Life Alert Systems Review

Life Alert is very expensive and offers just the basics. We can count its advantages on one hand—namely its long-lasting batteries and reputation for speedy, professional service once the help button is pressed. 

The disadvantages of Life Alert include its high price, 3-year contract, lack of fall detection, and lack of a caregiving app. Life Alert's pricing structure makes it difficult to get à la carte equipment, and you can only order a system over the phone. 

To put it plainly, Life Alert costs more than any other system we encountered. The pendant alone costs $49.95 per month on a 36-month contract. Only Lifeline comes close to this price for one device, and it cost $5 less per month.

There’s also a $96–$198 activation fee for each plan, but it comes with personal orientation for your equipment to sweeten the deal.

Even though you technically lease the equipment from Life Alert, expect to pay at least $95 in equipment fees as well.

While researching, we noticed that Life Alert provides no pricing information online. If you want to learn more about the company’s equipment and rates, you have to call them directly. Even then, prices vary from location to location, so the quote you get may be different from what a relative or friend in another state may get.

Either way, you can expect to spend thousands of dollars by the end of Life Alert’s three-year contract.

Life Alert is more costly and requires more commitment than other medical alert systems. Other popular brands like Bay Alarm Medical and Medical Guardian don’t require a contract, have starting rates half of Life Alert’s price, and offer more equipment.

We encountered other services, like GetSafe, that require one-time equipment fees like Life Alert, but it’s a rare feature. The monthly cost you pay Bay Alarm Medical and Medical Guardian goes towards the professional monitoring service rather than the equipment.

Learn more about our recommended Life Alert alternatives or check out our head-to-head comparisons:

• Life Alert vs. Bay Alarm Medical
• Life Alert vs. Medical Guardian

Life Alert is the only major medical alert company that requires a contract. You sign up for a 3-year service plan with Life Alert. You get a price lock guarantee for the duration of your contract, but the price may go up upon renewal. Companies like Bay Alarm Medical and ADT Medical Alert offer price lock guarantees with no contracts.

Because you lease Life Alert's equipment, you can get replacements if the devices stop working. But there are a lot of "buts" here—Life Alert won't cover damage that it deems is due to negligence. To avoid fines in the case of lost or damaged equipment, you'll need to pay extra for a protection plan.

Life Alert also sends replacement units once the batteries run out—and they monitor battery life for you so you're never without coverage.

Life Alert sells three types of medical alert devices or personal emergency response systems (PERS)—a home medical alert system with an emergency panic pendant, a waterproof shower button, and a mobile system with GPS.

Each Life Alert device—except the wearable in-home help button—has a two-way intercom that connects you to a professional at Life Alert's monitoring center so you can get help wherever you are in your home. 

Life Alert's wall button is unique in this regard. Many other medical alert companies talk to you through the base station speaker when you press a wall button, but that can make it difficult to communicate when you're in the next room. 

Life Alert doesn't offer automatic fall detection—which is ironic for a medical alert company that coined the phrase "I've fallen and can't get up."

Fall detection is common add-on in medical alert systems that detects speed and pressure changes that happen when a person falls. These medical alert devices automatically contact an emergency responder if you’re unconscious or can’t reach your call button.

Life Alert isn't designed with caregivers in mind. There's no Life Alert app caregivers can use to track their loved one's location, help pay bills, or coordinate with other caregivers.

View our list of best medical alerts with GPS to see which ones are more caregiver-friendly.

We called Life Alert to get more information about the products, policies, and prices an average customer could expect.

Before we got to ask any questions, we had to provide information to get a free brochure (which we weren’t entirely interested in). Once we got in touch with a sales rep, they were pushy and barely gave us time to ask questions. The rep we spoke to used guilt tactics, dodged direct questions, and ran verbal circles around us. After only 20 minutes on the phone, we were exhausted.

It was a little harder for us to test Life Alert’s emergency response, so we turned to customer testimonials and reviews. From what we found, Life Alert is genuinely helpful in an emergency. We saw stories of subscribers able to get help in time after emergencies like falls and chest pain.

Life Alert is quick in an emergency and has equipment with some helpful features, but these are standard for a typical medical alert system. The only thing to get excited about is Life Alert's wall button, since two-way talk can be hard to find in these devices.

But the pushy sales, outdated (and unhelpful) website, hidden fees, and sky-high prices eclipse most of Life Alert’s best features.

With over three decades in the business, we expected more out of one of the first medical alert systems. We’d like to see some modernization in the form of new equipment, transparent pricing, and the ability to buy a system online.

While we don’t recommend Life Alert for many people, you can read about the companies we do recommend as the best medical alert systems.

Before writing our Life Alert review, we started by digging through its website and customer reviews from other sites. We were able to find specs on some of the equipment, but no useful product pictures or demonstrations, so we called Life Alert directly.

Once we reached a customer service rep, we took note of how they answered, what they said, and how satisfied we were with their answers. Learn more about how we review medical alert systems and other safety products in our full methodology.

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