Joshua Unseth Posts

Corporate surveillance is on the rise. Including in the home security industry. Whereas the industry used to be dominated by local ma' and pa' shops who couldn't care less about what you're doing and why, the introduction of megacorps into the industry have changed the landscape entirely. We know that Google and Amazon in particular, but many others as well, are deeply interested in everything you do. They want as much of your social graph as possible so that they can feed you relevant ads or sell your data to brokers who can monetize it in other ways. In fact, most of the companies we interact with on a daily basis are not particularly good at keeping your information out of the hands of people who want to buy it. It makes sense when you realize that sharing your data is essentially a consequence free (to the sellers), cash-making enterprise. But for you, the consequences can be incredibly invasive, frustrating, and even a bit scary.

Enter the rise of OPSEC. OPSEC is shorthand for Operational Security. For the OPSEC-curious, you'll know that the field is deep and wide, and, for the most part, it adds large inconveniences to the lives of those who practice it. For the uninitiated, let me define it. OPSEC is, more or less, the practice of being as private as possible. The goal of OPSEC is to be less leaky data-wise. This can encompass a whole set of complicated digital practices from installing privacy operating systems on your phones to using browsers you've never heard of, to configuring your computer's display settings, to literally running your own search engine. And, depending on the depth of your practice, it can leak into the real world. It is absurdly complicated to live a normal life that looks off-the-grid to corporations but on-the-grid to your friends.

As a Bitcoin enthusiast myself, I have taken a strong interest in OPSEC. And the inspiration for this article is a combination of things. Timing-wise, I'm writing it now, because I came across an article on page 9 of the 1st edition of "Unredacted" Magazine entitled, "I Installed Your Alarm System."

The article is a scary diary entry of a rogue installer that logs into an account and watches his customers video cameras. He obliquely explains how he does it. The reality is, traditional monitoring is rife with security problems, which can be a problem if you don't trust your company. Even if you trust them, the information leak is considerable. So I thought, I might write a guide that will allow you to leak as little data as possible.

1) Sign Up for Alarm Grid monitoring Using SimpleLogin

This service allows you to maintain some privacy with regard to your email. It disambiguates your email from your person, allowing you to pick a single email address for each service you sign up for. Or, you can use it in any other way you'd like. I, personally, use it so that no one can create a personal profile of me based on my email address. I recommend you sign up with Alarm Grid because, well, this is Alarm Grid. I also know the practices of my company. We have no interest in monetizing your data. How can you know that to be true? You can't. But take the hint here. I'm telling you how to buy an account anonymously. Trust me on this. We don't care about your data.

2) Pay for the monitoring service using Privacy.com

Privacy.com is a wonderful service that will disambiguate your identity from the card you use. You can pick any name, address, zip code, expiration date, etc, and sign up for monitoring. If you're in Alaska, but you want to tell us you're in Oklahoma, Privacy.com prevents us from finding out.

3) Sign up for any of our accounts

If you follow these practices, you can actually sign up for monitoring of any type and be anonymous. Yes, this includes, monitored accounts. When you are working with us to set up the central station, you can decide how you want each zone to behave. If you want us to call a guard service, or a police station, or no one at all, that is an option. The guard service is a particularly interesting piece of the puzzle. They are not police, and they will not publish the incident in the local newspaper. Rather, if you can find one in your location, they are a service that can receive alarm calls and will send someone out to an address to verify if a break-in is happening. If it is happening, then, and only then, would they initiate a call to the police (unless you ask them not to).

That said, the self-monitoring option puts everything in your hands. You will have an app on your phone that receives messages, text, and/or email alerts telling you what your system is doing. Again, in this app, you can give simplelogin.io emails, you can use a Jabber number if you so choose, or you can use a proton mail account if you'd like. The options are endless, and you can use the service without leaking any data.

4) Don't use cameras with an online service component

I'm not saying that no one should use cameras. Rather, if you're security-minded, and OPSEC is your priority, cameras that shoot out over the internet aren't for you. You'll want a local server, if you want cameras at all, to host your files. You can tunnel into your server from outside if you need to. This is a very typical setup.

Using these methods, you can properly obfuscate nearly everything about yourself. With Alarm Grid, no one has to come to your home. In fact, if you need security products, you could use some kind of freight forwarder to ship the items to yourself. This with privacy.com would allow you to not leak your actual address.

This is the perfect service for the security minded, celebrities, Bitcoin whales, or anyone else who simply doesn't want anything about them known to even the company monitoring their alarm. The Unredacted article paints a bleak picture about something that is completely avoidable. If you don't want your data leaked, you don't have to leak it. Following these practices, you don't even need to trust your security company, so long as they actually attach the system to the interactive service (Alarm.com or Total Connect). It just takes a bit of planning, work, and the right company.

This post is late. It should have been written a week and a half ago.

A week and a half ago, on a Saturday afternoon, Alarm Grid lost one of its youngest, most vibrant employees. For many years Michael Goris has been Alarm Grid's prolific content writer. He is responsible for thousands and thousands of articles, words, FAQs, and more. Sadly, on August 07, 2021, Michael passed away at the age of 28.

I have been thinking for the last week what there is to say about Michael. This blog has thousands of visitors each month. And this site has hundreds of thousands. Michael's writings will never be found bound in a book. He'll never get around to that novel he told me he wanted to write. But here on this site, thousands of words were spilled.

Michael started working at Alarm Grid on August 23, 2017. Since that date, the blog alone has been read by 515,000 unique readers. The FAQs have been accessed by more than 4.5 million unique readers. The products have been accessed by more than 2.7 million unique readers. During his time here:

• Michael wrote 2096 FAQs; 1,050,000 words at least.
  
• Michael wrote 880 blog posts; 440,000 words at least.
• Michael wrote nearly 700 descriptions for products; 374,500 words at least.
• Michael wrote descriptions for 80 videos; 40,500 words at least.

There may be, literally, no person on earth who wrote more content about alarm equipment. To give you an idea, Tolstoy's War and Peace contains 587,287 words. Michael wrote more than 3 times that amount about home security equipment.

The industry has lots to thank him for. While many of the people that come to this site are homeowners working to save money on their alarm system, we know that many of you are installers. If you are one of the many installers that have been benefited by any of Michael's writings today or in the future, he has touched your life in a small way. If you are a homeowner, it is our team along with Michael's writings that have kept you and your family's security system in working order.

We will greatly miss Michael as a business. But more than that, Michael was an affable, happy 28 year old whom many of us considered a personal friend. Michael was a quirky man who surprised us at every turn. He loved Pokemon, and would battle opponents online at his desk. He would regularly give me updates on his world rankings as a player. Apparently he was very good. He loved esoteric music that I've never heard, and am not even sure I can describe. I think he liked anime generally, but never really talked about it. He loved his family. Whenever he would discuss things with us that were troubling him at work, he would come back the next day telling us he'd consulted with his mother or sister for counsel. He loved people. I remember in the interview I had with Michael, he said to me, "will I be able to make friends here?" He didn't want to work at a place where he disliked his coworkers or where they disliked him. He requested that his desk be in the support room and not in an office somewhere else.

One of my fondest memories of Michael, however, was one year at ISC West, the security industry's biggest conference. The team had had a late night. The next morning, Michael's roommate awoke. Michael wasn't in his bed. He was nowhere to be found. He reemerged around Breakfast time. Michael had run the ISC West 5k with almost no sleep or preparation. He placed 26 out of 417 runners posting a 21 minute and 59 second time. We were all in awe of the feat.

And so, I will admit, while my business will miss Michael, I will miss Michael as well. In fact, I have already been missing Michael.

For those of you who have been benefited by Michael's work, I encourage you to write his family a note in the official obituary. It would be nice for them to know that even though you didn't know it, your life intersected with his briefly, and to leave a small thank you. Feel free to comment below as well. Alarm Grid's staff is grieving as well and would appreciate any kind words you have for us.

So again, I apologize for the lateness of this post. But as you, perhaps, now understand, it is late because there was no one here to write it.

Update: The phones are working again.

Hey everyone! Our phone system appears to be down at this very second. If you call in, you'll get a "We are currently unable to connect this call" message. We are working with the company that administers our phones to get it back up, which we assume will happen shortly. In the meantime, we are staffing our chat app with more support members. Feel free to use that until we get the phone numbers back up and running.

Many of you have noticed that the last week our service has been a little bit lackluster. We apologize for this. More than half of our support team has been hit with COVID-19. The result is that our tickets are taking a bit longer to get to, and we are a bit slower to answer support calls. We appreciate the high level of support our customers have come to expect, and we will, hopefully, be back up and running at the same support level within the next week or two. In the meantime, we sincerely apologize to anyone who has experienced an interruption due to the current circumstances.

In the meantime, we ask for your patience, understanding, and good thoughts and prayers for those on our team who have fallen ill. Everyone here is expected to make a full recovery, which we are exceedingly grateful for.

As our team members get back, we will begin the process of catching up, and getting back to supporting customers at the same high level we are known for.

Thank you for your understanding.

9/11 is a day I will never forget. I was a younger man back then, but the images of the two towers smoldering and falling down are seared into my memory. "America is under attack." Those are the words that were uttered by the Principle of my small Catholic school in the great state of Minnesota during a hastily gathered together convocation. Minutes after the student body gathered the first tower toppled into a heap, and shortly thereafter, the second tower followed. America stopped. Our airline industry ground to a halt. For those not old enough to remember, envision a sky with no airplanes. Envision a country filled with people who's stomachs would turn when they would hear the very occasional military Jet scramble. America went silent after 9/11, and everything changed.

I remember the patriotism that engulfed America. Americans hung flags from their cars, put little flags on their lawns, and proudly united around all the things that make this country great. I remember the brave firemen and policemen that waded through the rubble searching for America's living and dead. Many of those first responders lost their lives from complications attributed to the soot and chemicals kicked up by the falling towers. Today, we honor those brave men and women.

In the ensuing years, our country has been stuck in the miry quagmire of wars all over the Middle East responding to those that perpetrated terror on us on that terrible day in the year 2001. Those men and women are heroes, and I am humbled by their commitment to serving the country.

Little did I know then that 20 years later, I would be leading a company that worked closely with the nation's first responders. Alarm Grid is a proud partner with those men and women. We are honored to make both the people we serve and those men and women who serve us more safe. We hope that we continue to do them proud as they serve our country day-to-day. We hope to work with them and you for many many years to come.

Bless you all, and bless America on this most sacrosanct day.

We are writing this post because in the last few days, a small minority of customers have called in frustrated by shipping times.

Our shipping team is working hard every day to get your product out to you quickly.

Unfortunately, once we pick, pack, and ship the products you ordered, we don't have any control about what happens to the product in the process of shipping. So far, we are noticing more packages arriving a day (sometimes 2 and rarely, but sometimes, 3 days) beyond our quoted timeframe. While our quoted timeframes are meant to be estimates, we understand that it can be frustrating to get a package after you expected it to be delivered.

At the moment, as the package carriers in the United States are being overwhelmed by people turning to online ordering. From what we can tell, a huge majority of products are being delivered just as they always have been. But a few more products than usual, for whatever reason, are showing up beyond what we would normally consider acceptable.

We ask for a little bit of patience. We are getting product out the door quickly - even as our warehouse is short-staffed. And UPS and USPS are getting your packages to you as fast as is humanly possible. Everyone is doing everything they can to get you the product and service you ordered as quickly as possible.

At this time, there are no refunds for late receipt of a shipment. When we ship the items, we are sending them in accordance with our shipping policy, as we normally do. Whether they arrive on time is not up to us. And our carriers have stopped refunding us for late arrival of product for the time being. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Alarm Grid isn't your traditional alarm company. We're a little bit different. We're a young company built in the modern age. We use the same old technology, but we use things like YouTube and online content to teach you how to use it. Most companies obscure how these systems work. They will hide codes from you. They'll have provisions in their contracts that let them take the system back when you leave them. At Alarm Grid, we believe you own your system; you own your codes. We give you the tools to take full control of the security you so desperately want for your family. Oh! I almost forgot. We don't have contracts.

We think that we just do things better here. We rely on high quality service. Our team is incredibly knowledgeable. They know these security systems in and out. But now, as everyone is sitting at home on their sofa's trying to figure out how to fill their time, there is even more reason to work with us.

There is no better time than now to secure your home and family.

Alarm Grid Doesn't Send Anyone to Your Home

When you get an alarm system, most people expect someone to show up to their home and put it on the wall. Not Alarm Grid! To date, Alarm Grid has been for the enterprising do-it-yourselfer. But in the age of coronavirus, we're really the best way for you to keep your quarantine, socially distance, and get the protection your family needs in a unpredictable world.

Our process is simple:

• If you have a security system, you can just sign up and give us all the system information we need. We can help you find that information if you need to. But we can monitor most systems.
• If you need a security system, you can find a whole bunch of different systems that you can install in your own home. Pick your system, and watch our installation video on that system. Once we ship you the system and it arrives, you'll be able to get it up in an hour or two. It's fun, easy, and perfectly safe. Program the sensors to it. Voilla, you have a brand new, professional security system installed by you.

Our Systems are the Same Systems ADT and Other Big Name Brands Install

Notice I said "professional security system" above. We don't sell janky or cheap systems. We sell top of the line security systems. Our systems are used in millions of restaurants, businesses, and homes all over America. That's right, millions of people have the systems we sell. They are the same systems that an installer would put in if you ordered from one of the big names in the industry. So you don't have to worry about the quality of these security systems. Your family will be as safe as ever.

While we have lots and lots of choices available, our two favorite systems are the Qolsys IQ Panel Plus and the Honeywell Lyric. Read about the differences, if you are trying to decide between these two incredible systems.

The biggest difference between these two systems is that the Honeywell Lyric is compatible with Apple's HomeKit. The Qolsys is not compatible with HomeKit. However, both work excellently as Z-Wave home automation controllers. Both systems can be controlled from a phone or computer. The Qolsys is compatible with Alarm.com's interactive services. Honeywell's Lyric is compatible with Total Connect. Both Alarm.com and Total Connect allow for remote management of your system. Finally, the Lyric's communicator is removable. The Qolsys's communicator is built in.

Old alarm systems used a phone line to send signals. This means that when someone broke into a home, the system would make a literal phone call, and deliver information to the central station. The central station would then call the police and give the dispatch information for checking on your property.

Phone lines are notoriously insecure. For the enterprising thief, in order to disable the alarm system, they would simply cut your home's telephone wire. But the bigger problem came as phone systems modernized. We moved from analog copper phone wires to digital phones and, many times, digital switching. This causes phone calls to be less clean and pure than they used to be. Signals from these devices can become problematic for central stations.

Modern security systems no longer send signals through the phone. Rather they use an IP connection and a cellular back up. IP suffers from some of the same security concerns as the old phone lines. Someone can cut an IP system's line. But, when coupled with the cell signal, modern security systems are both cheaper and more secure than the old analog systems. Oh, and they're far less complicated as well. As computers have advanced, they have progressed from old wired systems with wonky keypads to new beautiful systems with excellent user interfaces. And that's where we come in. We help you learn how to select, buy, and install your system.

If that sounds appealing to you, call us today!

855-945-1433

If you're still intimidated though, perhaps it will help you to know that you can...

See Everything You Need to Do for a DIY Installation by Watching a Step-by-Step Video

Don't get too intimidated. The secret of the alarm industry is that installing these devices is really easy. We have videos of everything, including installation.

If you dislike video, we have lots of written FAQs. And if you dislike those, you can call us. We can teach you to install the system, learn sensors into the system, and we can give you an overview of how the system works all over the phone.

Whatever the case, if you're at home, trying to figure out what you're going to do for the next few months, consider checking "Get a Security System" off of your bucket list. And do it all without breaking your quarantine or social distancing rules.

We Have No Contracts

Alarm Grid is a month to month service. You can cancel any time. We basically invented the concept of no contract alarm monitoring. Traditional companies usually require that you sign a 3 year deal. You'll pay a lot more than we charge. And the service they give you will cost more every time they do what's called, "roll a truck." That's industry speak for "sending someone to your house to fix a small problem." And the problem with that is, you don't know the repairman from Adam. You never know who you're going to get... if you know what I mean...

The truth is, we've rarely had to roll a truck. Our goals is to not send someone out ever. This Coronavirus thing doesn't changed anything for us. We have been doing this for years. Most fixes to your security system take mere minutes. And almost never are any of the fixes a system needs so difficult that you won't be able to do it on your own. If you don't believe it, check out our reviews.

These reviews are real. We don't hide them, we don't suppress them. They are all verifiable, real customers of Alarm Grid's. But remember, behind the no contracts, and no strings attached thing is an implicit promise we have to our customers. If you hate us, you can leave us. Because we aren't making proprietary systems, because we're helping you install professional systems, because we want you to be our customer for a long time, we have to be great to you. We have to help you from beginning to end. We have to work you through problems you encounter in the installation. If we don't, you can leave the very next month. We promise you!

Your experience is all we care about. So while you're sitting at home, bored off your fanny, give us a call. Let us help you get a brand new security system or take over your existing one. You won't regret it. In fact, you'll probably love it. And if you have kids, it's so easy, you can probably just make them do it. Maybe they'll learn something. We'll call it homeschooling... in the subject of "computer science" or something. Whatever the case, we'll work with you.

Call us today, and see how different we are.

855-945-1433

Today, as a result of the Coronavirus's spread, we have made the decision to close our Florida office. Our goal is to do this process without causing a huge disruption. That said, we will be a bit short-staffed for a few hours this morning. While the office staff is taking their workstations home and getting set up, our staff in Kentucky and Connecticut will be picking up the slack.

Much of this will be happening this morning. We are hoping that everyone will be up and running, fully staffed by 11am EST.

Because of this transition, however, please be courteous when you call. Understand that we are not at 100% early this morning. If you get the option to leave a message, rest assured, we will get to your call. We are attempting to do our part to make sure that we as a nation can "flatten the curve," as well as working to ensure that we are able to continually provide service to all of you throughout this crisis.

Be safe!

Most of these best security systems lists are frustrating to navigate. Many of them include companies and their respective rating. ADT, Brinks, Vivint, or others will make the cut. We’re sad to never be included in these lists. But that reflects the state of the industry. Many people don’t know that other alarm monitoring companies exist. Still others only include the new DIY systems that are on the market like Simplisafe, Ring, Nest, or Scout. Consumer Reports, for example, only reviews Nest, Ring, Abode, Frontpoint, Simplisafe, and Samsung’s Smarthings integrated GC3 that they produced for ADT. This list is, in no way, a complete list of products. Moreover, it completely ignores legacy and current systems. And, while we like “new,” being in the industry, we are proud to say that the so-called “professional” systems that are out there are better than these systems for a few simple reasons.

Our list includes exclusively professional equipment. It is the same equipment that ADT or other installation companies might sell you. We’ve tested a lot of these DIY systems. They work well to varying degrees. But we have found that nothing surpasses the quality or features of a professional system. What’s more, we provide the help that you need to turn these professionally installed systems into the DIY systems that you may be looking for.

Yup! You heard that right. You don’t need a professional to install a professional home security system.

They are simple enough to install and operate that you can do it yourself. Additionally, you can have them monitored by anyone. We think that this feature is the feature that sets them apart from any of the new “DIY” systems. Simplisafe systems must be monitored by Simplisafe. Ring systems must be monitored by Amazon. Nest systems must be monitored by Google’s chosen provider: Monitronics (now Brinks).

But a professional system can be monitored by any alarm company. We certainly do monitor them. But if you’re interested in having a local installer at your beck and call, you can have Larry the alarm installer from down the road monitor it as well.

In all, these systems are not easy to rank. Each one comes with its own set of features and benefits. So we have organized the following list based on your own possible set of needs.

So without further ado, here are the 3 best alarm systems of 2020.

Best Interactive Service of 2020

Alarm.com

Interactive services are the apps that allow you to control your alarm system from your phone or computer. There are dozens of such services. Some companies, such as the ones we mentioned above have their own proprietary service. But then, there are a few universal services. These are sold by Interlogix, DSC, Alarmnet (Honeywell), Securenet and others. Our favorite of these interactive services is alarm.com. It is a great service that works with Qolsys products, DSC products, Interlogix products, 2GIG products, and more. Unfortunately, it does not work with most Honeywell products.

It provides a wide array of controls, including the ability to use SIRI to command your system and schedule Z-Wave scenes. The drawback is that Alarm.com requires users to sign up for cellular monitoring. This is the best, most robust kind of monitoring. But some users don’t want that level of connectivity. Some end users are satisfied with just IP monitoring. In the 90s, particularly, phone line monitoring was the norm. Modern monitoring has found other, better, more secure options. No one can cut the line of a cellular device, for example. IP monitoring suffers from many of the same problems as phone line monitoring. But it also allows users to get many of the advantages of cellular monitoring, including homeowner’s insurance discounts. Even still, despite this drawback of alarm.com, it is our preferred interactive service.

That said, its closest competition is Honeywell’s Total Connect. Total Connect only works with Honeywell. It does almost everything that Alarm.com does, with a few specific differences - no native SIRI control, for example. That said, Honeywell makes excellent equipment. The Lyric alarm, for example, works with HomeKit. This integration will allow individual control of the unit from SIRI. This is actually more robust than even alarm.com’s SIRI integration. And the only options that a HomeKit user has on the Alarm.com side is the DSC iotega, which is a system that works, but for many reasons, doesn’t make this list.

Ultimately, whether you use Alarm.com or Total Connect, it will depend on your system’s interactive service compatibility. If you are interested in system features, look at the systems below. If you are more concerned with the usability of the interactive service, you can certainly pick a system based on its qualities and compatibility with an interactive service.

Runner Up: Total Connect

Best Overall System of 2020

Qolsys IQ Panel 2+

This security system is an amazing piece of equipment. It is a great looking home automation controller as well as a security system. It’s Alarm.com compatibility is a great feature that makes the Qolsys IQ Panel 2+ a stratospherically better panel than almost anything on the market. The system is built on the Android operating system. Ultimately, the Qolsys is what you get when you beset a Silicon Valley company with the task of building a professional alarm system. It is feature filled, beautifully and competently built.

One of the frustrations with the Qolsys is its lack of modularity. It is an expensive system. Everything is built in to the panel. Whereas most security systems allow a user to install (and uninstall) a cellular communicator, the Qolsys builds the communicator right into the panel itself. This sounds like a great feature, and it is. But that’s until the system’s communicator becomes obsolete. It’s something that doesn’t happen very often, but every 10 or so years, the cellular companies deprecate one or more of their networks. At this very moment, Alarm Grid’s subscribers are preparing to replace thousands of communicators. As Verizon and AT&T deprecate their old CDMA and 3G networks, the systems that have included these communicators are coming due for an upgrade. The drawback of the Qolsys is that there is no upgrade per se. Rather, end users with an older Qolsys will have to replace the entire panel.

Despite this drawback, the Qolsys is a great unit. One of its best features is its ability to take over old systems. For those that are looking to replace an old system, the Qolsys is a great choice. The new Qolsys IQ Panel 2 Plus’s come in different varieties, each with a daughter card that allows them to grab the signals from other company’s wireless sensors.

Just awesome!

In our opinion the best feature of the new Qolsys IQ Panel 2 Plus, however, is not its amazing home automation features or its ability to take over other systems. It’s not even its slick Android interface. All those features can and are replicated by its competitors. Rather, our favorite feature of the Qolsys is its sensor’s ranges. The Qolsys is a panel whose PowerG sensors, which are encrypted, are capable of being monitored over HUGE ranges. We have seen the Qolsys detect sensors that are nearly a half mile away. This makes the PowerG line of sensors that are compatible with the Qolsys an amazing feature that no other all-in-one system has. These sensors basically remove the need for expensive repeaters. They are modern sensors that no other company has.

Eat your heart out Google, Amazon, and all ya’ll Silicon Valley companies trying to build better systems. None of these systems even touch the quality of the Qolsys in our opinion.

Runner-up: 2GIG GC3e

Best HomeKit Compatible System of 2020

Honeywell Lyric

The Lyric is in competition with DSC’s Iotega, which works as a HomeKit controller. If you’re looking for HomeKit control, and your home is filled with DSC sensors, the Iotega might be a better choice for you. But if you’re starting from scratch, nothing is better than the Lyric controller. This system is compatible with a wide range of sensors, including America’s most sold sensor, the 5816. It looks great on a wall. It’s fairly priced, and it does everything you’d want from a good looking system, including a photo album feature.

We sold more Lyric’s in 2019 than any other system on the market. This is largely due to Honeywell’s trusted name. The quality exemplified by the brand is epitomized in this sleek wall unit. Its versatility is buttressed by the hundreds of compatible sensors that Honeywell has released over the years.

We like Honeywell’s no-nonsense approach to monitoring. They put security over all. They were the first mainstream system on the market with both a panel and encrypted sensors. And the sensors work immensely well. We love Honeywell. We love the Lyric. At the moment, we believe that the Qolsys has surpassed the features of Honeywell’s alarm system. But the Lyric has one feature that Qolsys simply does not: the ability to be monitored by WiFi only. In fact, nearly all of Honeywell’s all-in-one systems can be monitored by WiFi only. For an end user, this means that they can be professionally monitored at a price that is significantly cheaper than that of a cellular system. For the budget conscience consumer, this presents an amazing opportunity to save money while getting all the benefits of a monitored system, including insurance discounts. We are a big fan of cellular monitoring. But the option is there for those who simply don’t think it’s as important as we do or for those who don’t want to pay the cost of cellular monitoring.

Runner Up: DSC iotega

Best Budget Alarm System

Honeywell L3000

We spent a lot of time debating whether the L3000 would be the best system for someone on a budget. We actually prefer the GC2e as a system. It’s a great looking system, it’s inexpensive, and it uses Alarm.com. But here’s the problem: it requires that anyone using it purchase a cellular communicator. Additionally, because its most minimal monitoring will include Alarm.com. This puts anyone purchasing it into a different category of spending. That said, if it’s not outside of your budget, the GC2e is a great system. It is our runner-up, because it is a good budget system, but it’s not great.

The low price of the L3000 is no indication of its quality. It is because it is a legacy system. It is often used by alarm companies that are putting systems into big apartment buildings. The system is amazing. It’s effective, will last for a very long time. Unfortunately, it’s ugly and can be a bear to program. Luckily for owners, programming is not something you do more than one time. And if you’re with Alarm Grid, there is a strong chance that we can program it for you.

Unlike the GC2e, the L3000 allows users to do IP-only monitoring. It also allows old-school phone line monitoring. That means, for the budget-conscious consumer, the L3000 is both cheaper to purchase than the GC2e, and will save an end user between $10 and $20 per month. In all, the L3000 will save anyone who installs it between $120 and $240 per year, while also being incredibly affordable at the outset. Huzzah! Oh, and for those concerned about sensors, the L3000 works great with any of the Honeywell’s 5800 sensors. You will have a ton of sensors to pick from, which also makes the system the most versatile budget system on the market.

We love the L3000 as a budget system.

Runner-Up: 2GIG GC2e

Best Wired Alarm System of 2020

Honeywell VISTA 20P

This is an oldie but a goodie. The VISTA 20P has been produced by Honeywell for many many years now. It's an excellent system with great, modern features. Honeywell produces update chips that they release every once in a while. These updates allow the system to take advantage of modern features like those available in the VAM or Tuxedo Touch. Home Automation? You can do it using the VISTA 20P. Manage both wired and wireless sensors? You can do that very easily with the VISTA 20P by adding a wireless receiver or a keypad with a wireless receiver built in. In all, this system has all the same great features of its all-in-one wireless contemporaries. 2 drawbacks to speak of, though: 1) it's big and bulky; 2) programming these systems sucks.

Runner-up: Honeywell VISTA 21iP

What Else is Coming in 2020?

Every year, professional systems get better and better. The systems that are coming soon are no different. In the coming months, we are expecting the release of Qolsys’s new Hub as well as Honeywell’s ProSeries panel. 2GIG hasn’t announced anything yet. But they just released the encrypted versions of their panels.

Unfortunately, 2019 saw the close of Interlogix’s security systems production division. While interlogix was not known for the incredible innovation of their systems, they made great budget models that gave users a simple, cheap entry point into security systems. They will be missed. But the three main producers--2GIG, Qolsys, and Resideo (formerly Honeywell)--are continuing to pioneer new and innovative features.