ADT vs SimpliSafe: The True 5-Year Cost
Is SimpliSafe cheaper than ADT? Usually, yes. SimpliSafe publishes professional monitoring at 76¢ to $2.66 a day (about $23 to $81 a month), with no contract and no cancellation fee. ADT's professionally installed monitoring starts at $59.99 a month on a 36-month contract, and its ADT Blu self-setup kits need a $24.99 to $37.99 monthly plan, month to month. Over five years that is roughly $1,600 to $2,300 for monitored SimpliSafe against about $4,300 for ADT Pro Install. Jump to monthly cost side by side, SimpliSafe contract, fees and installation or the 5-year scenarios.
This is independent, research-based guidance. We are not affiliated with ADT or SimpliSafe and are not paid to recommend either one. Some provider links on this site may become affiliate links in the future; as of September 2026 our only affiliate relationship is with Vivint, through the Awin network; affiliate links are labelled wherever they appear. Read our full disclosure. Every dollar figure below is a list-price estimate, with the SimpliSafe and ADT monitoring rates re-verified on each company's own site on October 2, 2026, not a quote - promotions, financing, taxes, and permits move real numbers, so confirm current pricing with each provider before you buy.
The sticker price is the wrong number to compare. Over five years, the monthly monitoring line decides the total, and the two companies charge for it in structurally different ways. A self-monitored SimpliSafe setup can cost around $250 across five years; SimpliSafe with professional monitoring runs roughly $1,600 to $2,300; ADT's self-install line lands near $1,900; and ADT professionally installed reaches roughly $4,300 - plus a 36-month contract you pay to leave early. The honest question is not "ADT or SimpliSafe" but "how much monitoring do I actually want, and do I want to be locked in."
"ADT is expensive and SimpliSafe is cheap" is the internet's summary, and it is roughly true but badly incomplete. Both companies sell more than one product line, the monthly fee matters far more than the equipment, and ADT now sells a self-install system that competes directly with SimpliSafe on price. This page breaks the decision into the four costs that actually add up over time - equipment, installation, monitoring, and the contract - then shows five clearly-labeled 5-year scenarios so you can find the one closest to your situation.
ADT vs SimpliSafe monthly cost, plan by plan
If you only want the monthly number, here it is. SimpliSafe states its plans as daily rates, so its monthly column is our conversion at 365 days ÷ 12; the ADT figures are ADT's own published "starting at" monthly rates. Both were read on each company's own site on October 2, 2026.
| Plan | Published price | About per month | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|
| SimpliSafe, no plan (siren and app only) | $0 | $0 | None |
| SimpliSafe Self Monitoring with camera recordings | 33¢/day | ~$10.04 | None |
| SimpliSafe Standard (24/7 dispatch, no camera recording) | 76¢/day | ~$23.12 | None |
| SimpliSafe Core | $1.10/day | ~$33.46 | None |
| SimpliSafe Pro and Pro Plus (adds Active Guard outdoor agents) | $1.66 to $2.66/day | ~$50.49 to $80.91 | None |
| ADT Blu self-setup, Pro-Protect plan | $24.99 to $37.99/mo, depending on kit | $24.99 to $37.99 | Month to month |
| ADT professionally installed | from $59.99/mo | $59.99 or more | 36 months (24 in California) |
How much is ADT a month? ADT does not publish a monthly price list. The rates it does publish are "starting at" figures in its offer terms: from $59.99 a month for a professionally installed system on a 36-month contract, $24.99 to $37.99 a month for an ADT Blu self-setup kit, $9.99 a month for a stand-alone camera plan, and $45.99 a month to reactivate existing ADT equipment on a new 36-month contract. A professionally installed quote that adds cameras, a video doorbell or automation can come in above the $59.99 floor.
How much is SimpliSafe monitoring per month? Between $0 and about $81. Standard, the cheapest plan that requests police dispatch, works out to about $23 a month; Core, which adds camera recording and video verification, about $33; and the Pro tiers, which add SimpliSafe's live-agent outdoor protection, about $50 to $81. On October 2, 2026 SimpliSafe's plan page also offered a free first month on any professional monitoring plan.
Why five years, and why the monthly line dominates
Home security is a subscription wearing a hardware costume. You pay once for equipment and then every month for monitoring, and because monitoring repeats, it quietly becomes the largest number on the receipt. Five years is a fair window because it covers a typical ADT contract-and-renewal cycle and roughly the service life of a DIY kit before you replace a sensor or two.
Here is the arithmetic that drives everything below: a monitoring plan billed monthly costs its rate times 60 over five years. SimpliSafe publishes daily rates rather than monthly ones (76¢/day Standard and $1.10/day Core, read on its own plan page 2026-08-26), so the first step is converting: at 365 days ÷ 12 those are about $23.12 and $33.46 a month, which over 60 months is about $1,387 and $2,008. ADT's published $59.99 floor is about $3,599. A difference of $37 a month between two plans is about $2,220 over five years - more than the entire equipment cost of most systems. That is why a $250 versus $269 equipment gap is noise, and the monitoring choice is the signal.
The 5-year scenarios, side by side
These are estimates, not quotes. Each assumes list equipment prices before promotions, standard residential monitoring, no mid-term rate increases, and no taxes or alarm-permit fees (which apply to both brands equally). Monitoring is figured at the current rate times 60 months. One note on where the SimpliSafe monthly figures come from: SimpliSafe publishes its plans only as daily rates, so the monthly numbers in the SimpliSafe rows are ours, converted at 365 days ÷ 12, not prices SimpliSafe states anywhere.
| Scenario | Equipment (one-time) | Install / activation | Monitoring (60 months) | ~5-year total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SimpliSafe, self-monitored (no plan) | ~$250 | $0 | $0 | ~$250 |
| SimpliSafe, Standard monitoring (76¢/day published; ~$23.12/mo converted) | ~$250 | $0 | ~$1,387 | ~$1,637 |
| SimpliSafe, Core monitoring ($1.10/day published; ~$33.46/mo converted) | ~$250 | $0 | ~$2,008 | ~$2,258 |
| ADT Self Setup, pro monitoring (from $24.99/mo) | ~$400 | $0 | ~$1,499 | ~$1,899 |
| ADT Pro Install (from $59.99/mo) | ~$599 | ~$99 | ~$3,599 | ~$4,297 |
Two things jump out. First, the range within each brand is wider than the gap between the brands: a self-monitored SimpliSafe and a Core-plan SimpliSafe differ by nearly $2,000, driven entirely by the monitoring choice. Second, the two middle rows - SimpliSafe with professional monitoring and ADT's self-install line - land within a few hundred dollars of each other, which is why the real comparison is rarely the cartoon version of "cheap versus expensive."
Line by line: where the money goes
Equipment
SimpliSafe packages list from about $250 (The Foundation entry kit) up to roughly $730 for a large multi-camera setup, and steep 30-70% promotions are near-constant, so the effective price is often lower. You own the equipment outright on day one. ADT's equipment ranges from about $269 for a basic hub-and-sensor starter to $1,449 for a full package with cameras and a video doorbell; on systems of $599 or more ADT offers 0% financing spread over 60 months. Financing does not make equipment cheaper - it moves the cost into your monthly bill and, on the professionally installed line, ties it to the contract term.
Installation and activation
SimpliSafe is designed to be self-installed with adhesive mounts and no tools, so there is no installation fee if you set it up yourself; if you want a technician, SimpliSafe's optional professional installation starts at $124.99 (read on its installation page October 2, 2026). ADT Pro Install includes a technician visit, and the installation or activation fee typically runs from about $99 to $199 depending on the package and any promotion. ADT's self-install line (marketed as ADT Self Setup) skips the technician and the fee, which is a large part of why it is cheaper.
Monitoring
This is the decisive line, and neither company publishes it the way you would expect. SimpliSafe does publish its prices, but only as daily rates: read on its own plan page on August 26, 2026, Standard is 76¢/day, Core is $1.10/day, Pro and Pro Plus are $1.66 to $2.66/day, and Self Monitoring with camera recordings is 33¢/day. There is no monthly figure anywhere on that page, and the URL that used to carry monthly prices now returns SimpliSafe's own "Page not found". Converted at 365 days ÷ 12 those are about $23.12, $33.46, $50.49 to $80.91 and $10.04 a month - our arithmetic, not SimpliSafe's published numbers, and worth doing before you compare SimpliSafe with anyone quoting a monthly rate. SimpliSafe can also be run with no plan for local siren and app alerts at $0/month. ADT is harder to pin down, because ADT does not publish a monitoring price list. As of August 9, 2026 its main security page, its package comparison page and its DIY comparison page carry no monthly figure at all, and adt.com/pricing returns a "not found" page. The monitoring rates ADT does publish are "starting at" figures in its offer terms. Its residential terms page, read on October 2, 2026, states that the $99 professionally installed system "Requires 36-month monitoring contract starting at $59.99/mo." The advertised system price has changed with each promotion this year (a $349 minimum purchase in early August, a $99 system since late August) while the monthly rate has not moved, which is the thing to take from it: treat $59.99 as a floor on the professionally installed line, not a ceiling, and treat the advertised system price as a promotion attached to three years of that floor. For the self-install line, ADT's terms state that ADT Blu kits require a "month-to-month Pro-Protect monitoring plan for ADT Blu systems from $24.99 - $37.99/mo. depending on Kit selected" plus enrollment in ADT AutoPay, with stand-alone cameras on a $9.99-a-month Video Connect plan. Because this number repeats 60 times, a seemingly small monthly difference is the biggest swing in the whole comparison. If you are unsure how much monitoring you truly need, our monitoring decision guide walks through when the fee earns its keep.
The contract
SimpliSafe has no contract and no cancellation fee on any plan; you can stop, pause, or downgrade monitoring whenever you like and keep using the equipment. ADT's professionally installed monitoring requires a term - commonly 36 months, or 24 in California - with an early termination fee of up to 75% of your remaining monthly charges. Cancel a $59.99 plan at month 12 of 36 and you can owe up to about $1,080 to stop a service. ADT Self Setup, by contrast, is month-to-month. The contract is not a cost you see on the sticker, but it is a real financial commitment: for the full fee math and every legitimate penalty-free exit, see our guide on how to cancel ADT and when you can avoid the termination fee.
SimpliSafe contract, fees and installation cost
Does SimpliSafe have a contract? No. SimpliSafe's monitoring page states "No contracts. No cancellation fees." and that you can cancel or downgrade any time. Monitored customers do agree to its Terms of Service, but that is not a fixed term you pay to leave.
What fees does SimpliSafe charge? The recurring fee is the plan's daily rate in the table above. The plan pages we read list no activation fee and no early termination fee. The equipment is a one-time purchase that you own.
How much does SimpliSafe installation cost? $0 if you install it yourself, which is how the system is designed to go in. SimpliSafe also sells optional professional installation, carried out by OnTech technicians, "starting at $124.99", and says you do not pay until you schedule. For comparison, ADT's current $99 professionally installed offer includes installation but requires the 36-month contract at $59.99 a month or more, so the install price is not the number that decides which costs less.
The comparison people actually get wrong
The lazy framing pits ADT Pro Install (from $59.99/month, contract, technician) against SimpliSafe Standard (76¢ a day published, about $23 a month converted, no contract, DIY) and declares SimpliSafe the obvious winner on price. That is fair if you specifically want a professionally installed, full-service system from a national brand. But if price is your priority, the fairer fight is ADT Self Setup versus SimpliSafe - both self-installed, both month-to-month on the self-install tier, and only a few dollars a month apart. At that point the decision turns on things the price table cannot capture: equipment quality, app experience, camera options, and how each company's monitoring center actually performs. Choosing on the "$50 versus $23" headline can send you to the wrong SimpliSafe-vs-ADT matchup entirely.
Who each one is for
| Choose | Best for | Think twice if |
|---|---|---|
| SimpliSafe (self-monitored) | Cost-sensitive buyers, renters, and anyone comfortable responding to their own phone alerts; the lowest possible 5-year total | You want a monitoring center to call the police when you cannot answer your phone |
| SimpliSafe (professional monitoring) | People who want 24/7 dispatch without a contract, and the flexibility to cancel or downgrade anytime | You specifically want a technician to install and configure everything for you |
| ADT Self Setup | Buyers who want the ADT monitoring network and brand but on a DIY, no-contract basis at a mid-range monthly price | You are choosing ADT mainly for professional installation - that is the Pro Install line, not this one |
| ADT Pro Install | Homeowners who want a technician-installed, full-service system from a large national brand and will accept a 36-month term | You value the lowest total cost or the freedom to cancel anytime - the term and monthly rate are the trade-off |
Put your own numbers in. The scenarios above use round list prices; your promotion, package, and monitoring tier will shift the total. Our five-year cost calculator adds up equipment, fees, monitoring, and add-ons for two setups side by side, so you can compare the real total instead of the advertised monthly price.
How we built these numbers
Equipment and monitoring figures are list prices gathered in July 2026 from each company's published pricing and cross-checked against several independent industry price guides (Security.org, SafeHome, SafeWise, HomeGuide, NerdWallet); the SimpliSafe and ADT monitoring rates, the SimpliSafe installation price and the ADT contract terms were re-verified on each company's own site on October 2, 2026 and take precedence over any third-party summary where the two disagree. Contract terms and the early termination formula come from ADT's own published residential and monitoring terms. We used round equipment estimates within each brand's documented range rather than a single package, and figured monitoring at the current monthly rate times 60. We did not include taxes, alarm-permit fees, or false-alarm fines because they apply to both brands and vary by city - though they are real, so check what your city charges using our false-alarm fine and permit index. We did not lab-test either system; this is documented-research pricing, not a hands-on review. Before buying, confirm the current rate and package with the provider, because promotions in this category change constantly.
Frequently asked questions
Is SimpliSafe cheaper than ADT?
In almost every scenario, yes. SimpliSafe has no installation fee if you set it up yourself, no contract, and an optional no-monitoring tier, while ADT's professionally installed line carries a higher monthly rate and a 36-month term. Over five years the gap between a self-monitored SimpliSafe setup and an ADT Pro Install plan can top $4,000. The gap narrows to a few hundred dollars once you compare ADT's self-install line against SimpliSafe with professional monitoring.
Does ADT lock me into a contract?
ADT's professionally installed monitoring does, commonly for 36 months (24 in California), with an early termination fee of up to 75% of the remaining monthly charges. ADT Self Setup is month-to-month. SimpliSafe has no contract on any plan.
Can I use SimpliSafe with no monthly fee?
Yes. Without a plan, SimpliSafe still sounds its siren and sends app notifications; you simply do not get a professional monitoring center dispatching help. That drops the monitoring line to $0 and is why the self-monitored scenario has by far the lowest 5-year total - at the cost of no one calling for help when you cannot.
How much is SimpliSafe monitoring per month?
SimpliSafe publishes its plans as daily rates: 33¢/day for Self Monitoring with camera recordings, 76¢/day for Standard, $1.10/day for Core and $1.66 to $2.66/day for Pro and Pro Plus (read October 2, 2026). At 365 days ÷ 12 that is about $10, $23, $33 and $50 to $81 a month. You can also run SimpliSafe with no plan for $0.
How much does ADT cost per month?
ADT's professionally installed monitoring starts at $59.99 a month on a 36-month contract (24 months in California). ADT Blu self-setup kits need a month-to-month plan of $24.99 to $37.99 a month depending on the kit. These are starting rates from ADT's own terms page, read October 2, 2026; ADT does not publish a full price list.
Does SimpliSafe have a contract or cancellation fee?
No. SimpliSafe states there are no contracts and no cancellation fees on its monitoring plans, and you can cancel or downgrade at any time while keeping the equipment.
How much does SimpliSafe installation cost?
Nothing if you install it yourself. SimpliSafe's optional professional installation, done by OnTech technicians, starts at $124.99 according to SimpliSafe's installation page, read October 2, 2026.
What about equipment I already own?
Neither brand's proprietary equipment transfers to the other, and ADT's panels generally cannot be monitored by a third party. If you have an older wired system on the wall, reusing it is often the cheapest path of all - see our guide to using old ADT equipment without a contract before you buy anything new.
Still deciding on the bigger picture? If the contract is what worries you, our no-contract security system comparison covers the month-to-month field beyond these two brands, and our choosing guide walks the whole decision from the top. Whatever you pick, our home security checklist covers the low-cost basics - locks, lighting, entry points - that protect your home regardless of which system you run.
Get the monthly price and permit digest
Every monitoring price on this site is re-checked against the provider's own published page on a rolling schedule, and several of those pricing pages have been restructured or withdrawn without notice this year. We will email you when a price we track changes, or when a new city is added to our alarm permit and false-alarm index. Occasionally, never as spam. We never sell your address and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Sources
- ADT - Residential Terms and Conditions, offer terms: "Professionally Installed System for $99: Requires 36-month monitoring contract starting at $59.99/mo."; ADT Blu kits "require month-to-month Pro-Protect monitoring plan for ADT Blu systems from $24.99 - $37.99/mo. depending on Kit selected"; stand-alone cameras "require Video Connect monitoring plan at $9.99/mo."; reactivation "starting at $45.99/mo."; early termination at 75% of remaining monthly charges (accessed 2026-10-02)
- SimpliSafe - Choose Monitoring: Core $1.10/day, Pro $1.66/day, Pro Plus $2.66/day, Standard 76¢/day, Self Monitoring 33¢/day; "No contracts. No cancellation fees"; free first month offer on professional monitoring plans (accessed 2026-10-02)
- SimpliSafe - Installation: self setup or professional installation "starting at $124.99"; no payment until scheduled (accessed 2026-10-02)
- SimpliSafe Support - What is Pro Setup by OnTech? (accessed 2026-10-02)
- Security.org - ADT Home Security System Cost & Package Pricing in 2026 (accessed 2026-07-10)
- SafeHome.org - ADT Security Systems 2026 Packages, Plans, Cost & Pricing (accessed 2026-07-10)
- HomeGuide - How Much Does ADT Cost? (2026 Prices) (accessed 2026-07-10)
- NerdWallet - ADT Home Security Review 2026: Cost, Pros, Cons (accessed 2026-07-10)
- ADT - Residential Terms and Conditions (term length and cancellation) (accessed 2026-07-10)
- Security.org - 2026 SimpliSafe Home Security Package Costs & Monitoring Plans (accessed 2026-07-10)
- SafeWise - How Much Does SimpliSafe Cost in 2026? (accessed 2026-07-10)
- SafeHome.org - SimpliSafe Monitoring Plan Cost, Options & Fees in 2026 (accessed 2026-07-10)
- SimpliSafe Support - Monitoring Plans, all four residential plans published as per-day rates only (Pro & Pro Plus $1.66 to $2.66/day, Core $1.10/day, Standard 76¢/day, Self Monitoring with camera recordings 33¢/day) with no monthly figure on the page (accessed 2026-08-26; re-read unchanged 2026-10-02)
- SimpliSafe - home-security-monitoring, the URL that previously carried SimpliSafe's monthly plan prices; returned SimpliSafe's own "Page not found" when checked (accessed 2026-08-26)
- ADT - Deals & Special Promotions, offer fine print: "Req. min. $349 pro installed system purchase and 36 mo. pro monitoring plan starting at $59.99/mo. Early term fees." (accessed 2026-08-09). Re-read 2026-08-28: that sentence is no longer present anywhere in the page, and the offer now reads "$99 home security system includes Google Nest Cam and installation" with "36 mo. contract. Pro Monitoring Plan starting at $59.99/mo. Subject to credit approval."
- ADT - Shop (ADT Blu self-setup), promotion terms: "Requires month-to-month Pro-Protect monitoring plan for ADT Blu systems from $24.99 - $37.99/mo. depending on Kit selected (one month minimum) and enrollment in ADT AutoPay", and "A monthly monitoring plan is also required, with plans starting at $9.99 per month." (accessed 2026-08-09)
- ADT - Compare Home Security Systems & Packages, checked 2026-08-09 and found to publish no monthly monitoring price
- ADT - Compare DIY Packages, checked 2026-08-09 and found to publish no monthly monitoring price