I will be purchasing a new home later this year and am already thinking about home security.

The first thing I want to do is get new exterior doors. I will need 3 (front door of house, side entrance door off of attached garage, and man door to a detached garage).

What are some good choices that are available at Home Depot, Lowes, Ace, Menard's?

Budget: Under $200 per door

Thank you

To be fair, I was in your sams boat about 5 years ago. Replaced a door with the $200 HD special.

Do yourself a favor, save up a little more and order a custom door from HD as opposed to getting a stock unit. The stock units are crap, and mine is falling apart 5 years later.

Also, invest in some "jamb armour" for each door. Makes the door un-kickable.

You aren't likely to find much of anything that's more secure than the builders doors, that came with the house, for under $200 a pop

Security in a door comes from strength and rigidity. Basically you should be thinking about materials like steel and hardwood. Most doors simply don't have the construction to provide security against any sort of real physical attack. A few hits of a sledge hammer, a minute or two with a pry bar. Heck even a sustained stomping with the flat of your foot will eventually take out most residential doors.

You should look at heavier gauge residential steel doors, at commercial steel doors, at solid residential hardwood doors, at fire rated doors with higher ratings in terms of minutes i.e. 60 or 120. Fiberglass and softwood can also be okay under the right circumstances. You will often find those materials in fire rated doors. But the short version of this story is that security costs money unless you have the skills to fabricate or modify doors yourself. It's actually very easy to spend over $200 on a decent lockset. Last time I priced a decent commercial steel door at Home Depot it was over $500 without hardware.

As a starting place, with your builder grade doors, I would consider using something like the StrikeMaster or Door Jamb Armor. If the house has yet to be built, spec commercial or longer duration rated fire doors with steel frames and reinforced carpentry e.g. extra studs, LVLs or 4x6 posts in place of studs.