Side-by-side comparison
Pricing, lock-in, and feature parity against the cameras-as-a-service incumbents and the prosumer DIY options. Every claim is cited.
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Same features, fraction of the cost. No proprietary hardware required.
| Provider | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ivideon | $9-25/cam/mo | Per-camera pricing adds up fast |
| Verkada | $17-150/cam/mo | Requires proprietary cameras |
| Rhombus | $12+/cam/mo | Annual contracts, hardware lock-in |
| LightNVR Best Value | From $20/mo | No per-camera fees, BYO cameras, pay for what you need |
Per-camera pricing pulled from each vendor's published rate cards (see footnotes under the full feature table below). Ranges reflect the spread between entry and high-end SKUs. Annual contract minimums and hardware bundles can push effective price higher.
The boring matrix. Twelve rows, five vendors, footnoted claims. If a row reads unfair to a competitor, the citation under the table is where to push back.
| LightNVR Cloud Us | Verkada | Ivideon | Frigate | Blue Iris | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How the invoice is calculated | Flat per-instance, from $20/mo | Per-camera + per-license, $17–150/cam/mo | Per-camera, $9–25/cam/mo | Free (open source) | One-time $69.95 license + your Windows box |
| Can you add a camera mid-month without a new contract? | Yes — within tier ceiling, no per-camera fee | Add a camera = add a license seat | Add a camera = next pricing tier | Yes — limited only by your hardware | Yes — limited only by your Windows box |
| Bring-your-own cameras [2] Standard RTSP / ONVIF cameras you already own | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Run the recorder on hardware you control | Yes — open-source self-host | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cloud-managed option Vendor runs the server for you | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| Source-available recorder you can audit and fork | ✓ | — | — | ✓ | — |
| WireGuard / VPN tunnel for cameras [2] Cameras reach the recorder over an encrypted private tunnel — no port forwarding | ✓ | Cloud-only / proprietary | Direct RTSP or partner integrations | DIY (your tunnel of choice) | DIY (your tunnel of choice) |
| Sub-second latency in any modern browser, no plugins | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | go2rtc add-on | — |
| Manage multiple isolated client sites under one operator login | Per-site dedicated instances | Org-tree, single tenant | Org / sub-account hierarchy | Self-managed per-site | Self-managed per-site |
| Vendor lock-in (proprietary protocols) [2] How hard is it to walk away with your cameras? | None — open formats, open protocols | High — proprietary cameras + cloud | Medium — cloud + per-camera licensing | None — your stack | None — your stack |
| Provision an account without booking a sales call | ✓ | Sales-led / partner-led | ✓ | Self-host only | Self-host only |
| Try a real instance with real cameras, no card on file | ✓ | Demo on request | Limited free tier, card may be required | N/A — free open source | N/A — paid license |
Three patterns we hear most often. None of these are real customer quotes yet — they are the situations operators describe on the way in.
SMB · from Verkada
A four-camera retail shop facing a per-camera renewal that doubled their first-year price. Standard RTSP cameras kept the install timeline under a weekend, and the per-instance invoice took the line item off the per-store P&L spreadsheet entirely.
MSP · from Ivideon
An MSP managing a dozen client sites where camera counts drift mid-quarter. Per-camera tiers meant chasing every add/remove on the next invoice. Per-instance pricing made client-bundled flat-rate billing trivially predictable, and the dedicated tenant per site eliminated the awkward "is this the right camera feed?" multi-tenant fumble.
Prosumer · from Blue Iris
A homeowner running Blue Iris on a Windows mini-PC tired of patch Tuesdays, drive failures, and the box being on the same circuit as the cameras it was recording. Off-site recording survives a break-in or a power cut, and the browser UI replaced the desktop client so any device became a viewing station.
The boring-but-important question is what changes day one — your cameras, your retention preferences, your viewing habits. Three honest paragraphs on each migration path live on the cloud page; no upsell pressure, just what to expect.
Open-source since 2024 175+ GitHub stars Built in Maine
Fourteen days free, no card up front, your existing cameras, your dedicated instance. The matrix above is one paragraph; provisioning a real instance is the other.
No credit card required · Cancel any time.