How to save money on smart tech subscription costs

Whether it's greeting visitors or warning off burglars, a wireless security camera or smart doorbell is a great addition to your smart home set-up. 

Although these internet-connected devices can be cheap to buy, there may be more than £100 in hidden annual costs with video storage, subscriptions and more lying in wait. 

We show you how to save money on smart home extras, and also record and store video clips in case you need them.

 - doorbells, cameras, thermostats and more all expertly tested in our lab.

Beware hidden costs of smart products

Subscriptions and costs vary between the providers, including for how long you can store video clips and how many devices are covered.  

The average subscription cost of storing video from a single camera or doorbell is £41.76 per year, but that increases to £88.08 if you want to store video from multiple cameras and doorbells. 

There are low cost options with local storage, but 18 out of 53 tested security cameras only let you store video if you sign up to a subscription, and that includes leading brands Ring and Nest.

Ring and Nest subscription costs 

Ring Protect

The Basic plan gives you 30 days of video storage for a single Ring device for £2.50 a month, or £24.99 a year. 

You'll need Protect Plus if you have more than one Ring device, giving the same 30 days of video storage for £8 a month or £80 a year.  

So, unless you’re happy to use the doorbell or camera for live monitoring, you’ll need to factor in this ongoing subscription cost when choosing a Ring product. 

Nest Aware

The basic tier gives you 30 days of video storage for £5 a month, or £50 a year. For £10 a month, or £120 a year.

Nest Aware Plus increase that to 60 days of event video storage and also gives you 10 days of constant 24/7 video recording, a bit like CCTV.

With the average Nest camera costing £165, this ongoing subscription could really rack up the overall costs of going with a Nest device.

Browse our reviews:

Arlo, Eufy and Ezviz subscription costs

Arlo SecureEufy Cloud StorageEzviz Cloudplay storage

How to make savings on a smart device subscription

Otherwise, a great way to save money in annual costs is by going for a camera or doorbell with a local recording option - 35 out of 53 wireless security cameras we have tested have this as an option. 

Many cameras have a MicroSD card slot, which works similarly to a smartphone or other device in extending the usable storage to record video clips. 

Some brands, such as Eufy, support eMMC (Embedded MultiMediaCard), which is an integrated storage solution, often via a hub device. Others enable you to connect a hard drive, USB stick or NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive (often via the RTSP port) to really boost the available storage. 

However, you will need to carefully research the storage options as connecting, formatting and managing the storage using these methods can be tricky. Also consider that the higher resolution the camera, the bigger video files it will create. It's easy to fill up a hard drive quickly, so make sure you get into the habit of regularly deleting footage you don't need. 

For more ways to save, browse all our . 

source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/how-to-save-money-on-smart-tech-subscription-costs-agQUE0D6oV2s