Vivint Security, formerly APX Alarm Security Solutions, is a high-end home security company that professionally installs residential security systems and more recently, solar equipment. The company is widely recognized for their innovation in security and home automation equipment, but their reputation has suffered due to aggressive sales practices in the past. If you want the latest home automation features, sleek design, and even extra data storage, then Vivint is a good fit for you.
What Makes Vivint Standout
Automation Innovation
Continually at the forefront of innovation, Vivint’s state-of-the-art home automation features control everything from lights to locks and support the latest IoT devices.
Sleek Design
Vivint’s contemporary design of some security control panels and sensors doesn’t clutter walls.
Smart Control
Vivint Sky Control Panel with cloud-based technology learns your habits and lets you control home systems remotely.
Vivint Packages and Prices
Vivint’s basic monitoring plan is Smart Security Monitoring which starts at $29.99 monthly. In this basic plan, mobile access is included, but you cannot use home automation or add any cameras.
The next level is the Smart Home Monitoring plan which starts at $39.99 monthly. This plan gives you an additional home automation feature that you can use voice control.
The expensive Smart Home Video Monitoring plan starts at $44.99 monthly, and with all features above, it allows you to add up to 6 cameras with extra fees – $4.99 per camera every month.
Sales reps will help you customize a package and spend a set amount of “points” on various sensors and services, which come “free” during various promotions. If, after you have your system for a while and can’t live without, say, automatic door locks, you can add equipment and pay upfront or over time. It’s cheaper if you pay for the equipment upfront.
Customer Satisfaction
- Warranty: Lifetime warranty on all the equipment. Service is free for the first 120 days of your contract. Thereafter, a $49 trip fee is charged.
- Risk-Free Trial: 3 days trial period.
Vivint Security Equipment & Cameras
Vivint home security systems are both wireless and cellular and contain some innovative devices like the doorbell camera. With their own in-house R&D division, the Vivint Innovation Center, the company continues to invest in developing new products and integrating with other smart home devices and systems to allow homeowners more options to improve the security, energy efficiency, and control of their home.
Standard Equipment: Vivint Sky panel, Choice of door and window sensors, glass break sensors, motion detectors, Solar activated yard sign, Window stickers
System Control
The equipment included in this group is used to manage and control the security system while home or away. It includes the control pads, portable devices (key fobs), and applications for smartphones.
Sky Control Panel
LCD touch screen, lets you view cameras and easily control system features. The panel also features two-way voice capabilities which allow you to speak with the monitoring station during an emergency.
Go!Control Panel
3.75 inch touchscreen control panel designed for accessing and controlling your system. The panel features two-way voice and remote control capabilities.
Key Fob
Arm and disarm your system up to 100 feet away. The key fob includes a panic button and can also operate your garage with the addition of Vivint’s garage door controller.
Vivint App
The free mobile app allows you to completely control your Vivint system and monitor your home from anywhere with your web-enabled device.
Intrusion Sensors
These devices support the primary role of the security system: detecting attempts to gain unauthorized entry into the protected home. Whether it’s opening a window or door or smashing through a sliding glass door, these sensors immediately send an alert to the control panel which triggers the system to connect with the monitoring station or send an alert to authorized users.
Motion Detector
The motion sensor can detect movement up to 50 feet away and can be programmed so pets weighing up to 65 pounds can roam freely without triggering the sensor to send an alert.
Door and Window Sensor
Designed to detect when a window or door is opened and signal the control panel immediately. The small size and discreet profile of these sensors allow them to blend easily with your home’s decor.
Glass Break Detector
With onboard audio analysis technology, this sensor identifies the sound profile and frequency range of breaking glass and immediately triggers an alert.
Recessed Door Sensor
Inserted into the door/doorframe or window/window frame, this sensor discretely detects the opening and closing of both.
Tilt Sensor
Vivint’s tilt sensor is designed to detect when a surface begins to tilt, such as a garage door, immediately triggering an alert and signaling the control panel.
Home Security Cameras
In addition to allowing homeowners to keep an eye on their home and yard while away with live streaming video, these devices can also record activity. Should you suffer a break-in, a video of the crime can be useful to police in identifying the perpetrators.
Fixed Video Camera
A simple, sleek designed video camera provides a fixed view inside the home, allowing users to view live video streams and keep an eye on their home while away.
Pan & Tilt Camera
This advanced video camera provides high-resolution images, can be controlled remotely to pan the room, and can support up to five viewers simultaneously.
Doorbell Camera
Vivint’s latest, award-winning innovation, the doorbell camera allows homeowners to see, hear and speak with people at their front door and will send out an alert when someone rings the bell.
Wireless Outdoor Camera
View live video feeds and recorded clips from the mobile app. The camera features privacy mode, motion detection, and night vision to capture and see what happens outside your home day or night.
Environmental & Life Safety
These devices help expand the security system’s ability to monitor the home for threats other than break-ins and send an alert if something is detected. From smoke and heat to gas (carbon monoxide), water leaks and extreme temperature changes, these devices support comprehensive home monitoring and safety for you and your family.
Smoke Detector
Monitoring the air in your home for smoke particles and extreme heat, the sensor sends an alert when the temperature rises quickly or an increase in smoke particles is detected.
Carbon Monoxide Detector
An electrochemical detector that identifies elevated levels of carbon monoxide, sounds an alarm and notifies the monitoring station if CO reaches dangerous levels.
Vivint Firefighter
Works with existing wired smoke detects. If a detector is triggered, the sensor responds by relaying the signal to the control panel, which notifies the monitoring station.
Panic Pendant
One of the smallest in the industry, with a push of the button, the pendant transmits an emergency signal which triggers an alert to the monitoring center. The panic pendant will only work within the range of the control panel.
Flood/Freeze Sensor
Protect your home from harmful water damage and at-risk temperatures. Users receive notifications when the temperature drops or rising water levels are detected.
Home Automation
Whether you’re remotely controlling your garage door, the temperature, or turning lights on/off, home automation adds convenience to your home and helps save you money while cutting energy costs. As a recognized leader in the home security and automation space, Vivint is sure to have something for everyone – their system supports many 3rd party IoT devices like Nest and Amazon Echo.
Automatic Door Locks
Keyless door locks with motorized dead bolts and remote control capability through your security panel or web-enabled device. An alarm sounds when three incorrect codes are entered.
Smart Thermostat
Vivint’s smart thermostat allows homeowners to automate and program their heating and cooling system, making your home more comfortable and energy efficient.
Light & Appliance Control
Manages lighting and small appliances from your smartphone or computer like a coffee pot, so you never have to worry whether you left something on after you’ve left home.
Garage Door Controller
Never worry if the garage is left open again. This controller lets you remotely control your garage door with your Vivint app or Key Fob controller.
Vivint Home Security Reviews
Our Opinion
Vivint continues to be a market leader in home security with a focus on emerging technologies. Their commitment to staying on the cutting-edge of the home security and automation industry with their own internal R&D division is paying off as they continue to release new products to both critical and consumer praise for the increasing smart home market.
Vivint’s corporate team has acknowledged their shortcomings and are making strides to improve the overall customer experience to be on par with their continuing excellence in product development. We look forward to this industry leader’s ongoing commitment to excellence for their customers in all aspects of the relationship.
Vivint Customer Reviews
Vivint’s reputation has been marred by several lawsuits alleging aggressive and/or misleading sales practices and failure to honor cancellation notifications. Vivint’s D- rating with the Better Business Bureau reflects the overall sentiment of their customer base. While they obviously have many happy customers, the company will need to continue to work on some trouble spots that are echoed in online customer reviews. Other review sites such as Yelp (1 out of 5) and Pissed Consumer (1.5 out of 5) even better illustrate the frustrations of some customers.
On a positive note, many happy customers applaud Vivint’s automated thermostat control in their reviews, as well as their two-way voice option, which lets customers talk to monitoring staff through the control panel.
Vivint Employee Reviews
Employees evidently think better of Vivint than some customers. They like the onsite basketball and volleyball courts, and the free food for every eight hours worked. Other perks include onsite medical clinics, gyms and 401(k) eligibility after 90 days employment.
What Indeed Says About Vivint
- 3.3 stars (out of 5).
- Top Kudos: Good work/life balance and job security and advancement.
- Top Complaints: Compensation/benefits and long hours.
Past Legal Issues
Vivint’s aggressive sales practices helped increase their customer base, but not without cost. In February, 2015, the company paid $6 million to settle a class action suit filed by consumers who alleged receiving repeated automated telemarketing calls from Vivint. The company In 2012, Vivint settled with the Wisconsin Attorney General’s office and agreed to refund up to $148,000 to consumers who felt misled about cancellation policies and additional charges for false alarm.
About Vivint Home Security
Vivint’s History
Vivint calls itself a “smart home technology provider” offering home security, energy management, home automation, cloud storage and high-speed Internet to customers throughout the U.S. and Canada. It’s an industry amalgam that leveraged its home security street creds to gain a foothold in the burgeoning home automation space, giving it room and opportunity to grow far bigger than just an alarm company.
The company originated in 1999 when Todd Pedersen and Keith Nellesen co-founded APX Alarm Security Solutions Inc., a professionally-installed security company based in Provo, Utah. Through the years, APX has grown, acquiring a monitoring station in St. Paul, Minnesota and offering Go!Control, the first self-contained, remote-access touchscreen panel. In 2009, APX expanded from a security-only company to an affordable home automation company, soon after rebranding itself as Vivint, a mashup of “vive,” (to live) and “intelligent.” In 2011, the company launched Vivint Solar, and the next year, the Blackstone Group acquired Vivint for more than $2 billion. The company now claims more than 850,000 customers.
Where Vivint is Headed
Vivint is all about innovation, recently introducing its Sky control panel that learns your habits and controls home systems including heating, air conditioning and door locks. These features sync with the company’s solar services.
Cool Stuff on the Horizon
Hard to tell what the hardware engineers and software geeks are cooking up in Vivint’s Innovation Center, but we’re confident it will be attractive in both form and function and will continue to advance Vivint as an innovative leader in the space.
What To Expect When You Call
Vivint’s sales consultants will offer you a 42-to-60-month home security monitoring contract and schedule an appointment for system installation. Their monitoring contracts are longer than many others but include a price-lock for the duration of the agreement. Many other alarm companies retain the right to adjust their monitoring rates during the contract period.
During the call, be prepared to pay a $99 activation fee to secure your installation appointment. The fee is refundable if you change your mind.
During the installation appointment, the technician will explain the features of your system and provide you with a service contract for signature. If you want to back out, that’s the time, and any fees already paid will be refunded. After installation, the technician will connect the system to your Vivint online account which allows you to pay your monitoring bills and manage the system.
Vivint offers a lifetime warranty on all their equipment – malfunctioning equipment will be replaced within 48 hours at no additional cost during the first 120 days. Afterwards, you will be assessed a $49 service fee.
