Ring Alarm is the most comprehensive home security system for people who want no-contract 24/7 monitoring. With kits starting under $200, it’s also among the cheapest. App control and self-monitoring are free, or you can opt for Ring’s Protect Plus plan, which at $10 per month (or $100 per year) offers the most affordable live-monitoring option of any we tested. That monthly fee also includes cellular backup, fire protection, 60 days of video storage for an unlimited number of cameras, and a lifetime warranty for equipment damage. Ring Alarm offers as many (or more) security accessories as other packages we reviewed, allowing you to design the best system for your home. In fact, it’s the only system that integrates indoor, outdoor, and video doorbell cameras without charging additional monitoring fees for online video storage. It also works with Alexa (which shouldn’t be surprising, since Amazon is Ring’s parent company), but not with Google Assistant or Apple HomeKit.

The Ring Alarm is the most comprehensive system we tested, with the most affordable monitoring plan we found.

The Ring Alarm system also has a self-monitoring option, something that’s unheard of among professionally installed systems. That means even if you don’t pay the monthly fee, the system will still alert you through your smartphone if it detects a threat, but you are responsible for contacting emergency services such as the police or fire department—so your phone needs to stay on and you need to be willing to field alerts, even at 2:00 a.m. It’s nice that the system has a monitoring option, though, in case you don’t always want that responsibility, such as when you’re on vacation.

When we first reviewed the Ring Alarm system in September 2018, it was lacking several important add-ons as well as smart-home integration. The company has since updated the system, pushing it into our top spot. Currently, you can expand the Ring Alarm system with water leak sensors, a smoke/CO listener for existing detectors, a 95 dB external siren, and more. The Ring Alarm system also now integrates with the company’s other devices, such as video doorbells and security cameras, as well as third-party devices via its Works With Ring program.

Ring’s contact sensors and base station are a bit bulkier than those of some of its competitors. At 6.7 by 6.7 by 1.4 inches, the latter looks exactly like the original Wink Hub (that’s not a compliment). But it has the ability to connect via Ethernet or Wi-Fi, so you can hook it to your router or place it in another area of your home to prevent wireless range issues affecting sensors and other devices. (Ring also sells range extenders, if you have problems with alarm components connecting to the base station. We didn’t find them necessary in our 1,200-square-foot house, though.)

In our tests, the Ring Alarm system sent smartphone alerts within 4 seconds of the alarm being triggered, with email alerts as an option as well. You can set the siren to follow up within 30 to 180 seconds to hopefully frighten off any intruders. Verification calls from Rapid Response, a third-party partner service, came within 60 seconds of our 113-decibel siren (per our measurements) being triggered; you can disarm it by using the app or by giving your personally chosen safe word to the monitoring service. Although monitoring is 24/7, customer service is only available from 8 a.m. to midnight, Eastern time. The base station also alerted us when it was disconnected from power, and it delivered on its promise of 24 hours of battery backup.

Both the iOS and Android apps feature the ability to disarm or arm the system in home or away modes right from the home page, and they also offer one-touch access to live views and recordings on all connected cameras. You can find other devices under the settings menu. Ring has also added support for two-factor authentication (2FA), which adds an extra layer of security by prompting you to enter a passcode that comes to your mobile phone via text message. (To enable 2FA, which we strongly recommend, open your Ring app, tap Account, tap Two-Factor Authorization, and tap Turn on Two-Factor.)

The app also includes one-touch access to Neighbors, a sort of neighborhood-watch social network that allows users to report and monitor suspicious activity in a zone that you can customize from about 500 feet up to 5 miles. Neighbors is part of the Ring app, whether you post to it or turn off notifications; there’s no way to delete it or hide it in the app. You don’t even have to be a Ring device owner to be part of Neighbors; there is a standalone Neighbors app for iOS and Android devices. All users can post messages, photos, or links, which are expected to adhere to community guidelines. There has been a lot of controversy about how Neighbors manages users’ privacy. Ring says it is addressing some of those concerns with Control Center, which allows users to manage Ring devices and connections to third-party services, as well as opt out of law enforcement requests made through the Neighbors app. Other privacy and security settings are expected to follow, and we will report back with testing notes after those features launch. For now, we should stress that camera recordings associated with the Ring Alarm aren't shared with others automatically: The only way someone can view your activity is if you post it to Neighbors. If you decide to do that, anyone in your area can view your posts, including neighbors but also participating law enforcement officials, per the Neighbors privacy policy.