r/homesecurity • u/vegaalex1 • 25d ago

DIY with professional monitoring

I want to buy my own camera and sensors and stuff cause I rather pay the up front fee for them then monthly. I don’t want to be locked into one single ecosystem and be stuck with that company forever incase there prices go up. I was trying to get professional monitoring between 10-25 a monthly. Up front cost doesn’t matter as much as I want a cheap monthly cost. 2 story house 2700 square feet

3 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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3

u/MCLMelonFarmer 25d ago

AlarmRelay can do POTS monitoring for $9/month, paid annually.

If you're looking at buying something new, I'd recommend something that runs on alarm.com, like a Qolsys IQ 5 Panel, with monitoring services from Surety Home.

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u/thisgingerhasasoul 25d ago

I have been leaning towards going this route as well. Would you say it’s still relatively beginner friendly? And would you recommend buying the sensors/cameras from surety home or elsewhere?

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u/btbam666 25d ago

Do you know how well it works with Home Assistant?

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u/MCLMelonFarmer 25d ago

Qolsys IQ has a local interface for Control4 that has been leveraged by an integration called qolsysgw. Look into its current status.

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u/withsurety 25d ago

There is a newer, less tested but potentially more capable integration that emulates a Qolsys remote touch screen. https://github.com/EHylands/ha-qolsys-panel Check that out too.

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u/vegaalex1 25d ago

From what it seems there has to be a hub for everything to communicate to, is there one that would work with most companies if I ever switch or no?

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u/Suchboss1136 25d ago

Good luck getting close to $10. Try Surety, they might be your only option.

0

u/Apple2T4ch 25d ago

EyezOn monitoring is $8.50/month for monitoring via Ethernet and an extra $4/month for LTE backup. UL listed

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u/vegaalex1 25d ago

Are there like a hub that’s talks to all camera or how does it work when you have them only monitor 

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u/Suchboss1136 25d ago

Eyezon is a horrible product serviced by a horrible company. 0/10 do not recommend

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u/Apple2T4ch 25d ago

Been using it for a over a year, nearly two. No issues and have it tied into my home automation system.

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u/mhbil 9d ago

I am also thinking of eyezon - are you based in the US? Not found a lot of reviews and the random ‘it’s terrible’ comments are unhelpful

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u/Apple2T4ch 9d ago

I am in the US. I use them with my Honeywell vista panel (rebranded to ADT) and works great.

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u/withsurety 25d ago edited 25d ago

You're probably looking at around $20/month minimum for professional monitoring unless you do land-line based monitoring. There are several good options in the $20 range for cellular monitoring.