I compared it against quite a few other systems, including:
- Simplisafe
- Nest
- Vivint
- ADT
Abode is unique among all of the other systems in that all self-monitoring functionality remains enabled, even if you don't subscribe to their professional monitoring. All of the other systems have some kind of ongoing subscription/contract in order to unlock the full-features of your system, even the self-monitoring features. All of the features of Abode remain enabled, regardless of if you subscribe to their professional monitoring services.
This, to me, shows the true character of a business. They want to provide a great product at a fair price instead of "locking up" their customers in to unnecessary ongoing obligations. No contracts, and professional monitoring is available if you want it. They even allow short vacation-length monitoring for when you need just a little bit.
SimpliSafe has been bothering me of late because they have been getting more and more popular and I'm seeing their advertisements everywhere. Their biggest problem is that they disable the majority of self-monitoring functionality unless you subscribe to their monthly service. This means I cannot see door statuses, etc. on my own phone connected locally to my own security system unless I pay them an ongoing fee every month. This is completely unacceptable.
Abode can do everything simplisafe can do plus contains a considerable amount of other features, automations, and integrations, and includes all self-monitoring features, for free.
I understand the hardware is a little more expensive up front, but I cannot reiterate strongly enough how much it is worth it! Abode is such a ridiculously superior system it boggles my mind why anyone would choose SimpliSafe (or the others) instead.
