Google Nest Huge Price Increase

jpfahy

A 66% price increase. Outrageous.

Hi John,  Thank you for being a Nest Aware subscriber. We wanted to let you know that the price of your Nest Aware subscription for your home will soon increase from €60 a year to €100 a year.1 Learn more about the upcoming price change.  This new price will go into effect on your first bill that occurs on or after 15 August 2025, or at the end of your promotional period, if you currently enjoy promotion pricing. Your Nest Aware subscription will continue at this new price and your current benefits will remain the same with 30 days of event video history, smart alerts and other helpful features (learn more here).2  You can learn how to view, manage or cancel your plan at any time here.  We remain committed to helping you get the most out of your Nest devices and will continue to bring new features and innovations to Nest Aware over time. If you have questions, please contact us through our Help Centre.

ted1

look at Reolink. No subscription needed.

Mimikyu

Pretty pissed off to say the least as I have a mix of Nest cams and Aqara HomeKit cameras and I just bought a Starling hub to bring the Nest cameras into HomeKit and ran wiring for the Nest cams while getting some work done. In hindsight it would have made more sense to just replace the nest cams with more Aqara cameras, not buy the Starling hub and cancel my Nest Aware subscription.

I’ll have to suck it up for the time being as the wife will kill me if I mention cameras again any time soon. 😅

JDxtra

I learned the hard way that Google can't do smart home hardware. So, I dumped my WiFi and Nest cameras - moved both to Unifi and honestly have not looked back. No subscriptions, amazing quality, full flexibility, local storage.

Sounds like Google are putting the squeeze on any remaining customers with this price increase. Awful behaviour.

Google are also discontinuing their Protect smoke alarms, I'll have to look for alternatives once my existing devices exceed 10 years old.

Kintarō Hattori

I've had two Nest outdoor and one nest indoor camera since 2018. I've kinda known the writing was on the wall in regards to how poorly Google have managed all their hardware and that I'd look to move eventually. It seems that day has arrived. I think I was already paying around €100 for my subscription but I cancelled it a few weeks back as I need to move onto something that isn't wireless and offers better quality. One of the main things that got me to purchase the Nest camera's was that at the time they were pretty much the only option I could find that offered CVR (coninuous video recording) rather than event based, which is what so much of the competitors offer. On receiving the email from Google, this caught my eye:

Standard Plan - 30 days of event video history

Advanced Plan - 60 days of event video history and up to 10 days of continuous video recording

So am I to take from this that if you have bought a Nest camera that already offered CVR on the old plan, that you will only get that if you upgrade to the advanced plan?

Outrageous if that's the case.

ted1

….

Mimikyu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123864390#Comment_123864390

If you don’t mind me asking, what did you get to kit out your home and how much did it cost? I’ve seen Unifi mentioned many times and talked very highly of but the costs seems high and I feel I’d be many many years recouping the initial costs.

JDxtra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123877713#Comment_123877713

Unifi have a lot of product options - really depends on your requirements. Right now, they've a new 4 camera PoE kit with an NVR - which will likely sell well and would be good for a new wired install.

At first, I was using a CloudKey+ device as the NVR. Bought the cheapest version, and added in a larger capacity drive. For cameras, I've 4 x G4 Instant cameras and 1 x G6 Instant - which all operate on WiFi (just need mains power).

I'm actually surprised at how reliable they have been, even outside. Only downside is they come with an EU plug, so I had to get some UK chargers with USB-C.

I sold the CloudKey+ and now use a Cloud Gateway Fiber (which runs the whole internet and WiFi, plus the camera storage). Again, I added my own storage (M2 SSD). I have one 4K camera with 24 x 7 recording, and 4 x 2K cameras recording events only. With 2Tb, that allows 3 months of recordings. Pretty impressive.

Yes, when you add it up - this hardware is more expensive. However there is no ongoing subscription at all. The software is where this Unifi equipment shines though. It's completely night and day when compared to Google. It's constantly being developed. Updates are free.

You have full camera control, granular recording and alert options and a very nice web interface plus an app. There's even an app for Apple TV.

Oh, a second downside… you may get addicted to Unifi equipment.

Kintarō Hattori

Can I ask what the audio quality is like on the Unifi cameras?