Parks Associates reported in 2026 that 19% of U.S. internet households had professionally monitored security systems and 7% paid for non-professional services such as alerts and video storage, with average monthly fees of about $54 for professional monitoring and $17 for non-professional services (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/parks-associates-19-of-internet-households-have-professionally-monitored-systems-while-7-pay-for-non-professional-services-like-alerts-and-video-storage-302596302.html). That gap is the market Alarm.com must defend. The professional account can be much more valuable, but only if the customer believes monitoring, dealer support, cellular backup, integrations and app reliability justify the premium.

Parks Associates also reported that 74% of security dealers said they had lost residential system sales to DIY systems or standalone video devices, and that online sales were increasingly part of the channel mix (https://www.parksassociates.com/blogs/residential-security-pr/seventy-four-percent-of-security-dealers-have-lost-residential-security-systems-sales-to-diy-systems-or-standalone-video-devices).

From the article, "Alarm.com and the price of a signal that arrives in time" by Elias Ward