A security camera is cheap to buy and expensive to keep. The camera on the shelf might cost $99, but the subscription that stores its clips can cost more than the camera itself inside two years. That is why security camera subscription costs compared properly — same brands, same maths, Australian prices — matter more than any single camera review. This guide compares Ring, Arlo, Google Home Premium, and Blink against the brands that charge nothing at all, using prices checked 24 Oct 2026 from the brands’ own Australian pages.
The short version: the cheapest paid plan in Australia is A$4.95 a month (Ring Solo or Blink Basic), the most expensive standard plan here is A$30 a month (Google Home Premium Advanced), and four major brands — Eufy, Tapo, Swann, and Reolink — record locally for $0 with no subscription at all. Over three years, the gap between the cheapest and dearest paid plan is more than $750. Work out your own total with our Security Camera Subscription Cost Calculator before you buy the camera.
Security Camera Subscription Costs Compared: At a Glance
| Brand | Cheapest plan | Monthly price | Yearly price | Local recording without a plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ring | Ring Solo | A$4.95 | A$49.95 | No |
| Arlo | Basic Single | $8.33 billed annually | Not published | No |
| Google Home Premium | Standard | A$15 | A$150 | No |
| Blink | Blink Basic | AU$4.95 | AU$49.95 | No |
| Eufy | None needed | $0 | $0 | Yes |
| Tapo | None needed | $0 | $0 | Yes |
| Swann | None needed | $0 | $0 | Yes |
| Reolink | None needed | $0 | $0 | Yes |
The table above is security camera subscription costs compared in one place — every paid plan and every $0 brand. Two things to notice before the detail. First, Arlo’s Australian store publishes monthly rates only — it shows no yearly total anywhere, so this guide prints no yearly total for Arlo either. Second, every dollar figure below is the price shown on the brand’s own Australian page on 24 Oct 2026. Brands change prices without warning, so treat these as the checked date, not a permanent quote.
Ring Protect: A$4.95 to A$29.95 a Month
Ring Protect has three tiers in Australia, and the gap between them is wide. Ring Solo covers one device for A$4.95 a month or A$49.95 a year. Ring Multi covers every Ring device at one address for A$14.95 a month or A$149.95 a year. Ring Pro, the top tier, costs A$29.95 a month or A$299.95 a year and adds the AI features — Video Descriptions, Video Search, Unusual Event Alerts, and Single Event Alerts — on top of everything in Multi.
All three plans store motion-event video for up to 180 days, and all three include person, package, and vehicle alerts, doorbell calls, extended live view, and device modes. A free 30-day trial starts when you set up your first device, so you can test the recording before paying anything.
Ring also sells two add-ons. Pro Intelligence costs +$5/mo per camera and adds the AI features to a Solo or Multi plan. 24/7 Continuous Recording costs +$4/mo per camera and records non-stop instead of motion events only. Add-ons are where a cheap Solo plan quietly stops being cheap: one camera with both add-ons costs A$13.95 a month, nearly triple the headline price.
One honest note on the figures. Ring’s Australian plans page also carries a note for New Zealand customers showing the same numerals in NZ dollars. The A$ figures in this guide come from the plan cards at the top of that page, which are the Australian prices. If you own a Ring doorbell already, our best video doorbell with no subscription guide shows the doorbells that never need a Ring plan at all. Full plan detail is on Ring’s Australian plans page.
Arlo Secure: $8.33 to $16.67 a Month Billed Annually
Arlo Secure is the hardest plan in this guide to quote, because Arlo’s Australian store shows only two tiers — Basic and Plus — and only monthly rates. There is no third tier on the page, and no yearly total is shown anywhere, so none is printed here. The prices below are as shown on Arlo’s Australian store: the page shows “$” without an “A$” prefix, and the Australian reading comes from the au.arlo.com storefront itself.
| Arlo Secure plan | Per month, billed annually | Per month, billed monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Single (one camera) | $8.33 | $9.99 |
| Basic Unlimited (unlimited cameras, one address) | $12.50 | $14.99 |
| Plus Unlimited (unlimited cameras, one address) | $16.67 | $19.99 |
Paying monthly instead of annually costs about 20% more on every tier — Basic Single jumps from $8.33 to $9.99 a month. All Arlo Secure plans include 30-day video history, smart activity zones, and the Arlo Intelligence detection features (person, package, vehicle, and animal detection, plus person recognition where available). A free 30-day trial is included with each new Arlo camera, doorbell, or floodlight.
Two warnings. First, do not trust older Arlo prices quoted on review sites: figures such as $7.99 a month for Basic Single and $17.99 for an Unlimited tier were circulating in 2026 and do not match the live Australian store. Second, “Unlimited” means unlimited cameras at one address — a second address needs a second subscription. If Arlo’s prices put you off, our best home security camera in Australia guide includes Arlo rivals that record for free.
Google Home Premium: A$15 or A$30 a Month
Google Home Premium replaced Nest Aware in Australia, and the old Nest Aware price of $9 a month no longer exists — any guide still quoting it is out of date. There are two tiers. Standard costs A$15 a month or A$150 a year. Advanced costs A$30 a month or A$300 a year.
Standard is the straightforward recording plan; Advanced adds the fuller set of intelligent features. At A$15 a month, Standard is still three times the price of Ring Solo or Blink Basic for a single camera.
Google’s pricing is also the simplest to verify: the same A$15 and A$30 figures appear on Google’s own Australian blog, in Australian tech press, and on the Google Store in Australia. If you are weighing a Nest camera against a subscription-free rival, read our best video doorbell in Australia guide first — the doorbell you choose decides the subscription you pay. Source: Google’s Australian announcement.
Blink: AU$4.95 or AU$15 a Month
Blink is Amazon’s budget camera brand, and its subscription is the joint-cheapest paid plan in this comparison. Blink Basic costs AU$4.95 a month or AU$49.95 a year and covers one camera. Blink Plus costs AU$15 a month or AU$150 a year and covers unlimited cameras at one address.
Blink’s prices are stated in Australian dollars on Amazon Australia’s own newsroom, which announced the Australian Blink range in September 2025. The figures match Ring’s Solo and Multi tiers almost exactly — Basic equals Solo at AU$4.95, and Plus equals Google’s Standard at AU$15 — so the choice between Blink and Ring comes down to the cameras, not the subscription. Ring’s plan stores motion-event video for up to 180 days. Source: Amazon Australia’s Blink announcement.
The $0 Option: Eufy, Tapo, Swann, and Reolink
Four major brands charge nothing for local recording, and that is the single biggest saving in this whole comparison. Eufy cameras record to a HomeBase or microSD card with no required subscription. Tapo cameras record locally to microSD with live view, motion detection, and person, pet, and vehicle detection all included — the paid Tapo Care plan is optional. Swann systems record to their NVR or DVR with no monthly fees. Reolink cameras save to microSD or a Home Hub with no subscription required for any local storage feature.
The trade-off is real and worth stating plainly. Local recordings live on hardware in your home, so a stolen camera can take its footage with it, and there is no cloud backup unless you pay for one. Cloud backup is the main thing a subscription buys beyond a longer history. For many households the answer is a mix: subscription-free cameras at the front door and a single paid plan for the camera that matters most.
One caveat on Swann. Swann also sells optional Secure+ cloud plans, but no Australian price for Secure+ was verified for this guide, so no price is printed here. Do not take a US dollar Secure+ figure from an American review site as an Australian price. Our best security camera with no subscription in Australia guide compares these four brands camera by camera, and our local vs cloud storage comparison explains the trade-offs in full.
Three-Year Cost Compared
Monthly prices hide the real cost, which is why security camera subscription costs compared over three years tell a different story from the monthly headline. Arlo is deliberately left out: its store shows monthly rates only, with no yearly total published, so a three-year total would be our maths, not Arlo’s price. Compare Arlo on its monthly rate — Basic Single at $8.33 a month billed annually sits between Ring Solo and Ring Multi.
| Plan | 3 years on the annual rate | 3 years paying monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Ring Solo | A$149.85 | A$178.20 |
| Ring Multi | A$449.85 | A$538.20 |
| Ring Pro | A$899.85 | A$1,078.20 |
| Google Home Premium Standard | A$450 | A$540 |
| Google Home Premium Advanced | A$900 | A$1,080 |
| Blink Basic | AU$149.85 | AU$178.20 |
| Blink Plus | AU$450 | AU$540 |
| Eufy / Tapo / Swann / Reolink (local) | $0 | $0 |
Two lessons fall out of that table. First, paying annually saves roughly 16% on every plan that offers it — Ring Solo saves A$28.35 over three years, Ring Pro saves A$178.35. Second, the subscription usually costs more than the camera. A Ring Pro plan at A$899.85 over three years buys two or three good cameras outright, and a $0 local brand saves the entire amount. Before you commit, run the numbers for your own camera count in our Subscription Cost Calculator, and work out how much storage your local recordings will need with our Storage Calculator.
Do You Actually Need a Subscription?
Not always, and for many Australian homes the honest answer is no. A subscription buys three things: cloud storage of your clips, a longer video history, and smarter alerts. If your camera records locally to a card or hub, you already have the first two in a basic form — the clips exist, and you can keep them as long as the card holds them. What you give up is the cloud backup and the AI extras like package detection and video search.
You most need a subscription if your camera watches something irreplaceable — a front door where parcels arrive, a driveway, a baby’s room — and you want the footage safe even if the camera is stolen. You least need one if your cameras watch a garden or a garage and you check clips the same day. Renters should also weigh the subscription: a battery camera with local storage moves house with you and costs nothing extra, while a wired system with a plan is money you cannot take with you.
Our rule of thumb: start with no subscription. Buy a camera that records locally, live with it for a month, and only add a plan if you find yourself missing clips or wanting the smarter alerts. The free 30-day trials from Ring, Arlo, and Google make that test cost nothing.
How to Choose in 60 Seconds
If you have read this far, security camera subscription costs compared come down to one question: how many cameras do you own, and do you need the cloud at all?
One camera, lowest cost: Ring Solo or Blink Basic at A$4.95/AU$4.95 a month — or a Eufy, Tapo, Swann, or Reolink camera for $0. Several cameras at one address: Ring Multi at A$14.95 a month, Blink Plus at AU$15, or Arlo Basic Unlimited at $12.50 a month billed annually. A Nest household: Google Home Premium Standard at A$15 a month. Smartest alerts: Ring Pro at A$29.95 a month or Google Advanced at A$30 — but only if you will actually use video search and descriptions. No monthly bill at all: any of the four $0 brands, with a big microSD card and a backup plan for the clips that matter.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest security camera subscription in Australia?
Ring Solo and Blink Basic are the joint-cheapest paid plans: Ring Solo at A$4.95 a month (A$49.95 a year) and Blink Basic at AU$4.95 a month (AU$49.95 a year), at prices checked 24 Oct 2026. The cheapest option overall is $0: Eufy, Tapo, Swann, and Reolink cameras record locally with no subscription at all.
Do I need a subscription for my security camera to record?
It depends on the brand. Ring, Arlo, Google, and Blink cameras need a paid plan for cloud recording and video history. Eufy, Tapo, Swann, and Reolink cameras record locally to a microSD card, HomeBase, or hub with no subscription, including motion detection and alerts.
How much does Arlo Secure cost in Australia?
As shown on Arlo’s Australian store, Arlo Secure costs $8.33 a month billed annually for Basic Single, $12.50 for Basic Unlimited, and $16.67 for Plus Unlimited. Paying monthly costs $9.99, $14.99, and $19.99 respectively. The store shows only these two tiers and no yearly total.
Is Ring Protect worth it in Australia?
Ring Protect Solo at A$4.95 a month is worth it if you own one Ring camera and want 180 days of cloud video history. For several Ring cameras, Multi at A$14.95 a month covers them all at one address. Pro at A$29.95 a month is only worth it if you will use the AI features like video search and descriptions.
What happened to Nest Aware in Australia?
Nest Aware was replaced by Google Home Premium. The old $9 a month Nest Aware price no longer exists. Google Home Premium Standard now costs A$15 a month or A$150 a year, and Advanced costs A$30 a month or A$300 a year.
Can I avoid a subscription entirely?
Yes. Eufy, Tapo, Swann, and Reolink cameras all record locally with no monthly fee, and our no-subscription camera guide compares them. The trade-off is no cloud backup: if the camera is stolen, its local recordings go with it, so keep the clips that matter backed up.
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