
Smart Safes Vs. Traditional Safes: 9 Pros And Cons For Home Security

Smart safes are getting increasingly prevalent amidst small businesses, vendors, amenity store owners, gas stations, diners, and other cash-heavy establishments to store cash, essential documents, and envelopes securely. We can also see them in hotel and motel rooms for guests to utilize during their stay.
Innovation in creating a smart safe has led to the implementation of futuristic technologies such as integrated cameras, app connectivity, biometric authentication, tamper sensors, wifi, temperature & humidity sensor, real-time data sharing, and more. These are built with the purpose of keeping your valuable items secure and protected.
Are they as beneficial for your homes as they are for those other establishments, or are you better off with traditional safes? Read ahead to decide for sure.
Table of Contents
Why Use Safes In The First Place

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The foremost usage of a safe was recorded to be close to the 13th century BC. It was uncovered in Pharaoh Ramesses second tomb, constructed with mobile tacks to seal and unseal the chest. Since then, safes have consistently been utilized to store valuables and to prevent robbery and damage to those valuables.
Over the years, the mechanics have advanced a lot with the refinements in the material and the lock mechanism. The most recent modification is the biometric lock in the intelligent safes. These don’t require mechanical keys, which is the main difference between conventional and digital safes. The biometric scans usually are either fingerprint, retina, or voice recognition. Sometimes it is a mixture of all three or a pair, depending on the security level you require.
The uses of technical safes for other establishments are primarily related to money-handling processes, with improved functionality, productivity, precision, accountability, and protection, along with the reduced cost and time commitment linked with manual cash management.
Safe In Your Home
Wildfires, flooding, earthquakes, and other natural calamities are becoming more common across the board as climate change, and global warming’s impacts become more widespread. Thus, high quality is a must when you’re looking to safeguard these priceless and invaluable objects from the elements and larceny.
Plus, if you are a parent, some things ought to be put in the safe out of your kid’s reach to prevent any external damage or as a safety issue, like a weapon or important house documents.
So how can we keep our invaluable, confidential, or hazardous goods secure from inquisitive kids?
You can decide whether to utilize the traditional or innovative option after comparing both pros and cons.
Pros And Cons Of A Smart Safe

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We already know about the advantage and disadvantages of conventional safe. Your primary concern is not to misplace your keys, or else you won’t be able to open them.
So let’s focus on the pros and cons of technical safes.
PROS
There are some undeniable advantages of a smart safe.
Multiple Access Feature
Technical safes have the mechanism to save multiple biometric scans allowing more than one person in the family access to it when he/she is keyed in. Since all this data is stored in the memory of the mechanism in the safe, you don’t have to worry about having numerous keys to give out, which is a security risk.
Record Of Access To The Safe
Smart safes have the feature to keep a chronology of the individual who opened it and the amount of time it was opened for. A few of the safes have a video recording inside them.
In addition, some intelligent safes display this information in real-time to a connected app on the owner’s phone. This way, if there were any theft, it would be easy to asses how it happened.
No Error Of Incorrect Password
One of the drawbacks of a traditional or combination lock was recalling the password. This is no issue with a smart safe. Even with an intelligent password-protected safe, it will also have a biometric lock in case you forget the password; you can still access the safe and set a new password after confirming your identity.
Readily Accessible

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In case of an emergency and you require a weapon stored in your safe, it is very quickly accessible in a matter of seconds with a smart safe. This cannot be said about a conventional one as you will have to enter the password or, worse, a combination number which wastes precious time.
Reinforced Security
Theoretically, an intelligent safe is more protected than a lock or keypad one. To hack a conventional safe, anybody can attempt to try by replicating or pilfering the key and extrapolating the code combination.
However, you won’t confront such a risk with a smart safe. Your fingerprint and retina scan is practically unattainable!
CONS
Just like any other technology, there is a downside to the smart safe as well.
Functionality Is Conditional On A Power Source
While all the advantages of intelligent safes rely on technology, it is also one of its most significant drawbacks. A smart safe is dependent on electrical energy to operate its security systems. So even if you use a battery-powered one, it requires a charge periodically.
You will have to remember to keep it charged, or else you may not be able to access the items inside when required.
False Affirmation To Scans
Some smart safes can easily have false positives, permitting unauthorized access to unlock them. Thus, when you purchase a smart safe, acquire it from a respected brand that uses reliable scanning technology.
Purchasing A Good Safe Costs Money

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Intelligent safes are notably more pricey than conventional safes. However, most of the cost comes mainly from the machine installed in it and other high-quality materials to help counterbalance the retail price.
Exporting Data Can Be Tedious
Reckoning the information stored can be a tedious process in some smart safes as it may require you to copy data from your safes to an external drive, then view it on your computer.
Conclusion
We all know the pros and cons of conventional safes; conventional safes don’t require a battery or a power source. So people who are less tech-savvy can efficiently work with traditional safes. But the disadvantage to it is the security risks, and with evolving technology, it is easier to crack a code using external devices.
If you are considering buying a safe for your home, you can compare the benefits and risks of a smart safe vs. a traditional safe with the above-listed attributes.