Brinks runs on Alarm.com at $30-40/mo with 36-month contracts. ADT runs on ADT+ (Google Nest) at $28-60/mo with 36-60 month contracts. Both require professional installation ($99-200). 3-year total: Brinks $1,280-1,640. ADT $1,508-3,360. The irony: Alarm.com monitoring is available through DIY brands like Abode at $6/mo with no contract. ADT’s Nest cameras are excellent but cost $150-300 each on top of monthly fees. We compare platforms, equipment ownership, cancellation terms, and why both lose to DIY systems costing 70-80% less.

eufy S3 Pro costs $200 with free local storage on a built-in eMMC chip. Blink Outdoor 4 costs $80 with $3/mo per camera cloud storage. eufy had the 2022 unencrypted AWS scandal. Blink sends everything to Amazon servers by default. 3-year cost for 3 cameras: eufy $360-600 + $0/mo, Blink $240 + $324 cloud = $564. eufy wins on image quality (4K vs 1080p) and storage cost ($0 vs $108/yr per cam). Blink wins on battery life (2 years vs 6 months) and Alexa depth. Neither has door sensors, an alarm panel, or monitoring — they are camera brands, not security systems.

Cove is an alarm system — door sensors, motion detectors, keypad, 24/7 professional monitoring at $18-25/month. Blink is a camera system — $30-100 cameras with $3/month cloud storage, no alarm, no sensors, no dispatch. They solve different problems. Cove detects and responds to break-ins. Blink records video after the fact. Over 3 years: Cove costs $648-900 (monitoring only). Blink costs $108-360 (cameras + storage). Abode ($6/mo) gives you both — alarm system with camera support — for $415 total.

Brinks Home charges $40-50/month with a 3-year contract, $199+ install fees, and Alarm.com monitoring. Wyze costs $0-10/month with $20-50 cameras, no contracts, and optional HMS monitoring. Over 3 years: Brinks runs $1,640-2,000+ vs Wyze at $360-560. But neither is a great pick in 2026. Brinks overcharges for what you get (Alarm.com is solid but not $50/mo solid), and Wyze lacks a real alarm system — no entry sensors, no siren, no cellular backup on the base plan. Abode ($6/mo, full alarm + cameras, no contract) fills the gap both miss.

eufy S3 Pro costs $200 with free local storage. Wyze Cam v4 costs $30 with $2-3/mo cloud. Both had privacy incidents — eufy in 2022 (unencrypted AWS uploads), Wyze in 2023 (13,000 accounts exposed). Local storage vs cloud is the big split: eufy records to a built-in eMMC chip, Wyze pushes to AWS. 3-year cost for 4 cameras: eufy $400-800 + $0/mo, Wyze $120-200 + $72-144 cloud. Neither is a security system — no door sensors, no alarm panel, no monitoring. For cameras + alarm, Abode starts at $140 with $0/mo.