You’ll always find a clear breakdown of costs on the Boundary website. What each piece of kit costs, plus your options for monthly plans and optional extras like cellular back-up. Verisure only provides quotes over the phone or in person. This can lead to variances depending on whether you have a home visit or a telephone quote, and if you’re prepared to haggle.

Here’s a comparison of hardware costs, features, cost of ownership and grading according to UK and European alarm standards.

Hardware

For the simplest comparison, we’ve compared the Verisure Starter Kit with the Boundary Small House Bundle.

Costs of Ownership

Most alarm system owners keep their system on average for seven years or more. That’s why it’s useful to compare costs over time. Especially when there’s a monthly fee. To save you time here’s a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) comparison between Boundary and Verisure.

Worth Knowing

• The monitored TCO costs for Boundary include:
• Professional installation worth £199
• Annual onsite audit by one of our installation engineers
• Annual remote audit to check system performance and highlight any issues
• Replacement of all batteries within the sensors
• Your Boundary Small House Bundle includes an outdoor alarm siren worth £99
• If you want to add extra sensors to your Boundary system you only pay for the cost of the sensors. (Two additional movement sensors £60.) With Verisure, your monthly fee would also increase. (Two additional movement sensors £180 plus an additional £4 per month or £48 per year.)
• Verisure does not offer a direct police response (see certifications below)
• There is no option with Verisure to have a self-monitored system

Alarm Standards and Certification

* Product grading currently in progress and will be complete shortly after launch
** SSAIB certification only applies to our professionally installed product and does not extend to DIY installs

For your alarm system to be professionally monitored and registered with your local police force it must:

• Be a system that has a minimum grade 2 rating
• Have the system installed by an NSI or SSAIB certified company
• Be monitored by an Alarm Receiving Centre that is also certified by the NSI or SSAIB
• The supplying company be registered with the local police on their Compliant Systems list
• Have a URN (Unique Reference Number) issued by your local Police force after installation

If your system doesn’t meet these key criteria then it won’t receive a Level 1 response from the Police in the event of a break-in. Instead, the monitoring company will confirm a break-in before contacting keyholders and calling the Police via 999. Unfortunately, this is no different from a member of the public calling the Police to report a break-in and simply will not provide a rapid response.

Features

The Boundary system is packed with features and the table below shows a direct comparison with Verisure:

The Verdict

Verisure is a worthy contender. But as you can see, Boundary is one of the most secure and feature-packed alarm systems available. It’s been designed and built from the ground up by UK security experts and software designers to solve the problems of traditional alarm systems with leading-edge technology thinking. For protection against all known threats and a system you can control easily from your phone, there’s only one choice.