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 Jul 08, 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
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Vivint alternatives for 2026: SimpliSafe excels with a 9.9 rating; ADT offers reliability with 9.8; Cove is budget-friendly at 8.7. Choose based on needs.
Vivint is one of our top-rated home security systems, and it earns that ranking. But it’s not the right fit for everyone. If the premium feature set feels like more than you need, the pricing gives you pause, or you’d rather skip a long-term contract, there are solid alternatives worth a serious look.
Out of the dozens of systems we’ve tested, ADT, SimpliSafe, and Cove consistently stood out as the strongest Vivint alternatives. Below, we compare each one directly against our Vivint experience so you have a clear basis for deciding.
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 Starting at $404 Monitoring Options Professional Monthly Monitoring Costs Starting at $24.99 Contract Lengths 36 months and up Installation Options Professional Smart Platform Integration Alexa and Google Home ADT as a Vivint Alternative
Vivint and ADT represent different priorities. Vivint leans into cutting-edge equipment and smart home integration, while ADT’s strength is reliability built over more than 150 years in business. That track record is hard to match. ADT backs it up with serious monitoring infrastructure as well, operating six redundant monitoring centers for reliability compared to Vivint’s two.
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 trailed 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, ADT 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 a friend stopped by, we got a notification identifying her by the name we set in the app rather than a generic “person detected” alert. ADT has also simplified Nest Cam pricing to match what you’d pay buying directly through Google. Here’s a quick 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 brought their monitoring costs closer in line over time. At the premium tier, our ADT monitoring plan with cameras came to $49.99 per month, which also bundles Google Home Premium for the Nest cameras included 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 — putting both systems in similar territory at the higher end.
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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 free DIY monitoring is a priority, SimpliSafe is worth a close look. The equipment holds up well, professional installation is available if you want it, and self-installation is straightforward and free. What sets SimpliSafe apart from Vivint is the degree of control it hands to the user. Rather than steering you toward a particular setup, it gives you the flexibility to run your system on your own terms.
Equipment
Our SimpliSafe testing left us genuinely impressed, though the equipment doesn’t quite match Vivint’s premium feel. The analog keypad is the most obvious example — it’s reliable, but it lacks the touchscreen functionality we appreciated on Vivint, including the ability to pull up outdoor camera livestreams directly from the panel.
SimpliSafe also doesn’t offer a battery-powered video doorbell, which meant replacing our existing doorbell during installation. Worth noting that Vivint doesn’t offer one either. Once installed, 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 tiers, but we recommend skipping the lowest tier altogether. SimpliSafe includes Intruder Intervention in its mid-tier Core plan ($32.99 per month) and higher tiers, along with 30 days of cloud storage as a standard feature. Neither is included in the lowest tier. Intruder Intervention lets live monitoring agents see and speak through your indoor cameras during an active alarm, so they can assess the situation in real time and even address an intruder directly, which can be enough to make them flee before authorities arrive.
Pro and Pro Plus ($49.99 and $79.99) take this a step further with Active Guard. When outdoor cameras detect lurkers or intruders approaching the house — using AI to distinguish them from normal foot traffic — live monitors can intervene through two-way talk before someone even reaches the door.
Standard Core Pro and Pro Plus 24/7 professional monitoring Yes Yes Yes Intruder Intervention No Yes Yes Active Guard No No Yes Video-verified alarms No Yes Yes Cloud storage No 30 days; 10 cameras 30 days; 10 cameras Cellular backup Yes Yes Yes Cost $22.99 $32.99 $49.99 to $79.99 Another great thing about SimpliSafe is that you don’t need to get a monitoring plan if you don’t want to. Self-monitoring limits your system features; it turns off cloud video storage, for example. But if budget is a priority and you have the capability to self-monitor, this is a great option.
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3. Cove
See Pricing Links to Covesmart.com
Product Specs
Equipment Costs Systems start at $109.95 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
When 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.
Monitoring Plans
Cove offers three professional monitoring tiers, priced between $22.99 and $42.99 per month. We highly recommend signing up for at least the Cove Plus plan to unlock security camera cloud storage, though for best results, the Cove Premium plan offers 30-day video history (versus seven days with the Cove Plus plan). Here’s the full breakdown.
Cove Basic Cove Plus Cove Premium 24/7 professional monitoring Yes Yes Yes Text-based alerts Yes Yes Yes App access Yes Yes Yes Equipment warranty 1 year 1 year Lifetime Camera support No 7 days video history 30 days video history Alexa and Google Assistant voice control No Yes Yes Price $22.99 per month $32.99 per month $42.99 per month 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. Starter packages begin around $199, but most users will want a more complete setup to unlock Vivint’s home automation capabilities — full systems can easily run $1,000 or more. Keep in mind that even without a financing contract, you’ll still need a professional monitoring plan for most features to function.
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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.
