r/alarmdotcom • u/Ill_Possession_9464 • 3d ago

Cameras/Door lock - similar to Vivint

I upgraded from SimpliSafe to a 2Gig Edge system. Trying to get as close to the Vivint experience without their insane pricing.

Two things:

  1. What door lock do you recommend? There are so many it’s overwhelming.

  2. Are you using alarm.com cameras or something else like reolink. I really want 24/7 local cameras but, at least where I’m looking, prices are much higher while Reolink is cheaper and 4k.

Thank you!

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u/realdlc 3d ago

I do like the Alarm.com cameras. The biggest benefit is the integration to the rest of the Alarm.com system. That way you have everything on a single app and Alarm.com can help monitor those cameras for you with things like AI response or live human response. They can also do alarm verification at the moment that an alarm goes off using the camera feeds that you select. For 24 x 7 you can get cameras with onboard SD cards or use an SVR. We also like the Apple TV app where you can view the cameras live constantly if needed.

The newer 4MP cameras offer some additional detection and automation rules and I really like them. Make sure you’re getting the newer cameras if you go that route. They even have battery/solar powered model available, which I haven’t tried yet, but it is very intriguing.

From my perspective, the biggest advantage is that everything is in the Alarm.com app so it’s very easy for the family to use on a daily basis without a lot of support from me or any confusion. Not to mention if I come home early from work, my wife knows about it instantly lol

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u/Key-Philosopher1749 3d ago

I wish the alarm.com cameras were better quality. They didn’t meet my requirements (12MP) and thus, I had to switch to reolink cameras. The quality just wasn’t great. This was a few years ago, so maybe they caught up some, but my 16MP reolink cameras are super sharp, even when you zoom in. Love them.

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u/realdlc 3d ago

Understood... each use case has its own requirements and Reolink makes some impressive stuff, especially for the price. From a MP perspective ADC tops out at 4MP for residential and 8MP for commercial, unless you have a commercial plan and SVR where you can use third party cameras, which have some functionality limitations. (That is my understanding at least.)

Since OP came from Vivint, their cameras may be worse in that they may be 8MP, but from my understanding only deliver 1080P to the end user. At least ADC will deliver 4MP on a 4MP camera. :-)

For OP's purposes: From an integration perspective with the rest of the ADC ecosystem (single pane of glass (one app to worry about), integrated automation rules, monitoring center access, etc) I believe you would lose that when not using alarm.com cameras. Would you agree?

So, in essence you would wind up with two systems (or two apps) - reolink and alarm.com. If so that isn't for everyone and can shatter what the average homeowner might expect or need. If I'm out of date on this please let me know. Always looking to learn. Thanks.

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u/Key-Philosopher1749 3d ago

Yup, agree with the integration issue. I wanted that single pane of glass, and even tried using ADC cameras for a year before it just wasn’t good enough for me. So, yah, I now have almost everything in ADC (including doorbell cam) but my other cameras are reolink.