Frequently Asked Questions

Stick & Signal is a buying guide for renters who want smart-home and security gear that installs without drilling and comes off clean at move-out. We rank video doorbells, cameras, smart locks, plugs, lights and alarms on how reversible they are, whether they need a subscription, and their live price.

No, and we say so plainly. We don't own a test lab and we won't pretend to. What we do instead: compile the published specs, read the install manuals, calculate the real cost of any subscription, and assign a Lease-Safe rating derived from how each product mounts. It's reproducible, so you can check our work.

It's our editorial rating of how renter-friendly a product's installation is, derived from its published install method. 'Excellent' means adhesive, tension, over-the-door or freestanding — no holes. 'Good' means it retrofits over existing hardware with no new holes. 'Limited' means it needs screws or drilling. It is not a test result.

Yes. Every price is pulled from a live retailer check and carries the date it was pulled. If the check stops running, the number disappears and the button falls back to 'Check price on Amazon' rather than showing a stale figure. We never type a price into an article by hand.

Through affiliate links. When you buy through one of our 'View on Amazon' links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes our rankings — when a cheaper or more reversible product is the better buy for a renter, that's still our pick. See our affiliate disclosure for the details.

For battery devices on adhesive mounts, freestanding cameras, plug-in accessories and retrofit locks that keep your existing hardware, usually not — there's nothing altered and nothing left behind. Anything wired or drilled is a different story and should be cleared first. Always check your lease, and when in doubt, ask in writing.

Generally yes, inside your own unit and pointed at your own door, but the details vary by lease and by state — and audio recording has stricter rules than video in many places. We cover this in our guide on apartment camera laws. It's general information, not legal advice.

Our overall pick is a battery doorbell that mounts on an adhesive plate, so there's no wiring and no holes. If avoiding a monthly fee matters most, a local-storage model like the eufy E340 is the pick. See our best video doorbells for apartments roundup for the full comparison with live prices.

A retrofit lock that mounts on the inside of your existing deadbolt — it keeps your exterior hardware and physical key exactly as they are, installs without drilling, and unscrews back to stock in minutes. The August Wi-Fi Smart Lock is our default renter pick. See our best smart locks for renters roundup.

Yes. Cameras that record to a microSD card or built-in storage — many Wyze, eufy, Blink and TP-Link Tapo models — let you keep footage with no subscription. Ring and some cloud-first brands require a subscription to see recorded video. We flag which is which on every camera pick.

Often no. Most Wi-Fi plugs, bulbs and cameras connect directly to your router and are controlled by an app or a voice assistant like an Echo. You only need a dedicated hub (Aqara, SmartThings) if you're using devices that speak Zigbee, Thread or Z-Wave. See our best hubs for renters guide.

Done right, no. Purpose-made no-drill mounts use a strong adhesive that holds on smooth, clean surfaces and peels off cleanly when warmed with a hair dryer. The keys are surface prep (clean with alcohol first) and cure time (let it set before hanging anything). Rough brick and textured stucco are where adhesive struggles.

You remove the hardware, restore any original fittings (like a peephole), factory-reset each device, remove it from your account, and reset your Wi-Fi so nothing's left connected. Our moving-out checklist walks through it step by step so you get your full deposit back.

Reputable ones are. Look for a UL or ETL safety mark on anything electrical, keep firmware updated, use strong unique passwords, and don't plug high-draw appliances like space heaters into a smart plug that isn't rated for them. We cover the fire and privacy questions in our 'are smart plugs safe' guide.

Stephen V., an enthusiast who's genuinely into renter-friendly smart home gear. Not a security installer or an electrician — someone who reads the manuals, compiles the specs, and does the deposit math so you don't have to. Nothing on the site is legal advice.

Use our contact form or email us. Corrections get priority: if you flag a factual error and you're right, we'll check it against the source, fix it, and note the correction on the affected page.