Time for another price hike, and this time, it’s smart home security manufacturer Arlo that’s upping its subscription rates—again.
Arlo users with a single camera received an email this week informing them that their Arlo Secure subscription rate will soon climb to $7.99 a month, a 60-percent increase compared to the former $4.99-a-month price.
In the email message, which was posted to Reddit by an irate Arlo user, Arlo said that it was raising its single-cam Arlo Secure price “due to increasing costs and investment in developing innovative solutions.”
This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best security cameras.
TechHive executive editor Michael Brown has an Arlo subscription for a single camera and has verified the price hike as well as Arlo’s offer of a one-year subscription for $59.99. That offer essentially locks in the pre-hike price for 12 months.
The link appears to be tied to the user’s account–it takes you an Arlo sign-in page–so the offer is likely limited to existing subscribers.
As it stands, the annual price for a year of single-camera Arlo Secure coverage is listed as $89.99 on Arlo’s web site.
Michael Brown/Foundry
We’ve reached out to Arlo for comment.
The last time Arlo raised its subscription prices was barely a year ago, when Arlo hiked its single-camera Arlo Secure rate from $2.99 a month to $4.99/month. That means the price of a single-camera Arlo Secure subscription has gone up about 167 percent since early last year.
Last year’s round of price hikes included increases for Arlo’s other Secure plans, but this time around, only the single-camera Arlo Secure plan got a price boost.
Arlo Secure for unlimited cameras costs $12.99/month (following a $3/month price hike last year), while the more comprehensive Arlo Safe & Secure Pro plan will remain $24.99 (a price that went up $5/month after last year’s price hike).
Prior to last year’s price increases, Arlo hadn’t raised the prices of its subscription plans since 2014.
An Arlo Secure subscription includes 30 days of cloud storage for video events with support for 4K video recordings, AI-powered person, vehicle, animal, and package detection, and “interactive” notifications, among other features.
You can use an Arlo security camera without a subscription, but you’ll have to settle for pared-back functionality, particularly when it comes to video storage.
Arlo offers seven days of 1080p cloud video storage without a plan, but only for a handful of legacy models, including the Arlo Pro, Pro 2, Q, Q+, Go, Baby, and Arlo Wire-Free.
All other Arlo cameras can also store videos locally, but (as noted in an Arlo support document), “most” Arlo cams require a paired Arlo base station—either the Arlo SmartHub or Arlo Base Station–for local video storage. Arlo SmartHub prices start at $99.99.
Needless to say, Arlo users are raging on Reddit about the latest price hike, with many of them threatening to switch brands, while others are mulling their local storage options.
Author: Ben Patterson, Senior Writer, TechHive
Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he has covered everything from smart speakers and soundbars to smart lights and security cameras. Ben's articles have also appeared in PC Magazine, TIME, Wired, CNET, Men's Fitness, Mobile Magazine, and more. Ben holds a master's degree in English literature.