Security Camera Monitoring Software, Services, and What 24/7 Security Camera Monitoring Really Costs
Recording footage and monitoring it are two different jobs. A recorder saves what happened. Monitoring means something is actually watching the feed and acting while it is still happening. This page lays out the three ways a US business can get its cameras monitored, what each really costs per camera per month, and where each one wins.
Surveillant is monitoring software. It runs on the cameras you already own, as long as they speak ONVIF or RTSP.
- Watch it yourself
- $0, but nobody watches
- Remote guarding service
- $50 to $200
- AI monitoring software
- $39 to $42
- Coverage
- 24/7, every camera
- Free plan
- 1 camera, no card
Security camera monitoring means having something, a person, a service, or software, actually watch your camera feeds and act when something happens, instead of only reviewing recordings after the fact. There are three ways to do it. You can monitor the cameras yourself, which is free and almost never actually happens once the novelty wears off. You can hire a professional remote monitoring service, where trained operators watch your feeds and call police or dispatch a guard, which runs roughly $50 to $200 per camera per month. Or you can run AI monitoring software that watches every feed 24/7 and alerts a human only when something real happens, which runs about $39 to $42 per camera per month. Most businesses do not need a guard on every camera. They need something that never blinks and only interrupts them when it should.
Recorded Is Not Monitored
Almost every business that gets hit already has cameras. They recorded the whole thing. The problem is that nobody was watching, no alert went out, and the footage only got pulled after the loss, when it is evidence instead of prevention. That gap between recording and monitoring is the entire reason cameras so often fail to stop anything.
The largest evaluation of CCTV we have (Piza, Welsh, Farrington and Thomas, 2019, pooling 80 studies) found cameras cut crime about 13 percent overall, but the effect was not statistically significant for passively monitored cameras, and not significant in the United States specifically, where only 58 percent of the camera systems in the review were actively monitored, against 88 percent in the UK. In plain terms: a camera nobody is watching is close to furniture. Monitoring is the part that does the work, and it is the part most businesses never actually buy.
So the real question is not whether to record. It is who, or what, watches the feed. We covered the underlying evidence in our guide on whether security cameras actually deter crime.
The Three Ways to Monitor Security Cameras
Every monitoring setup is one of these three, or a mix. Here is the honest version of each, including where it beats the other two, so you can size the decision to your own risk and budget rather than to a sales pitch.
Watch it yourself
A manager glances at a wall of monitors or checks a phone app. Free, and fine for a one room shop where the owner is always there. It falls apart the moment there is more than one screen, or the incident happens at 3am, or the person is busy doing their actual job. Attention does not scale.
Best for: a single owner-operated location.
Professional remote monitoring service
A remote operations center staffs trained operators who watch your feeds, talk down intruders over a speaker, and dispatch police or a guard. This is genuinely the strongest option for high risk sites, active off hours, and anywhere a live human voice needs to intervene. You pay for that: roughly $50 to $200 per camera per month, and often a contract.
Best for: high risk sites, construction, cash businesses, live intervention.
AI monitoring software
Software watches every feed all the time, flags people, vehicles, loitering, and after hours motion, and pushes an alert to your phone with the clip attached. No salary, no contract, and it never gets bored. The catch is honest: the software watches, but a human on your side still has to decide what to do with the alert. For most businesses that trade off is the right one.
Best for: most multi camera businesses that cannot justify a guard.
Security Camera Monitoring Compared
Street and reseller pricing, labeled as such. Your quote depends on camera count, term, and risk level.
| Approach | Typical cost | Watches 24/7? | Live human intervention | Where it wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-monitoring | $0 software | No, only when someone looks | Only if you are watching | One location, owner always present |
| Remote guarding service | $50 to $200 / camera / mo | Yes, staffed operators | Yes, voice-down and dispatch | High risk, off hours, live threats |
| AI monitoring software (Surveillant) | $39 to $42 / camera / mo | Yes, every feed continuously | No, alerts a human to decide | Most multi-camera businesses |
| Basic cloud recording | $2 to $8 / camera / mo | No, stores only | No | Evidence after the fact only |
A remote guarding service and AI software are not mutually exclusive. Many operators now run software to filter the feeds and only put a human on the alerts that survive, which is why per-camera service pricing has room to fall.
How AI Security Camera Monitoring Works
Connect the cameras you have
Point Surveillant at your existing ONVIF or RTSP cameras. No rip and replace, no new recorder. If the camera streams, the software can watch it.
The model watches every frame
It classifies people, vehicles, and behavior in real time and knows the difference between a delivery driver and someone testing your back door at 2am.
You get the alert, not the noise
A real event pushes a notification with the clip attached. Wind, rain, and passing cars do not. That is the whole point of monitoring: fewer, truer alerts.
Search the footage in plain English
Ask for "person in a red jacket by the loading dock after 8pm" and jump straight to the clip, instead of scrubbing hours of recording.
Security Camera Monitoring Questions
How much does security camera monitoring cost?
It depends on who does the watching. A professional remote monitoring service runs roughly $50 to $200 per camera per month because you are paying for staffed operators. AI monitoring software runs about $39 to $42 per camera per month and watches every feed continuously. Plain cloud recording with no monitoring is $2 to $8 per camera per month, but nothing is watching it.
What is a security camera monitoring service?
A security camera monitoring service is a company whose operators watch your live camera feeds from a remote center, usually after hours, and respond to what they see by speaking over a site speaker, calling police, or dispatching a guard. It is the strongest option for high risk sites, and the most expensive, because you are paying for human attention around the clock.
How do I monitor my security cameras remotely?
Connect your cameras to cloud software and you can view any feed from a phone or browser anywhere. The better question is what watches them when you are not looking. Self viewing works for one location; for anything larger, either a monitoring service or AI software watches continuously and alerts you, so you are not the one who has to keep staring at the app.
Do security cameras need to be monitored?
To prevent anything, yes. The 2019 meta analysis of 80 CCTV studies found no statistically significant crime reduction from passively monitored cameras, and no significant effect in the United States overall. Unmonitored cameras still give you evidence after a loss, but they do not stop much. Monitoring, by a service or by software, is the part that actually deters.
Is 24/7 security camera monitoring worth it?
For most incidents that happen when nobody is on site, yes, because that is exactly when a break-in, a delivery theft, or after hours vandalism occurs. The affordable way to get 24/7 coverage is software that never sleeps and only alerts you on real events, rather than paying an operator to watch quiet feeds for eight hours a night.
Can I monitor security cameras without a monthly fee?
You can self-monitor a local recorder from a phone app with no recurring fee, but nothing is watching it for you, and local storage overwrites itself in weeks. Surveillant offers a free forever plan for one camera so you can see continuous monitoring on your own footage before paying for more. Beyond that, monitoring that actually watches for you is a paid service.
Put something on your cameras that never blinks
Connect one camera free, forever. No card, no installer, no contract. Let the software watch a week of your real footage and see what it flags before you decide.