Alarm Company Monitoring Stations: Are They The Same?

One of the biggest misconceptions in the alarm industry is that an alarm company and an alarm company monitoring station are one in the same.  While this may be the case with some alarm companies it is not universal.  Alarm company monitoring stations can either be owned and operated by the company itself or a completely separate entity.  Today we’ll explain the difference between alarm company monitoring stations that are operated by the alarm company and ones that are operated on their own.

First let’s figure out what exactly the difference is between an alarm company and a monitoring station.  The alarm company is normally the group of people that are selling you on the alarm system, installing it and providing support and/or service to the system after installation.  The monitoring station are the people that are responding when your alarm is triggered and contact the local authorities if needed.  Sometimes the alarm company owns and operates its own monitoring station, or several monitoring stations depending on the company. For instance, ADT is a company that has their own monitoring station.  This means that the alarm company and alarm company monitoring station are branded the same and work hand in hand.

On the other hand there are many alarm companies that provide installation and service but work with a third party monitoring station to monitor the alarm system.  This means the alarm company itself will sell you the alarm, fix any problems and provide service and support throughout your life as a customer while delegating the task of monitoring your alarm to a third party monitoring station.

So, which one is best?

The answer is not so cut and dry.  The fact is both options are good.  It really depends on your personal preference on what type of alarm company monitoring station you want monitoring your home.  If you’re looking in to a company who owns and operates its own monitoring station you can look to that alarm company’s full reviews and customer satisfaction ratings to determine the strength of the monitoring station.  With third party monitoring stations you will want to look not only at the alarm company’s reviews but also seek out information about the monitoring station itself.

Third party alarm company monitoring stations tend to be the norm, and this is actually a good thing.  In the end it leaves the alarm company to do what they do best, sell and serve the customer, while leaving the monitoring station to do what they do best, monitoring alarm systems.  Neither one is necessarily better than the other.  In fact, most people probably won’t notice much of a difference as monitoring stations have a set of criteria they must meet in order to monitor alarm systems across the country.  These criteria have to do with things like back-up generators, number of people on staff as well as approvals by entities like Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL Listed) or Factory Mutual (FM Approved).

In the end, you want to choose an alarm company that is reputable and has a good track record of responding quickly to home alarms.  Like we said checking out reviews of the Best Alarm Companies can steer you on your way to determining which alarm company, and subsequently which monitoring station, is right for you and your home.