Confused about subscriptions

[Mike_2021]

I'm confused about subscriptions.

We bought an Arlo Pro 3 three camera system to monitor our old parents. So that we can know what's happening all the time with caregivers in the house, we purchased the CVR plan. That seems to work fine... for $9.99 PER CAMERA.

My questions are these:

1. Is the ability to store videos that happen with motion sensing and such yet ANOTHER subscription? Since we're still in the three-month free evaluation, I'm not sure. If yes, then we're at about $20/month which seems quite expensive. With the Ultra 2 that would be $14.99 for the basic plan + $9.99 per camera for CVR.

2. If we don't have any subscription, does the USB solution on the back of the Arlo hub work well to capture events for free? I recall having read, a year or so ago (not sure still true if it even was then) that the USB didn't work as well as the (paid) Arlo cloud solution.

I think the Arlo stuff is amazing, but I'm put off by the subscription prices. If I can get by this annoyance, I plan to get an Ultra 2 camera pack.

Thanks to all for clarifications!

[jguerdat]

These camera require a subscription for cloud recordings and some other extras. Without the sub you have to use local recordings which work well but requires that you set up a VPN connection (secure) or port forwarding (not as secure) so you can access the videos remotely. CVR doesn't need either of these to work, just the local recordings.

I haven't looked at other products' subscription charges but I imagine Arlo is competitive. If the price is an issue, consider returning them and get a Pro 2 system which gets you a free 7 day, 5 camera plan.

[Mike_2021]

Thanks!