Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I wanted to replace my 13 y/o ADT system (made by DSC) with something that had WiFi capability. The ADT system was still in excellent shape and very reliable but no way to connect it to the web. I chose the Ring … with the ultimate goal of having a monitoring service. All I can say is that Ring must have squeezed all of their experience and customer input from the first generation to create the 2nd. The engineering is fantastic. The app is as intuitive and solid as you can get. Every sensor/keypad/etc links to the base wirelessly... and are configured by the same Ring app that is used be the doorbell cameras. The app displays every device and sensor along with its status for easy troubleshooting. The door and window contact sensors have LEDs that wink when they're triggered. All sorts of nuggets that build your confidence in the system. The only device that absolutely needs to be plugged into power is the base unit (that also houses the alarm siren). For that, I ran Romex wire up from the outlet below and used a multimedia box to bury the base unit's little wall transformer like you do with TVs (see picture). I learned that trick from another Amazon review. I went the extra mile and also wired power to the rechargeable keypad (using ADT's original power wire and Ring's 5V USB transformer). Extra goodies: The Gen 2 keypad has emergency buttons (only work if you have the monitoring service). It lights when you approach it. It speaks to you when you arm/disarm it. I armed it "home" and "away" for a week to make sure it was stable (no problems). Then today, I called Ring and signed up for professional monitoring (Ring calls it "Protection Plan"). $100/year. Congratulations to you at Ring. UPDATE: Limited functionality with door locks. Still as happy with the Alarm System itself... but ran into a problem when adding a door lock to the mix. Ring's website shows a number of 3rd party locks (Schlage, Yale, Kwikset) that have been "certified" to work with the Ring APP. But be aware that the Ring APP has limited functionality with these locks. THE RING APP WILL: Lock and unlock the door (you'll need the ZWAVE version of the door lock and have a Ring Alarm Base Station). THE RING APP WILL NOT: Allow you to change the lock's lock/unlock codes. Ring's APP has a "Guest feature" that is possibly designed to do that but, as of now (Aug 3, 2020), it does not work (confirmed by Ring). In summary, Ring has a GREAT APP and Schlage (what I chose) has a GREAT lock... but if you are an Airbnb owner who needs to change codes via the web, this won't do it (maybe in the future?). Also, if you are thinking you can just jump over to the Schlage APP to get the feature, the ZWAVE version of Schlage's door lock does not work with the Schlage app... I have read that the Schlage APP uses WiFi and thus needs the WiFi version of their door lock... but better check with Schlage.