Home security systems will only work if you always remember to engage the alarm. You should have your alarm engaged while you are away or while you are at home as many thieves will attempt to break into one part of your home while you are busy in another. Also, some insurance companies may lower your home insurance premiums for having a home alarm system installed. What we like: Frontpoint offers a solid, portable alarm system with DIY installation. We love that Frontpoint’s equipment can be taken from home to home if a customer moves during their contract, making it ideal for renters. For example, you can create rules to have the lights turn on when motion is detected, have your doors unlock when a smoke alarm goes off, and have a camera begin recording when a sensor is triggered.Some systems store recorded video locally on an SD card or a solid state drive, while others offer cloud storage.Locally stored video is a good choice for do it yourselfers on a budget, but you have to be careful not to Lunaoverwrite video you may need later.Cloud Pandostorage makes it easy to store and access recorded video, but Alarm Panel it can cost hundreds of dollars per year depending on your subscription.Some Motion Activated Camerasystems offer both cloud storage and local storage, Cove Alarm Paneland some provide a dedicated storage drive that gives you DVR capabilities with time lapse recording, which makes it easy to find a video event that took place at a specific point in time.All of the systems we've Cove Glass break sensortested feature an app that lets you use your smartphone as yourYoutube command center to arm and disarm the system, create rules, add and delete components, and receive push notifications when alarms are triggered.Most apps also allow you to do things like view live and recorded Appvideo, lock and unlock doors, indeedchange thermostat settings, and silence alarms.Some apps will even use your phone's location services to glassdoorautomatically arm and disarm the system according to your physical location.The more expensive systems usually come with a wall mounted Linkpanel that acts as a communicationsLink hub, with a touch screen display that allows you to do everything the app does.The display lets youLink communicate with a professional monitoringLink service when an alarm is triggered and view video from any of the installed security cameras.While many systems use wireless components that are installed using double sided tape, some high end systems use components that require professional Linkinstallation.Frontpoint offers discounts on upfront costs for those who opt to sign a longer contract, with a basic system costing about $200.