Kangaroo Home Security Review

Kangaroo keeps things simple like nobody else. For most security systems, you need some sort of hub or control panel to tie your devices together. With Kangaroo, all you need is a smartphone and a Wi-Fi connection.

All of Kangaroo’s devices are stand-alones. If you just want a motion sensor, you can get just a motion sensor. Nobody else lets you pick and choose like that. Plus, Kangaroo is affordable and still builds some neat little tech features into its cameras and devices.

Professional monitoring for $8.25 a month? Yes please! If you’re going to use Kangaroo, we think the Complete Protect plan is very much worth it. Not even Ring Alarm has prices that low.

Granted, you won’t get quite as much with Kangaroo as you do with Ring–but it’s still an incredibly good deal.

Kangaroo is affordable, whether you want a full system or just a single device.

As home security systems go, Kangaroo is impressively cheap. And it helps that you can get stand-alone sensors.

If you need only one or two things, you can get them without breaking the bank. Heck, even if you want enough security stuff to outfit your four-bedroom house like a bunker, Kangaroo will help you do it on a budget.

Kangaroo also offers a few different monitoring plans. There’s a basic version that comes with any security device you purchase, but you can also upgrade to a plan that includes 24/7 professional monitoring.

In between the free Basic plan and the professionally monitored Kangaroo Complete plan, you have the Cam Protect plan, which is for people who want the Kangaroo doorbell camera.

If all you need to make your house feel a little safer is a doorbell camera watching your front porch, then the Cam Protect plan gives you plenty of features and extended storage for your camera.

Kangaroo doesn’t offer a ton of equipment, but it comes with some thoughtful features.

Kangaroo’s security equipment reminds us of a budget version of a DIY home security system, like the Ring Alarm. And despite its low price tag, the Kangaroo system still includes some thoughtful features.

The full Kangaroo security system uses a square keypad/base station that you can arm and disarm with tags that go on your keychain, bag, or wherever else. You can also control the system through the Kangaroo mobile app.

Kangaroo offers three types of sensors:

• Motion + entry sensor
• Motion sensor
• Water + climate sensor

This is not the wide range of equipment you’d get from a big-time company like Vivint, ADT, or even SimpliSafe. But Kangaroo packs a lot into its minimalist offerings.

One Kangaroo feature we love is that it combines door/window sensors with motion detectors, so you get both functions in just one device. These sensors also have a button on them that you can press to quietly open a door to let your dog out at night without setting off your entire alarm system.

Along with the combo entry/motion sensor, you can also get a water/climate sensor. Most water sensors detect leaks, but this sensor can also detect temperature and humidity. It can alert you if an area of your house is getting too warm or too humid, so you can prevent problems like mold before they even happen.

Kangaroo has two cameras:

• Indoor + Outdoor Camera
• Doorbell Camera + Chime

Kangaroo offers two types of security cameras: the Indoor + Outdoor Camera and a doorbell camera.

We gotta be honest: neither of these is comes even close to ranking among our favorite indoor cameras or best doorbell cameras. But both of these budget security cameras come with some interesting features.

The Indoor + Outdoor Camera comes with a $250 theft or damage reimbursement. Including intelligent alerts, smart detection, and cloud and local storage.

Kangaroo Indoor + Outdoor Camera features: 

• HD 1080p resolution
• Night vision
• Two-way audio (with Kangaroo Complete plan)
• Motion detection
• Cloud storage
• Event-based recording (motion-activated video clips)
• Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant integration (with Kangaroo Complete plan)
• $250 theft or damage reimbursment 

Kangaroo does make you pay for some features most security cameras give you for free, including two-way audio and integration with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. It's pretty weird to require a subscription for that stuff.

As for the video doorbell, Kangaroo’s doorbell cam is a unique option. It’s by far the cheapest doorbell camera we’ve seen at only $39.99. (For comparison, the Ring Video Doorbell 3 costs $199.99 at the time of this writing. That’s a whole extra digit in there.)

For such a cheap price, this doorbell camera has a few quirks. For one, it doesn’t record in a continuous video clip. Instead, it combines a series of still images into a moving image—kind of like a flipbook.

Another thing is that the Kangaroo doorbell camera cannot be hardwired into your existing doorbell. That means, either you remove your doorbell and awkwardly leave the wires hanging around in the open air, or you install this doorbell somewhere near your other one and make your guests play a fun game of Guess Which Button to Press. Not ideal.

Kangaroo doorbell camera features: 

• 60º field of view
• Motion detection
• Night vision
• Operating temperature -4°F to 122°F (-22°C to 50°C)

The Kangaroo doorbell camera doesn’t work with your existing doorbell chime (you buy a separate one or use the Kangaroo keypad as a substitute). It also doesn’t offer two-way audio, so you won’t be able to talk to people on your porch.

All in all, it’s not our favorite video doorbell. But it is extremely cheap. If you just want something on your porch and can only spend a few bucks on it, this will serve you better than nothing.

Kangaroo doesn’t have many home automation features.

Kangaroo doesn’t offer much in the way of home automation. It will work with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant if you pay for the Kangaroo Complete Protect monitoring plan. Otherwise, it’s just you and a mobile app.

Kangaroo has only two smart home integrations:

• Amazon Alexa
• Google Assistant

In the future, we’d like to see Kangaroo expand its home automation offerings to work with Z-Wave, Zigbee, or at least IFTTT. In the meantime, you’ll have to stick to the settings you can choose on your smartphone.

Alexa and Google integration come with the Complete Protect monitoring plan.

With Alexa, you can arm and disarm your Kangaroo security system. With Google Assistant, you can also turn cameras on and off.

Access to the Kangaroo app is free with your system. You can use it to arm and disarm your system, view your camera feeds, check your sensor statuses, add new users to your account, and receive real-time security notifications.

The mobile app is pretty easy to use; although, in our experience, it got a bit glitchy sometimes. We saw some error messages that went away when we restarted the app, but it was a little annoying.

Kangaroo is easy to set up. Just watch out for deep doorframes.

Kangaroo is DIY all the way, so you’ll set everything up yourself. Thankfully, it’s not hard. In fact, Kangaroo’s simpler to get up and running than even some of the easiest DIY home security systems out there because you don’t have to fiddle with a hub.

Since all of Kangaroo’s sensors work as stand-alone devices, you just download the Kangaroo app and add the device to your Wi-Fi network.

Kangaroo offers live chat, email, and phone customer service support.

Kangaroo is too new on the scene to have much of a customer service reputation. There are some reviews on Trustpilot and Amazon, and most of them aren't great reviews.² But one thing we like about it is that Kangaroo gives you lots of different ways to reach its team.

You can contact Kangaroo through chat, phone, or email. For the phone-phobes out there, we appreciate the live chat option. As for social media, you can try reaching out to Kangaroo on Facebook, but it’s not present on Twitter.

Kangaroo has extremely low prices even compared to other DIY security systems.

Kangaroo is most comparable to Ring, although it doesn’t have as many home automation or security camera options.

Kangaroo has super-basic, but very cheap home security options.

If what you want is a single device or a basic home security system, Kangaroo makes it really easy to get what you need. You don’t have to buy a whole kit of equipment if you only want a couple of sensors. But if you want a smart home-ready security system with high-tech features and all the bells and whistles, you’ll want to look elsewhere.

• Pricing: Kangaroo is remarkably affordable. You’ll pay less than $100 for a full starter kit and even less if you just buy a couple stand-alone sensors. Even Kangaroo’s professional monitoring option is cheap at only $10 per month.
• Equipment: Kangaroo doesn’t offer a ton of equipment, but it builds thoughtful features into what it has. You can get combo entry and motion sensors as well as dual climate and water sensors. Kangaroo also offers an indoor camera and a doorbell cam—although the doorbell camera isn’t our favorite.
• Home automation: Kangaroo doesn’t have much going on as far as home automation goes. It works with Google and Alexa if you opt in to the right subscription plan.
• Installation: Installation is easy. Just download the Kangaroo app and select which device you want to add. No hubs, no internet router hookups, no problem. Just make sure your doorways are shallow enough to work with the entry sensors.
• Customer experience: Kangaroo gives you some convenient ways to reach out to its customer service team, including email and live chat. But this company is too new to have much public feedback on the customer experience.

Not sure if Kangaroo has everything you need? Check out our Best Home Security Systems review to see other DIY, affordable home security options, including SimpliSafe.

We tested a Kangaroo system, studied the Kangaroo website, and read user and professional reviews of the setup.

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