SimpliSafe vs ADT

If you’re talking about home security, it’s hard not to mention ADT and SimpliSafe. While ADT is the oldest security company in the U.S with over 150 years in business, SimpliSafe is the hot new kid on the block, founded in 2006 by two Harvard Business School students who wanted a security system for renters. Today, I’m comparing ADT’s Video Package with the SimpliSafe system, and I’m excited to see how the new stacks up with the old. Will ADT continue its reign on the home security market, or is SimpliSafe just innovative enough to disrupt the industry?

In this review, I’ll go over the two systems’ key similarities, key differences, installation, professional monitoring, customer support, and apps. By the end of this review, you’ll be able to see whether ADT or SimpliSafe is the best system for your home and family, or my name isn’t Gabe from Security.org. Let’s get started!

Key Similarities

First of all, I want to make sure you’re looking at the right review comparison, so let’s talk about what ADT and SimpliSafe have in common.

• High-quality equipment: Both SimpliSafe and ADT offer high quality security equipment for a variety of applications. Entryway, motion, and environmental sensors? Check. Indoor and outdoor video cameras? You bet.
• Installation options: While ADT is a more traditional system, meaning that most folks will have it professionally installed, they do have a DIY option — you can read more about that in my review of ADT’s Self Setup. And while SimpliSafe is mostly thought of as a DIY system, they do offer professional installation for folks that aren’t that handy. Keep in mind, though, it starts at $125.
• Professional monitoring: Both ADT and SimpliSafe offer exceptional professional monitoring, though they take a slightly different tact. I’ll get into that more below.

Key Differences

Now for the differences, which will probably have a huge effect on your buying decision.

• Customer support: While SimpliSafe has decent customer support ratings, ADT’s are relatively negative.
• Contracts: SimpliSafe lets you sign up for any of their plans and buy any of their equipment without signing any contracts aside from a month-to-month plan whereas most ADT customers end up signing a three to five-year contract.
• Monitoring options: ADT offers three professional monitoring plans, one for systems with only sensors, one for systems with cameras, and one that includes video verification. SimpliSafe offers six options, including the option to self-monitor.

Now that you’ve got a basic overview, let’s actually bust open these boxes.

ADT vs. SimpliSafe System Components

Both the ADT Video Package and the SimpliSafe system include base stations, keypads, motion, entry, and glass break sensors, keyring remotes (known as key fobs in the world of SimpliSafe), and indoor cameras. ADT also throws in a smart lock and an additional alarm, while SimpliSafe provides you with a base station, a panic button, and an auxiliary siren. Now that we’ve seen what’s inside the boxes, we can actually install our systems.

ADT vs. SimpliSafe Installation

Like I said above, ADT is primarily a professionally installed system, but it does offer a DIY option. SimpliSafe is the inverse of that — primarily DIY with the option to professionally install. For our purposes here, though, let’s talk about both DIY options.

Installing ADT

Before it even gets to your door, the ADT security system will be pre-programmed so everything connects to each other. You have to call ADT to activate your system, but the call didn’t take too long. The hardest components to install? Definitely the Kwikset deadbolt. Installing this smart lock was as complicated as any other deadbolt, plus a few electrical components. The cameras used to be difficult to install too, but the Nest Cams that ADT offers now couldn’t be easier to put up. ADT does give you step-by-step instructions, but I’d use Youtube as a backup plan, and professional installation as your backup plan to the backup plan. Overall, installing ADT took about an hour, excluding the deadbolt.

>> Read More: The Ultimate Guide to Home Security Cameras

Installing SimpliSafe

I love that installing SimpliSafe required no drilling or tools whatsoever. Instead, the majority of the sensors were peel-and-stick, which makes things truly idiot-proof.

And don’t worry— this is a strong adhesive that doesn’t allow the sensors to slide down the walls. Although, I still recommend taking the time to install your SimpliSafe system with the mounting hardware if you plan to keep your system in your home for more than a few years. Once the sensors were up, I had to plug in my base station, go into the SimpliSafe app, and sync everything. From start to finish, setting up SimpliSafe was just plain convenient.

Top System Installation

Both ADT and SimpliSafe were pretty easy to install, but SimpliSafe wins simply by avoiding a complicated deadbolt situation. Also, I love that they allow you to leave it to the professionals. So far, it’s one to zero, SimpliSafe, but we’re just at the beginning. Truly, it’s anyone’s game!

>> Learn More: The SimpliSafe Outdoor Camera

Professional Monitoring

What exactly does professional monitoring mean? Well, it means that in addition to monitoring your system on your app, you’ll have a team of people monitoring your home’s security 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They’ll be alerted the second any of your alarms go off, and can check in with you and your home to verify an emergency. If need be, they can even contact emergency services for you, whether that’s the fire department, the police, or your local hospital. Whatever the situation is, it’s professional monitoring that will make sure it gets dealt with, and fast!

ADT vs. SimpliSafe Monitoring Options

Like I said, while ADT’s prices are customized based on your equipment and services, SimpliSafe gives you a few options. You can self-monitor for free — although you won’t receive push notifications — pay for professional monitoring, or pay for cloud storage on its own. I have more on this in my guide to SimpliSafe’s pricing, but here’s a breakdown of their monitoring options:

Secret Alarms

Want to know when an alarm goes off without it sounding? Under SimpliSafe’s Core Plan and above, you’ll get Secret Alarms, useful for your liquor cabinet, safe, what have you. This is a feature I haven’t seen from any other security system and I can see it coming in handy. Talk about stealth!

Video Verified Alarms

Say a burglar enters your home, setting off one of your entry sensors. Of course, the professional monitoring team will be alerted immediately, as will you via a mobile notification. But the monitoring team won’t be just alerted that your sensor went off. They’ll also receive a one-minute clip of the event, which they can use when alerting the police. Video verified alarms lead to higher arrest rates, according to the SimpliSafe website, so this is definitely a useful tool under SimpliSafe’s Core Plan. ADT also offers video-verified alarms under the highest subscription tier.

Intruder Intervention

Now this feature is fairly unique to SimpliSafe. I saw it as an option when I tested the Ring Alarm security system, but it costs more than $100 per month. With SimpliSafe, it’s included in the Core plan with expanded capabilities for the Pro and Pro Plus plans. This feature means that when an alarm gets triggered, SimpliSafe monitoring agents can use the two-way audio capabilities on your cameras to scare away potential intruders or verify an authorized guest.

On the Core plan, this feature only works with the Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Camera whereas the Pro and Pro Plus plans expand it to the Wireless Outdoor Camera Pro either overnight or 24/7 respectively.

Smart Home Integrations

The Core Plan will give you smart home integrations with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Nest thermostats, Apple Watch, and August smart locks, so get ready for some voice commands and home automation.

Overall, SimpliSafe’s prices are very reasonable, considering I’ve seen professional monitoring and cellular backup cost up to $60 a month with some companies.

ADT recently overhauled their monitoring plans. I used to negotiate with my salesperson for my monitoring plan when testing ADT, but now I can know what I’m going to pay before picking out my ADT system. They have three plans based on the price of your system and the features you want. Here’s a quick overview:

• Secure Monitoring — ADT’s basic monitoring plan requires a system that costs at least $269 and gives full access to ADT’s 24/7 monitoring without video verification. With this plan, you won’t be able to control your smart home devices using your ADT system. It starts at $24.99.
• Smart Monitoring — As the name implies, Smart Monitoring adds smart home capabilities to the Secure Monitoring plan by letting you control smart home devices using your ADT system. This is the plan I went with. It starts at $29.99 per month.
• Complete Monitoring — With Complete Monitoring, you get all of the above as well as video-verified alarms and a Nest Aware subscription for the Nest Cams and Nest Doorbell. This plan starts at $39.99.

Whatever security system you choose, you want to make sure it has cellular backup, which will keep your security system on in the event of a power outage. Fortunately, both ADT and SimpliSafe include cellular backup with any professional monitoring plan, so you won’t have to pay extra on top of what you’re already paying each month for monitoring. Overall, SimpliSafe gives more options but it’s hard to argue with the reliability that ADT’s 12 redundant monitoring centers provide. Now let’s take a look at how the contracts work.

ADT vs. SimpliSafe Contracts

Most ADT systems require a three-year, binding contract, SimpliSafe doesn’t allow you to sign a contract that’s longer than a month unless you finance your system through Affirm. That means that if you don’t want their services anymore, you can cancel anytime without a fee. With ADT, in contrast, you’ll have to pay your contract out after the first six months. Keep in mind that you’d only be able to cancel within the first six months if you have an issue that ADT can’t resolve, not just because you feel like it. Obviously, SimpliSafe is a better deal in this regard.

ADT vs. SimpliSafe Moving Policies

The good news? If you’re moving houses with either system, you can just pick it up and go, one of the benefits of DIY installation. Of course, if you prefer professional installation, you’ll pay that $125 again with SimpliSafe.

Top System for Monitoring

Due to its more affordable and flexible professional monitoring options, I’m giving SimpliSafe the crown over ADT for professional monitoring. They’re a more transparent company in general, and I love that their plans are low-cost and can be canceled whenever. Plus, they give you the option to self-monitor for free, if you’re looking to save some money! You can self-monitor with an ADT Self-Setup System too, but SimpliSafe gives more flexibility here.

ADT vs. SimpliSafe Customer Support

If you’re looking to contact customer support through either company, you can look at their online user forums and help centers, call them over the phone or use their live chat. While SimpliSafe also offers email support, you can contact ADT over Facetime. This may seem a little odd, but if you want to show someone something rather than tell them about it, it could come in handy.

Now let’s see what real customers had to say about ADT and SimpliSafe’s customer support. As ADT isn’t available on Amazon, I checked out its reviews on Google. Currently, ADT has a Google rating of 2.5, already a bit concerning. When I looked at the reviews that mentioned customer support specifically, 16 out of 17 were very negative. Many people even said that they were deceived about the contract term length and couldn’t reach customer support when they needed help, clearly a huge red flag.

“We tried to secure our business with about half a million dollars worth of assets with ADT only to find out that there was an issue with our alarm system and we were not being monitored for over 3 months… ADT does not have a process to inform the customer when the alarm is not working. We were never called or informed about this issue,”

wrote Rommel D’souza in a recent one-star review.

As the SimpliSafe system that I bought isn’t on Amazon, I checked out reviews for a similar 12-piece system on Amazon. Overall, the system got a rating of 3.5, which is already more than ADT can say. Out of over 5,300 reviews, 74% were five stars. On Google, SimpliSafe has a three-star rating with more positive customer support reviews.

“I’m very impressed both with the quality of the alarm system and with customer service. The alarm was easier than I expected to install and any questions I had was answered by their representatives,”

wrote Gerald Flanders in a five-star review.

Top System for Customer Support

Another easy round— SimpliSafe has much better customer support than ADT, as evidenced by thousands of customer reviews. If you’ve been counting, we’re at SimpliSafe three, ADT zero. Can ADT redeem itself in the last round? Let’s find out.

ADT vs. SimpliSafe App

Even though you’ll have professional monitoring, you still want to make sure you can check out and control your system wherever, whenever. Let’s see how ADT and SimpliSafe’s apps stack up.

The ADT+ App

From the ADT+ app, you’ll be able to arm or disarm your system, control any connected devices, livestream footage from your Nest Cams, and receive push notifications. The app has great ratings— a 4.4 from the Google Play store and a nearly-perfect 4.8 from the Apple store. That’s what I like to see!

The SimpliSafe App

In an ironic twist, the SimpliSafe app has almost the same rankings on both Google Play and the Apple store, meaning that users found it just as easy to use and as functional as the Pulse app.

Recap of ADT vs. SimpliSafe

If I had to choose, I’d go with SimpliSafe over ADT. They have easier installation, more affordable and flexible professional monitoring options, and better customer support than ADT. However, I understand that different people have different things they want out of a security system, so let me break it down even further.

For more information, read our full review of the SimpliSafe security system.