Zone control

I'm trying to understand zone control in choosing my 1st alarm monitoring company
 
alarmrelay claims that each sensor is its own zone while geoarm has a basic package with no zones at all & 8 zones with an enhanced packaged
 
Now, assume I am in my home office and want to do 'arm & stay' but also open a window in my office. To do this, I need zone control right so that I can arm the whole house except this one contact sensor in my window?

Thanks
 
 

First question:  do you have an alarm system installed yet?
 
Most alarm panels have a fixed number of zones "built in," often 8 or 16.  Many alarm panels allow more zones to be added through the use of zone expansion boards.
 
A zone may have one or more contacts connected to it.  How this is wired depends on the preferences of you as a customer and/or the preferences of the alarm installer.  If you are installing your own system, it's entirely up to you.
 
One method is to wire only one contact to a zone.  So, if your office has 3 windows, then there would be 3 zones covering that room.  And maybe some additional zones for motion detectors, door contacts, etc.
 
Another method is to wire all the windows in a room together as a single zone.  You probably would still wire the motion detector and door contact on their own zones and separate from the windows.  That way, in Arm-Stay mode, you could have the window contacts on a perimeter zone and active, while the motion detector would be an interior zone and be inactive in Stay mode.
 
If you use the first method, you could bypass a single open window in Arm-Stay mode, but still have the other windows in that room protected.  If you use the second method, then you could still bypass an open window, but since the other windows in the room are on the same zone, they wouldn't be protected, either.  Only you can decide if that is important to you or not.
 
Another advantage of the first method and having every sensor on its own zone is that when the system won't arm because something isn't secure, you know exactly which door, window or motion detector to check.  With the second method, you have a bit of an Easter egg hunt to figure out which sensor is the source of the trouble.
 
The company you choose for monitoring shouldn't care one way or the other which method you use.   But it will make a difference in the alarm panel you choose and whether additional zones and zone expanders will increase the purchase cost of the system.

Hi and welcome:
 
You didn't say if you are installing this system or is someone else?  Are you building a house or adding a system to an existing house? Is it prewired? 
 
Ideally you will use a separate zone for every sensor you want to differentiate from another sensor.  At the least, you need a zone for fire sensors, one for all windows, one for all entry doors, and one for all motion detectors.  This is because each of these types of sensors are different classes.  
 
In most cases you want many more zones than that. Typically all the windows in a room are wired to ONE zone, but ideally each might have its own zone. If they are wired together, the system can't tell which is opened, so you have to bypass them all or none.
 
So ideally every sensor is its own zone, but this is also the most expensive because you need more zones and more wires, and those both cost money.
 
Most better systems can also handle "areas" where maybe your house would be one area, and your home office another, but this is usually overkill for a home unless its quite big.
 
Also keep in mind, if you are having this alarm installed, and your house is not prewired, then alarm companies want as few zones as possible, because adding wires is difficult. If you want, lets say, each window to have a separate zone, you need to decide that in advance, and of course it will cost more. Usually most people tie all the windows in a room to one zone, but your choice.

Sorry for not giving enough info. It's a home i purchased and there is some pre-wiring but very little and I've chosen wireless for that reason. I'm probably going go with L5200 from honeywell but now concerned with wifi or cellular jammers thieves can use. Is this a valid concern and should I be looking into a panel that's hardwired into my ethernet port?

Thx

There's a couple of items that RAL omitted.
 
For wireless, each device is it's own "zone" and sometimes, even keyfobs may take up multiple zones.

Hardwire, there is no hard rule, but generally, the "best practice" is to home run doors to their own zone, windows by room, wall, or bank, and any powered devices (PIR, GBD, etc.) should be their own zone. There's no rule, but the more "zones" used, the more hardware is needed, more wiring to the panel and some panels are inherently limited.
 
FIre, CO, and critical condition monitoring have special circumstances and install details.