The difference between doorbells with and without a subscription
Comparison between doorbells with and without subscription
| Doorbells with a subscription | Doorbells without a subscription | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Store image files | In the cloud | Via memory card or base station (internal memory) | |
| Costs | Monthly costs between €3 and €5 | No extra costs or one-time investment of at least €10 | |
| Maximum storage | Watch online between 3 and 30 days | Watch between 7 and 30 days |
Store image files
With subscription: in the cloud
A smart doorbell with cloud storage stores its camera footage on an online server. This is often a service by the manufacturer or a common cloud service like Dropbox. To view images, you need to log in with your account. So you can only access the image files with the correct login information. Via the app of the doorbell, you can view images anytime and anywhere, as long as you're connected to the internet.
Without subscription: local storage
Smart doorbells with local storage save images on a memory card or have a base station with internal memory. You can also store camera images locally and encrypted, so you're not completely dependent on an online service from the manufacturer. You can also find the images of doorbells with local storage in the app. You always need an account to watch the image files via the app.
Storage costs
With subscription: monthly subscription costs
If you don't have a cloud subscription, you can only watch live camera footage with most smart doorbells. So you need the subscription of you want to use all the options the doorbell has to offer and to keep old images. You pay a monthly fee of €3 to €5 for this. This amount may increase if you want better quality or if you also have IP cameras from the same brand. An annual subscription is often cheaper, because you pay 10 times the monthly costs.
Without subscription: one-time investment or no extra costs
In a smart doorbell with SD slot, you can insert a memory card of 32GB up to 128GB (this differs per doorbell). The memory card is often not included and costs about €10 to €30. When the card is full, it'll overwrite old images with new ones. Some smart doorbells have a base station with built-in storage. After purchasing a doorbell like this, you don't have to buy a memory card or get a subscription.
Maximum storage
With subscription: watch between 3 and 30 days
Depending on the subscription you choose, you can often watch images on a cloud service for 30 days with a monthly subscription. With a more affordable subscription, you can store fewer days or store image files with a lower quality. If you want to store the images longer than 30 days, you have to download them from the cloud. You can keep them on your smartphone, computer, or hard drive.
Without subscription: watch between 7 and 30 days
With a 32GB memory, you can watch image files for 7 to 15 days. With a more expensive memory card of 64GB, this is about 30 days. Keep in mind that images with a higher quality also take up more storage space. Because the images are overwritten with new material in case of a full memory card, it's useful to store them regularly.
