Best Driveway Alarms and Sensors of 2023

Whether you have a long winding driveway or a short road leading to your garage, driveway sensors—like our top pick, Guardline—are a smart way to monitor vehicles entering and exiting your property. These devices are easy to install and fit a range of budgets for long and short driveways.

Take a look through the different sensors and their effective ranges, and think about the geographic features around your home. Heavy foliage and hills may reduce those ranges, so figure out which sensor would work best for your home—and never be surprised by a visitor again.

Guardline uses motion detectors with passive infrared technology (PIR) to spot vehicles coming up your driveway. The sensors can detect motion up to 40 feet away, which should cover most driveways and even shorter stretches along your property line. Still, you might want to consider Dakota Alert for better options to monitor your land's perimeters.

The sensors can withstand all types of weather and work without interference. The receivers have a battery backup and a 12-volt relay to link them to additional external alarms or sirens.

You can customize almost every detection setting with Guardline. We're big fans of the four distance settings—13 feet, 23 feet, 26 feet, and 40 feet—so you can ignore people walking up a path on the other side of your driveway. There's even a unique speed sensitivity setting, so passing wildlife moving slower than 2 mph don't trigger your alarm unless you want them to.

If you don't want the system sending alerts during the day, you can turn on Night Mode to stay on top of nighttime visitors. Plus, you can remove a small cover over the motion sensor to increase the field of view for earlier alerts.

The wireless range allows for a quarter mile between the sensor and the receiver, although heavy foliage and thick walls will reduce this distance. This is shorter than the full- and half-mile ranges from Dakota Alert and eMACROS, respectively, but perfect for most people.

This driveway alarm comes with 32 customizable alert sounds and is expandable to include multiple sensors—up to 16. (Four zones with four sensors for one receiver.) You can pair specific sounds with each zone, so you'll always know where the motion is without looking.

We love Guardline for its customization options and flexibility—and we think it's perfect for most properties. The quarter-mile range isn't the longest on our list, but it's great for everything except gigantic properties.

We love the YoLink SpeakerHub receiver because you can use custom alarm sounds or text-to-speech notifications. This is excellent if you want to hear something specific rather than choosing from a list of preset tones. Plus, it can help guests who aren't familiar with your tones to know what's going on.

It's even compatible with IFTTT, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant^†, so you can check sensor status with a voice command or activate a smart home device when your sensor picks up movement.

You can add up to 200 sensors to YoLink. Because YoLink is more of a general smart home system, it has a massive capacity for sensors compared to purpose-built driveway alarms. It supports most sensors you might find in a security system, like leak detectors, contact sensors, and motion sensors.

YoLink's range is pretty standard—it can detect motion up to 40 feet away, and the receiver's wireless range is a quarter mile. While YoLink's not as powerful as Dakota Alert, we think it's more than capable for most properties. Unfortunately, there's no battery backup in the hub like with Guardline, so the system won't work when the power goes out.

Overall, we think YoLink is an excellent option for folks wanting smartphone driveway alerts. Despite the convenience of the YoLink app, we believe Guardline's simplicity and battery backup are better for most people.

Despite its low price, the 1byone has a decent range for its receiver (1,000 feet) and passive infrared sensors (24 feet), which should be more than enough for a suburban home. Still, you shouldn't expect strong performance unless you have a clear line of sight between the sensor and the receiver.

We like 1byone's plug-and-play installation because you can pair sensors with a quick button press after plugging in the receiver. You can pair up to five sensors with one receiver, which is fewer than other brands but understandable considering 1byone's low price. There's no battery backup unless you buy 1byone's battery-powered model.

If you want a hidden driveway motion sensor, keep looking. This one looks pretty obvious. But we like the 36 customizable chimes and the option to have visual alerts, audio alerts, or a combination of the two. The speaker can reach 80 dB, making this a good choice for people with limited hearing.

Although 1byone doesn't offer much more than the bare essential features, it's a good option if you remain unconvinced that a pricier driveway alert is worth your money.

Dakota Alert's one-mile receiver range is four times further than Guardline and twice that of eMACROS. And while we came across plenty of brands with half- and quarter-mile ranges, Dakota Alert bests them all. As with other wireless driveway alarms, standard line-of-sight rules apply, so you might never see reliable alerts at one mile, but it's still quite a feat.

The motion detection range is equally impressive at 100 feet, which is wider than many suburban lots. Fortunately, you can adjust the infrared sensor's sensitivity down to 25 or 50 feet—bringing Dakota Alert down to its competitors' level—to reduce false alarms.

Despite its range, we think Dakota Alert's biggest strength is sensor variety. In addition to PIR motion detection, the company sells three other types of driveway sensors: magnetic probe, rubber hose, and photoelectric beam. Each has different strengths—and is much more expensive—but we love that you can choose the best kind for your needs and even mix and match them on the same receiver. (Check out our FAQ section to see how the different sensors work.)

You can connect up to 16 sensors on one receiver, which is typical for most driveway alarms. But there are fewer alarm tones, just 12, so there's less customization than on other brands.

We think Dakota Alert is one of the best driveway alarms if you have a long driveway and a large property—and the sensor selection is also fantastic. Still, everything about this brand is expensive, from base equipment to add-ons, so folks on a budget might need to look elsewhere.

We're big fans of eMACROS' half-mile wireless range, which is second only to Dakota Alert. But while the range is great, the driveway sensor's detection range tops out at 30 feet. This is lower than Guardline, YoLink, and Dakota Alert.

eMACROS doesn't offer many customization options—making it just a hair better than 1byone in terms of features. The only useful tweaks you can make are choosing which zone a sensor belongs in and slightly reducing the detection sensitivity to 20 feet.

The most perplexing thing about eMACROS is its customer support. A quick search of the official website revealed almost no information on how to use the product, and we needed a Google search to find a PDF copy of the manual. But the manual doesn't offer anything new that isn't on the Amazon listing. (Yeah, the Amazon listing has the same info.)

We like eMACROS and think it's a solid option if you want a solar-powered driveway alarm. But it doesn't feel as complete as most of our other picks.

The HTZSAFE Driveway Alarm (about $36) is possibly the cutest product on our lineup—it boasts an adorable owl design—always a bonus here at SafeWise. It's a good budget alternative to 1byone and offers excellent features like adjustable motion sensitivity, a half-mile wireless range, and a receiver that supports up to 32 sensors. It barely missed our top five but is definitely our top runner-up.

• Detection range: 50 ft.
• Receiver range: 2,640 ft. (half mile)
• Sensor limit: Up to 32

The Mighty Mule Wireless Driveway Alarm (about $84) is a magnetic probe sensor that you bury next to your driveway, making it easier to hide than other sensors. It has the shortest range on our list—just 12 feet—but won't produce false alarms as often as a motion or photoelectric sensor. Unfortunately, the wireless range is only 400 feet—shorter than even 1byone—so it's not suitable for large properties or ones without strong lines of sight.

• Detection range: 12 ft.
• Receiver range: 400 ft.
• Sensor limit: 1

The Milton's Bells Driveway Signal Bell Kit (about $166) is decidedly low-tech but is one of the most affordable ways to add a rubber hose driveway sensor to your pavement. It comes with a 50-foot hose, but you can use hoses up to 300 feet long. The bell plugs into a standard outlet and isn't weatherproof, so this is something you need to install close to your garage or shop. Still, its simple, practical design makes it a reliable option, especially in loud environments.

• Detection range: 50 ft. (expandable to 300 ft.)
• Receiver range: Requires wired connection
• Sensor limit: 1

The Rodann Electronics (about $130) was previously our pick for the longest detection range at 50 feet, but Dakota Alert proved more powerful for around $50 less. The downside to this device is the cost. There are so few features it seems the price should be lower. (It's tough to beat Guardline's impressive features.) The unit has solid customer reviews, but other less-expensive options provide far more features and reliability.

• Detection range: 50 ft.
• Receiver range: 2,000 ft.
• Sensor limit: Up to 12

The Seco-Larm Enforcer (about $52) was the first photoelectric beam sensor we ran across in our research. While we like the general design, it doesn't come with an alarm to tell you when someone's coming up the drive. Instead, you need to connect it to an external siren or buzzer. Like Milton's Bells, it requires a wired power source, making installation more complicated than it's worth for a typical homeowner.

• Detection range: 35 ft.
• Receiver range: Requires wired connection
• Sensor limit: 1

The Wuloo Solar Driveway Alarm (about $75 for a two-pack) is a more affordable solar option than eMACROS. We like that it can detect objects up to 33 feet away and has four levels of motion sensitivity like Guardline. Unfortunately, its wireless range is only 1,800 feet—about 800 feet shorter than eMACROS' half-mile range. Still, the Wuloo wireless driveway alarm  is a solid alternative if you don't need the range.

• Detection range: 33 ft.
• Receiver range: 1,800 ft.
• Sensor limit: Up to 8

Even though Guardline isn't the most affordable driveway alarm system, it includes many thoughtful features like unique alarm tones, an excellent wireless range, and support for up to 16 sensors.

When paired with other outdoor security equipment like security lights, outdoor cameras, and other affordable motion sensors, driveway sensors can keep you aware of what's happening at your home, whether you're there or not.

In our best driveway alarms and sensors review, we researched over 23 devices, read hundreds of customer reviews, and used our decades’ worth of safe experience to bring you the best products.

Check out our methodology to learn more about how we review products and services.

Contributing writer: Katie McEntire

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