ADT Self Setup Review and Cost

ADT Self Setup vs. Blue by ADT

Before we jump into our review of ADT Self Setup, let’s take a walk down memory lane and find out how this offering compares to the now-discontinued Blue by ADT.

Blue, or LifeShield as some may remember it, was acquired by ADT in 2019. It didn’t quite reflect ADT’s reputation. The equipment was subpar, and the product range was limited. Eventually, it was replaced by ADT Self Setup, which was positioned as a DIY security system using ADT’s resources and equipment from the Google Nest range.

The company has now launched ADT Plus. ADT redesigned the base station and sensors and made them available for the professional and DIY setups. Initially, they were two separate offerings. But now the two plans are almost identical. We believe that was a great move, as it not only makes it clear that the DIY ADT security system is still an ADT system; it also makes the buying process a lot more streamlined.

ADT Self Setup: How’s The Setup Process?

ADT Self Setup is one of the six DIY security systems we recommend in 2024. That should tell you it’s easy to set up. We found it easier to set up than our two top picks, SimpliSafe and Cove, because everything was done through the ADT+ app. With SimpliSafe, we had to do part of the process using the included physical keypad. The same was true with Cove, wherein we used the tablet-like controller for most of the process.

It also took us a shorter time to install ADT than to install SimpliSafe and Cove, but that was mainly because we installed fewer pieces of equipment.

The first component we set up was the hub. We paired it to our ADT+ app and then connected it to Wi-Fi. That took about two minutes, including the time we waited as it booted up for the first time. After that, we paired each sensor to the hub by taking off their battery tabs.

Installing the sensors was just as quick and easy. They came with a peel-and-stick adhesive backing so there’s no drilling required, making ADT Self Setup a solid security system for renters. Just make sure to clean the surface before sticking the sensors so they don’t easily fall off. All in all, sensor installation took us less than five minutes.

>> Related reading: ADT Self Setup vs. Vivint

After that, we set up the cameras. Or rather, we connected them to ADT. The security cameras from ADT are actually Google Nest Cams. We’ve tested them before in our Nest Cam review. We already had them set up and paired with the Nest Home app, so all we needed to do was pair our Nest Home account with the ADT+ app. We simply signed in and after that, we were able to watch live and recorded footage directly on the ADT+ app.

If you buy your Nest Cam cameras from ADT though, there’s no need to worry about the setup process. These cameras are known for their easy DIY installation. We’d say it took about five minutes for each camera, except the Nest Cam with floodlight that needs to be hardwired to a junction box. For that, you may need to call a licensed electrician to install, depending on local safety regulations. But for the plug-in indoor model, the battery-powered indoor/outdoor camera, and the battery-powered doorbell, the setup process couldn’t be any simpler.

>> Read more: The Security Systems With The Best Apps

ADT Self Setup Equipment: A Closer Look

The ADT Self Setup security system offers a robust selection of equipment, slightly more than the ADT Control system we reviewed in the past. There are a few pieces that are missing from the new system – like glass break sensors, for example – but overall, we liked the selection. It covers good ground. Here’s a look at some of the components we received.

The Base Station

The base station is sturdy and discrete, about the size of a modem. It’s about six inches high and over four inches at the base. It connected to our internet through Wi-Fi and served as a hub for all our ADT-connected devices. It’s a slightly redesigned version of the former ADT Self Setup hub and it now has a built-in keypad at the top for quick arming and disarming. But if there’s one change we’re not fond of, it’s the removal of the Ethernet port.

You see, the old ADT Self Setup base station had an Ethernet port so you can wire it to your router. We think that’s most ideal and more reliable than Wi-Fi. You can place it anywhere in the house as long as you can run an Ethernet cable to it. But now that it’s Wi-Fi only, we recommend placing it right next to your router for maximum reliability.

In any case, we think the base station looks nice, especially with the soft, color-changing light around the keypad. We noted before that the old base station doesn’t look as pretty as the SimpliSafe base station that can double as a night light, but the new one is definitely on par. It blended nicely with our interior decor.

More importantly, it still has the functionalities we loved from the old ADT Self Setup base station. It has a 24-hour battery backup, a 4G/LTE cellular chip for cellular backup, and a built-in siren. We wish ADT improved the siren though. It’s plenty loud at 85 decibels, but we can barely hear it from the second floor or when in the bedroom or shower.

The Door/Window Sensors

The door and window sensors feature a slim profile, allowing them to be placed discreetly on doors and windows, both interior and exterior. They can also be used on closets or doors. Like any of ADT Self Setup devices, these sensors can be monitored and managed through the ADT+ app. We placed the door/ window sensors on the doors and windows on our ground floor, as those are where intruders are most likely to enter.1

There’s not much we can say about the door and window sensors. They’re discreet and small, even smaller than the ones from the Ring Alarm system we reviewed. According to ADT, the battery in the door sensors have a life expectancy of up to two years when in use; that’s a bit short for a door sensor, which often has a five-year battery life, but that’s not a huge deal-breaker. We think it’s reasonable to do maintenance every two-years. We do ours every six months, when possible.

It’s worth noting that ADT offers premium door/window sensors at double the price ($40) of the ones we tested ($20). It has one extra function, which is to detect strong or sudden vibrations caused by knocking or someone trying to kick a door down. We’d say go for the premium ones for your front door.

The Motion Sensors

When purchased as part of a kit, the motion sensors come pre-registered with your system, which makes setup as simple as putting in a battery and placing the sensor in an appropriate area. We placed it in the corner of our front hallway for maximum coverage.

The motion sensor’s sensitivity was on point, thanks to it being a PIR motion sensor. It detects anything with a body heat that moves – even small children and pets. But if you’re a pet owner, it makes sense to adjust the sensitivity so that you don’t get as many false alarms. There’s a toggle switch on the back of the sensor that lets you adjust the sensitivity. At the lowest setting, it can ignore pets up to 85 pounds (about the size of a full-grown Labrador Retriever). Note that we recently named ADT one of the best security systems for pet owners largely because of its motion sensor with adjustable sensitivity.

We also recommend placing the sensor strategically to further reduce false alarms. Keep it away from direct sunlight and appliances that emit heat (like microwave ovens). And if possible, place it at least six feet off the ground, angled slightly downwards to maximize its field of view.

The Smoke Detector

Besides guarding your home from intrusion, ADT Self Setup offers a couple of sensors for life and home safety. The first one is the battery-powered smoke detector. It sounds a loud alarm when it detects smoke or a rapid rise in temperature.

It’s more than just an alarm, though. The smoke detector can also trigger home automations. For instance, it can turn on your lights (provided that you have smart lights compatible with ADT+) to make it easier for you and family members to find your way out in case of fire.

The Flood & Temperature Sensor

The other home safety sensor from ADT Self Setup is the flood & temperature sensor, which protects your home from water leaks and frozen pipes. It’s also wireless and battery-powered, so you can place it in hard-to-reach places like under your sink or in flood prone areas in your basement.

The Google Nest Cam (battery)

That ends the sensor part of the ADT Self Setup system. Next are security cameras, headlined by the Nest Cam (battery). We reviewed the Nest Cam (battery) as a standalone security camera, so head over there for a more detailed look at its features and specs. To summarize, it’s a battery-powered weatherproof camera that has a 1080p resolution with HDR, impressive night vision, person detection, and facial recognition (a.k.a. Familiar Face alerts).

When paired with ADT Self Setup, though, it unlocks a new feature: video verification. ADT’s professional monitoring service can use Nest Cam footage to review alerts and verify them with emergency responders. For instance, if your Nest Cam footage shows that there really is an unwanted guest in your house, you’re far more likely to get a priority response from the police.

The Google Nest Cam (wired)

For indoor video monitoring, ADT Self Setup offers the more affordable Google Nest Cam. It shares almost the same specs as the battery-powered version, but it’s a plug-in camera that is for indoor use only. It’s sleek, discreet, and powerful. It also has a wide diagonal field of view (135-degrees), so if the security camera is well-placed, it can monitor an entire room by itself.

The Nest Cam (wired) can also record up to one hour of backup footage in case your Wi-Fi goes out, ensuring that you’re always covered.

The Google Nest Doorbell (battery)

For front door security, ADT Self Setup offers the Google Nest Doorbell (battery) we reviewed here. Since it doesn’t require wiring, it goes with the theme of ADT Self Setup’s easy-to-install DIY equipment. It takes only a few minutes to install, and it comes with all the mounting accessories you’ll need.

Feature-wise, the Google Nest Doorbell is a knockout. It has HDR night vision for crisp, clear videos at night, a tall viewing angle that offers a head-to-toe view of guests, and it can differentiate between people, animals, vehicles, and packages.

Like all the other Google Nest cameras offered by ADT Self Setup, footage from the Google Nest Doorbell can be used for video verification.

ADT Self Setup and Home Automation

One key advantage of ADT is its deep reach into home automation, and that’s thanks to the ADT+ app and the Google Nest home automation products that ADT Self Setup offers.

Starting with voice control, ADT Self Setup sells Google Nest smart speakers and displays, such as the:

• Google Nest Mini (2nd gen)
• Google Nest Hub (2nd gen)
• Google Nest Hub Max

With those devices, you can control your home with your voice. And we’re not just talking about ADT Self Setup equipment. You can control pretty much anything that works with Google Assistant, whether or not they are compatible with ADT Self Setup. Let’s say you have smart locks that are not ADT-compatible. While you won’t be able to lock and unlock it using the ADT+ app, you can ask Google Assistant with your voice. Integrations like that deepens ADT Self Setup’s reach into the smart home.

Next, ADT Self Setup offers the Google Nest Thermostat, the OG smart thermostat that put Nest on the map. It controls your home’s temperature and offers energy-saving features. Since it’s a direct integration, you can control your Nest Thermostat from the ADT+ app.

Lastly, to power your Wi-Fi connected smart devices, ADT Self Setup offers Google Nest Wifi router and point, which is a mesh-type router system with a decent range and bandwidth. Plus, Nest Wifi points have built-in smart speakers, so you can access Google Assistant through them as well.

ADT Self Setup also works with Z-Wave devices, and ADT plans to further expand its smart home capabilities in the near future, with Matter integration on the roadmap. Matter is a widely-used, open-source smart home standard. And once the integration is implemented, ADT Self Setup will be able to connect with, control, and automate a wide range of smart home products.

The ADT+ App

Of course, ADT Self Setup needs a capable app to tie the system together. That’s where the ADT+ app comes in.

When we tested the original Blue by ADT system, we saw potential in its app, but noticed less-than-ideal execution that resulted in long loading times and laggy video streams.

The ADT+ app improves on the Blue by ADT app’s features. For starters, it offers native controls of Google Nest equipment. You probably won’t even need the Nest app on your phone, as you can view your cameras, review recordings, control your thermostat, and more using just the ADT+ app.

If you have other home automation devices paired with ADT Self Setup, you can control them too using the app. You can set up home automation with rules, schedules, and scenes. Turn up your HVAC when someone comes home, or turn on your perimeter lights when someone trespasses.

In short, it’s a step forward when compared to the Blue by ADT app.

We also liked the more advanced security and personalization the app provides, like the Auto Stay feature that showed us how thoughtfully designed the app was. Let’s say it’s late at night. You’re half asleep and on the way to bed, so you arm ADT Self Setup. But instead of Arm Stay, which leaves the motion sensors disarmed, you accidentally set it to Arm Away. That means if anyone gets up in the middle of night, they’ll set off the motion sensors, trigger an alarm, and cause panic in the house.

With Auto Stay, ADT Self Setup automatically switches to Arm Stay if none of the door and window sensors are opened after the system is armed to Away mode. It’s a simple feature really, but it highlights how much thought ADT put into the app. It’s also one of the many advanced settings you can customize.

Trusted Neighbor

One of ADT’s new features is called Trusted Neighbor. It was designed to let trusted people into your house automatically by using facial recognition and other signals to verify their identity. For example, if you have a dog walker that comes daily to pick up your pets, you can make ADT open the door and disarm the system to let them in without hassle.

Trusted Neighbor requires several key components, namely, a Nest Cam placed outdoors to identify people’s faces, a compatible smart lock to open the door automatically, the ADT+ app installed on the guest’s phone, and an indoor Nest Cam to record their activity inside your house.

Here’s how it works:

1. Introduce your trusted neighbor to your Nest Cam by letting the Nest Cam see their face and tagging them.
2. Set up your Trusted Neighbor rules i.e. “When this person is seen between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., activate Trusted Neighbor.”
3. Have your trusted neighbor install the ADT+ app. They need it to unlock the door and disarm the system during their visits.

When we tried this feature out, we were able to set up different rules. For example, we could set time-based and event-based triggers for activating Trusted Neighbor. We used the latter so that we can ask a friend of ours who lives nearby to get our pets out of the house in case one of our smoke alarms sounds. We’ve yet to conduct more long-term tests, but Trusted Neighbor worked the few times we tried to trigger the rules we set.

ADT Self Setup: How Much Does It All Cost?

How much is it going to cost to set up an ADT Self Setup system? There are two factors here: The equipment cost and the monitoring cost.

ADT Self Setup Equipment Cost

For the equipment, expect to spend at least $269 to get started. That’s for the Build Your Own system, which includes just the base station and a regular door/window sensor. From there, you’re going to purchase additional components that suit your security needs.

Another option is to buy a premade package. ADT offers three packages, namely Outdoor Video, Front Door Protection, and Total Safety. The price ranges from $359 to $823, but those prices are discounted. The regular price of the Total Safety package is over $1,200.

ADT Self Setup Professional Monitoring Cost

Now, after spending more than $300 on equipment, how much will ADT Self Setup cost you per month?

ADT professional monitoring for the ADT Self Setup system starts at $29.99. That includes 24/7 professional monitoring plus access to the ADT+ app and all its home automation features.

It’s worth noting that because ADT provides the monitoring service, you’ll get to enjoy ADT’s 24/7 monitoring, including SMART Monitoring features, which is an alerting system designed to cut down on false alarms and improve reaction times.

That being said, if your ADT Self Setup system includes security cameras, you’ll pay a total of $44.99 per month. That extra fee covers cloud storage via Nest Aware and video verification, which as explained earlier, can further improve response times.

And since the monitoring plan includes Nest Aware, you’re getting more than just cloud storage. You’ll also be able to unlock the smart features of your Google Nest cameras, such as AI detection, Familiar Face Alerts, and more.

The Verdict: Does ADT Self Setup Have Any Downsides?

As far as DIY security systems go, ADT Self Setup is one of the top options right now. We especially like that it has ADT’s backing, which means it can offer high-quality service similar to that of professionally installed security systems.

The selection of equipment is great: ADT Self Setup uses hardware from ADT and Google Nest, two smart home and home security powerhouses. And the ADT+ app? It’s simply the cherry on top.

That said, it does have a few downsides. One is its limited equipment options. We didn’t see more nuanced security sensors from ADT Self Setup, such as glass break sensors, garage door sensors (otherwise known as tilt sensors), or even a carbon monoxide detector. Those types of sensors are usually available from professionally installed security systems.

Additionally, its monitoring prices are on the higher end for a DIY security system. For comparison, SimpliSafe professional monitoring costs $17.99 to $27.99 per month. But considering that ADT provides the monitoring service, and that the higher-tier plan includes a Nest Aware subscription, ADT Self Setup’s pricing is still pretty attractive.

The last potential downside is that ADT Self Setup hasn’t matured yet. ADT’s DIY offering was at its infantile state during the Blue by ADT days, and now, as ADT Self Setup, it’s a teenager. It holds great promise and high potential, but it’s still under development and it remains to be seen whether it will succeed or not.

Overall, it’s a great security system, but if the downsides we mentioned are deal-breakers for you, take a look at our top-rated SimpliSafe DIY security system review. SimpliSafe has been around for over a decade, it offers more equipment options in terms of sensors, and it has more affordable monitoring plans.