Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this as a replacement to my traditional wired Honeywell system. My thought was that I could set it up as a DIY monitoring system, and then add professional monitoring as needed. The system advertised you can use it with no contract. Be warned: no contract means you can cancel monthly unless you choose the yearly discount. It does NOT mean that the system works without a monthly plan. One of the answers here said that "self monitoring is free". This is false; self monitoring is not free. I bought the "small" package system. I got the box, opened it up, and the items were all neatly packed and clearly labelled. The entire installation is driven by smartphone app, and instructions said to install the hub first, and then install each item starting with the closest to the hub, using the Smartphone app to guide the process.. This process was very easy and I had it up in no time at all. Some notes: - the modules fall apart as you activate them, so hold them closed. - one of the access panels failed to chirp during installation. Theres a little reset button inside that you hold and pull out and push the battery back in to recover. - the adhesive on the modules sticks inmediately. However if you accidentally place the module in the wrong spot, you can just pull it off (pull hard) and place it back on with no apparent ill effects. - the final step of the installation has you choose a monthly plan. There is NO option for Self monitoring without a plan. What? So I hit the back button a few times and the app appears. Looks like I don't need a plan! Ok, that was weird, but I thought nothing of it and moved on. I then set up my alarm modes the way I wanted using the app. All of this was going well. Now comes the bad part: - the key fobs have a very awkward arm/disarm mechanic; you have to swipe from one corner to another on the door panel diagonally, and it usually doesn't work on the first try. - there are no visual indicators that the system is armed except during arming/disarming. You can place your hand on the sensor to make the light flash a particular color, but that is a primitive and clunky way. - by default, there is no way to disarm the system without some sort of physical object in your hand; either the fob or your smartphone. I knew this beforehand, but it didn't really register as a problem until you want to arm a night time 'sleep' mode. I have a family of 4 that walks around the house at night, and since there are no visual indicators, they may accidentally open one of the access modules without knowing if they are armed. And then they have to find a phone or fob to stop the alarm. This is not great, but whatever. So I decide that to solve this problem, I'll use a Phillips Hue light strip of some kind and place it next to the door panel and access panels as a visual indicator, and use IFTTT to set it to red when armed and green when disarmed. SO I set up IFTTT triggers to change the color when any mode is armed, but it doesnt work. I Try it various different ways, but no dice. So I email support and go to bed. The next morning I wake up to head out, and decide to arm the system in away mode. Since there are no visual indicators, I use the smart phone app, which was working the night before. Except now, it stopped working. I tried to test the sensors; all not working. What? So I contact support, and they tell me it's because I didn't choose one of the monthly plans. It turns out that although the app works at first without a monthly plan to set the system up, once a time period elapses, you must have a monthly plan or you can't use the smartphone app or IFTTT to monitor the system. Without it, the system is basically useless. So the bait and switch here is that the advertising implies a DIY monitoring option, but you have to payat least the lower of monthly fees to monitor it yourself. Regarding the IFTTT thing, after I registered for a monthly plan, it started working. However the notification is not immediate, like it is with all my other IFTTT jobs, so my red light indicator approach may not work. I'm going to try a few more things to see if I can get what I want before returning this item. If I can get a satisfactory system up, I'll update this review. But for now the biggest takeaway is: don't buy this if you want a self monitored system WITHOUT a monthly plan. Despite advertising implications, you cannot monitor without it. Update: I've decided to return the system. One more warning: once you sign up for any kind of monitoring you cannot turn it off yourself. You have to email support. However they were cool about it, and overall I can't complain about the friendly, professional service. My next attempt will be Abode, which apparently has all the features above I was missing.