I’ve been seeing a lot of different systems out there (Simply Safe, Iris, Control 4, Piper, Smart Things, etc.). I’m leaning towards Simply Safe because there’s no monthly contract and they have flexible/modular system, but I would love to talk this out with you. I’m a software engineer so I like the smart phone app for the security system.
We have common career backgrounds as I used to be a software engineer too. Advice you get from me isn’t going to be unbiased. Our company is a direct competitor to Simplisafe. I think they have an OK security alarm product but it’s very rudimentary and cheap. If price is your only criteria then they’re probably the cheapest around.
Our competing service, suretyDIY, is just slightly more expensive but far more functional.
We have a higher quality central monitoring station and we use Alarm.com for the interactive features. Alarm.com is the leader in connected home, interactive security and affordable home automation. Simplisafe is at the opposite end of that spectrum. I feel the same way about their alarm system hardware. We mainly use 2GIG, Alarm.com, Resolution Products and Honeywell equipment. Those are all well funded, well designed and time tested brands that have been chosen by many millions of customers and professional security installers. Simplisafe hardware was developed for 1 reason, to make something usable as cheaply as possible to get people using their monitoring service. I think someone as computer savvy as yourself would prefer the more cutting edge functionality. Especially if you’re looking at options like Control4, Simplisafe isn’t a home automation system in any way. Alarm.com is.
http://www.alarm.com/productservices/interactivesecurity/interactive-security.aspx
Another thing to keep in mind is that while Simplisafe doesn’t lock you into a contract (neither do we), they do lock you in as a service provider because only they can monitor their equipment. You can’t switch away from Simplisafe to someone else, it’s manufactured so they are the only monitoring option usable with it. With suretyDIY, if you decided you didn’t like us anymore, you can easily be monitored by another Alarm.com service provider of your choice. We keep your business using top notch service, not equipment lock-in like Simplisafe.