ADT Security System Review

Video Review of ADT

For those of you who want to see ADT equipment in action, watch our ADT video review below where our Chief Editor Gabe Turner takes you on a tour of the ADT security system. He talks about the equipment we tested, the day-to-day of using ADT, and the features of the ADT app.

Components of the ADT Security System

Everything above should give you a nice overview of ADT, but with home security systems, you have to look under the hood, so to speak, to see how they perform. To start, we assessed every single component that came with our system, which included the following:

• Digital panel
• Contact sensors
• Motion sensors
• Glass break sensors
• Keychain remotes
• Emergency buttons
• Video doorbells
• Outdoor cameras
• Indoor cameras
• Smoke detectors
• Carbon monoxide detectors
• Flood sensors

Take note that we got mostly the same pieces of equipment as last time. Nothing much has changed with the sensors and the control panel that ADT offers. The biggest change has to do with the security cameras – ADT now offers Google Nest Cams instead of ADT-branded cameras. That’s a positive change, as you’ll see later on. For now, let’s talk about each component that came with our ADT security system.

Digital Panel

The digital panel was our control center. Essentially, it let us control ADT’s arming modes — we could either disarm, arm away, or arm stay.

• Disarm: This mode, which we used whenever we were home and actively moving around, disarms all motion sensors so our movement wouldn’t trigger a call to the monitoring center. The environment sensors (smoke alarms, flood sensors, etc.) remain active to alert us of a safety hazard.
• Arm stay: This is a customizable mode designed for when the user is home but wants to keep some security sensors armed. We set our security system to this mode at night before we go to bed, and we configured it to keep our front door entry sensor and first-floor window sensors armed, but our indoor motion sensors disarmed to prevent alerts when we go for a midnight snack.
• Arm away: As the name implies, this mode is for when the user is away, which was exactly how we used it. Essentially, it turns on all sensors (including motion sensors) so the system is at the ready to report anything unusual, from movements indoors to smoke or flooding.

Since this was a digital panel and ADT is a smart security system, we were fully expecting the panel to be able to control other connected devices, like our smart locks, smart lights, and thermostat. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. We were able to control and automate smart devices via the web dashboard and the ADT app, but not through the control panel itself.

That was disappointing. The Vivint Smart Hub we tested when we reviewed Vivint was able to do that, so we know the technology is possible. It was even able to show us live footage from our Vivint cameras, another thing the ADT digital panel was unable to do.

Features aside, though, the control panel’s looks stand out. It’s like a tablet – thicker than an iPad, but still easy to handle. It measures 7.68 x 4.76 x 0.71 inches. It’s also wire-free, unlike control panels of old that are wired into homes’ electricals. It has a 24-hour battery. We even took it with us to bed, keeping it on our nightstand for easy access, although we strongly recommend keeping it plugged in so it always has juice during power outages.

Contact Sensors

We placed the contact sensors on doors, windows and their respective frames so that we were notified whenever they were opened or closed. Because they are wireless, the sensors were easy to install and test out. Plus, we appreciated the fact that ADT had a bunch of contact sensor options in terms of installation and size. There are the regular ones pictured above, smaller ones if you want something more discreet, and recessed door types, which are completely inconspicuous. Recessed door sensors bore right into your door frame, making it practically invisible. We have one for our sliding glass door.

Keychain Remote

Aside from advanced control options (app, touchscreen panel, voice, etc.), ADT supports more traditional ways to control the system. One example we tested was the keychain remote, which we recommend for households with members not comfortable using smartphones or a touchscreen panel. The keychain also proved to be a much simpler way to arm and disarm ADT.

There’s nothing fancy about the keychain remote — it looks like a remote car key with a button for arming and another one for disarming ADT. It came in handy, however, whenever we had to disarm the system while carrying bags of groceries or whenever our hands were full on the way out. We loved that it was light and that it attached right to our keychain.

The keychain remote is also good for emergencies. It has a panic button that, when pressed within the touchscreen panel’s range, calls ADT’s monitoring center for help. We haven’t had the chance to use the feature in a real emergency, but we thought it would be useful for household members with medical conditions as well.

Motion Detector

Motion detectors are staples of home security systems. They detect movement using passive Infrared, which means they only trigger when the moving subject emits body heat such as humans or pets. The motion sensor from ADT has a 35 by 40 feet detection range, which was more than enough for our living room.

If you have pets, we confirmed with the technician that the sensor can be adjusted to make it pet-friendly, meaning, pets’ movements won’t trigger it. They showed us a toggle switch at the back of the sensor that, when switched to pet-friendly mode, adjusts the sensor’s sensitivity so pets no longer trigger it but humans still do.

Glass Break Sensors

Not all burglars will finesse their way into your home. Others will use more forceful methods, like breaking through glass doors or windows. And unfortunately, if your entry sensors are attached to the door or window frame, there’s a good chance they’ll fail to catch the intrusion. That’s where the glass break sensor comes in. Place it in a room with glass doors and windows, and it will monitor for the sound of breaking glass.

ADT’s glass break sensor has a 25-foot range at maximum sensitivity, but if you’re like us and tend to be clumsy with glasses, you can adjust it with four sensitivity levels.

Our ADT install technician placed the glass break sensor opposite our sliding glass doors leading to the patio. He said that’s the best placement, as it can pick up the sound of glass shattering best when it faces the source. We also asked if it would pick up noise from other rooms, and the install technician said that it might, but it depends on the loudness. We tried playing the sounds of breaking glass on our TV in the living room and it did pick up the sound.

Emergency Button

The emergency button, otherwise known as a panic button, gave us quick and easy access to emergency services. Thankfully, we didn’t have to use it, but if you or someone you live with is prone to medical emergencies, this button can come really handy.

Through the control panel, you can set up which emergency services the two buttons will connect you to. You can contact the police, fire department, and medical responders. Since no one living in our house has a serious medical condition, we opted to set the buttons to call the police and fire department.

We like the simplicity of the emergency button. You can clip it to your clothes, wear it as a necklace, or put it on a wristband. Those wearing options make it so that the button is easy to access wherever you may be within the house. Of course, you can also keep it on your night stand in case of a late-night robbery. In fact, that’s where we kept the button most of the time. One nifty feature of the panic button is the recessed button itself. Thanks to this, it’s not prone to accidental “butt dials” and false alarms.

ADT Video Doorbell Camera

The one area where ADT improved the most compared to our previous testings was its security camera offerings. ADT has done away with its own security cameras and is now offering cameras from Google Nest. That includes the Nest Doorbell, which, in our opinion, is one of the best video doorbells.

Just to show you the night-and-day difference between the Nest Doorbell and the ADT Doorbell we previously tested, here’s a quick comparison chart.

The Nest Doorbell features a 1080p camera with HDR (fights glary and shadowy pictures), has person and facial detection, can detect packages dropped on your porch, and has a ton of security features built-in. Nest didn’t invent video doorbells – Ring did – but it has features not present in any Ring Video Doorbells we’ve tested. One example is facial recognition. As such, the Nest Doorbell is a much better option for users who are looking for something smarter than just a regular doorbell camera.

ADT Outdoor Security Camera

Having a camera guarding our front door wasn’t enough. We also needed monitoring and surveillance for our backyard, for which the ADT outdoor camera came in handy.

The simple-looking camera (pictured above) offers a strong line of features that include 1080p HD videos, a 130-degree viewing angle, and two-way audio. Those are industry standards, so we expected nothing less from cameras made by one of the best security companies around.

We also got to test the ADT camera’s person detection. It wasn’t as impressive as the Nest Cam (battery) – another option from ADT that we’ll discuss below – but we’re glad it can distinguish humans from other moving objects. It was right nine of 10 times. The only time it mistook something else for a human was when it captured our neighbor’s gigantic Great Dane in the frame. That was forgivable, given that dog’s size.

The ADT outdoor camera also included features we don’t see in every outdoor camera; for example, it has person detection. It didn’t just tell us when it detected motion in our yard, it also let us know if it was human. More impressively, it was right nine times out of 10 – the only time it missed the mark was when it tagged our neighbor’s gigantic Great Dane as a person, which was forgivable given the dog’s size.

Of course, since it’s an outdoor camera, the ADT Outdoor Camera has to be rugged. As long as you don’t submerge it in water, it should be fine. The device has IP 66 protection (dust tight and water tight), it works in temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit, and its mounting stand is secured to a surface through screws.

Reading those descriptions alone might conjure up an image of a large and bulky outdoor camera, but in reality, the ADT outdoor camera is compact. It measures just 3.15 by 4.6 inches, and it has a thickness of about 1.5 inches. It didn’t look out of place at all when we installed it on a wall facing the street.

ADT Indoor Security Camera

Finally, there’s the indoor camera. The indoor camera actually looks exactly like the outdoor camera; bonus points for uniformity. However, its features are slightly different.  It has the same 1080p HD resolution, but it has a wider, 140-degree field of view. It’s also not weatherproof and it only works if the temperature is between 32 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

One feature we really appreciated was the Zones. With it, we got to limit the motion detection range of the camera to only the area where monitoring was necessary. We set it up in our living room, facing the TV. Without the Zones feature, we would have been bombarded with alerts anytime we were watching TV. But since we set up the motion detection range to exclude the couch and TV from the detection range, we didn’t have that problem.

Third-Party Security Camera Options

Besides its own equipment, ADT entered a partnership with Google Nest to integrate Nest Cams into the ADT system. We’ve mentioned the Google Nest Doorbell above, but two more Nest cameras work with ADT, namely, the Nest Cam (battery) and Nest Cam (wired).

The Google Nest security cameras are on our list of the best security cameras because of their impressive video quality (1080p HD with HDR) and their artificial intelligence. The AI allows the cameras to recognize faces, so whenever our sitter comes to our house, the Nest Cam assures us that it’s not a stranger.

One downside of using ADT with Google Nest cameras, however, is that you’d still have to use Google’s apps for more advanced features like facial recognition. While we used the ADT app to review footage and monitor our cameras in real-time, we still had to go back to the Home app from time to time to manage our cameras’ settings. That’s not a deal-breaker, but something to keep in mind.

All in all, ADT offers all three Nest Cam models. There’s the Nest Cam (battery) which is a wire-free outdoor camera, the Nest Cam (indoor, wired) which is a plug-in indoor camera, and the Nest Cam with floodlight which is an outdoor camera with bright motion-activated floodlights. As mentioned earlier, ADT also offers the Nest Doorbell.

Smoke Detector

If a smoke detector goes off and no one is around to hear it, does it even matter? Well, if it’s a WiFi-connected smoke detector from ADT, then the answer is a resounding yes. To test this out, we burnt toast and can confirm that we, along with ADT’s monitoring team, received an alert.

We’re glad we did this test. Because of it, we discovered that ADT smoke alarms are interconnected, meaning, if one goes off, all the others installed in your home go off too. That’s a small but potentially life-saving feature. No matter where the fire started, everyone in the house will be made aware.

Carbon Monoxide Detector

While we couldn’t exactly test the carbon monoxide detector by producing a dangerous amount of CO, we can tell you that ADT’s version is tamper-protected, has an LED light and alarm, plus a hush button, which seems like it would definitely come in handy.

Flood Sensor

Finally, there was the flood sensor, which can detect water leaks before they turned into full-blown floods.

ADT also offers other smart home products like smart light bulbs, thermostat, plugs, and garage door controls, but since they’re only tangentially security-related, we didn’t test them out for this review.

Home Automation with ADT

Our ADT system worked with the Amazon smart home ecosystem, meaning we could tell Alexa1 to control it, including arming and disarming the systems and controlling smart lights, locks and thermostats. The same applied to the Google Nest smart home ecosystem and Google Assistant. Using our Nest Hub Max, we were able to control our ADT system with our voices. Unfortunately, if you’re using Apple’s HomeKit ecosystem for your smart home, it doesn’t work at all with ADT.

Now, aside from voice assistants, we were also able to set up our system with Internet of Things, or IoT devices from Kwikset, Liftmaster, and Sonos.2 And as detailed earlier, we used the ADT control panel to manage those devices. Besides the examples we gave above, we also had the smart locks open our doors when the smoke and CO alarms went off so we could quickly get out if necessary. This all occurred automatically, which was not only convenient but super safe.

Recently, ADT also started working closely with Google Nest, a smart home powerhouse that makes the Nest Cam Battery we reviewed as well as smart thermostats, smart doorbells, and smart smoke alarms. This partnership allowed us to integrate top-quality security and smart home products into our ADT system seamlessly.

All in all, we were satisfied with how ADT fit into our existing smart home, but it might not be the best choice for those already in the Apple HomeKit ecosystem. As far as Apple goes, the only security system we’ve reviewed that works with Siri is abode. Learn more in our abode review.

ADT Self Setup: A New Breed of ADT Security Systems

Besides the ADT system that we tested, ADT launched a DIY security system called ADT Self Setup back in 2023.

The ADT Self Setup system offers the same types of components as the one we tested, from security sensors like motion and entry sensors to life safety sensors like smoke alarms and flood sensors.

The ADT Self Setup system supports security cameras and home automation as well, but instead of ADT products, it uses Google Nest products. Specifically, ADT offers the Nest Cam (battery), Nest Cam (wired), Nest Cam with floodlight, and the Google Nest Doorbell (battery). You can also get Google Nest smart speakers and displays.

Although the ADT Self Setup system is self-installed, it’s professionally monitored by ADT, which brings us to the next part of our review: ADT’s monitoring plans.

ADT’s Monitoring Plans

One thing you have to remember is that professional monitoring is and will likely always be a part of the deal for professionally installed ADT systems. There is an option to self-monitor the DIY installed ADT Self Setup system, though, but even that system works with professional monitoring.

Professional monitoring means monthly fees, and ADT’s pricing ranges from $29.99 to $45.99 per month, although the exact number will differ based on your equipment and services.

Basic professional monitoring (no cameras and smart home equipment) costs $29.99 per month. More advanced monitoring with smart home features cost $44.99. The top-tier option with video security costs $44.99. It offers the best value though because it includes a Nest Aware subscription for the Nest Cams, which goes for $8 per month when bought from Google. Learn more about Nest Aware subscriptions here.

You can also add a Quality Service Plan (QSP) which is an extended warranty plan for your equipment starting at $7 per month. Just keep in mind that the cost of the QSP scales with the number and type of devices you have.

Truth be told, those prices aren’t the lowest in the industry. If you’re looking to save money, there are companies that offer monitoring for as low as $19.99 per month (looking at you, SimpliSafe! Read more in our SimpliSafe review.) That said, ADT’s pricing isn’t half bad. It actually falls around the industry average, and it could make sense to go with ADT despite it seeming expensive if you’re looking for premium professional monitoring and cellular backup. Besides, there are ADT deals all throughout the year to help you offset the cost.

Is ADT Monitoring Worth It?

Now we know how much the monitoring service costs, but is it worth it? That’s subjective to your budget and what you’re looking for in a monitoring service, but we can give you a couple of facts that might help you decide.

First, when we tested ADT’s monitoring service by triggering the alarm several times throughout our testing phase, it gave us a response time of more or less 30 seconds each time. That’s the industry average, and although there are faster systems out there, we consider 30 seconds to be the sweet spot. It gives you enough time to cancel the response call if it’s a false alarm, but not too long that it gives burglars a chance to take your stuff and bolt.

Second, ADT has nine fully-redundant monitoring centers. The significance of that is even if one facility fails to operate – for example, if there’s a natural calamity in its area – ADT’s monitoring will continue. These nine facilities are spread out throughout the country, and they are all linked together.

In our book, those are pretty good stats for ADT monitoring.

ADT Trusted Neighbor – What It Does and How It Works

Besides monitoring, ADT continues to add more features designed to make the lives of users easier to manage. The latest of those features is called Trusted Neighbor™.

Trusted Neighbor comes with ADT’s latest security system, called ADT Plus. It reminds us of the discontinued Nest Secure security system from Google Nest. It takes perfect advantage of the smarts in the Nest Cams and the compatibility of ADT with third-party smart home brands to create a safer, more secure, and more convenient way of sharing access to your house with people you trust.

First, Trusted Neighbor uses facial recognition on the Nest Doorbell and other Google Nest Cams to detect when a person in your trusted list approaches your house. When a trusted person is seen, ADT disarms and the Yale smart lock that comes with the system unlocks, after just a few taps on the visitor’s phone.

You can set time-based and event-based rules to decide when each ‘trusted neighbor’ is allowed entry. For example, for time-based rules, you can set ADT Plus to let them in between 1 and 3 P.M. to bring your mail inside. For event-based rules, you can set your system to only let them in when your smoke alarms detect fire – to let your pets out, for example.

We’re excited to test this feature out. Knowing how accurate Google Nest’s facial recognition is and having used ADT’s home automation since ADT Pulse, we can confidently say that ADT is the best company to make a feature like this possible.

Our Installation Process with ADT

Since ADT is professionally installed (except for the ADT Self Setup system we discussed earlier), we didn’t have to lift a finger to get our security system up and running. Even better, now that ADT has partnered with Dish Network, we were able to get security and entertainment installed all at once.3 Of course, we did have to pay a negotiable installation fee just as we did for the rest of our equipment and services from ADT. That’s a bit annoying.

We discovered that, in the past, ADT’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals have included free video doorbell installation, but that didn’t help us at all when it came to a full-system installation. In the end, ADT is only a good choice for those that definitely want professional over DIY installation.

On the bright side, the ADT technician showed up on time, was professional, and was able to finish installation in more or less an hour. ADT told us in advance to set aside at least a two-hour window in case the technician runs late or the installation takes longer, but we didn’t expect the installation process to be that fast and efficient.

The ADT Control App (Formerly ADT Pulse)

ADT did require us to get professional monitoring, but we still had control over our system similar to self-monitored systems. A smartphone app served as our main point of access to the system. Now, you might notice that there are two ADT apps: ADT Pulse and ADT Control. When we first tested ADT, they had us use the ADT Pulse app.Later, they released the ADT Control app.

Those who started using ADT before the ADT Control app was released are supposed to use ADT Pulse. Meanwhile, new customers get access to the ADT Control app. However, the two apps have the same main functionalities, and besides a few aesthetic improvements, we didn’t notice any significant difference between the apps. Using both apps, we were able to arm our security system, create schedules and automation, control connected devices, receive notifications, and access live footage of our cameras. The only requirement was that we connect our smartphone to the internet.

We found the apps for iOS4 and Android5 really easy to use, and other ADT customers agreed with us, rating it with a 4.8 and 4.6, respectively. The ADT Pulse app was actually one of the least-buggy security apps we’ve reviewed, so this is a great feature of choosing ADT. As for the new app, its 4.8 star rating on the iOS and Android app stores indicates that it works just as well.

The ADT+ App

There’s a new ADT app in town, and it’s called the ADT+ App, which was first announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 and has been in use for over a year now.

This app allows users to set up, control, and monitor compatible smart home devices both from ADT and Google Nest. It’s also a key ingredient to the new ADT Self Setup system, which unlike traditional ADT systems, will let users install and set up their own home security equipment. As mentioned earlier, ADT+ also serves as the companion app for the new ADT Plus system we mentioned earlier.

ADT’s Customer Support

ADT offers 24/7 phone support, email support, and live chat, in addition to their online help center6. But in our experience, we found that the quality of the support we received was hit-or-miss. Don’t get us wrong; ADT is far from the worst security system in the market. We received great service from ADT a lot of times, but also less-than-ideal service some of the time. So that’s something to keep in mind.

Speaking over the phone was really time-consuming and we found that most representatives didn’t know how many infrared sensors their indoor camera has, a seemingly simple question. Additionally, it was frustrating to not be told directly how much their products and services cost. However, we found the live chat feature to be superior over the phone line in terms of how quickly we got our answers.