Brinks Home vs. Ring Alarm Review

We compared Brinks Home vs. Ring, and we have to declare Ring the winner. It’s cheaper and has better equipment with good home automation. But we have concerns about Ring’s growing reputation issues, and some customers may still prefer Brinks Home.

Ring slightly tops Brinks Home in terms of monitoring. Brinks Home has some of the best safety-oriented monitoring service features out there, but it costs quite a bit more than Ring.

Ring also offers a free self-monitoring option.

Yes, the name is confusing, but basically, ASAPer is a way for Brinks Home to instantly reach out to your emergency contacts and to you when your alarm goes off. And if it’s a false alarm, ASAPer makes it easier for you to cancel before Brinks Home sends emergency responders to your home. Brinks advertises one of the fastest response times compared to other companies of only 30 seconds. 

Brinks Home’s monitoring fee includes mobile app access and smart home and video support. That’s not true of most companies; Ring is one of the only other brands that offers all of that in a single fee. But Ring’s fee is much, much lower.

View Brinks Home Plans | Read the Brinks Home Security Review

Ring has some of the cheapest monitoring among well-known national brands. It’s just $20 a month for the company’s professional monitoring service. That’s less than Netflix costs these days.

Ring Basic offers video storage for a single camera—but doesn’t help with your security system. However, Ring Protect Plus is good for monitoring your system and gives you storage for unlimited Ring cameras. That’s an outstanding deal.

The Protect Pro offers video recording for all of your devices, 24/7 professional monitoring, and cellular backup. 

View Ring Alarm on Amazon | Read the Ring Alarm Home Security Review

Brinks Home sells some decent equipment, but it doesn’t make any of it. Instead, with Brinks Home, you’ll see items from manufacturers like Alarm.com and SkyBell.

On the flip side, Ring makes all of its own items.

This isn’t everything these brands sell. But there just isn’t much overlap between Brinks Home equipment and Ring equipment.

Brinks Home sells several smart home products, like thermostats, garage door openers, and door locks that Ring doesn’t offer. Likewise, instead of selling smoke or carbon monoxide detectors, Ring sells listeners that pick up on existing alarms. And Ring sells separate keypads and base stations, while Brinks Home sells control panels that serve both those functions.

We didn’t add camera prices to the equipment table since Ring’s cameras get quite complicated. More on that next.

Ring started as a camera manufacturer. It arguably makes better cameras than home security systems, while on the flip side, Brinks Home cameras are pretty meh.

To the best of our knowledge, Brinks Home cameras come from Alarm.com like most of its other equipment. There’s nothing wrong with Alarm.com, but the cameras just aren’t the best out there.

Brinks Home charges quite a bit for these cameras, too, which makes them even less desirable.

Still, we do like that your video storage is included in your monitoring fee, and the local storage on the doorbell camera is a plus.

Ring offers way too many cameras that we aren't even going to try to list them all. Instead, we've picked a few from each category to give you a sample idea. 

Ring makes a vast variety of affordable cameras with different power sources to meet different needs. But all the storage is cloud storage, and in order to record anything, Ring requires a paid plan.

The cloud storage is convenient since you can access it anytime from any connected device. But if you prefer the safety of a physical copy of all your videos, it’s not as useful.  You’ll have to download the videos and transfer them since none of the cameras have local storage built in.

As for the paid plans, they’re extremely affordable. Still, we don’t like paying extra to use something we already own.

These plan prices are some of the best you’ll find, especially the $10 unlimited camera plan with alarm system monitoring. And 60 days of storage is more than enough for the average homeowner.

You can learn more about Ring cameras in our Ring camera review.

Brinks Home vs. Ring Alarm: Smart home integrations

These companies are fairly evenly matched in integration

Both Brinks Home and Ring Alarm offer good home automation options with multiple connectivity avenues. Brinks Home sells more smart devices, while Ring has more smart home compatibility.

Brinks Home smart home integrations:

• Amazon Alexa
• Google Assistant
• Z-Wave

Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant integrations mean that Brinks Home can connect indirectly to most smart home devices. But if you’re looking for a direct connection, Z-Wave can provide it. Many smart home items use the Z-Wave protocol, making it easy to link them to other products.

As we mentioned earlier, Brinks Home also sells some smart home devices as add-ons to its packages. Smart locks, smart thermostats, and more are all available through Brinks Home sales.

Ring Alarm smart home integrations:

• Amazon Alexa
• Google Assistant
• Z-Wave
• IFTTT

Ring Alarm has all of Brinks Home’s connectivity with the addition of IFTTT. IFTTT can be a huge boon to a smart home because it creates smart home chains between multiple devices. For instance, you could set up a chain linked to the front door lock. When you open the lock, the front hall light could turn on and a speaker could start playing your favorite radio station.

These complicated chains can sometimes be set up through other interfaces, like through Alexa commands, but IFTTT has long been known as one of the best cause-and-effect platforms out there.

The one downside to Ring’s home automation is that the company doesn’t sell very many branded smart home devices of its own. You can get a smart Ring light bridge and a few lights, but you won’t get locks, thermostats, or some of the other most popular smart home products.

Brinks Home isn’t the most beloved of home security systems. The company has a habit of buying up other companies’ contracts, creating confusion and dissatisfaction in the customers it acquires. And it just really seems like Brinks Home has struggled to find its footing in the home security industry.

But on the other hand, Ring is the center of an extreme amount of controversy. Internal and external privacy issues, including Ring’s partnership with police, have left many customers and potential customers wary of using Ring devices and apps.

We think those who want a less conflicted customer experience would be better served by Brinks Home.

If you need help at any time, you can call either of these companies. Brinks Home is available any day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. CST, while Ring’s hours are weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST.

• Brinks Home customer service number: 800-447-9239
• Ring Alarm customer service number: 800-984-1596

When it comes down to it, we recommend Ring over Brinks Home—but with the caveat that some conscientious users will find Ring distasteful. In those cases, Brinks Home would be the better choice.

• Prices and monitoring plans: Ring Alarm. Ring’s low, low prices are hard to beat, even with a solid monitoring service like Brinks Home’s.
• Security equipment: Ring Alarm. Ring makes its own security equipment, which comes at a less expensive price than Brinks Home’s generic devices.
• Cameras: Ring Alarm. Ring is king when it comes to cameras, while they’re a weaker point for Brinks Home.
• Smart home integrations: Draw. Brinks Home sells more smart home devices, though Ring has more integration options.
• Customer service: Brinks Home. Brinks Home is a lot less controversial than Ring, which has a big ethical quagmire to sort through.

If neither of these services are doing it for you, you may want to read our DIY Home Security Systems Review and Best Home Security Systems.

Read the Brinks Home Security Review | Read the Ring Alarm Home Security Review

When we rate home security systems, we primarily look at the following five aspects:

• Price
• Equipment
• Cameras
• Home automation
• Customer service

Our ratings also include hours of research and hands-on testing. For instance, we’ve tested the Ring security system in the past, which informed some of the opinions in this review.

Usually, we’ll choose the winner of a versus comparison based on how many categories each company wins. But if a company does something really well or egregiously poorly, we might more heavily weigh those aspects over others.

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