Product test
Arlo Pro 4 in the test: These surveillance cameras are NSA-ready
by Martin Jungfer
Surveillance is getting more expensive: Arlo is increasing the price of its plans significantly
10.3.2023
Translation: machine translated
Do you have a plan with Arlo to record videos from your surveillance cameras? Then you can expect some steep price increases in April.
The Arlo subscriptions under the name "Secure Plus" will have new prices in Switzerland from 17 April 2023. Arlo informed its customers about this on Friday and launched a dedicated page for questions and answers about the price increase - Arlo calls them price changes. The prices for single camera subscriptions will "change" particularly significantly. Here is an overview of the monthly prices:
- Secure Multi-Camera: CHF 11.49 => CHF 12.90; plus 12 per cent
- Secure Plus multi-camera: CHF 16.99 => CHF 17.90; plus 5 per cent
- Secure single camera: CHF 3.49 => CHF 4.90; plus 40 per cent
- Smart Premier multi-camera: CHF 10.99 => CHF 12.90; plus 17 per cent
- Smart Premier single camera: CHF 2.99 => CHF 4.90; plus 64 per cent
The increase in the single camera is particularly striking. Arlo seems to want to encourage its users to take out a plan for several cameras at once. While the multi-camera option was previously only worthwhile for the equivalent of 3.3 cameras, the value has now fallen to 2.6. However, anyone who only has two cameras in use will still not switch to the multi-camera option. In future, this person will simply pay just under ten francs for two cameras instead of the previous six or seven.
You can avoid some of the price increases by opting for one of the newly introduced subscriptions - or a "membership", as Arlo calls it - with a term of one year. This is available for the price of ten months, so Arlo is "giving" you two months for free.
Who needs a plan anyway?
With Arlo increasing the subscription price, some users are probably wondering whether the subscription is even worth it for them. I also recently addressed this question in the test report.
Basically, it's convenient to know that Arlo stores the 2K recordings for 30 days (with the Secure subscription) or the 4K recordings for 60 days (with Secure Plus) and you can retrieve them from the cloud at any time. Alternatively, you can also set up local storage, but this involves hardware costs and installation work. In the case of Arlo, you will need a smart hub at least once, which is not included in the latest generation of systems.
One of the cheapest ways to record videos without having to take out a plan is to use camera systems with local SD cards as a storage medium. Below you will find two of the cameras that work in this way as a suggestion.
You can also use the filter functions for network cameras and surveillance cameras in the range to find the product that best meets your needs.
Cover picture: Martin Jungfer
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.
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