Brinks vs ADT: Published Prices and Contract Terms

What do Brinks and ADT charge?

Everything below is as of October 2026, from each company's own pages.

Brinks Home lists three professionally installed packages on its online shop, each with free installation:

Brinks's help center separately says monitoring starts at $29.99 per month and lists account fees, including a $6.40 monthly cost recovery fee and a $5.99 monthly paper statement fee (avoidable with e-statements).

ADT does not publish package prices. ADT's own pages list different starting rates depending on the page and package. Its pages carry several monthly floors:

ADT was also advertising 60% off a new system, capped at $550, with a qualifying monitoring plan. We report ADT's spread rather than picking one number, because its own pages disagree. Our ADT monitoring cost guide walks through each figure, and our Brinks Home security cost guide covers the Brinks fee list in full.

Which costs less over a 36-month contract?

Our arithmetic on the published figures. ADT pro-install equipment is quote-only, so the ADT rows are monitoring alone.

On monitoring alone, ADT's pro-install floor and Brinks's $39.99 tier land close together over three years. The deciding number is ADT's equipment quote, which it does not publish. ADT's monitoring runs $216 to $612 more than Brinks's $39.99 tier over 36 months (our arithmetic at $45.99 and $56.99), so ADT comes out lower on total cost only if its equipment quote undercuts the comparable Brinks package price ($449 to $899) by more than that gap. Getting both quotes is the only way to know, and our quote funnel can request monitored-system quotes for your home in one short questionnaire. For how both compare with no-contract DIY systems, see home security cost per month.

What happens if you cancel early?

This is where the two differ most on paper.

Brinks states that all product purchases require acceptance of a minimum 36-month monitoring contract. Its fee guide says that if you cancel early, you must pay the remaining monthly fees in full.

ADT offers month-to-month monitoring on Self Setup (one-month minimum). For pro install on a 36-month contract, ADT's published monitoring contract says early termination costs 75% of the total remaining monthly charges.

A worked example, our arithmetic: canceling with 24 months left.

ADT's percentage is lower, but its higher monthly rate means the dollar figure can still be larger. If you might move or switch within three years, ADT Self Setup or a no-contract DIY system avoids the problem entirely. Our guide to home security early termination fees compares these clauses across providers.

How do service, monitoring and platforms compare?

Monitoring. ADT says it runs six company-operated, US-based monitoring centers and describes its network as the largest company-operated one in the industry. It also reports that its Alarm Messenger text verification has over a 50% reduction in false alarm events versus sites not enrolled. Brinks describes its monitoring as coming from its Alarm Response Center; we did not find a center count on the Brinks pages we read.

Repairs and add-on fees. Brinks publishes a $75 trip fee per covered repair visit for customers on its optional Brinks Home Plus maintenance plan, and standard service visits starting at $99 without it. It also notes guard response fees of typically $50 to $85 per verified dispatch where a third-party guard is sent. ADT sells a separate Quality Service Plan (QSP), which its offers exclude from the advertised monthly prices.

Guarantees. ADT publishes a Theft Protection Guarantee of up to $500 toward your homeowner's insurance deductible if a burglary occurs while the system is armed, subject to its contract terms, and a money-back guarantee that applies after ADT has tried to resolve a system issue. Neither is a promise that a system prevents a break-in.

Platform. ADT systems run on its ADT+ app with Google Nest cameras and doorbells. Brinks's terms page names Alarm.com, but we could not confirm from Brinks's own pages which app platform a new system runs on, so ask on the sales call. Our Alarm.com explainer covers what that platform means for you if it applies.

Which to pick, of the two, by published terms: Brinks if you want a fixed, published package price with free installation and are certain you will stay 36 months. ADT if you want a month-to-month option (Self Setup), Google Nest integration, or a lower early termination percentage on a pro-install contract.