Boundary vs Verisure
Currently, Verisure only provides a quote over the phone or in person, via their salespeople. The quote we received was verbally during a telephone call and then confirmed via email in January 2020. We made every effort to obtain accurate pricing and have indeed listed the lowest prices obtained to ensure our comparison is as fair as possible.
If you’d like to find our own prices, they’re available on this website. Here you can see prices of Alarm system bundles and here you will find the prices of monthly plans.
Alarm Systems
For the simplest comparison, we’ve compared a custom quote obtained from Verisure with the Boundary Small House Bundle. We have made every effort to make sure the quote we obtained from Verisure matched our Small House bundle as closely as possible.. These are:
| Boundary | Verisure | |
|---|---|---|
| Central Hub | 1 | 1 |
| Contact Sensors* | 2 | 4 |
| Movement Sensors** | 4 | 2 |
| Outdoor Siren | 1 | Not Available |
| Key Fobs | 2 | 6 |
∗ Verisure equivalent – shock sensors
** Verisure equivalent – PIR with built-in camera
Costs of Ownership
Most homeowners keep their alarm system for an average of seven years or more. That’s why it’s useful to compare costs over time. Especially when there’s a monthly fee.
Here’s a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) comparison between Boundary and the Verisure package detailed above.
| Boundary | Verisure | |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Hardware Cost | £509 (Including outdoor siren) | £359 |
| Non-Monitored Monthly Fee | £8 | Not available |
| Monitored Monthly Fee | £25 | £32.90 first 6 months, £42.90 ongoing * |
| TCO (1 year) | £605 | £813 |
| TCO (2 years) | £701 | £1,328 |
| TCO (3 years) | £797 | £1,843 |
| TCO (7 years) | £1,181 | £3,902 |
| TCO Monitored (1year) | £1,008 | £813 |
| TCO Monitored (2 years) | £1,308 | £1,328 |
| TCO Monitored (3 years) | £1,608 | £1,843 |
| TCO Monitored (7 years) | £2,808 | £3,902 |
| Cost for 2 extra movement sensors | £60 | £180 + an extra £4/month |
✴ The Verisure monthly charge starts from £29.90 for the Residential Basic Kit. The additional £3/month is generated to show a like for like comparison with our hardware including an additional 2 shock sensors and 1 movement sensor with camera.
Total cost of ownership: an estimate of all the direct and indirect costs involved in buying and using a product over its lifetime. Verisure do offer additional products included within the monthly fee that Boundary does not such as their Zero Vision product , however for the sake of comparison these are not included. Prices are obtained from the Boundary website and from a custom quote provided by Verisure.
Adding Additional Sensors
If you want to add extra sensors to your Boundary system, you only pay for the cost of the sensors, it doesn’t increase your monthly fee.
With Verisure, your monthly fee will increase in addition to extra sensor costs, e.g. two additional movement sensors cost 2 x £90, plus an additional £4 per month or £48 per year.) The Verisure package includes their Zerovision product which is free for the first six months but thereafter adds £10/month to the monthly charge.
Ongoing Maintenance
Both Boundary and Verisure provide maintenance services included within the cost of the monitored plans. These cover:
- Replacement of the batteries within the sensors
- Maintenance services at any point during the lifetime of the contract to replace faulty equipment
- Boundary will also carry out an annual onsite audit of the system and a second, remote audit every year. This is a requirement for a Grade 2 monitored alarm system
Installation options
Currently Verisure only offers professional installation which is included within the initial cost. With the Boundary alarm you can choose between self-installation and pro-installation (for an additional fee)
24/7 Monitoring and Police Response
If you choose Boundary’s Complete plan then your alarm will be professionally installed and monitored 24/7 by an alarm receiving centre (ARC). If there’s a break-in the police will be requested, with a level 1 immediate police response.
Verisure offer 24/7 monitoring but the ARC cannot request a police response unless there is visual verification, even then, as the Verisure system does not have a URN, no response is guaranteed. Should a response be given, it may be significantly slower.
Verisure does have the ability to dispatch a private guard to your property in the event of a break-in at which point they are permitted to dial 999 from the scene of the crime, should a crime still be in progress. The table below explains in more detail what happens when a break in occurs:
| Boundary | Verisure | |
| Who monitors the alarm? | An alarm receiving centre (ARC) | An alarm receiving centre (ARC) |
| When are the Police requested? | Two activated sensors e.g. front-door contact sensor and hallway motion sensor. | On visual verification of the burglar with Verisure photo detector. |
| How are they requested? | The ARC will have a direct line to the police. | By calling 999. The ARC will go through an operator. There is no guarantee of a response and if given, may be significantly slower. |
| ARC response if alarm is triggered but burglary is not confirmed? | The ARC will contact the homeowner and any nominated keyholder. | Versiure guard dispatched and keyholder contacted (may incur fees). |
Alarm Standards and Certification
These standards are recognised by insurers, alarm companies and the police. They indicate the reliability of the alarm against false alarms and therefore whether the alarm can request a police response.
| Boundary Monitored (spring 2021) | Boundary Self Installed | Verisure | |
| NPCC System Type | A | B | B |
| Product Grading | 2 | n/a | n/a |
| URN Issued for monitored systems? | Yes | n/a | n/a |
| NSI/SSAIB Approved Company? | Yes – SSAIB** | Yes – SSAIB** | Yes*** |
| NSI/SSAIB Approved Installation? | Yes – SSAIB | n/a | n/a |
| NSI/SSAIB Approved Monitoring? | Yes – NSI Gold | n/a | Yes – NSI Gold |
| Approved for Level 1 Police Response? | Yes | No | No |
| Speed of Police Response | Level 1 – Highest priority | No response guaranteed, may be significantly slower if given | No response guaranteed, may be significantly slower if given |
** SSAIB certification only applies to our professionally installed product and does not extend to DIY installs
*** The NSI Gold certification for Verisure only extends to their Alarm Receiving centre
Level 1 Police response is only available for alarm systems that conform to a NPCC System Type A installation as detailed above. Type B systems cannot use the same “direct to Police” request from a monitoring centre or expect a Level 1 response.
Alarm systems must also be supplied by a company accepted onto each Police forces compliant systems list.
The end result is that Police forces will treat Type A systems activations with a higher priority than those who do not have a URN issued.
Criteria for a police response
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
More information can be found on the NSI website & SSAIB website.
Features
The Boundary system is packed with features and the table below shows a direct comparison with Verisure:
| Boundary | Verisure | |
| Remote ‘over the air’ updates | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mobile App | ✔ | ✔ |
| Primary Connection Method | WiFi | Mobile 4G |
| Backup Connection Method | Option Cellular Upgrade | – |
| Mains Failure Battery Backup | ✔ | ✔ |
| Neighbourhood Watch App | ✔ | – |
| Smart Home Integration | ✔ | ✔ |
| Occupied Home Simulation | ✔ | – |
| Geofencing Alarm Reminders | ✔ | – |
| Automated Keyholder Calling | ✔ | – |
| Contract Length | 30 Days | 90 Days |
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.
All of the data has been gathered between December 2019 to January 2020. We have tried to make sure the systems are similar to Boundary but this isn’t always possible. All features and other comparisons are taken from publicly available information displayed on the company website.
