Video Surveillance Pricing by Vendor Camera License Cost, Cost per Camera, and VMS Pricing, From the Vendors That Actually Publish It
We checked what each major video surveillance company publishes at its own primary source. Some publish a full rate card. Most publish nothing. This page records both, with the real figures where they exist and an honest "not published" where they do not.
Checked at each vendor's own site. "Not published" means no figure appears anywhere public, not that the product is expensive.
The Short Answer
Most video surveillance vendors do not publish pricing. Of the platforms a US business is likely to shortlist, only Verkada, Rhombus and Genetec put real numbers in public, and each publishes a different slice: Verkada a camera MSRP list, Rhombus both hardware and per camera license rates, Genetec per connection subscription rates for its SaaS plans. Flock Safety, Eagle Eye Networks, Spot AI, Solink, OpenEye and Axis publish nothing and quote through sales.
The practical consequence is that you cannot build a comparison spreadsheet from vendor websites. You can build about a third of one. For the rest you are waiting on a quote, which is usually the point. That is worth knowing before you budget a project, because the timeline for "get three comparable quotes" on this category is weeks, not an afternoon.
The more useful question than "what is the per camera rate" turns out to be "what does the license include and can tiers be mixed". A cheap license that excludes analytics, or a plan structure that forces your whole estate up a tier because one site needs an API, moves a five year total far more than a few dollars per camera per month.
Vendors That Publish Real Numbers
Every figure below was read at the vendor's own primary source. Where a vendor publishes a range rather than a single rate, the range is given. Hardware prices are list, not street, and resellers routinely discount them.
| Vendor | What is published | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Verkada | A full camera MSRP list running from 699 dollars for a CM22 to 5,299 dollars for a CP63-E, plus connector appliances and separate license SKUs such as Data at 599 dollars a year and Workplace at 3,600 dollars a year. | Cameras and licenses are separate line items, and a price increase took effect on June 5, 2026. Verkada published the increase percentages only as an image, so no reliable figure for the increase itself can be quoted. |
| Rhombus | Hardware from 399 dollars (R120) to 3,299 dollars (R600), plus per camera licensing: Professional at 149 dollars per camera per year, Enterprise at 149 dollars for most models and 649 dollars for the R600. Ten year warranty. | Rhombus states in writing that AI features and cloud archiving are excluded from the Professional tier. The entry license records video, it does not analyze it. |
| Genetec | SaaS rates per connection per year: a video camera, intrusion panel or intercom is 149 dollars Standard and 199 dollars Premium; an access door is 99 dollars Standard and 149 dollars Premium. | Two traps. A federation link counts as a connection, and plans cannot be mixed across Standard and Premium. Because REST API access is Premium only, one integration requirement lifts the entire estate. On 200 cameras that difference is 10,000 dollars a year. On premise perpetual licensing is not published. |
| Milestone | XProtect device licenses in the range of 75 to 329 dollars per camera depending on tier, from Express+ through Professional+, Expert and Corporate. | Milestone Care is a separate maintenance and support program with two tiers, Care Plus and Care Premium. Milestone publishes no price and no percentage of list for either, so the recurring half of the cost is quote only. |
| Cisco Meraki | Cameras roughly 842 dollars (MV63) to 2,493 dollars (MV23X) at street pricing, with LIC-MV required per camera at roughly 210 dollars per camera per year for the one year SKU. | Three licenses can stack on one camera, because Cloud Archive and MV Sense are separate add ons on top of the mandatory LIC-MV. There is no public rate card and the global price list returns an error. |
| Synology | Surveillance Station device license packs sold through US retail at roughly 74 dollars for a single camera, 203 dollars for a four pack and 369 dollars for an eight pack, which works out near 46 dollars per camera at the eight pack. | These are retail listings rather than a vendor rate card, and prices vary by seller. The licenses are perpetual and tied to the NAS, and the analytics are basic compared with a dedicated platform. |
| Surveillant | Plus at 199 dollars a month for two cameras, Pro at 649 dollars a month for six cameras, and Elite at 100 dollars per camera at 20 cameras. There is a free forever plan for two cameras. | That is 100 to 108 dollars per camera per month, which is a cloud platform rate and well above an analytics only add on. It includes recording, retention, AI analytics and search, and it runs on cameras you already own. |
Per vendor detail sits on the individual pages: Verkada pricing and MSRP price list, Rhombus pricing, Genetec license costs and SaaS rates, Milestone XProtect device license cost and Meraki camera licensing.
Vendors That Publish Nothing
Each of these was checked at the vendor's own site, including rendering the page rather than trusting the HTTP status. Where a third party figure exists it is labeled as such, because a reseller listing or a public agency contract is not a list price.
| Vendor | What the vendor says | Third party figures, clearly labeled |
|---|---|---|
| Flock Safety | The pricing page carries no plan names, figures or tiers. It says pricing is based on coverage area, sensor types and software package, so you only pay for what you need. | Public agency contracts have shown figures near 3,000 dollars per camera per year with installation between 150 and 1,900 dollars. These are public records, not a list price. |
| Eagle Eye Networks | Pricing is structured per camera per month by resolution and retention, which produces 56 combinations across seven resolutions and eight retention lengths. No prices are attached to any of them. | None reliable. There is no single Eagle Eye per camera price that can honestly be quoted, because the structure itself is a matrix. |
| Axis | No pricing. On licensing Axis states that recorders come preloaded with licenses valid for the lifetime of the recorder, and that using your own hardware requires one year or five year standalone licenses. | Not published. The licensing model is genuinely different from per camera subscription, which matters more than the missing rate. |
| Spot AI | Nothing published. | Third party reporting puts it near 99 dollars per camera per month. Treat as an estimate. |
| Solink | Nothing published. | Third party reporting puts it near 175 dollars per location per month, which is a per site rather than per camera structure. |
| OpenEye | Nothing published. | None reliable. |
| LiveView Technologies | Its own FAQ gives a range of 1,500 to 4,000 dollars per unit, which is unusual candor for this category. | First party, but per mobile unit rather than per camera, so it does not compare directly with a VMS rate. |
Questions Buyers Actually Ask
How much does video surveillance software cost per camera?
It depends entirely on what the license includes. A VMS device license that only records video runs roughly 75 to 330 dollars once, per camera, from Milestone. A cloud platform that includes recording, retention and AI analytics is a monthly subscription instead, commonly 100 dollars or more per camera per month. Analytics added on top of an existing system is the cheapest layer, usually 3 to 15 dollars per camera per month.
Which video surveillance vendors publish their pricing?
A minority of them. Verkada publishes a full camera MSRP list, Rhombus publishes both hardware and per camera license rates, and Genetec publishes per connection subscription rates for its SaaS plans. Flock Safety, Eagle Eye Networks, Spot AI, Solink, OpenEye and Axis publish no list price at all and route every buyer through a quote.
Why do security camera companies hide their pricing?
Two reasons, one reasonable and one not. The reasonable one is that a real system price depends on camera count, retention length and resolution, which genuinely vary. The unreasonable one is that opaque pricing protects channel margin and makes comparison shopping slow. Vendors who publish a rate card are not selling simpler systems, they have just decided the comparison favors them.
What is the difference between a per camera license and a subscription?
A per camera license is usually a one time purchase that entitles you to run one device on that software version, with a separate annual maintenance program for updates and support. A subscription bundles the license, updates, support and often cloud storage into a recurring fee. Perpetual looks cheaper in year one and converges with subscription once maintenance runs for several years.
Do new security cameras come with AI analytics included?
Usually not. A replacement quote typically covers hardware plus a recording license, and analytics is a separate purchase. Rhombus publishes in writing that AI features and cloud archiving are excluded from its Professional tier. This is the single most common gap between a camera replacement budget and what the system actually does once it is installed.
Is per camera or per server licensing cheaper?
Per server wins at high camera density and per camera wins at low density, but the licensing model matters more than the rate. Genetec plans cannot be mixed across Standard and Premium, so a single requirement such as REST API access, which is Premium only, lifts the tier for every connection in the estate rather than for the cameras that need it. There is a fuller breakdown in our comparison of video surveillance pricing models.
How much does a VSaaS system typically cost?
Video surveillance as a service is priced per camera per month, and the range is wide because retention drives it. Basic cloud recording runs roughly 2 to 8 dollars per camera per month. Full cloud platforms that include AI analytics, search and long retention run far higher, with Surveillant publishing 100 to 108 dollars per camera per month depending on plan. Retention length is the lever most buyers never tune.
Can I get a quote without talking to a salesperson?
From most of this category, no. Verkada, Rhombus and Genetec let you build a credible estimate from published figures before you ever make contact. For the rest, budgeting means a discovery call first. If you need a number this week for a board paper, start with the vendors who publish, then use those as the benchmark you hold the quotes against.
How to Compare Quotes When Half the Market Will Not Publish
Normalize to cost per camera per year
Convert everything, perpetual licenses included, into an annual per camera figure across five years. A 200 dollar perpetual license with paid maintenance is not obviously cheaper than a subscription until you do this.
Ask what the entry tier excludes
Get it in writing. Analytics, cloud archiving, API access and mobile apps are the four things most commonly missing from the tier that appears in the quote.
Ask whether tiers can be mixed
If they cannot, price the whole estate at the tier your most demanding site requires. This one question changes more quotes than negotiating the rate does.
Price retention separately
Retention is usually the largest single variable in a cloud quote and the easiest to over specify. Ask for the same system at 30, 60 and 90 days before you accept a default.
One more thing worth building into the process early. If you are buying for a federal, state or publicly funded site, camera provenance is a procurement condition rather than a preference, and Section 889 restrictions rule out some of the cheapest hardware on the market outright. Teams running several of these projects at once tend to stop tracking that in a spreadsheet and move it into software that tracks procurement obligations against the controls that satisfy them, because the answer has to survive an audit long after the install is signed off.
Keep Reading
AI Video Surveillance Pricing Models
Per camera against per server, perpetual against subscription, costed over five years.
Video Surveillance as a Service
What VSaaS costs per camera, and what a cloud subscription includes that a VMS license does not.
Video Analytics for Existing Cameras
The cheapest line on this page is the one that reuses the cameras you already own.
Retrofit vs Replace Security Cameras
Both routes costed per camera, including the analytics line most replacement quotes leave out.
Total Cost of Ownership
Hardware, licensing, storage and labor across a five year horizon.
Best Video Surveillance Software
An honest shortlist, including where each platform is the wrong choice.
Our pricing is on the site, not behind a call
Surveillant runs AI video analytics on the ONVIF and RTSP cameras you already own. Plans start free for two cameras, and every rate is published.