ADT vs SimpliSafe vs a Local Licensed Installer:
Which Alarm Is Better?

The short version. These three choices are not three brands of the same product. They are three ways of buying protection. ADT, in its main professionally installed form, sells you a system and a monitoring contract together: a technician puts in the equipment, and you agree to pay for ADT's monitoring for a fixed term. ADT's own terms page, which we read on November 13, 2026, describes that term as a 36-month monitoring contract in most states, with a charge if you leave early. SimpliSafe sells you the equipment outright, ships it to your door, and lets you stick the sensors up yourself; monitoring is a separate subscription that runs month to month and can be cancelled at any time. A local licensed installer is a New York company that designs and installs a system for your particular building, usually on panels sold through professional dealers, and then either connects it to a central monitoring station or hands it over to you to watch from your phone.

So the honest answer to "which is better" depends less on the logos and more on three questions about your situation. First, will you be in this home for at least three years, and are you comfortable signing for that long? Second, is the place a single apartment you can cover with a few stick-on sensors, or a building with several floors, a basement, a back yard, a storefront gate or a stair that a battery sensor will not cover well? Third, when something goes wrong in two years, who do you want to call: a national support line, a website and a box in the mail, or a technician who knows your building and can be there?

We are a licensed New York State alarm installer (license #12000287431) based on Troy Avenue in Brooklyn. We do not sell ADT or SimpliSafe, and we will say so plainly: both are real, established companies whose systems work for millions of households, and for many New York renters SimpliSafe is the right call. We also take over, repair and replace systems that other companies put in, so we see what happens to all three kinds of system years after the sale. Everything on this page about ADT and SimpliSafe comes from their own websites, checked on November 13, 2026, and we tell you where their prices are promotional or where their own pages disagree with each other. Our own installed prices sit in one separate section, away from theirs, because a shelf or sale price and an installed price for a specific building are not the same thing.

Who Should Pick ADT, Who Should Pick SimpliSafe, and Who Should Call a Local Installer

Most people who search "ADT vs SimpliSafe" in New York are not alarm hobbyists. They are a new parent in a Park Slope rental who wants something on the front door, a retired couple in a Canarsie two-family who keep getting ADT mailers, a deli owner in Washington Heights whose old keypad has started beeping, or a co-op board member in Forest Hills asked to "look into alarms" for the storage rooms. Here is how we would steer each kind of person, with the reasons.

Pick SimpliSafe if you rent, or if the space is one apartment

A rental is the clearest case. SimpliSafe's sensors peel and stick, so nothing gets drilled into a landlord's door frame, and you take the system with you when the lease ends. There is no contract to break if you move, and SimpliSafe's monitoring plans are billed month to month. For a one- or two-bedroom apartment with one entry door, a fire escape window and maybe a terrace door, a base station, a keypad, a few entry sensors, one motion sensor and an indoor camera cover the realistic risks. SimpliSafe also offers a water sensor, which in an older building with radiators and a neighbor's bathroom above you is often the most useful sensor in the box. We would not try to talk a renter out of SimpliSafe; it is a good fit, and paying an installer to wire a rental apartment rarely makes sense.

Pick SimpliSafe if you want to try monitoring without committing

Some owners are not sure they want a monitored alarm at all. SimpliSafe lets you start on its basic or self-monitoring options, move up to professional monitoring if you decide you want it, and cancel without a fee. Its 60-day money-back guarantee on equipment also means a system that does not suit your home can go back in the box. That flexibility is worth something, and it is the main reason review sites keep picking SimpliSafe in this comparison.

Pick ADT if you want a national name, a technician, and Google Nest on one app

ADT's professionally installed service suits a homeowner who plans to stay put, who wants someone else to choose sensor locations and put everything in, and who likes the idea of Google Nest cameras and doorbells living in the same ADT+ app as the alarm. ADT runs its own monitoring centers rather than outsourcing them, it has a free in-home consultation, and its Alarm Messenger text system lets you and your contacts confirm or cancel an alarm from a phone. If the 36-month term and an early-termination charge do not worry you, ADT is a reasonable, mainstream choice.

Pick ADT Blu instead of SimpliSafe only if you are already living in Google's world

ADT Blu is ADT's answer to SimpliSafe: self-installed, no long-term contract, plans that can be changed or cancelled. On paper the two are close. ADT says Blu works with Google Nest Hub (2nd gen) and Z-Wave smart-home devices, so if your home already runs on a Nest Hub and Z-Wave lights, Blu may slot in more neatly. Note, though, that ADT's own Blu page says Google Nest Cams are not compatible with Blu systems; the Nest camera integration belongs to ADT's professionally installed service. If you already own Nest cameras and want them in the alarm app, Blu is not the route.

Call a local licensed installer if the building is bigger than one floor of one apartment

A brownstone with a garden-level door, a parlor floor, two upper floors and a roof hatch has a lot of openings, long distances and thick masonry walls between the base station and the far sensors. A two-family house in Queens often has a separate basement entrance, a side alley gate and a detached garage. A walk-up has a vestibule, a cellar, a roof door and perhaps a storefront on the ground floor. These are the buildings where a wired panel, or a professional wireless panel with sensors chosen and placed by someone who has done hundreds of them, earns its keep. They are also the places where an existing wired system is often still sitting in the walls, waiting to be reused.

Call a local licensed installer for a store, office or restaurant

SimpliSafe says plainly that its Active Guard Outdoor Protection is designed for residential use, not commercial use. ADT has a separate small-business line with its own contracts. A store owner in New York usually needs things a consumer kit is not built around: a code for each employee, opening and closing reports, a panic button under the counter, a sensor on the rolling gate or the back door to the yard, glass-break detection on a storefront window, and often a link between the alarm and the camera recorder. A local installer quotes the actual layout, and you can see the hardware before it goes up.

Call a local licensed installer if you already have an old wired alarm

Many New York homes and shops already have a hardwired alarm from a previous owner or a company that has since gone quiet: a beige keypad by the door, a metal box in the basement, wired contacts in the door frames. Very often the wiring and sensors are fine, and only the panel, the keypad or the phone-line communicator is out of date. A licensed installer can often keep the good wiring, replace the panel with a modern one that has a cellular communicator and an app, and reconnect it to a monitoring station. That usually beats tearing everything out to start again with stick-on sensors, and it is not something ADT's or SimpliSafe's websites offer.

Pick none of them yet if you have not walked the property

Before you choose a company, walk your own home or business as a burglar would. Which doors and windows can be reached from the street, the yard, a fire escape or a neighbor's roof? Where would someone go first once inside? Where would water or smoke start? That list, not a brand comparison, decides how many sensors you need and where. Once you have it, any of the three options can be judged on whether it actually covers your list.

Contracts and Cancelling: 36 Months, Month to Month, or Your Own Terms

If there is one difference between ADT and SimpliSafe that changes people's lives, it is the contract. It decides what happens when you move, when money gets tight, when a parent goes into care and the house sits empty, or when you simply decide the service is not worth it.

ADT's professionally installed contract

ADT's residential terms describe a 36-month monitoring contract for its professionally installed offers (24 months in California) and say that if you end it early, "ADT may charge 75% of the monthly service charges due for the balance of the initial contract term." Put simply, if you cancel with a year left, ADT may bill you most of that year. That is not unusual in the alarm industry, where a discounted installation is paid back through monitoring, but it is the reason so many forum threads about ADT are about cancelling. Read the contract's term, renewal and cancellation sections before the technician arrives, not after, and ask whether the agreement renews automatically at the end of the term.

The terms also say a satisfactory credit history is required, AutoPay enrollment is required for the promotions we read, and a security deposit may be required. For a homeowner who is certain to stay, none of this is a problem. For someone who might move for work, sell within two years, or who is buying for an elderly relative, it deserves careful thought.

ADT Blu and SimpliSafe: month to month

ADT Blu and SimpliSafe both advertise no long-term contract. SimpliSafe says its plans are billed monthly and can be cancelled at any time, and ADT says Blu plans can be cancelled or switched any time. That makes the equipment the main money at risk, and SimpliSafe's 60-day money-back guarantee and ADT Blu's 30-day free returns cover the first weeks. The trade-off is that you are the installer, and a system you set up is only as good as the places you put the sensors.

A local installer: ask for the paper

Local alarm companies vary widely. Some sign customers to three- or five-year monitoring agreements much like the national brands; others, including us, do not require a long-term monitoring contract. The point is not that local is automatically better; it is that you can see and negotiate the terms with the person who will service the system. Ask any local company four questions in writing: how long is the monitoring agreement, what does it cost to cancel early, does it renew automatically, and who owns the panel and its programming codes if you leave. A good company answers all four without hesitation. If a company will not give you the installer code for a panel you paid for when you end service, that is a reason to keep looking.

What happens if you move

With SimpliSafe, you peel the sensors off and set them up in the new place. ADT describes ADT Blu as something you can take with you. A professionally installed ADT system is tied to a contract and an address, so a move means talking to ADT about transferring or ending service under the contract's terms. A wired system installed by a local company stays with the building; that is a selling point for a house, and the next owner can usually have it reconnected to their own monitoring.

Equipment: What Each Option Actually Puts on Your Walls

An alarm system is a small set of parts: a controller (the base or panel), a way to arm and disarm it (a keypad, a key fob or an app), sensors on the openings, motion detectors inside, a siren, a path to the monitoring station, and, increasingly, cameras. Each option puts those parts together differently.

ADT

ADT's pages describe the ADT Base as the heart of its current systems, with cellular backup and a battery, controlled through the ADT+ app. On professionally installed systems, ADT pairs the alarm with Google Nest cameras and doorbells; ADT's monitoring page says Nest cameras can be used for video verification and that the Complete plan includes 30 days of clips with Nest Aware. ADT Blu has its own line of cameras and kits; the Blu kits we read about include a Base, door and window sensors, a motion sensor, water and temperature sensors, a smoke and carbon monoxide detector, and Blu indoor, outdoor and doorbell cameras, depending on the kit.

SimpliSafe

SimpliSafe builds its own equipment: a base station with a siren and backup, a keypad, entry sensors, motion sensors, glass-break sensors, water sensors, a panic button, indoor and outdoor cameras and a video doorbell. Its sensors run on batteries that SimpliSafe says last up to three to five years depending on placement, use and settings. Its Active Guard service, where agents watch and speak through outdoor cameras, works with the Outdoor Camera (Series 2) and the Video Doorbell (Series 2), up to three cameras in total, and SimpliSafe says the outdoor camera must stay plugged in for the service to work.

A local licensed installer

Local installers mostly use panels sold through professional dealers rather than in stores. Ours most often include Honeywell (Vista and Lyric), DSC (PowerSeries and Neo), Napco, Bosch, DMP and Qolsys IQ panels. These accept hardwired zones, professional wireless sensors, or both, and they can be reprogrammed by any licensed company with the installer code, which matters if you ever change who monitors the system. Hardwired sensors have no batteries to replace. The trade-off is that professional panels are less glossy than consumer kits, and their apps come from the monitoring platform rather than a single consumer brand.

Sensors that matter most in New York

Whatever brand you choose, the same handful of sensors does most of the work here. A contact on every door at street, yard and roof level. A contact or glass-break detector on any window reachable from a fire escape, a low roof, a yard or the sidewalk. A motion detector on the main stair or hallway, so an intruder who comes in through an unprotected window still crosses a beam. A water sensor near the boiler, the water heater and under the kitchen sink. Smoke and carbon monoxide detection that a monitored system can report to the central station when no one is home to hear it.

Cameras and Video Verification

Cameras have changed what alarm monitoring can do. A sensor only says a door opened; a camera shows who opened it. Both brands now build monitoring plans around that.

ADT and Google Nest

ADT's professionally installed service uses Google Nest cameras and doorbells, viewed in the ADT+ app. ADT's Complete plan is the one designed for systems with cameras and, by ADT's description, includes 30 days of stored clips with Nest Aware. With your consent, ADT agents can use clips to verify an alarm. Trusted Neighbor, which lets a known person approach your door and be let in automatically, requires the Complete plan, Google's familiar-face detection and a compatible smart lock; ADT notes that familiar-face detection is not available on Nest cameras used in Illinois. ADT Blu uses its own Blu cameras, with a 30-day event history and person, package and vehicle detection on all three Blu plans.

SimpliSafe

SimpliSafe's cameras record to its cloud on the plans that include recordings, with unlimited recordings and 30-day storage for up to ten cameras. Its Smart Alarm Indoor Camera allows agents to see and speak to an intruder during an alarm if you enable that feature. Outdoors, its Active Guard service is the most distinctive thing either brand offers: an agent can talk to someone on your property before they try a door. SimpliSafe says agents only see video during an active alarm or, with select plans, when unusual activity is detected outdoors, and that it will not share footage with police unless required by law. Automatic face matching is not available in Illinois, Texas or Portland, Oregon, according to SimpliSafe.

A local licensed installer

A local installer can tie the alarm to a separate camera system recording on a recorder in the building, so video stays on your premises and is not limited to a cloud plan's camera count. Many professional alarm platforms also support their own cameras and doorbells in the same app; the photos on this page of Alarm.com doorbells and a floodlight camera are examples of that kind of equipment. If you already have a camera recorder, a good installer can usually connect the alarm to it so a tripped zone brings up the right camera.

Privacy in a shared building

In a co-op, condo or rental building, cameras raise questions a single-family house does not. A doorbell camera on an apartment door in a shared hallway, or an outdoor camera that sees a neighbor's windows, can cause trouble with a board or a landlord. Whichever system you choose, aim cameras at your own door and space, use the app's privacy zones where they exist, and check the building's rules first.

When the Wi-Fi or the Power Goes Out

New York buildings lose internet and power more often than people expect: a storm, a utility cut on the block, a router that reboots overnight, or a cable box that a burglar yanks out of the wall. An alarm that depends entirely on home Wi-Fi is weakest exactly when you need it.

All three options can handle this, but you have to choose the right plan or hardware. ADT says its Base sends alarm events over cellular data or cellular SMS if Wi-Fi is down, and that the Base and sensors include 24-hour battery backup; on ADT Blu, the plan comparison lists cellular backup as part of Pro-Protect. SimpliSafe says its monitoring plans include built-in network backup that keeps the system armed and professional monitoring active for up to 24 hours if the internet goes down or the line is cut, and that the base station has a battery of up to 24 hours. Both companies point out that cameras need Wi-Fi to stream and record; ADT adds that Nest cameras store up to one hour of events locally.

On the systems we install, a cellular communicator and a standby battery in the panel are standard, so the panel can reach the central station without the home internet. Hardwired sensors are powered from the panel, so there are no sensor batteries to go flat. If you are taking over an old wired system that still reports over a landline, that is the first thing to upgrade: many old phone lines have been moved to internet phone service, and an old communicator may no longer reach the station at all.

A simple test you can do tonight

Whichever system you have, find out how it behaves without Wi-Fi. Tell your monitoring company you are testing, unplug the router, open a door with the system armed, and see whether the alarm reaches the station. Then plug the router back in. If the test fails, your system is only as reliable as your internet service.

A Local Licensed Installer: The Honest Pros and Cons

Comparison sites rarely include the third option, because a local company does not pay an affiliate fee. But in New York, where buildings are older, larger and more varied than the suburban houses most reviews are written around, it is often the right answer. It is not always the right answer, and here is the full picture.

What "licensed" means in New York

New York State requires a license for this work. Under Article 6-D of the General Business Law, section 69-m, since October 1, 1992 no one may engage in the business of installing, servicing or maintaining security or fire alarm systems, or hold themselves out as able to, without a license from the Department of State. The Department of State's Division of Licensing Services issues the license, the term is two years, and the department runs a public licensee search on its website. Our license number is #12000287431. Before you let any company, national or local, install or service an alarm in New York, ask for its license number and look it up.

The advantages

• A design for your building. The installer walks the property and plans sensors around the openings and paths that matter, including basements, roof doors, yards and storefront gates.
• Wired where it helps. Hardwired sensors have no batteries and do not depend on radio range through brick and steel.
• Reuse of what you have. An old wired system can often be kept and upgraded with a new panel, a cellular communicator and an app.
• You own the panel. A professional panel can be serviced and monitored by any licensed company if you ever want to change.
• A person who comes back. When a sensor fails or the keypad beeps, the company that installed it knows the building and can send a technician.
• Business features. Separate user codes, opening and closing reports, panic buttons, and links to cameras and door access.

The disadvantages

• More money up front. A designed and installed system usually costs more on day one than a do-it-yourself kit, especially when cable is run.
• Quality varies. Local companies range from excellent to poor, and there is no national brand standing behind a bad one. You have to check the license, the reviews and the terms yourself.
• Apps can be less polished. Professional platforms have more settings and less gloss than consumer apps.
• Not portable. A wired system stays with the building, which is good for an owner and pointless for a renter.
• Scheduling. Installation needs a visit, which takes more planning than a package on the doorstep.
• Contracts still exist. Some local companies use long monitoring agreements too. Read them.

How to check any local alarm company

Look up the New York State license on the Department of State's licensee search. Ask for proof of insurance. Ask which central station monitors the alarms and whether it is UL-listed. Ask for the monitoring agreement in writing, including the term, renewal and cancellation charges. Ask who owns the panel and whether you will get the installer code at the end of service. Ask for a written quote that lists every device and where it goes. And read the company's recent Google reviews, especially the replies to unhappy customers, which tell you more than the five-star ones.

ADT, SimpliSafe or a Local Installer for Each Kind of New York Property

Rental apartments

SimpliSafe, or ADT Blu if you are already in Google's ecosystem. No drilling, no contract, and it moves with you. Put a sensor on the entry door and any window on a fire escape, a motion sensor where someone would have to walk, and a water sensor under the sink. Check the lease about cameras in shared hallways.

Co-op and condo apartments

Often SimpliSafe again, especially for a single apartment. Owners who are renovating sometimes prefer a small professional panel with wired door contacts while the walls are open. Check the building's alteration rules before running cable, and whether the board has its own rules for cameras.

One- and two-family houses

This is the true three-way decision. An owner staying long-term who wants a national brand and Nest cameras will be well served by ADT's professionally installed service, provided the contract is acceptable. A cost-conscious owner who is handy may do well with SimpliSafe. A house with a finished basement, a separate entrance for a second unit, a detached garage or an existing wired system usually gets the most from a local installer.

Brownstones and townhouses

Four floors, a garden door, a parlor floor, a roof hatch, deep rooms and masonry walls. This is where a professional panel with hardwired perimeter sensors and wireless interior devices shines, with keypads on more than one floor. A consumer kit can work in a brownstone, but expect to test range carefully and add extenders.

Walk-ups and small apartment buildings

Landlords usually want the common areas covered: the cellar, the boiler room, the roof door, the vestibule and any vacant unit. A professional panel with zones for each area, reports of who disarmed and when, and links to the building's cameras suits this well. Tenants can still add their own SimpliSafe inside their apartments.

Stores, delis and restaurants

A local installer. Gate and back-door sensors, glass-break on the window, panic buttons, separate employee codes and opening and closing reports are business needs. SimpliSafe says its Active Guard outdoor service is designed for residential use, not commercial use. ADT has a separate small-business offering with its own terms.

Offices and medical suites

Usually a local installer, especially where the alarm needs to work with door access control, so that the first person in disarms it with a card and the last person out arms it. Medical offices also tend to want sensors on medication and record rooms.

Vacant or seasonal properties

An empty house needs professional monitoring, cellular backup, water and temperature sensors near the pipes and boiler, and smoke and carbon monoxide detection reported to the station. Any of the three options can provide that; make sure the plan you choose actually includes professional monitoring and life-safety monitoring, because the cheapest plans of both brands do not.

What Reviews and Forums Get Wrong About ADT vs SimpliSafe

We read what ranks for "ADT vs SimpliSafe" and "SimpliSafe vs ADT" before writing this page: national review sites, Reddit threads, Facebook groups and YouTube comparisons. Much of it is fair. Some of it is out of date or missing context.

"ADT always means a three-year contract"

ADT's professionally installed offers in its terms do carry a 36-month contract outside California. But ADT Blu, its do-it-yourself line, has no long-term contract and plans you can cancel or switch at any time. If someone tells you all ADT is contract-only, they are describing the older picture.

"SimpliSafe is free to use without paying anything"

You can own SimpliSafe equipment without a subscription, but SimpliSafe says video recordings and professional monitoring require a paid plan, and its lifetime hardware warranty depends on an active monitoring subscription. A system that only sounds a siren in an empty apartment protects much less than one that calls someone.

"A salesman said SimpliSafe is easy to bypass"

One of the most-read Reddit threads in this search is about exactly that. Any wireless system and any wired system can be defeated by someone who knows it well and has time; what matters is coverage, placement, a siren that is hard to reach, monitoring with backup communication, and an alarm that is actually armed. Be wary of anyone who tries to sell you their system mostly by frightening you about another one.

"Local companies are just old-fashioned"

Professional panels now come with cellular communicators, touchscreen keypads, phone apps, smart-home control and camera integration. What a local installer adds is design and service. The fair criticism is that quality varies widely between companies, so check the license and the terms.

"The cheapest monthly price wins"

The cheapest plans of both brands leave out professional monitoring, camera recordings or video verification. Compare what each plan does when the alarm goes off at night with nobody home, then compare the price.

More on Alarms, Cameras and Comparisons in NYC

Best Security Camera Brands (2026): Brands Compared by a NYC Installer · UniFi Protect vs Hikvision: Which Security Camera System Is Better? · Ring vs Nest: Which Security Camera System Is Better? · Ring vs Arlo: Which Security Camera System Is Better? · Eufy vs Ring: Which Security Camera System Is Better? · Lorex vs Reolink: Which Security Camera System Is Better? · Alarm Installation NYC · Alarm Installation Brooklyn · Alarm Installation Queens · Alarm Installation Bronx · Alarm Installation Manhattan · Alarm Installation Staten Island · Burglar Alarm Installation NYC · Home Security System Installation NYC · Fire Alarm Installation NYC · Commercial Security Systems NYC · Alarm.com Camera Installation NYC · Alarm Cost Calculator · Security Camera Installation NYC · Smart Lock Installation NYC · Abstract Enterprises Security Systems Home