Cove vs SimpliSafe: Two No-Contract DIY Systems, Priced by the Day

Monitoring plans, side by side

All prices as of August 2026, from each company's official monitoring pages. Both companies bill monthly with no contract and let you cancel any time.

A note on the Cove column: Cove's marketing page prices by the day, but its own support site publishes the same three plans as monthly figures ($22.99 Basic, $32.99 Plus, $42.99 Premium), so those are real published prices rather than our conversion. SimpliSafe publishes day rates only, so its monthly column is our arithmetic at 30 days.

At the entry and mid tiers, price will not decide this for you: one cent per day separates the entry plans, and the mid tiers match exactly on the day rate. What you get for the matching $1.10 differs, though. SimpliSafe Core includes unlimited camera recordings with 30-day cloud storage for up to 10 cameras plus video verification; Cove+ includes camera access with 7-day cloud storage, per each company's published plan tables.

At the top, the products diverge in kind rather than degree. Cove Premium ($1.43/day) is a value bundle: 30-day storage, AI-powered alerts, a lifetime equipment warranty (cameras carry 2 years), and a $5 per month credit toward new equipment. SimpliSafe's Pro and Pro Plus are a different service entirely: live monitoring agents who can watch the outdoor camera during armed hours, speak to whoever is on your property, and trigger the siren and spotlight before a break-in.

Both companies run US-based monitoring. Cove states it operates six monitoring centers across the United States; SimpliSafe's plans page does not publish a center count, so we do not compare on that figure. Cove advertises multi-factor alarm response (text, call, app) and says it can send help in as little as 30 seconds after confirmation. SimpliSafe says video-verified alarms get faster police response than its own non-verified alarms.

Equipment, warranties, and the fine print

Both systems are self-installed wireless kits sold through system builders on each site, with frequent sitewide equipment sales. As of August 2026 both were running one (Cove at 70% off equipment, SimpliSafe at 60% off any new system with professional monitoring, its banner marked "ends tomorrow"), so we are not quoting hardware package prices that change week to week.

The warranty structures differ in a way that matters over the years you will own the system:

• Cove gives a 1-year equipment warranty on Basic and Plus, and a lifetime warranty on Premium (cameras 2 years). The $5 monthly equipment reward on Premium effectively rebates $60 per year toward expanding the system, which partially offsets Premium's higher price if you would buy sensors anyway.
• SimpliSafe gives a lifetime equipment warranty on all its listed monitoring plans for as long as the subscription is active, including free replacement of malfunctioning equipment with shipping covered.

On the alarm-response side, both use the standard verify-then-dispatch flow: text or app cancellation first, phone call second, dispatch request if unreachable. SimpliSafe adds the option of video verification, and on its Active Guard plans, up to $500 toward your homeowner's insurance deductible after a break-in while armed. Cove's 60-day return window is the longer published trial of the two (SimpliSafe's plans page mentions a free trial without stating its length).

A note that applies to both: dropping professional monitoring on either system to save money means the siren still sounds but nobody calls emergency services for you. For that tradeoff, see is professional monitoring worth it and diy vs professional monitoring cost.

Which one to pick

Of the two, by published pricing as of August 2026:

• Pick Cove if you want the lower top-tier price ($1.43/day vs $1.66 or more), the lifetime warranty plus $5 monthly equipment credit on Premium, and the longer risk-free trial (60 days). It is the value-shopper's version of this category.
• Pick SimpliSafe if you want capabilities Cove does not publish an equivalent for: video-verified dispatch on the mid tier, live-agent outdoor intervention on the upper tiers, a self-monitoring plan option at $0.33/day, and 30-day cloud storage starting at the $1.10 tier rather than the top one.

If you are choosing between these two at the entry tier, the practical difference is small enough that current equipment promotions on either site may matter more than the monitoring plans do. Both fit renters and movers well given zero contracts; see home security for renters. For where day-rate DIY monitoring sits against the wider market, see home security cost per month, and if you also want full-service pro-install quotes to compare, our quote funnel fetches them with a short questionnaire.