Eric Ravenscraft
Today, in Amazon’s quest to make every single gadget in your home smarter and Alexa-connected, the company introduced the Amazon Cloud Cam. For $120, it features an HD camera, night vision, and best of all, a full 24 hours of free video recording.
Smart home security cameras are nothing new, but Amazon is gunning hard for the low end of the price spectrum. A single camera costs $120, but you can get two for $200 or three for $290. Meanwhile, a single Nest Indoor Cam costs $200. Some of the cheapest security cameras from Logitech, Arlo, and Canary come relatively close but Amazon’s camera is still the cheapest.
Then there’s the video recording. Without a subscription, Nest lets you view a live feed, and it will give you snapshots from the last three hours if it notices activity, but that’s about it. Meanwhile, Amazon’s Cloud Cam will let you view the last 24 hours of footage from your camera completely for free.
If that’s not enough, you can add 7 days worth of recording from three cameras for $6.99/month (or $69 per year if you pay up front), 14 days of recording from up to five cameras for $9.99/month ($99/year), or 30 days of recording for up to ten cameras for $19.99/month (or $199/year).
Compared to Nest Aware, this is a steal. Nest’s subscription service—which, again, is required for any video recording—starts at $10/month ($100/year) for 10-day recording from a single camera. If you want to add more cameras, it costs $5/month ($50/year) for each additional camera. 30-day recording costs $30/month ($300/year). Additional cameras on this plan cost a whopping $15/month (or $150/year).
No matter how you break down the numbers, Amazon’s cameras and recording plans are way cheaper than anything Nest has on the market. The Cloud Cam arrives on November 8th, but you can pre-order your cameras now.
