Panic Buttons on Home Security Systems: Monitored vs Not

What happens when you press a panic button?

It depends on the brand and, above all, on whether you pay for professional monitoring. What each maker publishes, as of October 1, 2026:

The pattern is consistent. Without monitoring, a panic button is a remote siren switch plus a notification. With monitoring, it becomes a priority signal that skips most of the usual steps: Ring's monitoring center only attempts to reach your primary emergency contact before dispatching police.

Both product pages say the same thing about monitoring. Ring's says you need Professional Monitoring to get emergency services response, and SimpliSafe's says emergency response requires professional monitoring. For the full escalation sequence on any alarm, see what happens when an alarm goes off.

Silent panic alarms and duress codes

An audible panic alarm is a deterrent: the siren tells an intruder the system is armed and that help may be coming. A silent one is for situations where noise could make things worse.

• SimpliSafe lets you set the Panic Button to a silent (duress) alarm. Held for 2 seconds, it sends a signal to the monitoring center to request emergency services right away, and SimpliSafe says you will not get a push notification, text or phone call, for your security. A Duress PIN entered at the keypad does the same. The SimpliSafe Keypad ($69.99) also has a hidden panic button.
• Ring has a Duress Code: entering it at the keypad disarms the system, notifies the monitoring center and requests police dispatch immediately. Emergency contacts are not called, and the dispatch cannot be canceled. A Panic Alarm can also be triggered by holding the police button on the 2nd generation Keypad.

Both features depend on monitoring. Unmonitored, a silent alarm alerts nobody who can send help.

A practical caution: panic alarms are hard to cancel by design. Ring requires the primary contact to answer and give the correct verbal password. Accidental presses can turn into a police visit and, in many places, a false alarm fee (see how much a false alarm costs), so mount fixed buttons where they will not be bumped and teach everyone in the house what the button does.

Is a panic button the same as a medical alert?

No, and the difference matters most for an older parent living alone.

A security panic button routes through the alarm system: the monitoring center calls a phone and decides from that call whether to request help. Ring's panic plan dispatches police. SimpliSafe's button can be set up for medical alerts, but the response still starts with a phone call to you.

A medical alert system is built around a two-way voice call from a wearable. ADT's own Medical Alert line shows the difference. Pressing the neck pendant sends an alarm to a base station or mobile device, and an emergency operator speaks with you through it. ADT says the pendant is waterproof and can be worn in the shower (submersible to 1 meter, though not for extended periods), its battery is designed to last about 18 months, and its range from the base is about 600 feet on Medical Alert Plus and about 150 feet on On-The-Go.

So if the person might fall and be unable to reach a phone, a medical alert pendant fits that risk better than a security panic button. If the worry is an intruder, or a mix of risks, the panic button on a monitored security system fits. Many households use both. We compare the two categories in medical alert vs security system, and the wider setup for an aging parent is in home security for elderly parents. For a parent with dementia who may wander, door alarms solve a different problem; see door alarms for dementia wandering.

Is a monitored panic button worth paying for?

Run the numbers on published pricing. The button is cheap. The monitoring is the real cost: SimpliSafe's cheapest professionally monitored plan, Standard, is 76 cents a day, Core is $1.10 a day, and Ring's plans page lists 24/7 Professional Monitoring with Ring Pro at $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year.

Worth it when:

1. You already pay for professional monitoring. Add one button in the primary bedroom (SimpliSafe's own suggestion) and one near the most-used door. A button costs $14.99 to $21.99 on the systems covered here, as of October 1, 2026.
2. Someone in the home may need help and cannot easily reach a phone, and an intruder or a fire is part of the worry.

Not worth it on its own when the only goal is a way to call for medical help: a medical alert system is designed for that. And without monitoring, a panic button can sound a siren and notify people, but it cannot get anyone sent.

None of this guarantees a faster police response; that depends on your local agency. If you want quotes for a monitored system with panic buttons included, our short questionnaire at /quote fetches quotes from professional monitoring providers. Ask each one what happens on a panic signal: who gets called, how many contacts are tried, and whether a silent option exists. Panic buttons sit alongside the rest of your sensors, which we compare in door and window sensors.