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Security Camera Five-Year Recurring Cost Study 2026

The cheapest camera at checkout can become the expensive system after years of recurring video-storage fees. We modeled one-camera and four-camera scenarios using current U.S. plan pricing.

Pricing checked September 13, 2026 ยท SecurityVerdicts research desk
Five-year recurring subscription cost comparison for four security cameras across Arlo, eufy, Wyze, Google, Ring and a Reolink local-storage baseline

Five-year recurring cost

Ecosystem1 camera4 cameras
Ring$249.95$499.95
Arlo$479.40$1,079.40
Google Home Premium Standard$500.00$500.00
Wyze$149.95~$599.40
eufy cloud backup$199.95$699.95
Reolink local-storage baseline$0 required$0 required
Important: this is a recurring-cost study, not a feature-equivalence ranking. Cloud history, AI, monitoring and off-site protection differ materially. The $0 Reolink baseline means supported local recording can avoid a required storage subscription; it does not mean the storage hardware itself costs $0.

Download the CSV dataset

Why camera count changes the winner

Google's Standard plan is priced per home, so its modeled recurring cost is the same for one or four supported cameras. Ring moves from Solo to Multi. Arlo's unlimited-camera annual-equivalent plan creates the highest recurring cost in this comparison. Wyze and eufy also shift from per-camera to unlimited-device economics as camera count grows.

Methodology

We used current official U.S. pricing available September 13, 2026. Five-year cost equals the current annual price multiplied by five, with no assumed inflation. Monthly-only whole-home pricing was annualized by multiplying by 12 where necessary. Taxes, hardware, promotions, optional add-ons, storage-drive replacement and future price changes are excluded.

Source notes

Use the Subscription Break-Even Calculator to compare a local-system hardware premium against these recurring fees.