Home security basics
How physical security, lighting, cameras and monitoring fit together, and which improvements come first.
By Elijah Canfield, Founder, Hire Best Pros · Updated August 27, 2026
Elijah Canfield is the founder of Hire Best Pros. He writes and edits the site's consumer guides, with a focus on how home service and moving projects are priced, scoped and compared.
Start with the physical layer: solid doors, reinforced strike plates, quality deadbolts and secured windows and sliding doors. Add lighting and visibility next. Cameras record what happened, alarms and monitoring create a response. Buying the last layer first is the common and expensive mistake.
Key points
- A camera documents an entry. A strike plate and long screws prevent one.
- Most entries use doors and ground floor windows, so start there.
- Understand what monitoring actually promises before signing a contract.
The physical layer first
- Solid core or metal exterior doors with reinforced frames
- Deadbolts with long screws into the framing, not just the jamb
- Secondary locks or bars on sliding doors and accessible windows
- A visible, well lit approach with no concealed entry points
Cameras, sensors and alarms
Cameras are most useful covering entries and approaches rather than the whole yard. Entry sensors, glass break sensors and motion detection all serve different purposes. Decide whether recordings are stored locally, in the cloud, or both, and what happens when the internet is down.
Monitoring and contracts
- Self monitored means the alert comes to your phone and nowhere else
- Professional monitoring means a service responds and may contact authorities
- Check contract length, cancellation terms and equipment ownership
- Ask your insurer whether a monitored system affects your policy
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