Recently, i was on Reviews.com checking out their home security systems. I’ve been doing a lot of research into home alarm systems and found their site quite helpful in its summary of each of its picks.

Reviews.com chose four systems, each under one of the following categories:

• Most popular provider
• Best customer support
• Best for home automation
• Most transparent pricing

The winners, in order, were:

• ADT
• Frontpoint
• Vivint
• Get Safe

However, there was one major alarm system that Reviews.com missed in its thorough analysis. And that is Alarm.com.

I first heard of Alarm.com when working with Citywide Alarms out of St. Louis. This company offers the latest technology in home security alarm systems. It’s like something out of a sci fi movie. Seriously!

Features

Citywide Alarms offers an amazing amount of features that seem futuristic… the kind of things that 8-year-old me could have only imagined. For instance, if someone’s at the front door, you can look at the video monitor and see that it’s not a creepy kidnapper, but just the pizza delivery guy.

Okay, so 8-year-old me had an active imagination.

And ya know that commercial with Penny from Big Bang Theory, and she’s on vacation, but watching her dog at home on a monitor? And the dog starts eating the couch, and she’s yelling at him, but he’s not paying her any attention? They have *that* technology! It’s not just for celebrities or the uber rich!

It also has this really neat feature that lets you make separate codes for different people. So, like, if i have a maid coming over on Wednesday (since i’m imagining things…), i can give her a specific code that only works for the time that she’s here. So i can set my security system to let the maid in on Wednesdays from eight until six (hey, i have a super messy house) and then set another code for Thursday at noon just for the garage for the gardener (still dreaming). I can make a one time code to allow my ex in to get his stupid clothes and then burn that code so he can never come back. Plus, i can record to the cloud while he’s here for evidence; supposing he wants to do something diabolical, i can report it to the police.

Smart Home

Citywide Alarms can also make your house a smart house. Like, you can adjust the thermostat from your phone. You can arm and unarm your system from your phone (if you forgot to make a code for the maid). You can close and lock your garage door while at the office… and it’ll alert you if someone opens it.

And i thought my sister’s smart fridge was cool.

It is like the future is now and my inner 8-year-old is loving every minute of it!