One of the key differentiators between home security cameras and video doorbells has nothing to do with their specifications or even their performance. If you’re considering the long-term cost of ownership of a security camera, you’ll want to know three things: First, what functions are disabled if you don’t pay for a subscription? Second, what functions does a subscription add to the product? And third, how much will a subscription cost on a monthly or annual basis in addition to the cost of the product itself.
If you’re wondering why you’d need a subscription plan in the first place, it’s because many–maybe even most–of the manufacturers in this space limit the capabilities of their products unless you pay extra for services. These subscription plans are invariably advertised as “optional,” and many of them are sold in tiers, with varying levels of features. But the bottom line is that you probably won’t get the full benefit of the camera or doorbell unless you sign up for a plan.
This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best home security cameras and the best video doorbells.
Arlo, Ring, and many others, for example, limit you to a real-time view of the scene in front of their cameras and doorbells unless you cough up for a subscription. If you want a recording of an event you weren’t around to watch in real time, you’ll probably need to pay for a subscription so you can store the recording on the vendor’s server in the cloud. Even cameras that feature local storage on a microSD card or a storage device on your home network might require a subscription to unlock features such as person, pet, and package detection; high-resolution video recording; AI image processing; and more.
Let’s compare the plans and services from each of the biggest manufacturers, whose product lines have generally earned positive reviews from us.
Arlo
Arlo cameras come with three cloud storage options, any of which will unlock essential camera features.
Michael Ansaldo/Foundry
Your purchase of an Arlo home security product includes a 30-day free trial to Arlo Secure, which starts automatically after you set up the camera or doorbell. When the free trial ends, you’ll still be able to see a live view from the camera, the two-way talk feature will continue to operate, and you will receive notifications when the camera detects motion. The camera will also continue to work with smart speakers and displays, but you won’t be able to record videos and download them to share with other people unless you sign up for one of the following paid subscriptions:
Arlo Secure
Cost: $7.99 per month or $89.99 per year for a single camera; $12.99 per month or $149.99 per year for an unlimited number of cameras and doorbells.
Features: The Secure plan allows you to save video in up to 4K resolution for 30 days in the cloud. It also enables critical security features such as AI-powered object detection (people, vehicles, packages, and pets), smart notifications, customizable activity zones, and sound recognition for smoke and carbon monoxide detection alarms. Other perks include theft replacement, priority care and support, and a discount on the purchase of future Arlo devices.
Arlo Secure Plus
Cost: $17.99 per month or $199.99 per year for an unlimited number of Arlo cameras and doorbells.
Features: This plan gives you everything in Arlo Secure and adds 24/7 emergency response, which allows you to contact fire, police, or medical responders simply by pressing an alert notification.
Arlo Safe & Secure Pro
Cost: $24.99 per month or $299.99 per year for an unlimited number of cameras.
Features: Arlo’s top-tier plan includes all the features of Arlo Secure Plus and adds 24/7 professional monitoring. That last feature requires you to own an Arlo Home Security system. You’ll also get Arlo Safe, which provides a range of personal and family safety services including the ability to alert your emergency contacts or professional security experts when you need emergency help, record incidents you witness and save them to the cloud, and automatically alert emergency response agents during a car accident.
Blink
Amazon’s Blink cameras come with come with two cloud subscription options, one that’s priced per camera and one that’s a flat fee for unlimited cameras.
Amazon
Amazon’s Blink cameras come with your choice of two monthly cloud subscription plans, one is priced per camera and the other is a flat monthly or annual fee for an unlimited number of Blink cameras. Without a paid subscription you will only be able to view your camera’s live feed–and only for a maximum of 5 minutes after receiving a motion-detection alert.
Blink Basic Plan
Cost: $3 per month or $30 per year per camera
Features: The Basic plan includes 60 days of rolling storage, automatic local backups (if you also purchase a $35 Blink Sync Module 2 and a USB storage device to plug into it), person detection, video sharing, and periodic photo capture.
Blink Plus Plan
Cost: $10 per month or $100 per year for an unlimited number of Blink cameras
Features: This plan includes everything in the Basic plan and adds the ability to temporarily pause motion alerts for up to 24 hours, a 10-percent discount Blink devices purchased on Amazon, and extended warranties on all your Blink devices for as long as you continue your subscription–provided the Blink product was under warranty at the time you start your subscription.
Google Nest
Both of Google’s Nest Aware plans cover all the Google cameras, smart speakers, and smart displays in your home.
Google Nest
Compared to most other manufacturers, Google Nest cameras generally provide more features without requiring a subscription. You get the usual event-based alerts and on-demand live viewing, for example, but some Nest cameras also provide at least some event-based recording–up to 3 hours on the Nest Cam (battery), for example–without a subscription. That’s a great feature–if you can remember to view and/or download the clip before that 3-hour window closes. And some models will produce alerts specifying whether the motion was from a a person, a vehicle, or an animal; again, without a subscription.
Here’s what you’ll get if you do spring for a subscription (you’ll get a 30-day free trial with the purchase of a device).
Nest Aware
Cost: $8 per month or $80 per year for every Google camera, speaker, and display in your home.
Features: The Nest Aware plan bumps the event video history up from 3 hours to 30 days. Your cameras can also learn familiar faces, so they can discern between family and friends versus strangers. And if you also have Nest smart speakers and displays, they’ll be able to listen for the sound of breaking glass as well as smoke or carbon monoxide detector alarms sounding off.
Nest Aware Plus
Cost: $15 per month or $150 per year for every Google camera, speaker, and display in your home.
Features: Everything in the base Nest Aware plan, but the event video history is boosted to 60 days, and you get 10 days of 24/7 continuous recording.
Ring
If you want recordings from your Ring cameras and doorbells, you’ll need to sign up for one of the company’s Ring Protect plans.
Michael Brown/Foundry
Ring Protect is a comprehensive subscription service offered in three tiers, enabling everything from “rich” notifications of events (with photo preview of the event appearing in the Ring app), to cloud storage, to professional monitoring of a Ring Alarm system. A free 30-day trial begins as soon as you activate a new Ring home camera or doorbell. After the trial period, you’ll need to subscribe to continue using those features. Without a Ring Protect Plan, you can only use your Ring device’s free features such as live video, text-only push notifications, and two-way audio.
Ring Protect Basic
Cost: $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year for one camera or doorbell. Starting March 11, 2024, the price of a Ring Protect Basic subscription will increase to $ 4.99 per month or $49.99 per year.
Features: The Basic plan allows you to store 180 days of recorded video events for a single Ring doorbell or camera. It’s also required to enable most of your Ring product’s advanced functions, including person alerts; rich notifications; Home and Away modes; the ability to download up to 50 videos at once to your device; and Snapshot Capture, which allows your camera to capture still images of its view at predetermined intervals so you can a view slideshow of what your camera sees between motion events.
Ring Protect Plus
Cost: $10 per month or $100 per year for an unlimited number of cameras and doorbells.
Features: The Plus plan covers every Ring doorbell and camera at a single location. It offers the same features as the Basic plan, but it also gives you a lifetime warranty on all of your Ring devices–provided the devices were still covered by Ring’s standard one-year warranty on the date your Ring Protect subscription starts.
Ring Protect Pro
Cost: $20 per month or $200 per year for a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro system and an unlimited number of Ring cameras and doorbells.
Features: The Pro plan gets you the same features as the Protect plan, but is primarily designed for owners of a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro home security system. It includes 24/7 professional monitoring for break-ins and fire emergencies, which can include an emergency dispatch of first responders. You can also contact the monitoring service to request help in the event of a medical emergency.
The other significant addition to the Pro plan is 24/7 backup to your broadband connection. In the event your broadband connection should fail, a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro will automatically switch over to a cellular network to maintain the system’s connection to the internet. If you have a Ring Alarm Pro system, you’ll also have the option to install a microSD card in the hub, so that all recordings from your Ring cameras and doorbells are stored and processed locally, instead in the cloud.
Arlo offers three subscription plans under its Arlo Secure banner. A free trial is included when you activate a new Arlo Camera, Video Doorbell, Floodlight, or Home Security System product. Without an Arlo Secure plan, you can only view your camera’s live video, use two-way audio, and receive push notifications.
Wyze Labs
Wyze Labs is one of the few security camera manufacturers to off a free plan for cloud storage of video recordings. It also offers two paid tiers that include additional features. tier cameras is one of the few camera brands to offer a free plan in addition to two paid subscription options.
Christopher Null/Foundry
Wyze Labs offers some of the most inexpensive home security cameras on the market, and the same goes for its subscription plans. It even offers a free plan—the only major security camera brand to do so—that enables more than just your camera’s most basic features. Wyze offers five subscription plans:
Wyze Cam Basic (aka Lite)
Cost: Free
Features: Wyze cameras and doorbells come a free basic plan that includes 14 days of free cloud storage, general motion and sound detection, and notifications when the devices hear the sound of a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm sounding off. There is a catch, however: You don’t get video recordings with this tier; instead, the camera will capture a static when an event triggers it, with a 5-minute cool-down between each event-triggered capture. In other words, if a person walks in front of the camera and triggers a snapshot, the camera will not produce any more snapshots for five minutes, no matter what happens in front of it.
Wyze Cam Plus
Cost: $2.99 per month per camera, $19.99 per year per camera
Features: This plan includes the same 14 days of event cloud storage, but the camera will record video instead of just capturing still frames with 5-minute cool-downs between capture (there is no cool-down period at this tier). You’ll be able to record the entirety of a motion-triggered event without missing any activity. This also adds person, pet, package, and vehicle detection, and you’ll be offered exclusive subscriber discounts.
Cam Plus Unlimited
Cost: $9.99 per month for up to 99 Wyze cameras, $99.99 per year for up to 99 Wyze cameras.
Features: This is the same plan as Cam Plus, but it includes licenses for up to 99 Wyze cameras; so, if you have more than three Wyze cameras, this plan is more economical than paying for each camera separately.
Wyze Cam Protect
Cost: $3.99 per camera per month or $39.99 per camera per year
Google offers two cloud plans for its Nest cameras, both of which support unlimited cameras. Without one of these, you will only be able to view your camera’s live feed and receive three hours of event-based video history stored in the cloud.
Features: This plan includes all the features of cheaper plans and adds AI-based facial recognition and a 24/7 professional monitoring service that will notify you via text message and phone call in the event an alarm goes off. This tier is for cameras only. If you want a security system that includes cameras as well as discrete motion, door/window, water leak, and other types of sensors, plus a central hub with a keypad for arming/disarming, you’ll want the complete Wyze Home Monitoring system. Pair that with a Wyze Home Monitoring subscription at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, and you’ll have the beginnings of a robust home security system.
Our take
Arlo’s $7.99-per-month single-camera subscription price is the now most expensive on the market, following a 60-percent price increase in January, 2024. Arlo’s unlimited camera plan is also high, at $17.99 per month. Arlo’s professional monitoring subscription is reasonable at $24.99, even though it’s $5-per-month more than Ring’s, but Arlo’s home security system is much more basic than Ring’s.
Blink has the least expensive per-camera plan, at $3 per month, and you get local video backups if you purchase the Blink Sync Module 2. The unlimited camera plan costs the same as Ring’s service at $10 per month. Unlike Arlo or Ring, Blink does not offer a complete home security system, although it does have a video doorbell and a couple of floodlight cameras. We’ve found that Blink’s product line delivers a lot of value for the money.
Ring will soon raise its single-camera plan by $1 per month to $4.99 per month, while its unlimited-camera plan will remain low at just $10 per month; we’ll see how long that lasts. Ring’s $20-per-month professional monitoring plan is one of the most affordable of its type at $20 per month, and the ecosystem for the Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro security systems is more comprehensive than most and includes indoor and outdoor smart lighting, smart entry locks, smoke detectors, and more, including certified third-party devices.
A Google Nest Aware subscription for a single camera costs the same as Arlo’s, but since few households end up deploying just one camera or video doorbell, Google’s plan ends up being more affordable than most because it covers all the Google cameras, doorbells, speakers, and displays in your home. But Google no longer builds a home security system, so it doesn’t offer a professional monitoring plan either.
Wyze Labs is the other budget brand, and we’ve had no complaints about the quality of their very well-priced hardware. The Wyze Home Monitoring system isn’t as sophisticated as some other products, but it is an incredible value. And the $10-per-month cost of its professional monitoring plan is the best in the industry.
