Cove vs. Ring Alarm Home Security Systems

Time for a Cove Security vs. Ring Alarm home security showdown! We've spent the hours, days, and months testing these systems within our own homes. If you're looking to compare Cove vs. Ring, we're the experts who are here to help. 

While we generally recommend Ring over Cove, your choice will depend on where your priorities lie. Ring saves money and is extremely convenient, but Cove doesn’t have Ring’s bad rap. But, let's dive into those details.

Keep reading to learn more and make your home security buying decision a sinch.

Cove and Ring both have reasonable costs, although at this time, Ring offers more bang for your buck with monitoring and package prices. For Cove, rather than providing starter equipment bundles, they asks their customers to take a quiz to decide the right security equipment for their living situation. 

Cove’s monitoring is not a bad deal. It’s far less than monitoring with traditional home security companies like ADT or Vivint, and it’s right on the level with popular DIY offering SimpliSafe. 

But to take full advantage of the smart security setup, you have to pay for the Plus plan. Otherwise, you won’t get smartphone control or smart home integration.

Read the Cove Home Security Review

We call Ring the “best budget buy.” By that, we mean that Ring is your avenue to get as much out of your security as possible while spending as little money as possible. And yes, that applies to monitoring too.

The Protect Plus plan is one of the best deals we’ve seen in the home security space. You get a $20 discount if you sign up for a year at a time, and the cost includes cloud storage for unlimited Ring cameras.

But even if you just go for the Basic plan, you’re getting mobile app control, smart home integration, and the option for self-monitoring. In short, Ring offers features for $3.99/mo. that Cove charges $28/mo for.

View Ring on Amazon | Read the Ring Alarm Home Security Review

Both these companies offer proprietary equipment, except for Cove’s cameras, which we’ll talk about in a minute. And both have prices roughly in the same ballpark (with the exception of Cove’s alarm panel, which of late has gone up in cost significantly).

The biggest equipment difference is probably the companies’ approaches to system connectivity.

Cove equipment uses cellular signals and doesn’t connect to Wi-Fi. That's good if you worry about loss of Wi-Fi connection but bad if you live in an area with poor AT&T cellular coverage.

Ring, on the other hand, uses a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection to work. If your base station loses its internet signal for whatever reason, its cellular backup will keep your alarm system functioning.

What you see here isn’t everything. Cove offers more products that don’t have Ring equivalents, such as the following:

• Smoke/carbon monoxide detector (although, Ring offers a 'Listener')
• Security key remote

Ring also sells some useful accessories, including the following items:

• Ring Chime Pro
• Solar panel

Cove’s cameras aren’t bad, but compared to Ring’s extensive selection, they don’t measure up—especially when you compare the camera plans.

Cove used to sell just one camera, which is produced by YI. But good news! The company’s website now offers an outdoor camera as well, as well as two doorbell camera options.

The indoor camera is a plug-in option with both cloud and local storage. It also includes person detection and baby crying detection, which makes it a good option for a baby camera or pet camera.

The outdoor camera looks like it may also be a Kami/YI offering, though we aren’t certain. That one includes a 140° field of view, “enhanced” night vision, and two-way audio.

Although these cameras come from a separate manufacturer, both work with the Cove app.

However, Cove doesn’t sell its own camera storage. If you get a camera from Cove, you can choose to sign up for YI Cloud. Or you can just use an SD card to take advantage of the local storage feature.

All YI camera plans work with up to five cameras. When you reach the 30-day threshold, you have the option to pay monthly instead of yearly. You also have the option of adding continuous video recording (CVR), which is a standout feature for YI.

These plans aren’t the worst deal we’ve seen, but they definitely can’t compare with unlimited camera plans like Ring’s.

Ring makes just about every kind of camera imaginable! Instead of talking about every single one, we created an abbreviated table that highlights three products: the Indoor Cam, the Spotlight Cam (outdoor), and the Video Doorbell Pro.

All three of these cameras come with two-way talk, night vision, and motion detection. And they integrate seamlessly with the security system app, creating a quick and easy way to check your entire setup.

Ring cameras don’t have local storage, requiring users to purchase a cloud video storage plan. These plans are a lot more cost-effective than YI’s—they offer storage for more cameras and more days at lower prices. But it would be nice to also have local storage like YI does.

You might notice that there’s some crossover between the Ring monitoring plans and the cloud storage. That’s because the Protect Plus plan covers the camera storage and system monitoring. It’s a super good deal!

Cove’s home automation isn’t quite to the level we like to see, while Ring has better-than-average connectivity.

Cove smart home integrations:

• Amazon Alexa
• Google Assistant

This isn’t a lot of automation, but it does allow you to control your Cove smart security system through your smart speakers.

Also, the YI cameras don’t work with Google Assistant, curtailing your options for connecting your cameras with the rest of your smart home.

Ring smart home integrations:

• Amazon Alexa
• Google Assistant
• Z-Wave
• IFTTT

Ring’s automation is definitely a step up over Cove’s.

The addition of Z-Wave creates direct compatibility between the Ring Alarm system and other smart home devices. And IFTTT is a popular platform for cause-and-effect chains, adding even more smart home possibilities.

Additionally, Ring has some in-house smart home equipment, like its smart light options. Cove doesn’t have anything like that yet.

Cove is newer and smaller than a lot of security companies, and it’s still building its customer base. As an infant company, it doesn’t seem to generate a lot of enthusiasm—or ire. It’s just not getting as much attention and customer reviews as some of the other security systems.

For those who try the system and run into snags, the customer service department responds to both emails and phone calls.

Ring, on the other hand, has people who super love it and people who super hate it. There’s good reason for that. Ring’s accessible, inexpensive, and relatively easy to use. But it’s also embroiled in tons of unsavory issues.

In addition to its customer support phone number, Ring has a help center and an extensive community forum.

• Cove customer service number: 877-456-2683
• Ring customer service number: 800-984-1596

In the showdown between these two systems, we have to say Ring is the better choice overall.

• Prices and monitoring plans: Ring. Overall, you’ll spend less money with Ring than you will with Cove.
• Security equipment: Both Ring and Cove make their own devices at affordable prices. And while Ring may actually be the cheapest home security offering out there, Cove isn’t much more expensive.
• Cameras: Ring has a larger camera selection with more features and a better monitoring plan than Cove.
• Smart home integrations: The addition of Z-Wave and IFTTT compatibility make Ring a better automation option than Cove.
• Customer service: Cove’s reputation is fairly neutral with few complaints, while Ring has become majorly controversial.

But all these points withstanding, for many folks, Ring’s reputation alone is a good reason to go with Cove or with something else entirely.

Of course, these aren’t your only options. There are other inexpensive DIY systems out there. Learn more about additional alternatives in our Best Home Security Systems Review.

Read the Cove Home Security Review | Read the Ring Alarm Home Security Review

We give a score to the following features to figure out each system’s final star rating:

• Price
• Equipment
• Home automation
• Cameras
• Customer service

In our versus pieces, the highest-rated system doesn’t always emerge victorious. If one of the systems is really good at something, we might pick it over its competitor, even if it didn’t shine in every area.

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