The short answer
A smart alarm system in the UK typically costs from around £150–£400 for a self-monitored DIY kit you control from a phone app, rising to £500–£1,200+ for a professionally installed and monitored system. A smart alarm adds app control, push notifications and remote arming to the standard PIRs, door contacts and bell box. The cheaper kits are self-monitored — alerts go to your phone, with no alarm receiving centre — while higher-tier systems add professional monitoring and a recurring fee. Smart features that connect cameras, smart locks or video doorbells add hardware cost. These are typical UK ranges for guidance, not quotations.
A 'smart' alarm spans a wide range, from a self-install kit driven by an app to a fully monitored graded system. The figures below are typical UK ranges for guidance, not quotations.
Typical smart alarm costs
- Self-monitored DIY kit~£150–£400
- Fitted smart system~£500–£900
- Professionally monitored~£700–£1,200+
- Self-monitored running costoften £0 (app alerts)
- Professional monitoringmonthly subscription on top
What 'smart' adds and what it costs
A smart alarm starts with the same building blocks as any system — a control panel or hub, PIR motion sensors, door and window contacts, and a bell box — and layers on connectivity. The defining feature is the app: you arm and disarm remotely, receive push notifications when a sensor triggers, check the system status from anywhere, and often integrate cameras, video doorbells or smart locks. This connectivity is what separates a smart system from a traditional bell-only alarm, and it is why the lower tier of the market is dominated by self-install kits.
Cost scales with how much you add. A basic kit covering a flat or small house with a hub, a couple of PIRs, a door contact and a siren sits at the lower end. Adding indoor and outdoor cameras, a video doorbell, a smart lock, or extra sensors raises the hardware total quickly — cameras in particular can match or exceed the cost of the alarm itself. A professionally fitted and graded smart system, meeting EN 50131 and capable of monitoring, costs more again but brings certification and the option of an alarm receiving centre.
The hub or panel is where a smart system's cost and capability concentrate. A capable hub manages the sensors, holds the arming logic, connects to your broadband and often a mobile backup, and runs the app integration that defines the system. Cheaper kits use a simple hub with limited expansion; more capable ones support many devices, multiple users, scheduled arming and integration with cameras and locks. Because the hub sets the ceiling on what the system can grow into, it is worth understanding its limits before buying — a kit that cannot add the sensors or cameras you later want can mean replacing the core rather than just extending it.
The spread reflects very different products under one label. At the lower end, a self-install smart alarm kit with app control and a couple of sensors can be bought outright for a hundred-odd pounds with no ongoing fee. Higher up, a professionally installed smart system integrates door/window contacts, motion sensors, cameras and a video doorbell, with cloud features layered on top. The app convenience is the common thread, but what you pay tracks the number of devices, whether installation is professional, and which features sit behind a subscription.
| Option | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Self-monitored DIY kit | ~£150–£400 | app alerts, no ARC |
| Add cameras / doorbell | +£50–£250 each | raises hardware total |
| Fitted smart system | ~£500–£900 | professional install, app control |
| Professionally monitored | ~£700–£1,200+ | ARC subscription on top |
Indicative UK figures for guidance. Sources: Which? and Checkatrade home security guides.
Self-monitored versus professionally monitored
The biggest cost decision with a smart alarm is how it is monitored. With self-monitoring, the system sends alerts straight to your phone when a sensor triggers, and you decide what to do — call a neighbour, check a camera feed, or contact the police yourself. There is usually no monthly fee, so the running cost is effectively zero. The limitation is that the response depends entirely on you noticing and acting on the alert, which may not happen if your phone is off, abroad, or out of signal.
Professional monitoring connects the system to a 24-hour alarm receiving centre that handles activations on your behalf, following an agreed escalation to keyholders and, for confirmed alarms with a URN, requesting police response. This brings a recurring subscription and, for police response, the need for an approved install. Many smart-alarm brands offer professional monitoring as an optional paid tier on top of a system you could otherwise self-monitor for free, so the choice is largely about whether you want a human service acting when you cannot.
Subscriptions are the part buyers most often underestimate. Many smart systems give live app alerts and remote arming for free, then charge a monthly fee to retain recorded video in the cloud beyond a day or two, or to switch on professional monitoring. A camera that records nothing you can review after an event is of limited use, so if footage matters, that storage fee is a genuine running cost to factor in alongside the hardware. Reading exactly which features are free and which are paid is the key to comparing two smart systems fairly.
Running costs and integration
Smart systems vary widely in ongoing cost. A self-monitored kit may cost nothing to run beyond replacing sensor batteries and any optional cloud video storage subscription for cameras, which is a common add-on charged monthly. If you add professional monitoring, that becomes a recurring fee in its own right, separate from any video storage plan. Reading the small print on cloud storage matters, because a 'free' camera can carry a monthly charge to keep more than a day or two of footage.
Integration is the other variable. Smart alarms that tie into wider home automation — smart locks, lighting, cameras and voice assistants — offer convenience but each connected device adds hardware cost and sometimes its own subscription. A focused setup of a hub, sensors and an app is inexpensive to run; a fully integrated smart home with cameras and cloud storage carries meaningful monthly costs. Deciding which features you will actually use keeps the smart alarm both useful and sensibly priced.
Connectivity is also a point of resilience to weigh. A smart alarm that relies solely on Wi-Fi is vulnerable to a broadband outage or a deliberately cut connection, which is why better systems include a mobile/GSM fallback so alerts still get out if the home internet drops. For self-monitored systems this matters because a lost connection means lost notifications; for any system tied to cameras it matters because cloud features depend on the link. Checking whether a smart alarm has a cellular backup, and whether that backup carries its own small recurring cost, is part of judging both the price and the dependability.
It is also worth being clear about what a self-monitored smart system does not do. App alerts are awareness, not confirmed police response: if you miss the notification, nothing escalates automatically, and you cannot summon prioritised police attendance the way a graded, professionally monitored system with a URN can. For a usually-occupied home that wants convenience and a deterrent, that trade is often fine; for a frequently empty or higher-value home, the absence of an independent 24-hour responder is the gap a paid monitoring tier or a fully monitored system is designed to fill.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a smart alarm and a normal burglar alarm?
A smart alarm adds app control, push notifications and remote arming to the standard sensors and bell box, and often integrates cameras, video doorbells or smart locks. A traditional alarm is typically bell-only or monitored by an alarm receiving centre, without the app-driven connectivity.
Do smart alarm systems have a monthly fee?
Self-monitored smart kits usually have no monthly fee — alerts go to your phone for free. Costs appear if you add professional monitoring, or if cameras need a cloud storage subscription to retain footage beyond a day or two.
Can a smart alarm get police response?
Not on its own. Self-monitored smart kits cannot obtain police response. That requires a graded system installed by an NSI or SSAIB approved company to EN 50131, with a police Unique Reference Number and confirmed activation signalling.
Sources & further reading
Figures on this page are typical UK ranges drawn from published sources and depend on your specific property and system. They are guidance, not a quotation.