Nest may be looking to open the home security camera subscription wars by making video storage more attractively priced However, its main rivals in the security camera arena need not worry too much at the moment

Nest has announced a new pricing structure for its Nest Aware cloud storage subscription service: upgrade to Nest Aware Plus ($12/month, $120/year) and get 60 days of cloud storage, plus 10 days of 24-hour 365-day video history is added

This is a significant improvement over Nest's previous plan Previously, a subscription to Nest's 5-day plan (which only gives you 5 days of video history) was $420/month for one camera and $1260/month for five cameras; if you needed 30 days of video history, it was $25/month for one camera!

This price change made Nest's video storage plan the best around In contrast, Arlo Premier, which stores 30 days of video for devices like the Arlo Ultra and Arlo Q, costs $6/month for two cameras

For long-term video storage, Nest's plan is more competitive if you have more than five cameras in your home For example, the Ring Basic plan, which provides 60 days of storage for products like the Ring Video Doorbell, is $3/month or $30/year for one camera and $10/month or $100/year for an unlimited number of cameras

Now, not many homes will need more than five cameras, but Nest's simplified plans are sure to make competitors, especially Arlo and Ring, rethink their strategies around cloud storage

Nest Aware's price revision also comes with a few caveats: in order to take advantage of the new subscription pricing, Nest accounts must be transferred to a Google account Google has not yet replicated all of Nest's features in Google Assistant, so many clever smart home automation features will be lost, such as lights automatically turning off when the Nest Learning Thermostat switches to away mode Nest is also upgrading its smart speakers and displays so that microphones will alert it if glass breaks or smoke alarms go off, but those speakers and the Nest Protect smoke and CO2 detectors can be connected to smart lights and smart locks so that in an emergency the lights will lights on or doors unlocked in the event of an emergency is not yet possible

Nest has four home security cameras, Nest Cam IQ outdoor ($399), Nest Cam Outdoor ($199), Nest Cam IQ Indoor ($299), and Nest Cam Indoor ($129), all wired, and only one video doorbell, Nest Hello ($229)

In contrast, Ring has six video doorbells ranging from $99 to $349 and seven cameras ranging from $59 to $249, some of which also have built-in floodlights and spotlights

Arlo has eight home security cameras, most of which are wireless and weatherproof

Nest's new storage plans are great and will no doubt put pressure on competitors to simplify their plans However, until Nest offers more products and more integration with the smart home, Nest is not the deal