The Best Home Security Options in Austin, Texas

Overview
From taco trucks to Lady Bird Lake to Eeyore’s annual birthday party, there’s lots to love about Austin. But Austinites like you know that Texas’s capital has its quirks. If the high crime rates make you nervous, you might want a home security system.

You might already buy local products and services to keep Austin weird. In that case, you’re in luck, because you’ve got security options beyond big brands like ADT Home Security. There are a bunch of local alarm companies for you to choose from.

Let’s do a high-level overview of the Austin home security scene.

Local home security tends to be quirky. Small businesses sometimes do things that national companies can’t do in their larger-scale markets. This flexibility can provide extremely tailored service, but it can also create a frustrating experience.

Our encounter with Austin home security companies stood out, mostly in a bad way. More than one rep who spoke with us was impatient during our conversation, even borderline rude. Several also implied that they needed to do a home visit before they’d share even generalities about their services.

Most local home security companies in ATX use regular business hours for customer service. This is inconvenient if you need service during the night time or on a weekend. It also makes it hard to get in touch with your home security company if you work during business hours.

With a low cellular price, a no-contract option, and some fantastic freebies, Point Security’s the best ATX option overall.

Point Security’s cellular price is $29.99, including the app, with no additional price tiers. Add its no-contract option, its range of equipment, and its other potential freebies, and you’ve got yourself quite the deal.

As we said, Point Security offers one $29.99 price point for one tier of service. This makes pricing straight to the point (ba-dum-ching!). That’s less true for other companies with several different tiers of features.

You also don’t have to get a contract with Point Security if you buy your equipment up front. There’s normally a $199 activation fee; however, the basic package advertised on the Point Security site comes with free activation.

Point Security has a plethora of brands at its disposal. Your system might have pieces from Qolsys, Alarm.com, 2GIG, or Interlogix.

No matter who it’s made by, this is what a basic Bronze home security system includes:

• Control panel with built-in cell unit
• Door sensors
• A motion detector

With this package, the equipment is free, and so is the installation and activation. And if you need to customize your package, you can. You also have other preset options with more equipment: Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

Point Security’s customer service hours are a downer. Reps are available only during business hours, so if you work then, you’ll have to make a quick call on your way to lunch at Schlotzsky’s. You can’t save time by sending a message as the contact form on the website appears to be broken.

If y’all have a Point Security contract and need to switch houses, you get a free move. And happily, your contract terms won’t start over at the new place.

ASecureLife’s recommendation: Overall, we think Point Security is your best bet for a superior local home security experience.

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All Star Security has a variety of different package options, but its standout feature is the 24/7 customer service.

All Star Security has 24/7 customer service, something that’s hard to find in Austin home security. If you have a problem, day or night, you can reach out at your convenience.

All Star’s pricing system is a bit complicated. Here’s how we’d describe it:

• Monitoring starts at $14.99 per month for both landline and cellular systems.
• Installing equipment for a new or prewired system costs $299.00.
• If you want a cellular system, you must buy either a Datatel cell unit for $89.00 or an Alarm.com unit for $165.00.
• For a system with smart home integration, monitoring is $29.99 a month.
• Installing the smart home system equipment costs $349.00.
• For an upgraded control panel, you pay an extra $80.00.

All Star does either Qolsys or Alarm.com. A basic package from the website includes the following:

• Control panel
• Keypad
• Three door/window sensors
• A siren
• A transformer
• Two window decals
• One yard sign

We love that All Star has 24/7 service. Seriously, you never know when something might go wrong with your system. Quickly getting it back on board could be a matter of safety.

We also like that All Star lets you cancel month-to-month service if you’re moving. You have to reach out about 30 days in advance, but other than that, it’s relatively painless.

On the other hand, the rep who answered the phone was . . . less pleasant than he could have been. Could have been a fluke, but it doesn’t bode well for the customer service quality.

ASecureLife’s recommendation: Want 24/7 service? All Star Security has you covered.

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Granite Security Systems offers the best phone experience by far.

As we mentioned earlier in the review, the customer service reps in Austin didn’t impress us. But the Granite Security Systems rep was an exception. She was easy to talk to and genially answered each of our questions. This sample of how Granite treats customers over the phone makes this brand stand out in a drove of lukewarm phone reps.

Granite’s prices start at $26.96 plus taxes for a month of landline monitoring. If you want cellular, that’s $36.96 each month before tax. You also pay $10.00 more each month for the app.

If you’d like to get a headstart on your payments, you can do three months of landline monitoring for the reduced flat price of $75.00.

Granite’s partial to Alarm.com, which seems to be the only brand the company uses. There wasn’t any basic package info for us to peruse, but the rep assured us that the offerings are highly customizable.

While Granite operates in that weekday nine-to-five bracket, it also has an emergency phone line. That’s almost as good as 24/7 service. Sometimes it’s even better because the person on the other end immediately knows that it’s urgent.

We can’t emphasize enough how much we appreciated the friendly customer rep. It was a big difference when held up against the tepid and even ornery reps we spoke to for this review.

Finally, while we couldn’t get specific details, Granite’s security systems can be moved to a new home if needed.

ASecureLife’s recommendation: Call Granite Security Systems for a delightful phone experience.

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Austin’s Central Security does custom home automation at $50 per hr.

Central Security’s prices aren’t bad at all, and this brand has a no-contract option and some customer service hours on weekends. But the ability to get custom home automation at just $50 an hour is what really sets this one apart.

Your LTE system service starts at $19.99 a month for monitoring from UCC. If you don’t have reliable cell service, though, it’s $29.99. You can also commit to a year of service in advance and pay $220.00 for all 12 months. Either way, you’ll spend $100 on your basic equipment package.

As we said, smart home integration with Central is $50 an hour. Instead of splurging on a queso dinner or yoga classes, smarten up your home without the trouble of self-installing.

While we didn’t learn what comes in the $100 package, we can tell you that Central Security uses DSC equipment in its systems.

Central mostly does the ole nine-to-five humdrum, but it also has six welcome hours of customer service availability on Saturdays. That’s plenty of time to call, whether you do it before braving the day’s traffic or after lunching at Salt Lick BBQ.

The website is a bit of an eyesore, though it does provide some helpful information. And if you email the address on the site, you’ll likely get a response. We did, which thrilled us. Sometimes email’s just easier than phone calls.

While Central has a 90-day cancellation policy, if you want to move without canceling, you should be able to if you give the brand a week’s notice.

ASecureLife’s recommendation: Been eyeing smart home technology? Get a customized setup and a security system with Central Security.

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With Bigstar Smart Home Security, you can be more involved with the customization process and hopefully skip the home visit.

Bigstar shows that it cares by providing a customization tool and an FAQ on its website. Theoretically, you can use these resources to choose the best package without scheduling a home visit. That’s a nice change from other local companies.

We used the customization tool to create a basic package, which costs $27.99 each month to monitor. It was unclear whether you have to pay for the equipment separately or if it’s included with monitoring.

Bigstar uses a variety of brands, including Alarm.com and Qolsys. The custom home security package we created has the following:

• Control panel
• Motion and camera sensors
• Three door/window sensors
• Backup battery

While the Bigstar customization tool didn’t fully function for us, we were charmed by the convenience of the idea. Way to make customizing easy!

The customer service hours are pretty limited for this one, just like with Point Security. But Bigstar does have an advantage in that its service hours end slightly after regular business hours, so you can catch a rep on your way out of work.

Speaking of catching a rep, we weren’t able to. That meant we couldn’t find out some info, such as Bigstar’s moving policy, which lowered our rating of the customer service.

ASecureLife’s recommendation: Tired of brands that brag about their customization but don’t deliver? Try Bigstar Smart Home Security.

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We don’t take home security rankings lightly. To make the best possible recommendations, we pull the top 20 companies from review resources like Angie’s List and Yelp. We then look at company websites and do additional research to whittle down our list to the top five.

If a company didn’t make it on our list, then either it didn’t have enough buzz to make the top 20 or it didn’t meet our expectations for the top five. For instance, we eliminated Camm Security Inc., TriStar Security Services, and 512 Austin Locksmith fairly quickly because they don’t offer burglar alarm systems.

We talk more about other contenders in the Other Brands We Considered section.

By definition, we can’t include every notable ATX home security company in the top five. Here are brands that we didn’t pick but still deserve some attention.

Longhorn’s priced well at $29 per month, and it has convenient 24/7 customer service hours. This service considers itself a “boutique” security company with a no-contract option and customizable solutions.

While Longhorn’s offerings intrigue us, it’s a newer company with a less established track record. Its rep also sounded pretty annoyed when we reached out, making us less than enthusiastic about the brand’s customer service skills. We decided to pass on this one.

A Watchful Eye is an average option. Its pricing is a little higher than ideal. You can’t access the app unless you pay $45 for monitoring, and Watchful Eye has limited customer service hours and cellular systems only. But it doesn’t require contracts, so we kept it in the running for a while.

We ultimately dropped it because we found it a bit, erm, creepy. The logo’s a staring eye, and there’s an image of a sleeping child on the website.

We noticed that a bunch of people are searching for this company, so we included it in our top 20. Our initial research suggested that Blue Line runs a bit more expensive than the average ATX home security company. But we didn’t get a response to our email or phone call, so we’re not able to say much more about this one.

It depends. Austin’s crime index is 11, meaning it’s safer than 11% of US cities.¹ That’s not horrible, but it could be better.

Crime downtown is a bigger concern than crime overall. In October 2019, the Austin Police Department stated that crime in downtown ATX is up.² The spike shows 15% for the violent crime rate and 18% for the property crime rate.³

Luckily, there are things you can do to protect yourself, especially if you live downtown. Getting a security system is one of those things.

Yes. Both homes and businesses require a permit to use an alarm system in ATX.⁴ Each time the police respond to an alarm at a nonpermitted location, they issue a $220 fine.

In our opinion, there are very few situations in which security cameras or home automation devices are 100% required. A comprehensive alarm system adequately covers many security needs.

If you’re looking for cameras, here’s a guide to the best home security cameras. We also have guides to the following:

• Outdoor cameras
• Doorbell cameras
• Wireless cameras
• HD cameras
• Night vision cameras
• Cheap cameras
• Installing cameras

Plus we have a resource about the best home automation devices.

In Texas, home security companies need licenses.⁵ Read these guidelines to learn more about licensing requirements.

We’re less sure about bonds and insurance; we couldn’t find any laws or statutes that specifically say yea or nay.

Most of the time, yes. For clear information for your specific homeowners policy, talk with your insurance provider.

When it comes to Austin home security, here are our recommendations.

• Point Security: Point Security is our overall best option.
• All Star Security: If calling during regular customer service hours is a drag, All Star Security has 24/7 availability.
• Granite Security Systems: Granite Security Systems stands out for helpful and pleasant phone service.
• Central Security: Automate your home with Central Security’s custom offerings.
• Bigstar Smart Home Security: Take the first step in customization without even speaking to a rep with Bigstar Home Security.

If none of these tickles your fancy, you can always try our review of the best security systems. It gives helpful information about services like Vivint and ADT Home Security. Otherwise, happy security hunting, and keep Austin weird!

Sources:

1. Neighborhood Scout, “Austin, TX Crime Rates”
2. KVUE ABC, “Crime in Downtown Austin Is on the Rise, According to Police Chief”
3. KVUE ABC, “Crime in Downtown Austin Is on the Rise, According to Police Chief”
4. austintexas.gov, “Alarm Administration”
5. Texas Department of Public Safety, “Types of Company and School Licenses”