Just bought some parts from
Simpisafe to start building a home security system for my house. I got the base station, a keypad, 3 entry sensors, a panic button and a camera. The camera was free and I got 15% off with a promo they were running. I imagine they'll have Black Friday deals soon.
Very easy to set up. I got sensors for the doors and a panic button for the bedroom. I'll add more sensors every now and then. You can have up to 41 "devices" attached to the base unit. Everything is wireless. The camera requires power, but transmission is wireless. Not really sure what to do with it, but I have mounted it in the garage for now.
I'm not having it monitored, yet. I really don't want to. I just want it to scream bloody murder if someone trips it. The camera really is useless unless it's monitored but they have a basic $5/month plan for that. If you don't have at least that, there's no way to save recordings.
I paid $210 for what I got. Sensors are $15 each and I'll need about 20 more if I arm every window, and I probably will. So I'll be into this for around $500. A doorbell camera is another $170.
The good: Relatively cheap and expandable. You don't have to buy it all at once. Very easy to install and it worked first time. You don't have to pay monthly for monitoring.
The bad: Camera is useless without a plan.
So far so good. I have 60 days to return it if I don't like it.