Non-subscription alternative to Nest cam and Ring doorbell

[London1986]

I currently have a Nest outdoor cam and a Ring doorbell.

I've had them for years and tbh they work fine however I loathe having to pay subscription fees.

Nest aware is £60 a year and Ring I pay £50 a year so this is £110 every year.

I am looking for something that can replace the above, the criteria is as follows...

1. No subscription fees
2. Storage hub inside the house. I know some outdoor cams come with SD card but I don't like the idea of this for several reasons
3. Outdoor cam must have continuous recording, not just motion alerts. Doorbell not necessary.
4. Budget around £300-400

Overall I am happy with my current setup and looking for functionality that matches or exceeds what I have.

I have heard Eufy pop up a lot which seems like a potential. They seem to tick the boxes above especially with their Homebase 3 hub, however I have heard they had some privacy breaches a while ago, would be good to get clarification.

Any advice or recommendations welcome.

[itcaptainslow]

I'm thinking about something similar - the limited Ring recording time & functionality for the subscription massively irritates me. If someone can recommend a dual camera, outdoor CCTV system that continuously records to solid state media for £300-£400, I'll be all over it!

[gangzoom]

We have an Eufy door bell, and electrians installed an CCTV system that runs off DMSS app which I had never heard about before. Both record to local storage but both allow remote access via Apps offsite and than selected saving of clips to your mobile device.

No subscription for either app, I would be quite comfortable/happy with getting an Eufy camera system added if the electricians didn't already have the DMSS system in mind.

https://dmss.en.softonic.com/android?ex=RAMP-2639....

[macron]

Yeah, Eufy, plenty of offers on rotation on their website and/ or Amazon, decent selection of items too.

[theaxe]

Ubiquiti might be worth looking at:

CloudKey+ with SSD (controller and NVR) £240
G5 Turret Camera £95
(Many other camera options)

No subscription and the phone app is pretty good.

(Edit to add, they are both POE so may need to budget for a suitable switch. They also have a doorbell)

Edited by theaxe on Saturday 21st December 11:45

[BlindedByTheLights]

I’ve also had eufy for a couple of years now, it is spot on for the price and zero subscriptions.

[London1986]

theaxe said:

Ubiquiti might be worth looking at:

CloudKey+ with SSD (controller and NVR) £240
G5 Turret Camera £95
(Many other camera options)

No subscription and the phone app is pretty good.

(Edit to add, they are both POE so may need to budget for a suitable switch. They also have a doorbell)

Edited by theaxe on Saturday 21st December 11:45

Hey thanks for this. I've heard good things about Ubiquiti but the only downside for me is that it requires ethernet to connect.

I mean this is not actually a downside, this would be a major benefit in that it's not reliant on a solid wifi connection. The downside though is the set up required and running the ethernet cables to the camera, router, etc

[London1986]

Good to hear some recommendations for Eufy.

For those that have Eufy, which camera, doorbell do you have?

I am currently eying up this deal - 2 x Eufy E330 outdoor cameras with a Homebase 3 for £269 (Was £260 yesterday!)

I know they do solar powered cams too such as the S330 however based on my understanding, these don't do continuous recording, is that right? Also the front of my house is north facing so not sure whether they would even get sufficient power.

[BlindedByTheLights]

London1986 said:

Good to hear some recommendations for Eufy.

For those that have Eufy, which camera, doorbell do you have?

I am currently eying up this deal - 2 x Eufy E330 outdoor cameras with a Homebase 3 for £269 (Was £260 yesterday!)

I know they do solar powered cams too such as the S330 however based on my understanding, these don't do continuous recording, is that right? Also the front of my house is north facing so not sure whether they would even get sufficient power.

I’ve got the older door bell and pro 2 battery only cameras. They record motion rather than continuously so you set the zones sensitivity, privacy area etc. I’ll go solar cams when mine need replacing. The new Homebase is also ai enabled so you can set it so it doesn’t alert for known faces

[netherfield]

London1986 said:

Good to hear some recommendations for Eufy.

For those that have Eufy, which camera, doorbell do you have?

I am currently eying up this deal - 2 x Eufy E330 outdoor cameras with a Homebase 3 for £269 (Was £260 yesterday!)

I know they do solar powered cams too such as the S330 however based on my understanding, these don't do continuous recording, is that right? Also the front of my house is north facing so not sure whether they would even get sufficient power.

Cameras seem to last about 6 months between charges, so would think a solar panel should be able to keep it working fine, ask me in a few months time because son in law has just fitted solar to all his Eufy cameras, and they have a lot of trees blocking the light.

[Starfighter]

Eufy.

We have a doorbell and cameras setup storing video back to the base unit. Doorbell battery life is around 5 months and we have the cameras on solar panels. The base unit has an SD card slot. The phone app works fine on ‘droid or iOS.

[London1986]

Thanks all.

After a bit more reading I've ruled out the solar powered cams as I want continuous recording and it seems these need to be hard-wired, so solar cams wont cut it.

I also don't need a flood light as this will be next to a dedicated sensor light.

So based on that, seems the E330 is right for me.

As for doorbells, I was looking at battery operated ones which led me to either the E340 or S330. However upon learning that the S330 has a built-in battery so in order to recharge, the whole thing needs to be removed, I am leaning towards the E340 as that has a removable battery so I could just get another and swap them out when one dies.

So potentially looking at E330 cam, E340 doorbell with Homebase 3.

Also, the Eufy naming convention sucks!

[White-Noise]

I've a bunch of tp link stuff which has been great. It's got the sd cards or cloud and you only subscribe for more advanced features.

However I'm getting more bothered about stuff going to Chinese companies clouds.

So my plan is to try out using this stuff through my homelab using something called frigate. Then block those cameras ability to connect to the cloud.

This won't be for everyone and it's also for my own fun. I believe with frigate you can do more advanced stuff with the ai than most cloud platforms (certainly the free tiers).

Hth

[clockworks]

I just use proper cameras (Hilook dome type), power over ethernet, with a Synology NAS and the included Surveillance Station software to record them.

I've got a Ring doorbell with no subscription. I've tried a couple of other doorbells, but the Ring seems to work best with an iPhone and my Alexa Echo Show devices.
No need for recordings from the doorbell (CCTV takes care of that), just need a live view and remote intercom function.

[Baroque attacks]

Hi all, sorry for the hijack.

Seems nest are putting the price up to something like £12/mth to be able to go back in time, assuming I’ve read the mail properly. That feels a bit steep for what it is, I have a hunch they're trying to kill the product anyway!

We have a couple of powered nest cams, used mainly to see whether it’s foxes, badgers or sheep which have been causing havoc outside or if deliveries have arrived. As such, we’re not really bothered about PoE.

As we’d like alerting and also constant recording (not just trigger based recording), what do people recommend? Would Eufy with a base station thing work? Something else? My only concern is reddit seems pretty heavy on negative comments re app/login security.

Cheers