If you’re not already aware by now, your jurisdiction may require you to obtain a permit in order to operate a professionally monitored alarm system. Before we could even find the right spot to place the base station, Ring notified us that our area Charlotte Mecklenburg required a permit for use. Ring gives you a seven day grace period to decide what type of monitoring you want and to receive a permit number. In some cases, police won’t respond to a call from a monitoring center without a permit number. Fines for false alarms could also be pretty hefty they reach up to $500 in Charlotte, for example. The plastic itself feels cheaper than its Nest competitor, but Ring claims the base station is “smash proof” it’ll still call authorities in a beaten state. You can also receive alerts for any tampering to the contact or motion sensors. It can also feel a tad disjointed compared to the Nest Secure, considering the keypad and the base station are two separate units, and the Nest Guard seamlessly combines the two and includes Google Assistant. If not placed somewhere discreet, the motion detectors are obtrusive and look like a child’s night light. The contact sensors also only detect for opening and closing doors and windows, whereas the Nest Detects detect for door and window openings but also include motion sensors. The basic Nest Secure package comes with a hub — the Guard — two key fobs Nest Tags that allow you to check in and out of your system, and two sets of motion detecting sensors you can attach to doors or windows Nest Detects.