Medical Guardian Review 2025

Key Takeaways

• All devices, except for the MGClassic, require a one-time equipment fee ranging from $149 to $199.
• Fall detection is not included with any Medical Guardian device, but it can be added for an extra $10 per month.
• Most Medical Guardian devices can be used anywhere in the U.S. with a 4G cell network.

Packages and Pricing

Many seniors are living on a fixed income, and medical alert systems aren’t free. So let’s start this review by talking about the bottom line. What kinds of equipment and monitoring packages does Medical Guardian offer, and exactly what does it charge for each one?

Medical Guardian’s most popular package is the MGClassic. No surprise there, as it’s also the company’s most affordable package. Monthly monitoring is reasonable, at $32.95, and you pay nothing for equipment. That means you don’t have to save up to purchase a system. You can get in-home medical alert protection today, which, after all, is when you need it.

While the MGClassic is popular, Medical Guardian offers four additional plans, all of them good values. Here’s a complete list.

It’s good to have options, and Medical Guardian gives you plenty. If you want a more detailed overview of pricing for each system, we recommend checking out our Medical Guardian price guide.

There’s something to be said for simplicity as well, though. If you’re someone who finds too many choices overwhelming, you might want to check out our Bay Alarm Medical review. Bay Alarm offers several in-home and on-the-go systems, but not as many as Medical Guardian does.

Expert Examined

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

“In my experience, well-intentioned family members that are comfortable with technology may get a medical alert system (MAS) that has a variety of features that THEY think they will find useful, but if the user is intimidated by them or resistive to them, then the usefulness is limited. When shopping for a MAS, pay for features you and/or the intended user will actually use – with the recognition that needs will likely change over time – rather than paying for all the features just because they’re available.” Read more about Christopher Norman →

Choosing Options and Apps

Medical Guardian keeps its website simple and easy to navigate. That’s great for anybody, but it’s especially important for seniors. Ultimately, it makes ordering a lot more straightforward. As we mentioned, the company offers several different systems and plans, but we were particularly drawn to the MGMove, Medical Guardian’s smartwatch. OK, it’s not a true smartwatch, but it resembles other smartwatches on the market, which means no one has to know you’re wearing a monitoring device. Plus, it allows you to take your medical alert system with you, wherever you might happen to be going. And while you can’t use it to make video calls, it does come with all the most important safety features, as well as one or two extras as well.

Take note, though – not all of these extras are free. We assumed that features like messaging and reminders would be included in the monitoring plan. After all, this is a smartwatch. Turns out, not so much. When we clicked on them, we were told we could add them, but that it would cost us $5 more a month. Now, that’s a pretty fair price. Still, it would have been nice if we knew about that price upfront, before we’d signed up for MGMove.

Speaking of paying additional monthly fees, there are several available add-ons in addition to messaging and reminders on the MGMove smartwatch. You can add features like alerts sent to a caretaker or family member’s phone in the event of an emergency, a direct connection to 911 services, automatic fall detection, and even a code-protected lockbox to be placed outside your door so emergency responders can enter your house. We find those add-ons fairly priced, ranging from $2.99 to about $10 per month.

Below is an overview of all the add-on equipment you can order for any Medical Guardian device. Most of the features and add-ons can be used with different devices, but they’re not universally compatible with all of them.

Expert Examined

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

“In the case of a fall or history of falling, many people have told me that the fear of falling is worse than whatever pain was experienced during the actual fall. There are lots of levels to this: anatomical (whether or not a body part is injured or broken), psychological (threatened independence), emotional (fear), and even cultural (how we generally as a society fear and revile aging as a time when we get weaker or lose the things we love). Any intervention that can lessen the multi-layered concerns that accompany falling is worth investigating in my book.”

Ordering Medical Guardian

Buying Experience

As much as we liked the MGMove, we wanted to get a broader sense of Medical Guardian’s systems, so we actually ordered three different Medical Guardian packages. Just to gain a bit more data, we ordered them at different times, just to test how quickly each one would arrive. Here’s a quick overview of how many days each one took to arrive and the shipping options provided by Medical Guardian.

Nice to know that Medical Guardian can get any of its systems to you in a couple of days or even overnight if you really need it that quickly. Most of the time, ground shipping works for us, but we recognize that life sometimes comes at us all pretty fast, and faster shipping options is just one way we can tell that Medical Guardian puts customers first.

We went into the purchase knowing exactly what we wanted. If you’re unsure which system is the best fit for you, however, Medical Guardian offers a product quiz. The test is concise, quick, and helpful if you’re on the fence. The company also has a separate landing page full of buying advice, FAQs, statistics, price comparisons, reviews, and customer-support options.

Installation Process

Medical Guardian alerts don’t come pre-charged. Pre-charged equipment is becoming a more popular approach in the medical alert community, but it’s still not the standard, so we weren’t thrown. It simply meant that we had to wait a few hours to start the setup process. That part was pretty straightforward. Equipment boxes included QR codes. Once you scan those with a mobile device, a set of simple instructions pops up. Not that technologically sophisticated? No problem. You can also visit the Medical Guardian website to get everything working. Medical Guardian even offers old-school dial-up customer support if you’d prefer to have an actual human talk you through everything.

Other than finding an appropriate spot to plug the equipment in, installation just involves entering your product number, providing some basic subscriber information, and choosing a payment option for your monthly subscription. The whole thing took us less than five minutes.

At that point, we were ready to power up our devices and do a little testing.

Response Time

When we tested our MGMove and MGMini, it took around 23 seconds to call, dial, and connect to help. When we conducted our first test, we were connected to a live human. After that, all we got was a robo agent or interactive voice response (IVR) system. That was a bit concerning considering the extra time it would take to reach a real human in case of an actual emergency.

Things got a bit complicated when we tested our MGHome 2.0, but, if anything, our experience made us trust Medical Guardian even more.

When we tested our home device, it rang but never connected to an agent. We then pressed the call button two more times without success. Several minutes passed as we tried to research the issue online, when we noticed a few missed calls from an unknown number.

Being the security experts we are, we immediately decided they were spam calls. A light went on, however, when we noticed another incoming call from the same number. Could it be from Medical Guardian? We answered, and it was indeed an agent.

Since so much time had passed, they had flagged our test as an emergency and dispatched help. With an agent on the line, they did their best to get in touch with the main call center to dismiss the help, but our local sheriff had a different idea.

Around 30 minutes after we initiated the “failed” tests, we got a knock on our door from a couple of officers conducting a wellness check. That’s good on them and Medical Guardian for pushing it through.

What exactly went wrong? Well, we spent 17 minutes and 29 seconds on the phone with support to get the problem fixed. Turns out, our box was having connectivity issues, which caused the calls to drop. After resetting it, all was well, but the event gave us pause. Maybe this was a problem with setup, maybe it was a problem with the device itself, but either way, we’d definitely suggest testing your system out as soon as it arrives.

The whole debacle had one positive: by the time we were through with the whole thing, we knew that we’d never have to worry about getting help when we needed it. Even if the connection drops, we’re protected. Of course, our emergency contacts all showed up once they were notified, and we had to explain the situation to all of them, but that reminded us that others are watching out for our wellbeing, and that’s never a bad thing.

MyGuardian App

We love a good app, and the MyGuardian app is good. It allowed us to access and monitor all aspects of our system, something you want in an app. Even better, though, it was intuitive and easy to use. No arbitrary menu categories, no weird verbiage, no confusing options, and no tiny text. Perfect for seniors. Ultimately, it gave us the ability to keep all our devices organized and provided us with an overview of the system as a whole.

Depending on the system you have, the features and options available may change slightly. You won’t get to see your step counter or messages on your MGHome, for example, but you would on your MGMove. What doesn’t change is access to your billing portal, emergency contacts and caregivers, and customer support. No matter which system you have, the app will definitely come in handy.

Current Medical Guardian Deals

Medical Guardian offers deals around holidays and new seasons. We’re in between deals at the moment, but it’s possible to get up to fifty percent off systems. We recommend visiting the Medical Guardian site regularly. You can never tell when a sale might pop up quickly and go away just as quickly.

Reading the Fine Print

The fine print isn’t always the most exciting, but it’s always important. You wouldn’t want to order a medical alert system you depend on without knowing the legalities behind it, right? Here’s a rundown of fine-print items such as contracts and warranties. We made this short, sweet, and painless to read.

Contracts

You may be happy to know that Medical Guardian does not require contracts for any of its subscriptions or equipment purchases. All its products come with a required monthly subscription, but it can be canceled at any time. You own the product you purchase forever, but you are able to return it within 14 days of the start of your service for a full refund.

Warranties

Medical Guardian has a free manufacturer’s warranty that is active as long as you have a subscription. It also offers product warranties that protect against defects in materials and workmanship for up to one year after your purchase. Some products, including the MGMove, also come with a 90-day warranty that covers technical issues and malfunctions.

Bottom Line

Maybe the best thing about Medical Guardian is that it has medical alert options for everyone – seniors, individuals with medical conditions, people prone to falling, and anyone who wants extra monitoring and peace of mind. Likewise you can get great devices whether you’re a confirmed homebody looking for 24/7 monitoring or an active on-the-go senior who needs protection while you’re out on the town.

All steps, from purchase to setup and beyond, are straightforward and intuitive. Medical Guardian devices are designed to be simple and efficient, so you’ll rarely be confused about a system’s functionalities or what you can do with a device. In our experience, customer-support agents were friendly and ready to help, no matter the day or time. We liked that they were patient even when we had a hiccup with one of our tests.

Overall, we recommend Medical Guardian because of the variety it offers across devices, as well as its 24/7 monitoring, affordability, and ease of use. You can also take most devices anywhere in the U.S. that has a 4G cell network. Even the devices that require a landline can be set up in any state.

Frequently Asked Questions