It's not just Arlo that's raising its subscription prices for video doorbells and security cameras. Ring just announced that it will be raising the price of its single-camera Ring Protect Basic plan up to $4.99 per month (or $49.99 per year) starting next month on March 11th. This brings the new cost of the entry-level service up 25 percent from $39.99 (or $3.99 per month). While that extra $10 a year may not seem so steep at first glance, it's double the price of what the plan cost just two years ago. This begs the question; how frequently we will see bumps in prices going forward?
The best video doorbells and security cameras can show you a live feed of your property and send you motion notifications without a subscription. However, Ring and others, such as Arlo and Nest, lock the most helpful features — like viewing event recordings and cloud video storage — behind subscription paywalls that continue to climb without the addition of new features. You can see a breakdown of costs in our security camera storage plan comparison.
Competitors in the home security space such as Eufy and Wyze provide some cloud storage as well as an option for local storage without requiring a subscription. Even Amazon's more affordable security camera brand Blink offers local storage through a separately purchased Sync Module, which scored in the smaller company's favor when we recently put Blink head-to-head against Ring.
This announcement comes hot on the heels of Ring's rival Arlo's subscription service price raise earlier this month.
If you sign up for an annual Ring Protect Basic plan before March 11, you can lock in the current rate for one year. For now, Ring is keeping the price of its multi-camera plan, Ring Protect Plus, at $10/month or $100/year.
Ring also recently announced the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro, a more advanced version of the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus, which will be available next month.
