Cheapest Professional Monitoring Plans, Ranked

The price ladder

Every plan below has published pricing on the provider's own site, verified August 2026, ranked by monthly-billed price. Where a provider prices per day, the monthly figure is computed by us (daily price times 30.4) and marked with an asterisk. Prices exclude equipment and taxes.

A note on the #1 slot: eufy's $4.99 Basic plan gives you a button that connects you to dispatch services; an agent is not automatically watching your alarms. The cheapest plan where a monitoring center automatically receives and acts on your alarm 24/7 is the $9.99 tier (eufy Plus or Wyze). We rank Basic anyway because eufy publishes it as a monitoring service, but know what you are buying.

What the budget tiers include ($4.99 to $22.99)

eufy Basic, $4.99/mo ($49.99/yr). Tap-to-access dispatch: from the eufy app or keypad panic button you reach emergency dispatch services. No automatic agent response to alarms. Requires a compatible eufy Security system.

eufy Plus, $9.99/mo ($99.99/yr). Automatic 24/7 professional monitoring: trained dispatchers respond to triggered alarms (opened doors, windows, motion) and dispatch local emergency services if your safety is not confirmed, with a stated 60-second dispatch flow. The cheapest hands-off monitoring on this list.

Wyze Home Monitoring, $9.99/mo ($99.99/yr). Requires the Wyze Sense Hub ($55.98, free with the annual plan at the time we checked) plus sensors you pick. No long-term commitment. Wyze also sells a separate camera-only path: Cam Unlimited Pro at $19.99/mo ($199.99/yr) includes emergency dispatch tied to camera events across unlimited cameras, which can suit camera-first homes with no sensor system.

Ring Pro, $19.99/mo ($199.99/yr). Covers all Ring devices at one location: 24/7 professional monitoring for Ring Alarm, alarm cellular backup, 180-day video history, and Ring's AI features (video descriptions, familiar faces). Smoke and CO monitoring is included at this tier (a $5/mo add-on on cheaper Ring plans). Monitoring is available in all 50 US states (not territories); Ring notes it does not own its monitoring center and that permits or false-alarm fees may apply locally.

Cove Basic, $22.99/mo. 24/7 professional monitoring with app control on Cove Connect systems, no contract. The catch at this tier: no camera support; that starts at Cove Plus ($32.99) which adds 7-day cloud storage, while Premium ($42.99) adds a $5 monthly equipment credit, lifetime equipment warranty, 30-day storage, and AI notifications.

The mid tier: verification and outdoor protection ($23 to $51)

*SimpliSafe Standard, 76 cents/day (~$23.10/mo). The full 24/7 dispatch chain, built-in network backup, but no video verification and no camera recordings. Core at $1.10/day (~$33.44) is the tier most SimpliSafe buyers actually want: it adds video verification (agents can relay camera evidence for priority dispatch versus non-verified alarms, per SimpliSafe), unlimited camera recordings for up to 10 cameras, and the lifetime equipment warranty. Pro ($1.66/day) and Pro Plus ($2.66/day)* add Active Guard Outdoor Protection, where live agents can see, speak to, and deter people outside your home overnight (Pro) or 24/7 (Pro Plus); both require the Outdoor Camera Series 2, plugged in. All SimpliSafe plans are contract-free.

ADT Self Setup, from $24.99/mo. ADT's DIY line with a one-month minimum rather than ADT's traditional contract; promo fine print puts the camera-supporting Self Setup plan at $34.99. Equipment is extra and not package-priced online.

Vivint, from $24.99/mo. Every Vivint system includes required 24/7 monitoring from Vivint's in-house center. The $24.99 starting rate is tied to a 36-month agreement per Vivint's cost guide; the HomeProtect package's regular monitoring rate is $29.99, and HomeProtect Pro (burglary, fire, CO, and duress alarm coverage) starts at $44.99 plus $5/mo per camera. Equipment ($349.99 HomeProtect package, $749.99 minimum for Pro) and professional installation ($199, currently waived) are on top.

Abode Pro, $26.99/mo or $245.99/yr. 24/7 US-based monitoring plus 4G cellular backup, contract-free. The annual price works out to about $20.50/mo*, which quietly makes Abode one of the cheapest cellular-backed plans on annual billing.

*Frontpoint, $1.48 to $1.65/day (~$45 to $50/mo).** Interactive covers 24/7 intrusion, fire, CO, and flood monitoring with app control; Ultimate adds video and home automation. Equipment is self-installed, from $69 base systems. Frontpoint's own offer-details page lists $24.99/mo special pricing for certain phone orders on Ultimate, a documented gap between sticker and negotiated price.

ADT Pro Install, from $49.99/mo. ADT's flagship professionally installed service: six US-based company-owned monitoring centers, Alarm Messenger text verification, and video verification with compatible cameras on the Complete tier. Promotional pricing requires a 36-month monitoring contract with early termination fees, and ADT's own pages show two starting figures ($45.99 in promo fine print, $49.99 in the FAQ). Equipment is quote-based.

The premium tier: live guards ($55 and up)

Two services replace after-the-fact dispatch with live humans watching flagged video.

Deep Sentinel, $55/mo per camera. Guards monitor AI-flagged events on every camera, intervene by two-way speaker within seconds, and call police with a verified crime-in-progress report. Pricing scales linearly ($110/mo for two cameras, up to $330/mo for six) plus equipment from $399 for a one-camera kit ($499 regular). One-year minimum contract, the only long commitment in this tier.

Ring Virtual Security Guard, $99.00/mo. Adds live video monitoring by trained agents, real-time intruder deterrence, and proactive verified dispatch requests on top of everything in Ring Pro. No stated contract.

SimpliSafe's Pro Plus ($2.66/day, ~$80.86/mo*) competes here too, with agent intervention limited to up to 3 enrolled outdoor devices. These services answer a different question than the rest of the list: not "who calls 911 when the alarm trips" but "who tries to stop the person before entry." If you just want the dispatch chain, everything above $50/mo is paying for intervention, not monitoring.

Fine print that changes the real price

Equipment requirements. No plan on this list runs standalone: eufy needs a compatible eufy system, Wyze needs the $55.98 Sense Hub, Ring needs a Ring Alarm (5-piece kit, $199.99 on sale, $244.95 list), Cove and SimpliSafe and Abode need their own hubs and sensors (SimpliSafe packages run $250.96 to $733.90 list, Abode kits from $150 list), and Vivint requires a minimum equipment spend ($349.99 package, or $749.99 minimum for HomeProtect Pro). Cheap monitoring on expensive hardware can cost more over five years than the reverse; the full equipment-plus-fees math is in DIY vs professional monitoring costs.

Price after promo. Vivint's $24.99 is an agreement-tied rate with a $29.99 regular figure; Frontpoint's $24.99 is a telesales special against a roughly $50 sticker; ADT's promotional monitoring pricing is conditioned on a 36-month contract. The contract-free plans (SimpliSafe, Ring, Cove, Abode, Wyze, eufy) publish one price, but nothing stops month-to-month prices from rising later; we track that in the subscription creep index.

Cellular backup. Included or built-in on: SimpliSafe professional plans (built-in network backup), Ring plans (alarm cellular backup), Abode Pro (4G), Vivint (built-in cellular with battery backup), ADT (cellular alarm event backup). Cove's support page does not state cellular terms per plan, so check before buying if that matters to you.

Where the entry tiers cut. Under $25/mo you generally give up video verification (SimpliSafe reserves it for Core and up; Cove reserves camera support for Plus) and any outdoor intervention. You do not give up the core dispatch chain; that is present at every automatic-monitoring price point on this list, which is the main reason to be skeptical of paying $50/mo without a specific feature you can name.

If you want real numbers instead of starting-at prices, especially for the quote-only providers (ADT Pro Install, Vivint custom systems), our questionnaire at /quote pulls actual quotes from professional monitoring providers for your home and lets you compare them against the published plans above. For whether to pay for monitoring at all, start with is professional monitoring worth it.