ADT wants $30/month. Ring wants $10/month. SimpliSafe wants $18/month. Home Assistant wants nothing. Build a DIY alarm system with door sensors, cameras, motion detection, and instant alerts. All running locally on your network.
You buy the hardware, then pay $10-30 every month to actually use it. Cancel the subscription and your $300 system becomes a pile of plastic. Over 5 years, you'll spend $600-1,800 on subscriptions alone.
Ring had a major outage in 2024. SimpliSafe has had cloud issues. When their servers go down, your "security system" stops working. That's not security. That's a liability.
Ring gave police access to camera footage without warrants. Eufy was caught uploading footage despite promising local storage. Your private video belongs on your hardware, not someone else's.
SimpliSafe sensors only work with SimpliSafe. Ring cameras only get full features through Ring's app. Switch brands and you start from scratch. Home Assistant works with thousands of devices from hundreds of brands.
Home Assistant has a built-in alarm control panel. Combined with Zigbee or Z-Wave sensors, cameras, and smart automations, you get a system that rivals the big names.
Aqara, Sonoff, and other Zigbee contact sensors cost $10-15 each and report instantly. Put them on every exterior door and ground-floor window. When a door opens while armed, Home Assistant knows immediately.
Zigbee motion sensors cover hallways and rooms. Combine them with camera-based person detection using Frigate for zero false alarms from pets. Know exactly when a person enters your home.
Run Frigate NVR on your Home Assistant box for local video recording with AI object detection. Person, car, animal: your system knows the difference. No cloud upload, no subscription, no privacy concerns.
Get push notifications with camera snapshots the moment something triggers. Sound a Zigbee siren. Flash your smart lights red. Send alerts to every family member. The automations are entirely up to you.
Arm and disarm with a PIN pad by the door, your phone, an NFC tag, or automatically based on who's home. Z-Wave locks from Schlage and Yale integrate directly. No app lock-in.
Want 24/7 dispatch? Noonlight integrates with Home Assistant for about $10/month. You get professional monitoring without giving up local control. Best of both worlds.
Here's what you actually spend over 3 years.
Home Assistant Green ($99) is the easiest option. Home Assistant Yellow ($125+) if you want Zigbee built in. Or run it on a Raspberry Pi 5 ($80) or an old mini PC. Any of these work.
If your hub doesn't have Zigbee built in, grab a SkyConnect USB stick ($30) or a Sonoff Zigbee dongle ($20). This lets Home Assistant talk directly to Zigbee sensors without any cloud bridge.
Put contact sensors on exterior doors and accessible windows. Aqara door sensors ($12 each) are reliable and have years of battery life. Add a motion sensor ($18) in your main hallway.
Home Assistant's built-in Alarmo integration gives you arm home, arm away, and disarm modes. Set entry delay for your front door, instant trigger for windows. Add PIN codes for each family member.
When the alarm triggers: send push notifications to phones, sound a siren, flash lights, record camera clips. Home Assistant automations let you define exactly what happens and when.
Everything you need to get started. Total cost: roughly $200-250.
$99. Plug and play hub. Includes Ethernet, USB ports, and enough power for a full smart home. Setup takes about 15 minutes.
$30. Adds Zigbee (and future Thread/Matter) support to your hub. Plug it in and Home Assistant detects it automatically.
~$48 total. Cover your front door, back door, garage entry, and one ground-floor window. Battery lasts 2+ years. Tiny and discreet.
$18. Place in your main hallway or living area. Detects movement within seconds. Adjustable sensitivity and timeout settings in Home Assistant.
$25. Heiman or Aqara siren. Triggered by Home Assistant when the alarm goes off. Loud enough to scare off intruders and alert neighbors.
Free. Get instant push notifications with camera snapshots. Arm and disarm from anywhere. View live camera feeds. Works on iOS and Android.
Yes. Home Assistant supports door/window sensors, motion detectors, sirens, cameras, and smart notifications. You can build a system that matches or exceeds what ADT or Ring offers, without the monthly fee. The Alarmo integration provides a proper alarm panel with arm/disarm modes, entry delays, and per-zone configuration.
When set up with local Zigbee or Z-Wave sensors and battery backup for your hub, a Home Assistant security system is extremely reliable. It works even when your internet is down because everything runs locally. Zigbee sensors respond in under a second and have battery life measured in years, not months.
At minimum: door/window contact sensors for entry points and a motion sensor for main living areas. Add a siren, smart lock, and cameras for a more complete setup. Aqara Zigbee sensors are the most popular choice because they're affordable ($12-18 each), reliable, and have excellent Home Assistant support.
A basic setup costs around $150-250: Home Assistant hub ($50-130), a few door sensors ($10-15 each), a motion sensor ($15-25), and a siren ($20-30). Compare that to Ring at $10-20/month every month, forever. The DIY system pays for itself in under a year.
Yes. Noonlight integrates with Home Assistant to provide 24/7 professional monitoring and emergency dispatch for around $10/month. This gives you the best of both worlds: local control and customization with professional response when it matters.
Frigate is an open-source NVR that runs alongside Home Assistant. It provides local video recording with AI-powered object detection (person, car, animal). No cloud subscription needed. Store recordings on a local hard drive or NAS. Your video stays on your network.
Many wired security sensors (from old ADT or Honeywell panels) work with Konnected, a board that connects traditional wired sensors to Home Assistant over your local network. For wireless sensors, you'll likely need to replace them with Zigbee or Z-Wave alternatives.
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