Home security is sold the wrong way round. The expensive, heavily marketed products watch a burglary happen. The cheap, dull ones try to stop it. This index prices the second group against the first, using government data on how burglars actually get into British homes.
The headline: the hardware covering the routes burglars actually use costs £90.44. The cheapest alarm kit we have priced is £149.99. ONS analysis of the Crime Survey for England and Wales finds burglars enter through a door around 70% of the time and a window around 30%, and that roughly three in five domestic burglaries happen between 6pm and 6am. Every item below addresses one of those three facts.
The kit, by the entry route it covers
Six items, priced on 30 August 2026. Each row exists because of a specific finding in the ONS data, not because it sells well.
| Covers | Item and why it is here | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Door | Anti-snap euro cylinder, TS007 3 star The barrel burglars snap on uPVC and composite doors | £34.99 | Amazon → |
| Door | BS 3621 5-lever mortice deadlock The lock most home insurers name on timber doors | £18.99 | Amazon → |
| Door | Frame reinforcement (London bar) Spreads the force so the frame does not split | £12.99 | Amazon → |
| Door | Door chain restrictor For answering the door without opening it | £9.99 | Amazon → |
| Window | Window restrictor locks, 2 pack Covers the other three in ten entries | £5.99 | Amazon → |
| Timing | 24-hour plug timer Lights on during the 6pm to 6am window | £7.49 | Amazon → |
| Total | The full entry-route kit | £90.44 |
Door hardware alone is £76.96 of that, which is the right weighting: the door is roughly seven in ten entries. The window locks are £5.99 and cover most of the rest.
The same six items as a live price table:
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What the same money buys in the alarm aisle
| System | Price | Multiple of the kit | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ring Alarm Pack S | £149.99 | 1.7x | Amazon → |
| eufy 5-piece alarm kit | £149.99 | 1.7x | Amazon → |
| SimpliSafe 7-piece | £198.71 | 2.2x | Amazon → |
This is not an argument that alarms are pointless. They do a different job: locks try to prevent entry, alarms and cameras detect and record it, and a visible alarm box has its own deterrent value. The point is the order. On the ONS entry data, securing the door and window first and adding detection second is the sequence that follows from the evidence. Buying the camera first means paying more to watch something you might have stopped for £90.44.
The cheapest item on the list is the one nobody sells you
A £7.49 plug timer is the least glamorous thing here and it addresses the largest single fact in the data. Around three in five domestic burglaries happen between 6pm and 6am. From late October, when the clocks go back, that window covers most of the evening. A house with a lamp coming on at dusk reads as occupied, and nothing about that requires an app, a subscription or a camera.
How to tell whether a security product is any good
Ignore the seller’s own adjectives and look for Police Preferred Specification, awarded by Secured by Design, which describes itself as “the official police security initiative, owned by UK Policing”. It is run by Police Crime Prevention Initiatives Limited. Two other names worth knowing: TS007 3 star, the anti-snap rating for euro cylinders, and BS 3621, the mortice lock standard most home insurers name in their policy wording. All three are accreditations you can check, rather than claims a brand makes about itself.
Method
Prices are the buy-box price on amazon.co.uk read through Amazon’s Creators API on 30 August 2026. Items were chosen to map onto the ONS findings on method of entry and time of day, one item per route, at the cheapest specification that meets a recognised standard where one exists. Where several products met the same standard we took a mid-priced one rather than the cheapest listing, because the cheapest often has no standard at all.
What this index does not do: it does not claim a given item reduces your risk by a given amount. No such figure exists in the published data, and any site quoting one has invented it. What the ONS data supports is where burglars enter and when, and this index prices the response to that. It also does not include fitting. A mortice deadlock is a locksmith job for most people, and that cost varies too much by area to average honestly.
Changes
None. This is the first edition and the table above is the baseline.
The data
Free to reuse with credit.
Show the 2026 index as CSV
category,item,asin,price_gbp,captured Door,"Anti-snap euro cylinder, TS007 3 star",B06XY4DS8H,34.99,2026-08-30 Door,"BS 3621 5-lever mortice deadlock",B000TAUFFG,18.99,2026-08-30 Door,"Frame reinforcement (London bar)",B0716LZNWQ,12.99,2026-08-30 Door,"Door chain restrictor",B073DMHFBD,9.99,2026-08-30 Window,"Window restrictor locks, 2 pack",B09N96VHBZ,5.99,2026-08-30 Timing,"24-hour plug timer",B01CP44AU4,7.49,2026-08-30
Questions people ask
Where do burglars actually get in?
Through a door about 70% of the time and a window about 30%, according to ONS analysis of the Crime Survey for England and Wales. That is the single most useful fact in home security, and it is the one most product marketing skips.
What is the cheapest thing that actually improves home security?
On these prices, a £5.99 pair of window restrictor locks and a £7.49 plug timer. The timer matters more than it looks: ONS analysis puts about three in five domestic burglaries between 6pm and 6am, so a house that looks occupied after dark is addressing the majority of the risk window for the price of a sandwich.
Do I need an alarm or a camera?
They do a different job. Locks and frame reinforcement try to stop entry; alarms and cameras detect and record it, and can deter. The order that follows from the ONS entry data is to secure the doors and windows first, then add detection if you still want it. Buying the camera first means recording a burglary you might have prevented for less.
How do I know a security product is any good?
Look for Police Preferred Specification from Secured by Design, which describes itself as the official police security initiative, owned by UK Policing. It is an accreditation you can check rather than a claim a seller makes about itself.
Is burglary going up or down in the UK?
Down. Police recorded burglary fell 9% to 223,456 offences in the year ending March 2026, on ONS figures published in July 2026. That covers residential and non-residential burglary together.
Where to go next
If you want the detection layer as well: our home security systems guide compares six alarm and camera systems on price and subscription cost, and the smart security budget guide covers what to buy in what order. On the legal side, whether a video doorbell is legal in the UK matters more than most buyers expect.
Other Look Into indexes
Each of these is built the same way: a fixed basket or a fixed set of claims, captured on a stated date, with the method published and the raw data on the page.
- UK Student Kit Index 2026, a fixed 20-item basket priced against the maintenance loan.
- UK At-Home Beauty Device Cost Index 2026, IPL devices and LED masks costed per session.
- UK Bottle Insulation Claims Audit 2026, what five brands claim, and which test conditions they state.
Sources
Method of entry, time of day and day of week: ONS, Overview of burglary and other household theft, England and Wales. Recorded burglary volumes: ONS, Crime in England and Wales, bulletin published 23 July 2026. Accreditation: Secured by Design. All read on 30 August 2026. Product prices: Amazon UK via the Amazon Creators API, 30 August 2026. The Amazon links are affiliate links and we may earn a commission. Note what that means here: this page argues for spending less, on cheaper items, than the alarm systems we also link to. The items were chosen from the ONS data before any price was looked up.