’ll still need a professional monitoring plan for most features to work.
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How do I cancel my Vivint contract?
Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot you can do to get out of your Vivint contract once you pass the money-back-guarantee timeframe.
