SimpliSafe vs ADT: DIY Pricing Transparency vs the Pro-Install Giant

What each company actually publishes

This comparison is asymmetric. SimpliSafe puts its full plan menu online; ADT publishes starting prices and sells mainly through phone quotes and in-home consultations. All figures below are as of August 2026 from official pages.

On the ADT numbers: ADT's monitoring page states Pro Monitoring starts at $49.99 per month for Pro Install. Its self-setup page separately footnotes pro install starting at $45.99 per month, one bundle requiring pro install with a 36-month monitoring contract starting at $56.99 per month, ADT Security monitoring starting at $24.99 per month, and a pro monitoring plan with ADT Self Setup starting at $34.99. That is four different monthly figures across two of ADT's own pages. The same self-setup page states that early termination of a monitoring contract can cost 75% of the remaining monthly charges. ADT does not publish per-tier prices for its Secure, Smart, and Complete pro-install plans; those come from a quote. We flag this spread rather than picking one number, because ADT's own pages differ.

SimpliSafe's plans are flat and national: Standard $0.76/day, Core $1.10/day, Pro $1.66/day, Pro Plus $2.66/day, plus a $0.33/day self-monitoring tier with camera recordings. No contract on any plan.

If you want a real apples-to-apples number for your own home, published starting prices will not get you there for ADT. Our quote funnel can fetch actual quotes from professional monitoring providers through a short questionnaire.

Monitoring quality and guarantees

Both companies stake their pitch on the monitoring center.

ADT operates six company-owned US monitoring centers, which it describes as the largest company-operated monitoring network in the industry, backed by 150 years in the business. Its Alarm Messenger text-verification system lets you confirm or cancel alarms by text, and ADT reports over a 50% reduction in false alarm events versus sites not enrolled in Alarm Messenger. The Complete plan adds live video verification through Google Nest cameras with 30 days of stored clips via Nest Aware. ADT's Theft Protection Guarantee pays up to $500 of your homeowner's insurance deductible if a burglary occurs while the system is armed, subject to its contract terms.

SimpliSafe offers 24/7 professional dispatch on all monitored plans, video verification on select plans (which SimpliSafe says brings faster police response versus its own non-verified alarms), and on Pro and Pro Plus, live agents who can see, speak through, and trigger sirens on its Outdoor Camera before a break-in happens. SimpliSafe's Anti-Theft Guarantee similarly covers up to $500 of your insurance deductible, on plans with Active Guard Outdoor Protection. Equipment carries a lifetime warranty while a monitoring subscription is active.

The honest framing: both publish a $500 deductible guarantee, both offer video-verified dispatch on upper tiers, and both run 24/7 US-based centers. ADT's scale is real; so is SimpliSafe's price transparency. Neither company's guarantee replaces insurance, and monitored dispatch on any system still depends on local emergency services response. For whether the monthly fee is worth paying at all, see is professional monitoring worth it.

Which one to pick

Of the two, by published pricing as of August 2026:

• Pick SimpliSafe if you want known costs, no contract, and DIY installation. At ~$33 per month for Core you get full monitoring with camera recordings, and you can walk away any month. Renters and first-time buyers fit here; see also home security for renters.
• Pick ADT if you want professional installation, a hardwired-feeling full-service relationship, and deep Google Nest integration, and you are comfortable with a 36-month commitment, a 75% early termination clause, and quote-based pricing. ADT's self-setup line (monitoring listed from $24.99 to $34.99 per month) is its answer to SimpliSafe, and is worth pricing against SimpliSafe directly if you like the ADT name without the contract.

Cost math over a contract term matters, and the following is our arithmetic on published rates: at ADT's own published pro-install starting points ($45.99 to $49.99 per month), 36 months runs roughly $1,656 to $1,800 in monitoring fees before equipment, while 36 months of SimpliSafe Core at $1.10/day is about $1,205, with no obligation to stay. That gap is the price of professional installation and ADT's service model; whether it is worth it depends on how much you value not doing it yourself. Our cost breakdown at home security cost per month puts these numbers in market context, and the quote funnel can get you ADT-tier quotes to compare against SimpliSafe's list prices.