Customer Ratings & Reviews

Thanks to an overwhelming number of exceptional reviews here and on amazon, I purchased & setup these cameras and was compelled to share my experience and documentation to educate consumers instead of misleading them. Note, I returned them to Best Buy within the first 30 days because they are not worth the time, trouble or money. First night I purchased was during the NFL divisional championship games. Setup is remarkably simple, and the product does appear to be well built from looks and feel...but wait. I installed one in my driveway, and it rained that night. When the camera gets water on it (even while facing downward) and if any lighting is close the camera, there is a TERRIBLE blooming effect where you cannot see what you are trying to record. I took a second video after the rain stopped so you can see the difference. Second majorly disturbing issue was a total white washed image on a malfunctioned camera. Contacting Netgear Support was painfully agonizing. On top of having to create an account for myArlo.com & a second if you want to join the community.arlo.com forums, you need a third account on my.netgear.com. Its insane. Anyway to even reach support you have to have the product registered, and then create a ticket with details, then they finally supply a support # to call, which wasn't even for ARLO support (was for routers), was transferred to another number after waiting 15 minutes to speak to someone that couldn’t help me, held 20 more minutes only to explain my issue and steps I already took to resolve and was offered a replacement of a 2 week old camera. No thanks. If 1 of 4 are a total failure in the 1st two weeks, there is little to expect that will suggest they will last long enough to quantify a $649.99 purchase price. Other recurring issues that I experienced where when trying to make changes, like renaming cameras, changing the motion sensitivity, etc where the web page would freeze and I would get a message stating “ Your changes did not apply”. I also had a random “timezone_error” and often on my home 300/20 MBps connection, I would get “Your camera is offline”. Oh, and as far as support you only get 90 days from purchase date of phone support if you don't subscribe to an additional plan other than the included basic; which BY THE WAY, only includes 7 days of cloud recording and a whopping 1G of cloud storage. The quality of video and compression is disappointing as well. Premier is $9.99 a month for 30 days w/ 10G cloud storage and Elite is 60 days & 100G cloud storage. Those both include unlimited support. Some other things to know before you buy these if you think they might work well for you: The cameras ONLY record on motion detection, or if you are monitoring and hit manual record. There is no constant recording feature. The rechargeable batteries did last a pretty decent amount of time...lowest any got in the two weeks I had them was 58%. If you do think of buying a spare battery to have a hot swap ready to go, you will ALSO need a charger if you don’t want to take a camera offline; as there is no way to charge them without a camera shell/charger. $120 to have that “luxury” folks... The modes are pretty simple to setup, but don’t offer any real granular settings or way to automatically switch between modes when your dwelling is occupied or unoccupied. There is not a way I discovered to have certain cameras off, like 5pm - 11pm M-F when walking around the house, and then to all on from 11pm - 7am, off for an hour while getting ready for work, and then back on from 8am - 5pm. You have to create your own modes for each type of function and manually switch between them if you don’t want to be bombarded with emails or push notifications; depending how you set them up. You have no direct connection to monitor your cameras video, even on your local network. If your internet is down, so is your ability to view your cameras. The cameras record/stream through the base station, to your router, up to the netgear servers in California, and then back down to your router and on the device you like to view them on. If not on your LAN, then through your mobile carrier. The base station is very light, and MUST be plugged into your router to function. That was the only part of this kit that seemed from the outside like it was built really cheap. Made in Vietnam by the way. The base station does not have any USB 3.0 ports and the ethernet jack is only 10/100. Yup, in 2017 that’s still all you need if only processing low quality, ultra compressed video recordings. You cannot be logged in to the website making mode or camera changes and on your mobile device simultaneously with the same account, even on the same local network. You will need to “Grant Access” create a second account for yourself to do such a simple task. The community.arlo.com is pretty helpful, I spent about 5-10 hours posting and researching in discussion threads; trying VERY hard to love this purchase and make the best out of it, but it was not for me. There are many supporters of the product that are knowledgeable there. In conclusion - this Netgear product is unreliable and seems like consumers willing to lay out hard earned cash are guinea pig beta-testers. Enormous potential, but too many shortcomings to even try to keep this.

I purchased this for a peace of mind. Especially when I’m away from home. These bad boys react of motion, has a siren, also can communicate through them as well. They can also be assessed for live viewing, wherever you are.

I purchased the 4 camera Arlo Pro system and then later purchased one more Arlo Pro camera to make up a 5 camera system. This system with it's own router works great and I haven't had any problems at all. It is easy to set up and use with the app that you download to your phone, tablets, etc. I also purchased 5 Arlo Q cameras. You can share devices between accounts and have all 10 cameras show up in your app. Quality video and sound. Lots of adjustments that you can make such as making the recordings longer or to last as long as the sound or motion is detected. Batteries are rechargeable and last a long time (6 months?). This is a top notch system and by adding the plug in Arlo Q you really have a lot of flexibility. I have 10 cameras working in my app using 2 separate accounts. They have a Geofencing mode that allows the system to tell when your cell phones are in the house (so it disarms) or cell phones or other devices are away from your house so it automatically alarms itself. This is a really nice feature.

I receive this camera a few days ago. It worked great for the few days I had it. Nice quality visually, the storage features was great, and I loved the two way mic. The battery recharges quickly. The Night Vision just completely failed. One night, it would look great, but then the next, it went totally dark. It looks like it's working fie with the Red LEDs running, but it's extremely dark. Maybe it's not as weather proof as advertised? Maybe it need the rubber skin I couldn't purchase?

I purchased this system from the store and had it up and running within about 1/2 hour, and most of that time was mounting the camera in place. The free Arlo app is very easy to follow and everything works. You have to have a decent internet connection, one that lets you stream movies and videos with little or no buffering because this system relies on your internet connection to function. I now have two cameras, one on each side of our home, but my first goal was simply to monitor a hummingbird feeder. When I found out how excellent the monitoring capability was with this system, I bought the second camera for security purposes on the other side of the house. I'm very satisfied with how this all worked out. Btw, installing the second camera was a breeze after the experience with the first. It sync'd easily with the base station and the Arlo Pro software made it easy to add the second camera for viewing.

I have the 5 arlo pro cameras which work when they want. The recording lag makes sure you miss the first 5 to 10 seconds of the motion recording, the cameras lose connectivity randomly, the batteries fail to charge using the cameras forcing you to buy the independent charging station. one battery completely failed and arlo support gives you the run around until you hang up the phone talking to foreign customer service reps that can't help you. I hope you read this and stay away from arlo pro. Go wired from a reputable surveillance security system like I end up doing.

I’ve used a wired camera DVR system (first SVAT then Swann) around my house for the last 15 years. I’ve also used a wireless Foscam PTZ indoors that I can move around to more closely watch pets as needed. These all worked pretty well, but I always thought it would be nice to have cameras covering our horse barn that’s over 300’ from the house. I looked at the Arlo cameras when they first came out, but didn’t like the idea of the non-rechargeable batteries, plus I doubted the wireless would reach that far. When the Pro version came out with rechargeable batteries, I decided to give them a try. The specs on the box say the range is “up to 300 feet line of sight.” Google maps showed the distance from my base unit to the location in my barn where I wanted to place the camera to be 382 feet, and not exactly a clear line of sight either (there are a couple of trees in the way). I tried it anyway, and it worked! I have two cameras in the barn and they both work perfectly. The signal strength in the app shows 1 to 2 bars (out of 3) which amazes me. The cameras are also listed as operating from -4 to 113 F, and yesterday it got down to 1 F and they had no problems at all. I’m definitely happy with these cameras and would recommend them to anyone needing wireless outdoor cameras. I’ll go into more details and some pros and cons below. Pros: Rechargeable batteries Excellent wifi range Easy set up Magnetic mounts quick to install and easy to adjust Useful motion sensing and alert programming Night infrared illumination is excellent Picture quality is excellent Free cloud storage of video Possible cons, depending on your situation: Adds a wifi SSID, NTGR_VMB_xxxxx Magnetic mounts = easy theft Cloud storage of video, if your Internet isn’t reliable; also 1Mbps upload speed minimum Can’t customize the push alert sound Setup and installation was super easy. I just followed the quick start guide and got the two cameras synced and immediately started getting motion alerts since “armed” mode was on by default. The default modes are Armed, Disarmed, Scheduled, and Geofencing, the last letting it arm/disarm based on your phone leaving or returning home. Also, to be clear, “armed” just means the mode when it detects motion or sounds and then does actions like record video, send an email, generate a push notification in the app, or, heaven forbid, turn on the audible alarm. The audible alarm is similar to a smoke detector alarm that issues only from the base unit, not the cameras themselves. The motion sensing appears to be infrared with these cameras which is different than the other camera systems I’ve used. The other systems use changes in the image (x percentage of pixels changing) to detect “motion” and in my opinion it was never useful because of so many false alarms. On windy, partly cloudy days the changing shadows would continuously generate events. That isn’t a problem with these cameras and I think I’ll make much more use of their motion sensing. One thing to keep in mind, though, is the sensor doesn’t work through glass. To test, I put one in our kitchen window looking at the front porch. When I walked right in front of the window it didn’t detect motion. I didn’t test at night, but I would expect the glass to reflect the infrared illumination, too. So, the cameras are best mounted in the open. The magnetic “ball” mount is pretty ingenious. Having dealt with the standard mounts all these years, I was very impressed with how easy the magnetic mounts were to use and, especially, adjust. The cameras do still have the threaded mounting holes if you want to use the standard mounting hardware (not included) or a tripod. You would probably want to use that method where there’s a danger of someone stealing your camera. The threaded mount would at least slow them down a little. With the magnetic mount, it would only take a split second for someone to run off with your $200 camera. You could also mount it out of reach, but that would also make it a little harder to charge the batteries. I’m including a couple of pictures with this review showing the camera quality. I was impressed with how the camera captured the sky colors but also still clearly showed the land features. It’s much more comparable to my phone camera than any of my other security cameras. The infrared photo at night in the barn shows how well it illuminates at night. Other cameras I’ve used tend to have a very pronounced spot of light in the middle with very little around the edges. These cameras seem to be better at illuminating more of the frame. The back wall in the photo is about 25 feet from the camera. The camera system does create a new 2.4GHz SSID that’s broadcast around your home, which most people probably won’t care about. It does advertise the fact you have Netgear cameras, though, which could be 1) a deterrent like the Arlo window sticker or 2) an advertisement for a bad person to come find your cameras and steal them. It doesn’t appear that there’s anything to prevent someone from syncing your (former) camera with their base unit. The last con I listed was the fact you can’t customize the push notification sound. For Android, at least, this is a feature that apps can make use of but it appears the Arlo app doesn’t. I customize most of my alert sounds so that without even looking at my phone I know if it’s a text, Gmail, work mail, Outlook mail, Hangout, etc. It would be nice to have a unique sound for Arlo motion alerts so a person could tell right away if it was important or not. It seems like this is something that could be updated in the app without too much effort.

Completely wireless camera system! It took about 30 minutes to set up. You will need a wireless router. Picture quality is great and don't have to worry about storage because it's all cloud based.

The sound quality it fantastic. The siren loud. The video / pictures are excellent. we have 3 cameras on trees to see wildlife or intruders approaching. Very easy to install

The best choice when you are far from home or your business, easy to set up and install. Only few steps and you have your vigilance sistem like a pro.

And I did so because I love mine. Can be used for security and Nature. Highly recommend

Caretaker for my elderly parents in my home. I can easily check from my phone when they are in motion. An hour to to install whole system. Bought this brand based on Best Buy salesperson's explanation. Exact system I needed. Delete the daily videos saved to their cloud at the end of each day. No wires, rechargeable cameras stick with magnets and are outside in the rain. I can leave the house with less stress.

1. Camera problems (see attached GIF image): Everyday from 8:00am to 1:00PM, the cameras capture a large area of white ghost region. All objects in that region are white ghosts; The region can be as big as 70% of the wntire screen. The problem last 4 to 5 hours per day. All cameras installed at that location had the same issue. The camera on the 2nd floor had the similar issue. Wireless Amcrest 3MP and NightOwl cameras had no issue at the same location; 2. Battery Life last less than a week by the default setting where I am live in a very quiet street (the cameras captured about 10 to 30 minutes of recording per day); 3. Batteries designed for recording 5 minutes per day only; 4. Cameras are not designed to capture the entire envent of the motion object (sometime it cannot detect the motion, sometime it detects the motion too late; most time it cut-off the motion to 6 seconds - 10 seconds to save battery life); 5. The 4 camera system costs twice as much as the wireless Amcrest 3MP system with 4 cameras and NVR. Amcrest is much better product (better video quality, higher resolution, much bigger monitored region even the view angle is 100 degree instead of 130 degree. The only disadvantage is the power supply which is not wireless.).

Arlo - Pro Indoor/outdoor Hd Wire Free Security Camera (2-pack) - White I have had home security cameras setup from time to time when working from home. Since I have an upstairs office I was always concerned that I could have had someone break in my house and not even know it while I was working. I park my car in the garage so it would be easy to assume no one was home. I tried various indoor camera setups, some placed inside windows but there was always a compromise. Poor image quality, stress on my wireless network to stream and poor software implementations. The cost of quality outdoor cameras was just too steep. IP cameras such as the Arlo were always very pricey and I didn’t want to have my house wired for the older analog cameras. I tend to be a DYI person because I like to know how things work and how to fix them if there’s a problem. Once you open the box on the Ario system you will find two very nice cameras, a separate base station, two rechargeable batteries plus mounting hardware. I have the two pack but Netgear offers other packages with more cameras. The two pack in not cheap. You do have to pay for them. The good news is if you price high quality IP camera these are very competitive especially as a turnkey solution. I use an Android phone and once I installed the app from the Google play store all I had to do was setup an account. After that is was very simple to connect the cameras to the base station. The whole setup took all of 15 minutes from installing the app to having the cameras working on my phone. Since these can be both inside and outside cameras I decided to mount them outside. This was the one place I could never use in my prior attempts to have a security system. The cameras support two way communication however sound from the outside camera if you were going to actually talk to someone, is to low to be very useful. Not a concern for me but if that's something you want from your setup this might not be there yet. It could also be fixed by a firmware update but nothing during the setup reported needing one and I review what you get not what you might get. The image quality is very good for up close. As you view from a farther distance it does tend to lose some quality. This is probably due to the high field of view, 130° that the cameras provides and I would say in most cases this is a better trade off. For most cases such as someone at the front door the image quality is very good. The cameras support motion detection and can be setup to record when they detect motion. This is a very needed feature since you can record video that can stored either locally on USB drives, two are supported, and connect to the back of the base station or on the Netgear website. The website recordings can be shared, downloaded or deleted as needed. If you have the Ario app open on your phone it will vibrate when motion is detected. I signed up for the free service but they also have paid plans. The free service supports up to five cameras and cloud storage for up to 7 days of recording. Netgear claims the cameras are weatherproof but the battery compartment might not be. So I mounted them where I felt they had the best chance to stay dry. Battery life is claimed to be up to two or three months. Time will tell on that one but you do get an indicator on the charge level of the batteries when viewing from them and they can be setup to run powered if that’s an issue. Night vision is also very good but I was most impressed with how the base station works. You plug it into your router or any available network jack. And the cameras only talk to it and don’t use your other wireless network. I tried several different locations for the base station and got good signals pretty much wherever I tired it. So I ended up putting it next to my router in a closet and it is showing a full signal, very impressive. Finally there is a smart siren that can be activated manually or setup to trigger remotely. This is a serious siren and will definitely get attention if triggered. This is a very good camera security system for the cost. Netgear is a leader in networking for both consumer and enterprise, they know what they're doing. The product is feature rich, easy to install and it's one screw to mount. They have done a great job with the software which runs on both Apple and Android or in a desktop browser. I could easily recommend this for someone looking for a DIY some security system. You can add up to five cameras to the two pack but if you think you need more cameras it might be best to buy them in the 3 or 4 pack. The individual cameras bought separately are much more expensive than if you buy them in the larger pack. Overall a great product and if you feel the need there is always the Geek Squad warranty to keep you protected. Mounted outside it's a small price to pay for the protection offered.

I do t like these cameras. They're too expensive and they claim to be "HD" but there is absolutely no chance the video quality is Hd or worth the pice point. The only advantage / or pro I see about this is ease of setup and free storage. Other than that don't buy these cameras if you want a quality image.

Whether you’re concerned about vandalism to your home, need to check in on your children that are home alone or just want to see what your dog or cat are up to in the other room, having personal home cameras is practical and I believe the Arlo Pro HD Security Camera is the right choice. Set up was easy and the instructions clear and easy to follow. Set up for the cameras took about minutes. The camera feels durable and the magnet that holds them in place is STRONG and allows for a very personalized alignment. There was the immediate concern that if these cameras are within arm’s reach they could be easily taken but this can be remedied by setting them high enough where they won’t be noticed or touched. I also discovered that there a variety of Arlo camera covers sold that allow the cameras to blend with your house/background color. Controlling the cameras is easy via app or computer (as long as you’ve created an account). The interface allows the user to create clips of what has been recorded and share however you like. You can even watch BOTH cameras at once; a feature that my other home security cameras lacked. The other cameras that I refer to are similar to the Arlo cameras and are almost the same price. The picture is clear and bright. The camera does allow for brightness control which is a nice bonus feature for low light areas. You can also set the clarity higher but it will affect battery life. I have mine set to optimum for clarity and battery life. I have had mine set up for 4 days and batteries still going strong. The sound is clear and the two-way speaker was better than I expected. I could hear loud and clear from it. Speaking of batteries, they are easy to remove and charge. There was a slight issue with getting a steady signal from the one camera that was placed at the other end of the house where the Wi-Fi strength wasn’t as strong which in turn created some stutters and occasional freezing with the reception. It’s hard to pinpoint if this is the fault of my Wi-Fi or if there was some other signal causing a disruption between the camera and the base. I was pleased to see the camera still worked relatively well. When the signal strength peaked, the visual was perfect. I have to mention that even with this issue, the Arlo camera succeeds since the other brand of camera doesn’t even broadcast a signal in the same placement. The base from where the cameras are connected to also serves as a siren when activated (it’s up to the user as to how he or she wants to have the siren triggered). I was impressed with the loudness and reach of the alarm within the house. The siren will definitely cause any intruder to run upon hearing it. I could even hear the alarm/siren from outside as I stood in the driveway where I can turn off the alarm via the app. At the end of the day, the Arlo Pro security camera is easy to set up and use without sacrificing features or quality. Personally, I feel that if you are exploring the idea of setting up home security then this package should be at the top of your list.

I have bought 6 modems and over 30 cameras so far and will continue to use across the properties I manage. We started off with the arlo cameras that take batteries and decided to upgrade to the rechargeable cameras. Best decision ever! The additional features and quality is beyond!

So once I got the unit unpacked, read through the included quick start up guide...a more detailed PDF 78 page manual is available on the website for download...I had all the units powered up and ready for final camera placement in under one hour. Placement is also very quick if being used indoors or even outdoors because of the small size of the camera, the flat camera base and the strong magnetic power in the rear of the two cameras. You can place camera indoors on any flat surface without having to use any mounting device or use the wall mountable metal bases. Network setup was a breeze, I did connect the included Arlo hub not to my router but to my gigabit switch to avoid any possible interference with my router...others seem to indicate it is best to have the Arlo hub away from the router. I did eventually test it both ways and it did seem faster with direct router connection so really as far as I am concern no router interference. My cable network provider provides me 300mbps. The picture quality is very, very good at 720 but 1080 would be much better especially given the cost. Nighttime clarity is also very good given the size of the camera itself. I do love how small and well balanced the camera weight is, this adds to the ease of camera placement. I placed the cameras initially facing indoors then mounted them outdoors using the metal base. Overall this process was completed within 30 minutes indoors and a little over an hour for outdoors. Recently the cameras weathered a mini snowstorm that had 30-40mph gusty winds with total snowfall of 9 inches. Neither camera suffered any water or physical damage, neither lost its connection before or after the storm, neither camera lost its point of view placement and battery life continued to be 100 percent even though temperatures for the last 3 days averaged 20F. All of this makes the product a solid 5 stars but now for the loss of a star reasons. The battery seems to be proprietary to Arlo and worse, they are very, very expensive...in excess of $40 per battery. No stand alone battery charger is included and that too is expensive. The only way to charge the battery is to use the camera to charge by plugging camera into a power outlet using the including charging cable and adapter. This means unless you have a power outlet near the camera or a portable battery, you will need to move or unmount the camera to bring it to be charged. Which unfortunately means your security will be compromised until camera is moved back to position or remounted. This can be avoided by purchasing at least one extra battery and of course a stand alone charging adapter. I think overlook the proprietary issues but I feel for the price that Arlo should include a stand alone charger. If you like me mount your cameras outside up high then charging can be a tedious task but I feel so far that the battery life seems to be on the order of weeks if not months given that it is not continuously recording. Another issue is that the Arlo hub and cameras seem to only talk to each other and that the cameras do not seem to have any addressable IP so that you cannot possibly add the camera views to an existing security system. Everything from the stand alone charger, the batteries and Arlo hub seem to be very proprietary. But that aside, the ease and quickness of setup, lack of any wires, picture quality and durability make the system a pleasure to use. The ability to move the cameras at the spur of the moment to anywhere on your property and the wireless range all over come the loss of the star. I would gave ARLO/NETGEAR 4 1/2 stars. The half star loss is due to the fact of a weakness due to the proprietary nature of how Arlo process the data. When you call up a live picture view, it can take from 5 to as long as 10 seconds before the view comes up...regardless of how the Arlo hub is hooked up...directly to my router or my switch. I believe that the data is first sent to Arlo web servers then back to your device for viewing because the cameras do not seem to be using non-proprietary IP protocols. As others have said the two way sound is good coming from the camera to your device but low and weak going to the camera. I love the system, the design, the ability to hide the cameras and the very, very loud siren. Still experimenting with the various ways to set up the viewing and alarm features but this is a keeper...in addition to my wired NVR IP security system that took over two week to mount and install and make holes in my house...ugh...this ARLO NETGEAR was such a pleasure to set up.

We purchased this set of cameras for my daughter when she moved out of state. We installed them 1 month ago and she already had someone steal a package off her porch. With the cameras we were able to zoom in and get an ID on the female subject

I’ve never owned a camera security system, as they always seemed complicated to use. However, the Arlo Pro Security System 2 Camera Kit was very easy to setup. The 2 camera kit includes a receiver (think of an internet router-like device) that connects to your modem. From there, the quick-read instructions ask you to download an app to your mobile device. The app offers step by step instructions on how to sync your cameras. After syncing the cameras, you can go and install them anywhere you like. I am not much of a handyman when it comes to using power tools. That was what kept me from getting any security system. Luckily, tools were not needed, for the cameras are magnetic and the location where I installed them had plenty of metal for them to stick on their own. However, it does come with two mounts that you can use if you need them to be aimed at a certain angle. One of the best features of this product is the ability to observe any motion from your mobile device. Within seconds, I started to detect motion after installation. I tested it with several family members to check if the notifications on my phone were working, and they worked flawlessly after an update required from the cameras and the receiver. One of the best features that I didn’t know it had was a microphone that comes with each camera. While away from home, the camera will notify me of someone near my home. If I want to communicate with them, I can through the mobile app. I hold a microphone icon and they can hear what I say from anywhere that I am. On top of that, the batteries in the cameras last a long time. They also come pre-charged, making it very easy to use right out of the box. To test out the performance of the cameras, I turned off my WiFi and was on my LTE network (Sprint, if you want to know). The cameras were clearly visible on cell phone internet. The clarity was actually quite outstanding. On the third day after installing them, we had rain and strong winds. The cameras, being magnetic, worried me. However, they withstood the weather and further strengthened my faith in the product. This product more than meets my expectations. At first, I was slightly discouraged to know that there was a monthly plan to subscribe to. However, a free option is available. The plans are as follows: Basic (Free) 7 Days of Cloud Recordings (Up to 1GB Cloud storage) Up to 5 cameras Limited Support for 3 Months Premier 30 Days of Cloud Recordings (Up to 10GB Cloud storage) Up to 10 cameras Unlimited Support MONTHLY $9.99 ANNUAL $99 ($20 SAVINGS) Elite 60 Days of Cloud Recordings (Up to 100GB Cloud storage) Up to 15 cameras Unlimited Support MONTHLY AT $14.99 ANNUAL AT $149 ($30 SAVINGS) For most people, the basic (free) plan would suffice, as many won’t need more than 5 cameras per home. If you want to add another camera from the 2 camera starter package, it currently costs 189.99 to add another one. The product offers a great value for the price because on top of the plans that are offered for cloud storage, you can connect a USB External hard drive. Via the APP, you can reformat the hard drive and all of your videos can be stored locally instead of on the cloud. This way, you can either have a backup of the cloud videos or just keep your own log without relying on the cloud storage. Though the price may deter some people from getting this product, I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for more security for their homes. The alternative choices are usually more expensive because of higher monthly fees elsewhere, whereas this product has a free option. The applications are quite numerable. Some people use it to monitor their pets while others keep an eye on their younger ones. Overall, the price you pay is more than worth it for a better peace of mind.