Best Video Surveillance Systems for Business 2018

Locating the Best Services

We take the process of recommending vendors seriously, so we invested substantial time in researching various video surveillance systems and their features. We gave each vendor equal consideration.

We started the process by coming up with a comprehensive list of vendors that offer video surveillance systems. To do this, we searched the web and consulted other lists and reviews of the most popular vendors. We ended up with a list of about 50 video surveillance systems to examine further.

From there, we visited the websites of each vendor, to compare pricing and features. We looked at all of the details, including the variety of systems offered, such as digital or network video recorders or the variety of cameras available. We spent considerable time comparing features — for example, does the system support IP cameras, mobile viewing and motion detection? Can you easily scale up the system? Does it cover multiple locations? We watched product demos and tutorials when they were available. At the end of this process, a pool of 35 candidates remained.

Choosing the Best Services

Next, we called all the services we were considering, posing as a customer (with the exception of the few that offer email-only contact). Beyond just the marketing rhetoric on websites, we wanted to get a feel for how the companies handle actual customer interactions. We asked all of the customer service reps the same set of questions about features, options and pricing, and we noted our reactions to the experience. Company representatives who were friendly and forthcoming got higher marks, and those who were less than helpful or too pushy scored lower. We realize, of course, that customer service interactions can vary, based on whom you reach, but we thought that this was an important part of the process nonetheless. 

Researching Each Service

For our overall best pick, the decision came down to which company offered the best balance of affordability, robust features, and ease of setup and use. We shied away from vendors that offered extremely low-priced off-the-shelf solutions that might not be as durable as other systems. We also decided not to go with the more expensive and specialized services that cater to one industry in particular, or that offer very advanced capabilities. Many of these services are great – and worth the investment for some companies – but our goal was to choose the service that provided the best value and benefits to the largest number of businesses.