Subscription for Google's Nest doorbells and cameras to become 25% more expensive

The popular Nest Doorbell and Nest security cameras are only truly useful in conjunction with the Nest Aware subscription. This subscription unlocks, among other things, event-based notifications and allows video clips to be saved for 30 or 60 days, depending on the subscription. The more expensive subscription even includes 24/7 video history for supported cameras for the past ten days. Those who don't subscribe can only save video clips from the past three hours.

While Nest Aware cost $6 two years ago and $8 per month a few days ago, Google has now increased the price of the cheaper of the two subscription options to $10 per month or $100 per year – a price increase of 25%. Anyone who wants to save 60 days of video history instead of 30 and needs access to continuous recordings of the past ten days will now have to pay $20 per month (instead of $15) or $200 (instead of $150) per year, a 33% increase. Google stresses that this subscription only needs to be paid once, regardless of how many cameras are used.

Google once again demonstrates that customers should be more cautious than ever when purchasing products that require cloud access. Especially since there are alternatives that do not require a subscription or can use an existing subscription. For example, the Netatmo Video Doorbell stores video clips on a microSD memory card instead of the cloud, while cameras from Eve Home, for example, use Apple HomeKit Secure Video, allowing videos to be stored in iCloud, which is sufficient for the cheapest iCloud subscription at $0.99 per month.