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A lower monitoring fee can save money, but changing providers can also require new hardware, activation, installation and a payment to leave the old contract. The first-year cost can rise even when the new monthly price is lower. Compare the service that will remain after the change, including emergency response and camera recording.
The published plan fees below come from SimpliSafe’s residential support page, checked in October 2026. They provide real recurring-price examples, rather than a claim that any existing alarm can move to that provider. Cancellation, replacement-equipment and old-plan amounts used in the calculations are labeled assumptions to replace with account-specific quotes.
Key figures
- $9.99 SimpliSafe camera recording, monthly, no professional monitoring
- $22.99 SimpliSafe Standard professional monitoring, per month
- $32.99 SimpliSafe Core professional monitoring, per month
Published monitoring plans buy different services
SimpliSafe’s residential plan page lists Standard at $22.99 monthly and Core at $32.99. Both list professional emergency dispatch. The page says Standard does not include camera recordings, while Core includes recording features. A ten-dollar price difference can therefore reflect a feature difference rather than a discount on identical service.
The provider lists self-monitoring with camera recordings at $9.99 monthly and says it does not include professional monitoring. Pro Plus is listed at $79.99 monthly with additional outdoor protection features. Compare the offered residential plan instead of applying business-plan prices to a home.
| SimpliSafe residential option | Published monthly fee | Twelve paid months at that fee |
|---|---|---|
| Self-monitoring with camera recordings | $9.99 | $119.88 |
| Standard professional monitoring | $22.99 | $275.88 |
| Core professional monitoring | $32.99 | $395.88 |
| Pro Plus | $79.99 | $959.88 |
Source note: SimpliSafe’s own residential monitoring-plan page, checked in October 2026. Annual totals are twelve-times-monthly calculations before taxes, discounts, hardware and changes in price. Free trial months are excluded so the ongoing costs can be compared.
- Self-monitoring with camera recordings$9.99
- Standard professional monitoring$22.99
- Core professional monitoring$32.99
- Pro Plus$79.99
Source note: SimpliSafe's own residential monitoring-plan page, checked in October 2026. Annual totals are twelve-times-monthly calculations before taxes, discounts, hardware and changes in price. Free trial months are excluded so the ongoing costs can be compared.
Its marketing page also displays daily equivalents, but says plans are billed monthly and can be canceled without a long-term contract. Use the published monthly fee for a twelve-month budget rather than multiplying a rounded daily advertisement by 365 and calling that the billed annual price.
The old contract determines the exit payment
Find the end date, renewal terms, cancellation notice and any remaining equipment obligation in the existing agreement. A contract may treat monitoring, financed equipment and leased equipment differently. Stopping the service does not automatically settle a hardware balance or establish ownership of the installed devices.
FTC guidance tells buyers to obtain installation price, monitoring fees, contract period, discounts and warranty information before buying a home-security system. Use the same details when leaving one. Ask the old provider for a dated cancellation or payoff figure and the date on which monitoring ends.
For a hypothetical $200 exit payment, switching spends that amount before obtaining the new service’s savings. If there is also a hypothetical $350 equipment purchase, initial switching cost becomes $550. These amounts illustrate the calculation; they are not SimpliSafe cancellation or kit prices.
Avoid counting a refundable deposit as a permanent charge, or assuming a returnable device can be kept. Include equipment return shipping and installation removal only when they apply. The alarm-contract guide addresses renewal and sales terms that affect this starting total.
The monthly difference sets the recovery time
Assume the old professional monitoring costs $45 monthly and the new Standard plan costs the published $22.99. The difference is $22.01 each month. Across twelve paid months, that saves $264.12 in monitoring charges before switching costs.
With the hypothetical $550 initial cost, the first-year result is a net additional $285.88 of spending: $550 minus $264.12. Simple recovery time is $550 divided by $22.01, or about twenty-five months. The lower monthly fee has not yet made the first year cheaper.
If the exit payment is zero and equipment costs only a hypothetical $150, recovery is about 6.8 months at the same monthly difference. If switching requires $1,000 of equipment and labor, recovery extends to about 45.4 months. Those comparisons show why the installation scope matters alongside the recurring fee.
Changing to Core instead reduces the monthly saving against the assumed $45 old plan to $12.01. A $550 switching cost then takes about 45.8 months to recover. That may still be a reasonable feature choice, but it is a different financial comparison from the Standard example.
Reusing sensors requires a model-level answer
Give the proposed provider the control-panel model, sensor types and communication equipment. A statement that a company can monitor alarms does not prove it can reuse every existing wireless sensor or accept an old locked panel. Obtain a list of retained and replaced devices before accepting an installation price.
Separate the keypad, control unit, door contacts, motion sensors, siren, cameras and smoke or carbon-monoxide devices. A transfer that retains door contacts but replaces cameras is not an unchanged system. Camera footage and app history may also remain in the old provider’s account rather than migrate to the new one.
The camera-subscription guide explains recording costs separately from alarm monitoring. A cheap monitoring plan without saved video cannot replace a plan whose main value to the household was downloadable recordings. Likewise, self-monitoring cannot be described as equivalent professional dispatch simply because both send phone notifications.
Ask which phone, internet or cellular connection supports the new service, and which backup features require the selected plan. The alarm backup-power guide explains why power and communication are separate dependencies.
A tested handover protects service continuity
Agree when the new installation becomes operational and when old monitoring is canceled. A planned overlap can cost a little more while allowing tests and correction of problems. An unplanned overlap can instead leave two subscriptions running indefinitely.
If the old $45 monthly service stays active for one extra billed month, add that $45 to the switching comparison. The hypothetical $550 initial cost becomes $595, extending recovery at $22.01 monthly savings to about twenty-seven months. Whether a partial-month refund exists depends on the old agreement; do not assume it.
Arrange testing and any required test mode with the monitoring company or installer before triggering alarms. Have uncertain equipment compatibility or life-safety-device connections assessed by a security professional, then confirm emergency contacts and local permit requirements for the new service.
Keep cancellation confirmation, return tracking, new-plan terms and the successful test record. Review both accounts after the handover for unexpected billing. The decision is strongest when the service features, hardware scope, exit payment and recovery period are all visible before the change begins.
Questions people ask
What do the cited Standard and Core plans cost?
SimpliSafe's residential page lists $22.99 monthly for Standard and $32.99 for Core. Standard lacks camera recordings, so compare service features as well as price.
Does $9.99 self-monitoring include professional dispatch?
No. The provider says its self-monitoring-with-recordings plan does not include professional monitoring. It should not be priced as an identical replacement for dispatch service.
How is the 25-month break-even calculated?
The hypothetical old $45 fee minus the published $22.99 new fee saves $22.01 monthly. A hypothetical $550 of exit and equipment costs divided by that difference is about 25 months.
Can every existing sensor move to a new provider?
Do not assume so. Ask for a model-level list of devices the proposed system will retain, replace or leave unsupported, including cameras and life-safety equipment.
Where these figures come from
- Residential Monitoring Plan Options: Monthly Prices and Features SimpliSafe · support.simplisafe.com
- Alarm Monitoring: Monthly Billing and Cancellation Terms SimpliSafe · simplisafe.com
- How to Avoid Scams When You Shop for a Home Security System Federal Trade Commission · consumer.ftc.gov
Figures last checked October 2026.
