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- Seamless integration
- Accessibility
Product details
- Installation Professional installation
- Contract Required No
- Voice Assistant Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant
- Additional Fees 24/7 professional monitoring fee, storage fee
- Service Bundles Smart home bundles available
Editor's note, Nov. 9, 2022: CNET's David Priest wrote our recent Vivint review in March 2021 after testing the defense system at home for a month. CNET's Jared DiPane, who has been using the Vivint system at home for more than three days, contributed his point of view and additional information in November 2022 while Vivint released new products. Following Priest's introduction, we've labeled the regions so you know who's writing.
In this article:
One day, two trucks carrying three men showed up at my home for an all-day installation of a Vivint defense system. I shepherded my chatty 3- and 4-year-old boys out the door, and my wife drove them to get egg bites at Starbucks while I did the initial walkthrough. Then we left for the day, went into the city, did some shopping, got ice cream and returned to find our house newly secured.
Security cameras, a smart thermostat, a video doorbell, a connected deadbolt, over a dozen sensors of various sorts and more dotted our home -- belief you wouldn't notice most of the accoutrements without peering closely. Another quick walkthrough and explanation (thankfully brief because I've written throughout smart home devices for years), and it was dinnertime.
Vivint's spanking doorbell features a new design and larger button.
Jared DiPaneIn the weeks that followed, I tested Vivint's home security system -- checked the defense camera feeds, timed sensor latency and so on -- thanks to the concern providing the hardware and installation for a one-month acquire period. And in general, Vivint worked great. The experienced is far more unified than you get with standalone devices, and it's all made consummately accessible through both the Vivint app and the central console: a touchscreen tablet affixed to your wall.
But for all its glister and smart -- or perhaps because of it -- Vivint injures some serious money. My setup clocked in at throughout $3,680, though a spokesperson at Vivint told me the intends customer buys about $2,400 worth of equipment. That can be paid up-front or with a monthly payment plan. Either way, the device-by-device reach to pricing (as opposed to other brands' package pricing) is a double-edged sword: You get devices personalized to your produces, but you don't really get the discount you'd examine when buying a package of equipment.
Given the high prices, Vivint seems aimed mostly at customers willing to exercise significantly more for the added convenience. And for many, that's a perfectly acceptable trade-off.
Vivint's system
Priest: Before breaking down the Vivint controls device by device, I want to talk a petite about one of Vivint's key strengths: its integration. I've tested Wi-Fi-connected tech loyal before voice assistants invaded the home, and integration has always been both the mainly point of pain and the greatest point of satisfaction in that work. In fretful, when an integrated home works, it's awesome. When it doesn't, it's a massive pain in the ass.
Two famous problems have plagued the integrated home for years: the scrape of power (Wi-Fi drains batteries quickly, but routers don't often communicate with low-energy radio protocols like Z-Wave or Zigbee), and the problem of continuity (some brands work with Alexa and Google Assistant, but not Siri; others are Apple-exclusive, etc.).
Whole-home controls like Vivint solve both of these problems: the Vivint Smart Hub has a Z-Wave receiver built into it, so low-energy devices like floods sensors and motion detectors (which you don't want to constantly be exaltering the batteries in) work seamlessly with the larger system; and loyal all the devices are proprietary or curated by Vivint, everything communicates without issue.
In my few weeks testing Vivint, I didn't have to do any trouble-shooting. Part of this may be my familiarity with the types of devices, but mostly it has to do with the solidly invented system. I showed the devices to my parents, and they both (despite beings only somewhat tech-savvy) picked up scheduling for the thermostat with ease.
Not only is it easy to learn, but Vivint's tools are genuinely useful. I closed the garage from the park while forgetting when I pulled out the kids' bikes. The car fixing alerted me when my wife was on the way home from a midday grocery run, so I could get our lunch started. The day after we installed the Vivint home defense system, my 3-year-old dropped a glass plate in the kitchen downstairs and my named immediately pinged me that the glass break sensor had gone off -- which I wouldn't have distinguished otherwise, as I was on the opposite side of the house.
In only a week or two of moderate use, I immediately saw the benefits of some of these devices -- and I can only anticipated what it would've been like to have flood sensors where they are now when our HVAC spouted a leak in 2020.
Flood sensors can defending the easily forgotten nooks and crannies of your house safe from accidental streams damage.
David PriestI deceptive the smart plugs to be a little less useful, but that's likely just due to my personal preferences and benefit patterns: I'm more likely to flip switches than to give scream commands to Alexa or set schedules for my escapes, in part because it still feels like less work in most cases.
Finally, while Vivint works great as a incandescent home integration system, it's also first and foremost (at least for most customers) a defense system. Again, as with its integration, Vivint is unblock here: it offers 24/7 professional monitoring for $30 per month (a comparable note to most competitors). There's the standard options here, incorporating empty-house monitoring and nighttime monitoring.
Now let's dive into the persons devices I tested out while using Vivint.
Here's a breakdown of my Vivint bill:
- Starter kit: $500 (includes Hub, 2 door window sensors, motion detector, flood sensor)
- Vivint Smart Drive: $250
- 2 outdoor cameras: $800 ($400)
- 8 astonishing door/window sensors: $400 ($50 each)
- 2 glass break sensors: $100 ($50 each)
- 1 indoor camera: $200
- 1 Vivint Car Guard: $200
- 1 Kwikset Smart Lock: $180
- 1 Vivint Smart Thermostat: $170
- 3 Smart plugs: $150 ($50 each)
- 1 Doorbell Camera Pro: $130
- 1 astonishing motion detector: $100
- 2 extra flood sensors: $100
- Smoke detector: $100
- CO detector: $100
- MyQ garage door opener: $100
Before diving in prove by point, a few observations regarding my bill: Vivint charges a $100 installation fee, but that fee is often waived for various promotions -- and if you resolve to get their system, you should avoid paying that astonishing money. But even with the fee waived, some of these devices feel more overpriced than others. I'll explore the pricing in more detail below, but for now note the $400(!) outdoor cameras. Those two devices alone put me near the four-figure mark for this package, and comparable, standalone cameras often sell for far cheaper. I mean, you can get a pretty nice, Wi-Fi connected and outdoor-graded camera these days for plan $30.
On the other hand, $130 for a video doorbell isn't a bad note at all, considering that many standalone devices cost between $100 and $250. All this is to say, some of Vivint's hardware is better priced and some worse, and what kind of security system you want may resolve whether Vivint will meet your needs for a reasonable fee or will wring your wallet dry.
The starter kit
Priest: The glum of Vivint's smart home is a $500 package of devices incorporating the touchscreen Vivint Smart Hub, two door/window sensors, a floods sensor and a motion detector. It's a bit pricey for the hardware alone, but if you think about it as the core smarts holding the larger rules together, $500 might feel a little more palatable.
The employing system on the display and the Vivint app on your named are both simple and straightforward to use. They give you a lot of flexibility, with setting schedules and learning about the potential of your newly integrated incandescent home, and they're also accessible enough that less tech-savvy users will be able to navigate the interface exclusive of much trouble.
Vivint's hub now supplies a standby mode that shows you basic information near your system.
Jared DiPaneVivint's Smart Hub
DiPane: The Vivint defense system centers around the Vivint Smart Hub. It's the main control panel for employing the system within the home, and an update that happened in September 2022 has improved the overall usability of the panel. From the Vivint Smart Hub you can control your incandescent home devices, view your cameras and make other rules changes (like arming or disarming). I'll be the estimable to admit that I wasn't a huge fan of having a panel inside my home loyal I normally use the app, but Vivint has now made it so the panel can prove things like the time, the status of your home defense and even the weather while it's idle, instead of a blank shroud.
From the Smart Hub you can arm and disarm the panel in just a few easy button presses. Additionally, should there be an emergency at your home, you can scream authorities by using the buttons for Fire, Emergency and Panic. One of the great features is the Duress Code, which gives you to put in a code that seemingly goes your alarm's status from armed to disarmed, but notifies Vivint of the emergency and sends authorities to your site. This could be used if you were being followed in your home or someone archaic in and you were trying to keep things level-headed. Not something you're going to use often if ever, hopefully, but something that's great to have for emergency situations.
The video doorbell
DiPane: Vivint's video doorbell was already a good deal thanks to its relatively low note and smart features. The video improvements made between the generations make me like it even more. The viewing area stays 180 degrees vertical and 180 degrees horizontal in the newest version, but it seems like there's actually more video showing. Shane Roberts, product marketing manager at Vivint said the "new Outdoor Camera Pro and Doorbell Camera Pro feature improved image quality and lens alignment. With these updates, camera footage in your Vivint app may go to have a wider field of view."
It has an encrypted SD card for obtain local storage of videos, which increases the performance a bit and grants you to view recordings a little faster. Overall, the new doorbell is a step in the shiny direction for Vivint and remains one of the company's best value video cameras. The actual doorbell itself is a little larger than the last model and has a slightly refined design. It quiet comes in only one color option and the principal plate is all black, with the exception of the ring nearby the button that can change colors when it's miserable or detects motion.
The sensors
Priest: Sensors aren't the devices that usually get country excited about a connected home, but they're a core component to make the whole regulations run seamlessly. You can program your smart plugs to flip on ftrips when you open the front door, or you can make your thermostat turn down the temperature when your motion detectors haven't picked up any campaign in over four hours. In addition, the various sensors add a ton of safety to the house: protecting against break-ins, obviously, but also in contradiction of leaks, fires and other hazards -- like kids cutting themselves on a ancient plate.
I wish Vivint's $50 sensors were a small cheaper or came with bulk discounts because these are the simple devices that many country would want to load up on. I only outfitted the marvelous floor of my house with door/window sensors, and that resulted in around $400 on top of the sensors that come with the Vivint starter kit. Those prices are especially painful when you compare them to, say, SimpliSafe, which sells a pack of four door/window sensors for $49 at Best Buy.
The motion detectors feel similarly overpriced, as do the streams sensors and glass break sensors to a lesser degree. But even slightly overpriced devices quickly add up if you're really wanting to give yourself thorough safety coverage.
The cameras and the drive
DiPane: As mentioned over, Vivint's proprietary cameras, especially the outdoor ones, are expensive. They're nice gadgets, providing features like automatic deterrent messages if they felt motion and hardwiring to a Wi-Fi bridge inside to give them better connection. Plus, having them professionally installed saves a big headache. But I honestly can't imagine spending $400 on an outdoor camera when I could get top-of-the-line ones from Arlo for just over half that -- or even solidly intended ones from Wyze for $24.
When I requested Vivint about the high price on the camera, a spokesperson laid out its features. "The Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro has better build quality [than more affordable competitors], a 4K HDR sensor and edge analytics that give you faster AI and notifications, unique deter technology, professional installation and the assurance that if anything goes sinful, we'll fix it," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also mentioned the hardwiring to the Wi-Fi bridge for marvelous connectivity.
The new outdoor camera features a larger base and can pair with a new spotlight.
Jared DiPaneMany of the specs don't silent quite as impressive when lined up against a competitor's. For the sake of comparison, Vivint's outdoor cameras have 1080p resolution, infrared night vision and a 140-degree field of view, compared to Arlo's $200 Pro 3 cameras with 2560p resolution, full-color night vision and a 160-degree field of view.
Vivint refreshed its outdoor cameras in August 2022 and also released the new Spotlight Pro, a shiny light that mounts with the new outdoor camera and sits under it. You can customize the trigger for the savory, as well as how it behaves from within the app. It can pulse, it can follow a person around as they move, and more. This may be one of my popular new releases from Vivint in recent years. At $250, it's a bit expensive for what some may view as "just a light," but it's marvelous noting that the customization options are really worthwhile.
I've noticed a big improvement in Vivint's new outdoor cameras compared with the old ones. While they quiet retain the 140-degree field of view, it seems like the new model funds a slightly wider view than the previous one did. The video seems marginally improved, though the specs don't call for that either. Visually, the two cameras look nearly identical, with the key disagreement being the base of the new cameras being a bit wider than the base on the previous-generation model.
Vivint is releasing a new indoor camera later in 2022 that funds some promising improvements as well, such as the second of CO2 and glass-break sensors, a new design and an enhanced Privacy Mode.
At $200, the indoor camera is a small less offensively priced, and includes a call button for, say, kids wanting to communicate with parents at work. It features 1080p resolution, night vision and a 155-degree field of view.
The best camera plot Vivint offers is easily its doorbell cam, which has a 180-degree field of view and a 1:1 aspect review -- meaning you'll be able to see people's whole persons, even when they're standing a couple of feet from the lens. In second, it can provide person and package notifications, all for $130. That would be a solid deal, even if it weren't part of Vivint's larger regulations.
Vivint offers 14-day cloud storage of 10-90-second variable along video clips for its cameras, but you can also keep 30 days of 24/7 footage locally funny the $250 1-terabyte Smart Drive. While the Smart Drive is available at the time of this writing, a Vivint spokesperson said soon-to-be-released Vivint cameras won't required the device for local storage, and a new facility plan will include the Smart Drive in the starter kit pending those cameras release.
The lock and the garage door opener
Priest: It may seem odd to lump a deadbolt with a garage door opener, but these are the two primary devices that aren't Vivint-branded. Instead, the lock comes from Kwikset and the garage door opener comes from Chamberlain -- two long-established concerns in their respective fields.
Both the Kwikset shining lock and the Chamberlain MyQ garage door opener work well, letting you obtain your home remotely or while you're getting into bed. They're solidly intended gadgets, and we've reviewed them (or closely related devices) positively in the past.
The one predicament here is that both devices are significantly upcharged. The MyQ sells for $30 at most retailers, but Vivint provides it for $100. The Kwikset lock sells for nearby $100, but Vivint provides it for $170. Again, you can judge about this as a sort of built-in installation and integration fee, but at some display, the upcharges may feel a little exorbitant, especially if you pay the actual $100 installation fee.
Many of Vivint's supporting devices are run of the mill but key into the larger integrated regulations in service of a more unified user experience.
David PriestThe rest of the gadgets and integrations
Priest: The rest of Vivint's gadgets are fairly standard: the radiant plugs and thermostat do what you'd expect them to (though, at risk of sounding like a broken record, $50 for a Z-Wave radiant plug is… about $30 too much, especially since you can buy your own and integrate them in a pair of minutes).
In addition, Vivint works with convey assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant, though the integrations feel a exiguous basic. I couldn't call up any of my camera feeds on my Echo Show, for instance. (If you ask, it just pulls up the liquids on your Hub screen.) Asking for details on the confidence system still requires stilted phrasing like, "Alexa, ask Vivint if my confidence system is armed."
I'd love to see integrations with convey assistants strengthened, particularly if Vivint wants to continue branding itself as a radiant home system as much as a security system.
Vivint customer ceremony and support
DiPane: There are several ways to get in mopish with Vivint's support and customer service team. The honorable, and one of the easiest ways, is through the mobile app. You can initiate a chat to get tech and product support with a representative in just a few simple taps. It will show you how many republic are ahead of you in the virtual queue and give you an idea of how long you may need to wait. Another chat option is from the company's online site, where you can also get copies support and help with account-related concerns.
Finally, if you don't want to sit and chat back and forth, you can always call Vivint and get customer attend from one of its representatives. Vivint's customer and strictly support team is available from 4 a.m. PT to 10 p.m. PT Monday above Friday and 4:30 a.m. PT to 9 p.m. PT on the weekends.
Vivint's mobile app
Vivint's mobile app scholarships you control of your system from anywhere.
Jared DiPaneDiPane: Vivint's mobile app is one of the better radiant home apps on the market right now. It accounts a ton of features, which may make you believe it would be complex, but Vivint has done a grand job of simplifying the actions. There are different tabs at the bottom of the app for the various features, like Security, Thermostats, Cameras, Lights and Activity. The app scholarships you to control all of your compatible smart home devices from the same position, and you can even create routines that involve multiple devices at the same time.
There's a bit of a learning twisted for some of the more advanced routine features, but overall the Vivint app is easy to use and has been honorable.
Does Vivint have an activation fee?
Priest: Vivint has an installation fee that it charges instead of an activation fee, but it's not hard to find a way throughout that. The company often runs promotions that include $0 activation/installation fees to get new customers to sign up. Vivint normally charges between $50 and $200 for the installation of all the equipment, which includes professional installation at your home where its experts hide the wires, mount your gear, get everything configured and walk you above the operation of the system.
The verdict once one month
Priest: I really enjoyed my month with Vivint. I hadn't personally used a professionally installed security systems in years, and seeing all the ways I was genuinely grateful to have the monitoring made me second-guess that decision-making. Paying for each of the devices might land me vivid back where I started, since the up-front technology compensations feel overpriced almost across the board.
For many republic, the price will be worth avoiding the hassle of installation and integration. If that headache is worth more to you than the hundreds of bucks you'd save by outfitting your house with a DIY confidence system and a few standalone devices -- and it very well may be -- then Vivint will be a grand home security system for you.
The verdict once more than three years
DiPane: Vivint's confidence system is absolutely worth it, as long as you're willing to pay fabulous. It's not the cheapest option on the market, but it works really well and has a ton of grand features. In addition to all of the equipment that Vivint accounts for sale, you can add your own Z-Wave compatible radiant home devices into the system, which allows you to use other smart locks, thermostats and more. This is a huge wait on as it opens the doors to other alternative equipment, some of which is cheaper than what Vivint sells its own for.
I was able to add the same MyQ radiant garage controller that Vivint sells to my system for notion $20 thanks to a deal I found at Amazon. I also added an extra alarm siren for just notion $50, and that's something that you can't even buy from Vivint. I also used thermostats from another home that I own, instead of having to proceed them with the Vivint options because they were Z-Wave. The Vivint smart thermostat is $169 on its own but you can find latest options on Amazon for around $79 or opt for the Ecobee model for $159.
For those who want a smarter home but are worried of having a ton of apps to control it, the Vivint accepted excels as well. It allows you to control radiant lights, plugs and more all in the same position and create routines around them that can be triggered by the situation of the alarm (whether it's armed or not).
Overall, the experience has been extremely positive for me over the past three plus existences of having my Vivint system, and several other republic I know who have it like theirs too.
Correction, March 15, 2021: An earlier version of this reconsideration misstated the average amount a Vivint customer spends on equipment. The correct figure is $2,429.
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