What remote video monitoring actually costs
Almost nobody in this industry publishes a price. This is ours, the reasoning behind it, and an honest account of where it beats the market and where it does not.
- The market charges roughly $50 to $150 per camera, per month, usually as a flat fee whatever hours are watched.
- We charge per site, not per camera. Camera count picks a band; it does not multiply a rate.
- A twelve-hour overnight watch runs $545 to $2,095 a month by band. Round the clock is 1.5 times that, not double.
- One $49 setup fee at the start. No hardware, no per-alert charges, no cancellation fee.
- Per camera we are mid-market on a small site and below the market on a large one, because the price stops moving once the wall is full.
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What the market charges
Published figures for remote video monitoring cluster between $50 and $150 per camera, per month, and the premium round-the-clock packages go past $200. The spread is wide because the label covers very different things: a system that emails you a motion clip sits at one end, and a person watching your cameras live on a staffed floor sits at the other.
Almost all of it is billed per camera, per month, at a flat fee that does not move with how many hours you are actually watched. A site that only needs cover between 6 PM and 6 AM pays much the same as a site watched around the clock.
The other thing you will notice is that almost none of it is published. Pricing pages say "get a quote", and the number you eventually get depends on how the sales conversation went. That is the part we think is worth changing.
What we charge, and why it is not per camera
A wall takes one operator’s attention whether there are eight cameras on it or twenty-four. So we stopped charging you by the camera.
We price per site. How many cameras you have picks a band, and the band has a price; adding a camera inside your band costs nothing more. There is no tiering by region, no negotiation, and no volume discount that rewards you for asking twice.
That is not a packaging trick, it is what the work costs us. Our unit is an operator shift, not a camera. One operator holds a wall of sixteen to twenty-four cameras, so cameras nine through twenty-four on that wall are free to us — and charging you a per-camera rate for them would be charging you for something we are not spending.
Per site, per month. Plus one $49 setup fee, charged once at the start.
Why round-the-clock is 1.5 times, not twice
Look down the table and you will see 24/7 costs half again as much as the overnight watch, not double it. That looks like an arithmetic error. It is not.
Our floor is staffed around the clock whether you buy twelve hours or twenty-four. The first twelve are what actually cost us something: they are the reason an operator is sitting in front of your wall at all. The second twelve use capacity we are already paying for, during a shift that would otherwise have spare room on the screens.
Most providers charge you for that second shift as though they had to go and staff it. We would rather fill the daytime seats we have than price them as if they were empty, so the discount is in the table instead of in a negotiation.
What that works out at, per camera
Per-site pricing is hard to compare against a market that quotes per camera, so here is ours converted back. Divide the band price by the cameras on the site and you get what each one is costing you.
On a small site we are mid-market and we are not going to pretend otherwise. The gap opens as the site grows, because our price stops moving once the wall is full and theirs keeps multiplying.
Per camera, per month, watched around the clock. Market range from published US and UK figures; our figures are the band price divided by the cameras on the site.
What the price actually buys
Price only means something next to what is delivered, so here is the whole of it.
- A named operator watching your cameras live from our own monitoring floor — the same two or three people on your site each week, not a rotating pool.
- Scheduled camera sweeps through the night, rather than waiting for something to trigger.
- On a confirmed event: a clip exported, then your contact list worked through by call, text and email, in the order you set.
- A target of five to ten minutes from the operator confirming an event to your phone ringing. That is a target, not a guarantee, and we report against it weekly.
- A daily log at 6 AM and a weekly report, including any camera that was dark, misaimed or obstructed.
- Works with the cameras you already own — Hikvision, Dahua, Axis, or any IP camera that can give us a view-only feed.
How to compare two quotes
If you are pricing this properly, these are the questions that move the number the most. They are worth asking us too.
- Is a person watching live, or is software sending you motion clips? Both are sold as "monitoring" and they are not the same product.
- Is the price per camera or per site, and what happens to it when I add four cameras next year?
- How many hours a day am I paying for, and what does the price do if I take fewer?
- What is the set-up fee, and what does it cover?
- Is storage included, for how long, and what does it cost to extend?
- Is there a per-alert or per-call-out charge?
- What is the minimum term, and what does it cost to leave?
- Who is liable for what, and is it written down before the pilot rather than after?
Questions we get asked
Why is your price published when nobody else does that?
Because a rate that changes depending on how a sales call went is not really a rate. The table above is the whole model: find your camera count, read the band, add $49 once.
Why band the price instead of charging per camera?
Because our cost is an operator shift, not a camera. One operator holds a wall of sixteen to twenty-four, so the ninth camera on that wall costs us nothing and we do not bill you for it. It also means your price does not creep every time you add a camera.
What happens when I cross into the next band?
You move to that band’s price from the start of the following month. We will tell you before it happens, not after.
Is monitoring cheaper than a security guard?
Usually, by a wide margin, but they are not the same thing. A guard can intervene; we cannot. We replace the person watching screens, not the person who attends an incident.
Do I need to buy cameras?
No. We connect to the IP cameras or recorder you already own, remotely. There is nothing to install and nothing to buy.
What is the smallest site you will take?
There is no camera minimum — the first band starts at one camera. If you would rather not commit to a month, a seven-night pilot is $295 and credits in full against your first month if you carry on.
How quickly can a pilot start?
As soon as we have view-only access to the cameras and a contact list. Setup is remote, so it is usually days rather than weeks.
What happens if the service is not working out?
You cancel by text or email. There is no notice period and no cancellation fee; monitoring runs to the end of the period you have paid for and then stops.
Price your own site
Put your camera count in and read the band. It is the same table as this article.