Count the ways into a typical house: a front door with a keypad or a key, a garage on its own clicker, maybe a gate with yet another remote. Three entrances, three systems, none of them talking to each other or to the alarm. It works, but it is a drawer full of remotes and an app for each.

Ajax collapses that. The same system that runs your security can also drive the openings and control who gets in — all from one app, and all able to talk to each other. Here is how, honestly, including where the edges are.

The Openings

A Relay Is What Moves Things

The piece that makes a garage or a gate answer to your phone is small and unglamorous: the Ajax Relay ($69). It is a wireless dry-contact relay — which is a precise way of saying it does exactly what a wall button does, on command.

A garage door opener and a gate operator both have low-voltage control terminals: short them for a moment and the thing moves. That is all the wall button does. The relay wires to those same terminals and pulses them when you tap the app — so the garage or gate opens from your phone, from a schedule, or as part of a scene. Because the relay lives inside your Ajax system, it is not a separate gadget with its own app — it is one more thing the Ajax app already controls.

• Garage door. The Smart Garage Control Kit ($199) pairs the relay with a door sensor, so you both open the door and see whether it is open — the full picture, not half of it.
• Gate. The same relay pulses a gate operator's trigger input, bringing a driveway gate into the same app.
• Other switched loads. For things that need power switched rather than a momentary pulse, the Ajax WallSwitch ($69) handles that job.

One honest note: relays that drive an opener or a gate involve the operator's wiring, so these are professionally installed — the work depends on your specific operator. We quote that per home. It is not a driveway-afternoon job, and doing it right is the difference between "works most of the time" and "just works."

The People

Keypads Are How Everyone Else Gets In

Controlling the openings is half of access. The other half is who can arm, disarm, and enter — and that is what a keypad handles. The app is for you; a keypad is for everyone else who uses the house: kids, guests, a cleaner, a dog walker. They punch a code or tap an RFID tag, no phone required, and you assign — and revoke — access per person.

For a keychain option, the SpaceControl fob ($65) arms and disarms from your pocket. Between the app, a keypad, and a fob, every person who needs access has a way in that fits them.

Why One App Matters

The Openings Can Talk To The Alarm

Here is the part a pile of separate remotes can never do: because the garage, the gate, the keypads, and the alarm all live in one system, they can trigger each other. That is what a scene is — a rule the system runs on its own.

• Close the garage when you arm the alarm. No more "did I leave it open?" — arming the house closes it.
• Get alerted if the garage opens while you are away. The door sensor knows its real position and pushes you a notification.
• Open the gate and disarm with one tap as you pull into the driveway.

None of that is possible when your garage clicker, your gate remote, and your alarm are three islands. Put them on one system and the house starts behaving like one thing instead of a collection of parts. That is the whole point of doing access this way.

The Options

What It Costs

• Smart Garage Control Kit — $199. Relay + door sensor: open and monitor the garage. Install quoted separately.
• Ajax Relay — $69. The dry-contact relay for a gate or a second opener.
• KeyPad TouchScreen — $529. Indoor touch + RFID access control.
• Outdoor KeyPad — $359. Weather-rated access at the gate or door.

Keep Reading

Related Guides

• App, keypad, or fob? — the right control for everyone in the house
• How a wireless alarm system works — the hub, the sensors, and how it all fits
• Smart switches & the neutral-wire trap — smart lighting in older homes, no rewiring