Life Alert Medical Alert System Review, Cost and Pricing in 2025

Packages & Pricing

The Life Alert base station’s design shows its age.

Life Alert’s pricing is far from transparent and on the high end of the industry. They made us call just to inquire, at which point we learned that they charge $49.95 to $89.85 per month depending on which options you choose. There’s also a one-time fee of $197 for delivery, installation, and activation, which we’re used to paying at most $99 for.

Here’s an overview of Life Alert’s packages and their prices:

Package Pricing Snapshot for Life Alert

Equipment Upgrade Costs & Freebies

We appreciate that Life Alert made their wall-mount help button waterproof so we could set it up near our shower.

Overall, Life Alert lacks some options we’re used to seeing with modern medical alert systems such as a quality smart watch like the Medical Guardian MGMove we tested.

That said, Life Alert offers a price-lock guarantee and lifetime warranty, which we can appreciate. For comparison, Medical Guardian only offers a one year warranty and no price lock. We did, however, receive a lifetime warranty and price-lock guarantee when we tested ADT’s medical alert system.

Here’s a more comprehensive look at Life Alert’s upgrade options and freebies:

When you add it all up, Life Alert costs more than the competition, but you’re getting a time-tested solution that’s been around for nearly 40 years. Check out our review of Bay Alarm Medical for a look at another time-tested solution that costs less and has done a better job at keeping up with the times.

>> Read More: Bay Alarm Medical Alert Systems Cost & Packages

Alert Systems & Packages

There are three different Life Alert systems to select from. Each one offers round-the-clock professional monitoring and requires a landline or cellular service. We’re going to go through each one in detail, starting with their at-home systems.

>> Learn About: Do Medical Alert Devices Have Bluetooth?

At-Home Alert Systems

The In-Home systems both revolve around the same base station. The only difference is the Complete In-Home Plan comes with two add-on devices whereas the Modified In-Home Plan comes with one add-on device. Let’s jump in with an overview of the Complete plan.

Complete In-Home Plan

Life Alert’s main system comes with a base station and a wearable neck or wrist pendant. WIth the Complete plan, you get two add-on devices which are their waterproof wall-mount buttons. We put one in our bathroom and one in our kitchen, the two locations where falls are most prone to happening.1

You can use your pendant up to 1,000 feet away from the base station and install the wall-mount buttons anywhere within a 1,000-foot range from the base station. That’s up there with the best long-range medical alert systems in the industry, so no complaints there.

Who It’s Best For: Seniors who do not want to wear their pendant 24/7 so they want an additional wall-mount help button they can use instead.

Expert Examined

From Christopher Norman, a Board-Certified Geriatric Nurse Practitioner with the National Council on Aging (NCOA)

“As most falls happen in the bathroom or bedroom, the waterproof feature has always been appealing to me as a clinician. One woman, in particular, had a preoccupation with her bowel movements (after living many years with an irritable bowel) and would often spend up to an hour at a time in the bathroom, or spend extended time in the shower. With her medical alert system (MAS), she, her family members, the aides who worked with her, and myself, all had more peace of mind that if she fell or needed something, she had a way to call for assistance quickly.”

Modified In-Home Plan

This is Life Alert’s most affordable plan at $69.95 per month (which still costs a pretty penny compared to the competition). It’s what we’d recommend for most people as we don’t find an extra wall-mount help button to be worth an extra $20 per month and that’s all you get by going with the Complete system instead of the Modified one. We’re used to paying a flat fee of under $20 or a monthly rate of under $5 for extra wall-mount help buttons.

Who It’s Best For: The Modified plan is best for home-bound seniors that don’t mind wearing their pendant as a necklace or wristband throughout their home.

Combo In-Home and Mobile Alert System

We were able to wear our Life Alert pendants as a wristband or a necklace.

To buy Life Alert’s on-the-go solution, you also need to buy their at-home system. But, to our surprise, their on-the-go solution only adds $20 to the monthly cost of their at-home systems bringing the total price up to $89.95 per month. A separate at-home and on-the-go system from Medical Guardian starts at $71.90, so still more but not by much. Here’s what you can expect from Life Alert’s on-the-go solution.

Home & GPS Plan

Overall, Life Alert’s mobile device works like its at-home system except it has GPS in it so emergency personnel or a caregiver can find you if you hit the help button. One standout feature is its 10-year battery life. We liked not having to charge it. With most competitors, we had to charge our on-the-go system every four to seven days.

Who It’s Best For: Seniors who live an active lifestyle that want both an at-home system and a mobile device for protection anywhere.

Current Deal

Currently, Life Alert is offering a free month of service if you opt for paying annually. As mentioned, their pricing is not transparent, so we had to rely on what different sales reps told us. The deals your sales agent offers can vary from what we were offered, so you’ll need to call to figure out your final pricing. Here are the deals we were offered, though:

>> Check Out: Cheapest & Most Affordable Medical Alert Systems of 2025

Is Life Alert Worth It?

Life Alert’s monthly fees are pricey, ranging from $49.90 to $89.85 per month. For context, we discuss in our medical alert buying guide that top-tier systems generally start at around $25 to $35 per month. With that in mind, we find Life Alert costs more than the value they provide.

Sure, they offer a lifetime warranty and price-lock guarantee, which is rare for the industry, but not unheard of. And if that’s what you’re looking for, you can get those two features for a lot less through ADT Medical.

Another big drawback is Life Alert’s lack of fall detection, which we consider a standard service in the industry and a lifesaving investment.

Finally, while there are no equipment fees, they charge an upfront fee of $198 for various upfront costs such as shipping, installation, and activation of equipment. That’s about the same as Medical Guardian charges for their fanciest equipment.

While they might have one of the biggest names in the industry and one of the best reputations, we’d really like to see them rely less on name recognition and more on improving their offerings and lowering their costs.

How Does Life Alert Stack Up Against the Competition?

Like we mentioned a few times, Life Alert provides a quality service, but their equipment is dated and they cost a lot more than the competition. For example, compared to Bay Alarm which has been around for about as long, Life Alert costs almost twice as much and offers fewer equipment options.

When we tested Medical Guardian, we also paid less than we paid with Life Alert for significantly more advanced equipment. We were able to get the MGMove smartwatch for $199 upfront (almost the same as Life Alert’s upfront fee) and the MGHome Cellular system for about $150 upfront and no hidden fees.

>> Learn More: The Best Medical Alert Watches for Seniors in 2025

Methodology: How We Assessed Life Alert’s Value

Finding out Life Alert’s pricing by calling them up and speaking to their sales representatives only gave us half the story. We know to fully assess their value, we needed to buy a system and test it out ourselves. So, that’s exactly what we did. During our tests, we assessed the following criteria:

• Response Time: Our team ran several simulated tests and timed how long it took before we were in contact with a monitoring agent from Life Alert.
• Equipment Quality: To assess equipment quality, we test that it reliably performs all advertised features as well as consider the durability and comfort of all wearable devices.
• Add-On Features: We prefer systems that offer plenty of add-on features so we can customize the system to our liking such as fall detection and GPS tracking for mobile devices.
• Pricing: Like we mentioned, we called Life Alert to get a full breakdown of their pricing.

To round the assessment of our senior care experts with years of experience, we also consulted with third-party experts and current users of Life Alert systems.

Life Alert Company History

Life Alert is a household name and has been providing reliable products and services for nearly 40 years.

Today, the brand has over 600 employees in their Encino, California headquarters.3

Final Thoughts: Is Life Alert Right For You?

For most people, there are better alternatives than Life Alert. Sure, they have great name recognition, but their systems don’t live up to their reputation. They feel dated compared to modern medical alert systems like Bay Alarm Medical and Medical Guardian.

Unless you really value Life Alert’s name recognition, you can get a better system for a lower price from their competitors. It’s not that they’re bad, either, we actually liked the reliability of their monitoring, but they’re still overpriced.

>> Comparison Shopping: Bay Alarm Medical vs. Medical Guardian 2025

Life Alert FAQs