Writing about video analytics, cameras and false alerts
- Real prices, checked
- Useful if you never buy
- No sponsored placements
Avigilon ACC 7 to Unity 8 upgrade cost per camera and who upgrades free
Unity Video 8 is a paid upgrade for ACC 7 sites without Smart Plan coverage. Smart Plans from $14.45 a camera for Standard and $28.89 for Enterprise, the October 2, 2023 cut off, and a fifteen camera total.
Honeywell MAXPRO VMS replacement options with license costs per camera
MAXPRO VMS R670 and R700 lost updates and support on October 1, 2025. The Honeywell R790 upgrade against DW Spectrum, Wisenet WAVE, AXIS Camera Station Pro and exacqVision at $75 to $200 per camera, with fifteen camera totals.
Avigilon AI NVR price for the AI NVR 2, its camera licenses and analytics channels
AI NVR 2 from $6,039 to $164,687 at US resellers, camera licenses from $88.13 to $300.68, a $311.05 analytics channel per older camera, how many cameras each model can actually analyze, and a fifteen camera total.
IDIS AI box price for the DV-1304-A and DV-1304 per camera and for a whole site
The 4 channel DV-1304-A at $986 to $1,121 at US resellers with no license fee, why it reads only IDIS DirectIP cameras on an IDIS NVR, how analysis rules use up channels, and the fifteen camera total.
iVMS-4200 alternative for a business that keeps its Hikvision cameras
Keep the Hikvision cameras and change the software: Blue Iris at $99.95 once, Agent DVR from $7.95 a month, Synology or DW Spectrum per camera, or person alerts beside iVMS-4200 from $288 a year. What the 2026 FCC rules mean for cameras you already own.
Video Insight license price per camera for VideoInsight 8 term licenses and VI 7 perpetual licenses
i-PRO cameras need no license; third party cameras cost $77.72 to $290 per term on VideoInsight 8 or $230.84 once on VI 7, servers from $1,740, and five year totals for fifteen cameras.
Camect price and cost per hub, Camect Go, and how many hubs your cameras need
Camect hubs at $649, $749 or $1,624, Camect Go at $100 a year per hub, the 24MP limit that decides how many hubs you buy, and five year totals for 8 and 15 cameras.
Milestone Care Plus price per camera and what Care Premium adds
Care Plus is about 18% of the device license a year: $19.80 per camera on Express+ to $63 on Corporate. Multi-year terms, Care Premium at $13 to $25 more, what a lapse costs and a fifteen camera total.
XProtect Express+ camera limit and upgrade cost to Professional+
Express+ stops at one server, one site and 48 devices. The move to Professional+ is $495 plus $68 a camera, $1,515 at 15 cameras and $3,759 at 48, and Care Plus rises $13.20 a camera a year.
XProtect Essential+ alternative and replacement cost now that the free edition is discontinued
Milestone ended the free 8 camera XProtect Essential+ with 2025 R2 and activation stopped on January 1, 2026. Express+ at $29 plus $109 a camera, four other replacements and an eight camera, five year total.
Netcam Studio alternative for a business, now that Netcam Studio is discontinued
Netcam Studio stopped development in 2025 and is now free, unpatched and without mobile apps. Agent DVR, Blue Iris, SecuritySpy, UniFi and a detection layer compared, with a fifteen camera, five year total.
Qognify VMS license price per camera, with Ocularis VMS cost and what Coda Video changes
Ocularis Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate base and camera licenses at US list prices, the 18% yearly SMA and its 90 day notice, Qognify VMS (now Coda Video) editions, and a fifteen camera total.
Digifort license price per camera for Explorer, Standard, Professional and Enterprise
Digifort base licenses from $265.09 (Explorer, 4 cameras) to $2,836 (Enterprise, 8 cameras) at USD list prices, camera packs, edition limits, the 7.4.1 analytics license change and a fifteen camera total.
SecuritySpy price and SecuritySpy license cost per camera for a business Mac
SecuritySpy is $50.99 for one camera to $1,060.99 unlimited, once, with two years of updates and a 25 percent yearly renewal after that. The Mac, storage and five year totals for one site and three.
UniFi Protect cost and UniFi Protect subscription fees for a 4 or 15 camera business
UniFi Protect has no license or monthly fee, so the cost is the console, drives and cameras: $699 for a four camera kit, about $2,800 to $4,000 for fifteen new cameras on a UNVR, and AI Ports for third party cameras.
Blue Iris price and license cost for business use, with the commercial license
The full license is $99.95 and LE $39.95, with maintenance at $44.95 a year after the first. Commercial use is permitted only on the $39.95 a month Commercial plan, so a business pays $579.35 in year one. Five year totals for four and fifteen cameras.
Orchid VMS cost, the Orchid license and subscription price per camera
Orchid Core is $104 a camera and Fusion $222 at MSRP, plus $42 or $74 a year for support. Fusion subscriptions are $120 a camera a year and Hybrid $84. What SteelFin servers and Orchid AI add, and a fifteen camera five year total.
Genetec Stratocast pricing, the last Stratocast price per camera and what Security Center SaaS costs now
Stratocast was $11.95 to $29.95 a camera a month on Genetec's last list, with 7 days of cloud retention. It is gone from the 2025 price lists; Security Center SaaS is $149 or $199 a camera a year plus storage.
Axis cloud storage price per camera for AXIS Camera Station Cloud Storage
One license is $99 to $103 per camera a year for 30 days at 720p. What 1080p and longer retention cost, the version 6.18 limit on Camera Station Pro, and what cloud storage does not do for alerts.
UniFi AI Port price per third party camera and when it is the wrong purchase
The $199 AI Port covers one 4K, two 2K or three HD third party cameras, so the real cost is $66 to $199 a camera. How many you need, what it requires, and when a detection layer on your current recorder fits better.
Luxriot EVO S pricing per channel and what analytics add to a Luxriot EVO license
EVO S tiers from $500 for 9 channels to $7,200 for 96 at US reseller prices, two years of updates or Premium Lifetime, EVO Global from $5,000, EVA analytics per channel, and the five year total for fifteen cameras.
Arcules pricing per camera channel a month and what the gateway adds
Every Arcules channel SKU from $9.95 to $81 a camera a month at US reseller prices, the Husky gateway you must buy, which channels get person and vehicle detection, and the five year total for fifteen cameras.
Axis Camera Station 5 to Pro upgrade cost per license and who pays nothing
The $19 upgrade license per device, the free route on an Axis recorder, what your perpetual version 5 licenses turn into, the September 2027 end of support, and the fifteen camera arithmetic for staying, upgrading or moving.
GeoVision VMS license cost for a GV-VMS third party IP camera
GV-VMS third party licenses from 1 to 32 channels at US reseller prices, the 64 free GeoVision channels in V20, the Pro and AI licenses, and the five year total for fifteen cameras.
Wisenet WAVE license price of $130 to $148 per Hanwha WAVE camera
WAVE-PRO-01 to WAVE-PRO-48 at US reseller prices, why the packs give no volume break, the four licenses inside a WRN recorder, the hardware ID rules, and the five year total for fifteen cameras.
exacqVision license price per camera and what the SSA renewal adds
Professional and Enterprise camera licenses at US reseller prices, what the yearly SSA adds, what a lapsed renewal costs, and the five year total for fifteen cameras.
Lumana pricing in 2026 and what Lumana security costs per camera
The annual per feed licence model, what the Core appliance adds, and the five questions that move a quote.
Verkada cost in 2026 for cameras and licenses over five years
Camera MSRP from $799, the camera license from $249 a year at Verkada list price, and the full arithmetic for a fifteen camera site over five years.
Best video analytics software in 2026, compared honestly
Eight products, what each one really costs, which cameras each one accepts, and the two places we lose.
Video analytics tools compared on what they detect and what they cost
Five classes of tool, from the detection built into your recorder to a full enterprise platform, priced side by side.
Open source video analytics and the cost nobody prices in
Frigate and ZoneMinder are genuinely good. Here is the hardware, the hours and the compliance gap that come with a licence of zero.
Free motion detection software, and where it breaks
What the free tier of every tool gives you, and the exact camera count and lighting condition where it stops being enough.
Motion detection software for a webcam, done properly
A working setup for a USB webcam: placement, exposure, sensitivity, minimum duration and the zone that removes most false triggers.
Arlo camera false triggers, and every other cause of false alerts
Passive infrared heat on the battery cameras, then IR bloom, headlights, rain on the dome, spider webs and auto exposure. The physics behind an alert storm, and what fixes each one.
Three rules, and the third one costs us traffic.
This is a young product with no customers to quote, so the only credibility available to us is being right about things a reader can check.
Prices are the vendor's own published ones
Where a product publishes a price, we quote it and link the reasoning. Where it does not, we say quote only rather than inventing a number, and Spot AI is the clearest example.
We name where we lose
Frigate detects on a continuous live stream today and this build does not. A comparison that never concedes anything is an advertisement wearing a comparison's clothes.
No sponsored placements, ever
Nobody has paid to appear in a list here, and no link on this blog is an affiliate link. If that ever changes, it will be labelled on the page it changes on.
The product pages the posts keep pointing at
Artificial intelligence video surveillance
The four stages, and the line the model does not cross.
Video analytics software price
Published in full, per camera, no sales call.
Motion detection software
Classified detection against the pixel change your recorder does.
Camera analytics
Hours of footage turned into a readable event list.
Enterprise security camera systems
SSO, roles, retention, a DPA, and no biometrics.
Video analytics platform use cases
Four industries and the noise specific to each.
Reading is cheaper than a pilot. Running it is cheaper still.
The demo does the whole detection loop in your browser, on your own clip if you want. When you are ready for your own cameras, one email address starts it.