We never had good luck with the potty pads. Duke would grab them and run all over the house. I didn't want to train and retrain so we started with outside right from the start. We use "go potty" He is now 7 months and I would have to say 99% trained. We still have the occasional poopy accident. I'm thinking of trying the bell since he hasn't figured out how to tell us when he needs to go out. We still ask him about every 1-2 hours.
I did get lucky though when he was little he slept all night in our bed so he rarely got up during the night.
Good luck with the training. It takes a LOT of patience but you will get there.
