In order to help people get the best use out of their cameras, Wyze offers a few subscription services. In addition to Cam Plus, Wyze’s most popular plan, they’ve recently added Cam Plus Lite, Cam Plus Pro, as well as Home Monitoring. These subscriptions add on a few enhanced capabilities, giving you new ways to enjoy your cameras.
Now while Wyze cameras aren’t necessarily expensive as compared to some other brands, you still might turn your nose up at the idea of shelling out more money for a subscription service.
Let’s face it, as cheap as Wyze cameras are, if you purchase more than one, the cost can add up. For example, let’s say you opt for the Wyze Cam v3, which retails at about $29.99 on Wyze.com. Perhaps you purchase two for outdoor monitoring, and another two for the inside of your home – altogether you’ve just spent almost $120! Now to add a subscription service?
Because of this, you might wonder if that extra service is even necessary. Is not having the camera enough? Do you actually need a Cam Plus plan as well?
What is Wyze?
Wyze, also known as Wyze Labs, Inc, is a manufacturer in the smart home sector, and as such, has created a line of smart home products designed to enhance the functionality of the modern smart home. The company, started by former Amazon employees, was created with the money-savvy consumer in mind. They wanted to offer these budget-conscious individuals options for smart home security that won’t break the bank.
At the outset, Wyze produced mainly smart home cameras for both the inside and outside of your home. Since then, Wyze has expanded their line to include other smart home products. Though their line isn’t as extensive as some other smart home manufacturers, such as their top competitor, Ring, it does contain quite a few products that most smart homeowners find useful and essential in their everyday lives.
In addition to their smart cameras, they also make smart lighting, such as smart LED bulbs and light strips. Their product line even boasts other helpful items such as thermostats, robot vacuums, a home security system, and even smartwatches!
In order to use and control these devices, you’ll need to download the Wyze app and ensure you have a good Wi-Fi connection. The stronger the connection, the better, as it helps prevent lags in performance and video recordings.
They produce a wide range of useful products at affordable prices, without sacrificing quality – a win-win situation. In order to get the most out of their cameras, though, many have opted to take advantage of Wyze’s Cloud plan, Cam Plus. In recent times, however, Wyze has changed and even expanded their Cloud plans. So what does this mean for you?
What do the New Wyze Cloud plans offer?
Wyze, once only offering the Cloud subscription plan, known as Wyze Cam Plus, now offers a few more at various price points. These plans were created to help you get the most out of your smart home monitoring devices, while keeping in mind everyone’s budget and needs. So let’s get into a breakdown of what these plans have to offer, and which cameras they affect.
Cam Plus Lite
This newer plan is designed with the most budget-conscious consumer in mind – as most of Wyze’s customers are. It gives you the option to name your price – even if that price is $0!
Wyze recently announced this plan as a way to continue previously free or standard benefits such as 12-second event recordings and person detection. It also includes motion and sound detection, smoke and CO alarm alerts, and 14-day event cloud storage.
Unlike regular Cam Plus, Cam Plus Lite has a 5-minute delay between events. Meaning, that if something else occurs less than 5 minutes later, you won’t be notified, and it won’t be recorded in any way.
Cam Plus Lite is available for Wyze Cams versions 1 – 3, Wyze Cam Pan versions 1 and 2, and Wyze Outdoor Cams.
How do you Sign Up for Cam Plus Lite? (Is $0.00 Possible?)
When Cam Plus Lite was first introduced, there seemed to be some confusion as to how to sign up. So how do you get the coveted $0/month plan?
When it first changed over, Wyze sent alerts to current consumers’ smart devices. After clicking on the link provided, it took you to the Wyze website where you could make the necessary selections. If you missed those, no worries, you can get this plan by going into your Wyze app.
First, go to Account at the bottom of the screen.
On the next screen, select Services.
Across the top, you’ll notice tabs for Cam Plus, Cam Plus Lite, Home Monitoring, and Sprinkler Plus (useful only if you have the Wyze Sprinkler).
If you go to Cam Plus Lite, you’ll click the appropriate link, which will redirect you to the Wyze website where you can name your price.
You also have the option of subscribing once you sign in on Wyze.com. You would simply navigate to Cam Plus Lite, then follow the prompts to subscribe for each camera.
Of course, Wyze is really hoping you’ll pay something, so a prompt may come up explaining how any contribution helps deflect operating costs and all. At the end of the day though, you really can choose to pay nothing – I did!
Cam Plus
With Cam Plus, of course, there is a price – and this one is non-negotiable. It’s $1.99/month per camera, or $14.99/year per camera, depending on how you prefer to be billed. This plan has expanded a bit and offers more than before. It’s available for all Wyze Cams, except Wyze Cam version 1.
Cam Plus really enhances how your cameras work. For example, you get advanced AI detection that differentiates between people, packages, vehicles, and pets. They’re even on the verge of giving facial recognition benefits to Cam Plus subscribers!
Of course, you also get the other essentials such as Sound and general Motion detection, as well as smoke and CO alarm sound alerts. Event video length is unlimited, and there is no delay between recordings. This means that your cameras will catch everything, and record until the source of motion is gone.
Users who currently have Cam Plus Lite will notice alerts to upgrade to Cam Plus.
Of course, this is optional. But Wyze is really hoping you’ll spring for the upgraded benefits.
Cam Plus Pro
Cam Plus Pro is a notch above Cam Plus and comes in at $3.99/month per camera, or $39.99/year per camera. This plan is designed to enhance your home security, and they even give you 24/7 professional monitoring to give you that extra piece of mind.
Cam Plus Pro only works with Wyze cams versions 2 and 3, and the Wyze Cam Pan version 1. This is also one of Wyze’s newer plans.
This plan gives you the option to arm and disarm your cameras just as you would an alarm system. It also offers Alarm Triggers so you can always know when something is amiss at home.
With this plan, instead of buying an expensive alarm system, each of your cameras is the alarm system. It monitors your home for suspicious activity. If something suspicious is detected and the alarm goes off, an alert is sent to both you and a live representative. If you don’t disarm your alarm via pin or safe word, emergency services are dispatched to your home.
Home Monitoring
Wyze’s Home Monitoring offering takes your home security up even further. It gives you everything that Cam Plus Pro does – plus much more. You get such perks as extra Arming modes, battery back-up in case the power goes out, and even an Emergency Panic Button.
Billing is also slightly different. Once $4.99/month, it now comes in at $9.99/month per account (as opposed to camera), or $99.99/year per account.
In terms of billing, this actually works out nicely. You can have up to 5 cameras covered by this plan, and as long as they’re part of your account, they’re covered. In this case, the more cameras you have, the more cost effective it is.
Home Monitoring is available for all Wyze cams. But to note, this is more of an add-on plan. A Wyze Cam Plus subscription is included for one camera. You’ll have to purchase additional Wyze Cam Plus subscriptions if you’d like options such as 12 second recordings, back to back recordings, and 14-day video storage.
While some may balk at the extra cost of adding on any kind of Cloud subscription plan, Wyze Cam Cloud subscriptions do offer some undeniably convenient and forward-thinking options.
Why Did Wyze Change Their Subscription Plans?
As inflation seems to affect every aspect of our lives, unfortunately, it has also trickled down to our smart cameras. Many companies, even Ring, have raised their prices to deal with the growing demand of upgrading and maintaining their technology and security.
Wyze Cam Features That Still Work Without a Subscription
While Wyze Cam Plus can be a great addition to your smart cameras, you may not want to shell out the extra money per year – or month, depending on how you choose to be billed. Because of Wyze’s recent changes to their plans, without a subscription of any kind, your cameras’ operations are very limited.
Instead of the 12-second videos users were once able to enjoy for free, now there’s only a snapshot. So if you don’t catch the event live, you can only see a snapshot in your smart device’s notifications.
You’ll still be alerted to motion, sound, and your smoke or CO alarms. But again, this will only be in the form of a still snapshot – no video.
If you want to do more, but still pay nothing, you can opt for the Cam Plus Lite subscription, and choose to pay $0. This plan offers everything Wyze used to offer without a subscription.
You can sign up using the Wyze smartphone app, which also can be used with or without a subscription:
It’s to be noted, though, when it comes to SD card recording, you can still use this even without even a Cam Plus Lite subscription. If you have a microSD card installed in your camera, you can go into your Wyze app settings, and opt for Continuous recording.
Your camera will continuously record until the microSD card is full, then start overwriting older footage. This is a great option if you don’t want to even use Cam Plus Lite.
What You Lose Without a Subscription
Unfortunately, when it comes to motion detection, your camera will no longer be able to differentiate between actual people and inanimate objects. This may cause you to have more false alarms than you’d like. That tree on your front lawn is about to get a lot more screen time.
You’ll also lose video recordings due to the fact that you only get snapshots now. While this may not be much of a problem to you at first, it can be when suspicious activities are afoot and you get a snapshot right before someone does something nefarious – but see nothing after that.
How Wyze Compares to Ring and Nest
While once you didn’t lose much without a subscription, things have changed. At this point, Wyze is very much like using a Ring camera with no subscription.
Without Ring’s Cloud subscription, none of your videos are recorded – at all. If Ring detects motion, it will give you a snapshot and the option to view the Event live – but that’s it. If you’re unable to view the live feed, or just didn’t, you’re out of luck as you won’t be able to see what caused the motion event in the first place, just that an event occurred.
As you can imagine, this doesn’t sit well with most consumers, especially if video evidence can help catch a burglar red-handed. Because of that, most Ring users deem the Ring Cloud plan to be necessary, instead of just a convenient add-on. Considering Ring cameras aren’t exactly cheap, this added expense can also be a sore spot for many.
When it comes to Nest Aware, similar is true. With Nest Aware, you can go back to your Event history to see what happened that triggered your cameras. Without the plan, however, much like Ring, you won’t have video of the event, just that one occurred. You would’ve had to view it live to see what actually happened.
Again, a frustrating scenario. When you buy a smart home camera, you expect it to be able to do everything that it can and have full access to all of its features. But in fine print, they add, ‘with paid XYZ subscription’. False advertising? Not necessarily. More like, selective omittance.
You Might Want to Consider Cam Plus
Beforehand, not having Cam Plus didn’t have a huge bearing on the use of your Wyze cameras. However, after the recent changes, in order to get the best use out of your cameras, you may want to consider a subscription plan, even if it’s just Cam Plus Lite.
Without it, you’ll still have access to motion settings, and snapshots of motion and sound events. Being as Wyze cameras aren’t pricey to begin with, many go for the Cam Plus, as it still works out to being cheaper than purchasing a camera, and subsequent Cloud subscription, from the competition.
So while it’s not definitely needed, as the name states, it’s definitely a “Plus”.
I ran 3 Wyze cameras for two years with subscriptions on each and never received what was offered for the plus service. Now I don’t have a subscription and I don’t even receive the 12sec anything motion recording and each camera has a empty SD chip. You get what you pay for I guess but will never suggest Wyze to anyone.
Thanks for the comment, sorry to hear about your experience. That does sound odd – you definitely should have received at least the 12 sec motion recordings. Were Wyze customer service any help? I’d like to think that this would have an ‘easy’ resolution, but it sounds not – I can appreciate your frustration (and you not wanting to suggest Wyze to anyone anymore).
same here– everything was great and now I dont want to pay for a subscription and can no longer get my little event clips either— and every camera has an sd card in it— such bogus bs— never recomenned wyze to anyone– its all about the money
Used to pay for the monthly subscription I can’t even get the 12 seconds and they $19.99 for One camera when you subscribe and two cameras is 39 99 this is ridiculous what happened to the 12 second clips
Sorry to hear of your experience. It doesn’t seem particularly well handled – we’re still checking out the latest changes, but what they originally advertised doesn’t seem to have taken effect for all users :/
I have had wyze since the beginning and now without the forced subscription my cameras will not pick up sound or motion and will never send me a notification. I’ve deleted and added but no change. Last app updated killed them all. I have a memory card in each and still doesn’t matter. I now have paper weights. Wasted $$ with a now greedy company.
Ugh really sorry to hear that, and especially that the latest app update caused you a bunch of issues. That’s pretty much the opposite of how “smart” products should work in an ideal world. 🙁
Try turning all the original features back on and maybe charge more for the product rather than the subs…
I have 3 Wyze cameras with sd cards which are worthless to me now since i have to have a subscription now to have continuous recordings for playbacks in case of security concerns. Thanks a low Wyze!. You just lost my business for future purchases of any Wyze merchandise.
It’s definitely a frustrating set of changes by Wyze. However I thought that you could still get continuous recordings to a local SD card (based on this help page by Wyze). Have you found otherwise?
I started out with one camera and an SD card and was totally impressed by what was offered the quality and the ease of use. I ordered three more cameras for a total of four. After several updates especially the last one I have lost the 12 second playback the motion and sound detection. I am not paying for a subscription. Need to quit apologizing either let us go back and download the old updates or fix the current update or tell us what your plans are
I can understand your frustration for sure, and we’ll soon be updating this article in light of Wyze’s recent ‘interesting’ changes! However I’ve heard that you can choose to pay $0.00 for the Cam Plus Lite plan, which at least would bring back the 12 second playback. Of course the question then becomes: how long will Wyze allow users to choose $0.00 (or a nominal amount)?
Every time I try to switch photo to video for sd card, it takes me to the prescription page. I saw a video on You Tube and whoever was talking about not having a prescription, said we could still use our cards, not true.
Thanks Andre, that’s good (albeit frustrating!) to know. We’re taking a closer look at this shortly – but it’s clearly an annoying change from Wyze!
I purchased 3 Wyze V2’s about 3 years ago, and they worked great. Now I cannot save pics on my SD cards, and I say I’m kissing goodby to a relationship gone sour. I even purchased a Wyze smartwatch, and it sucks also. These startups have to stay ahead of the competition, and Wyze just can’t compete. Look at Yi Home. It’s $22.50 and works with same SD card that won’t work in your Wyze camera.
I’ve heard some good things about Yi Home, I will have to check them out for some hands-on experience. I can certainly understand your annoyance with Wyze, it has been an irritating change for many customers.
Yeah I’ve had the wyze cameras for a couple months now.They worked well until the last update which removed the main purpose of it recording video.Unfortunately this just makes this wzye cameras seem like a scam,since even after you paid for it you still have to continue paying for the basic features.?
It’s a frustrating change for sure (although “scam” might be a little harsh IMO). You can still opt to pay $0.00 for the Cam Plus Lite plan (we’ve just updated this article to show the steps required for this). I can understand your frustration though for sure.
I used to love my wyze cameras as it used to work fine taking shorter videos earlier but now my Wyze cameras are only taking still images (and very unclear images). I purchased a lot of wyze cameras and 2 wyze doorbells and have recommended to several around me. But now it asks me to pay for subscription when I try to click video in settings. I have replaced my security system (one with in house recorder) with more than half a dozen wyze wifi cameras knowing there will not be any subscription charged but with this now I feel tricked ! Can anyone help / share their experiences?
Sorry to hear your experience, it’s a frustrating change from Wyze for sure. We’ve updated the guide to show how you can subscribe to Cam Plus Lite and only ‘pay’ $0.00 – meaning that you’ll get back your 12 second recordings (instead of just the snapshots).
Wyze has changed everything, and you cannot record video unles s you pay for a subscription, and if you do, they it makes your base-station useless as it wont save the video to its SD card…. i have invested over 500 bucks, and them removing recoding video to the base stations SD is disgusting, adn more like one of those “pay to play” companies… id NEVER recommend them. want to read the full post of what they have done, and how its affecting people like me, then here on their forums: https://forums.wyzecam.com/t/so-many-issues-where-to-start/225956/4
Thanks for the link to their forums, that’s definitely annoying – and good to know regarding the Wyze Base Station. Whilst buying an SD card for each Wyze camera isn’t a massive extra cost, I agree that it’s frustrating when you’ve already spent so much money on Wyze’s products.
I just bought my cameras 3-4 months ago and wyze has rendered them useless. Was going to purchase the sd cards; however, from my experience and the comments their app has total control of all their camera’s/equipment and doesn’t provide advertised services even when we all paid for them. Last month I paid a yearly subscription; then 2-3 weeks later wyze cut all of my service until I purchase the sd cards.
Sorry to hear your thoughts Lisa, it’s definitely a maddening change by Wyze.
just purchased doorbell camera and thermostat. after hooking up says not supported in Canada? Is this for real? How can you sell in store here and not offer the support? what am i missing?
That’s odd, I agree that it should work (especially since they’re listed in the Wyze Canada site). I can’t say for sure though since I’m UK based, but hopefully other Canadian Wyze owners can weigh in 🙂 Good luck getting this sorted Kerri.
About a year ago I convinced my employer ( small family business) to go with wyze cameras based on what they offered without subscription. We bought quite a few cameras, and then six months later added to those with quite a few more.
Setting this up took quite a bit of time. I had to locate them and aim them, and some of them had to be put on solar panels. So I invested a few days into this at my employer’s expense of course.
I come into work Monday morning to find someone has graffitied all over the wall to our building. Of course my employer expects that I have camera footage of this but that is when I learn there has been a change and now there are only still pictures of nothing and no one.
I read about the different plans offered and went as far as signing up for one of the plans but getting the cameras to actually work on the plans at this point turned out to be a more miss than hit experience. A few hours into it my employer has had enough. This cost me some confidence in my recommendations and all confidence in wyzecam and their promises. They may offer this or that but those who have signed up for those plans find that they are not as convenient to implement as what existed before.
They should stop playing games. If the cost is zero then they should return things to how they were before instead of hiding that. At this point I think that time and money are better invested in another system that has proven to be more consistent.
I do believe wyzecam has lost their angle in what is a very competitive business.
Sorry to hear your experience Tim, I certainly can’t blame you (or your employer) from losing confidence in Wyze as a result.
Same story here. Bought two v2s for inside. Was going to expand to cameras for outside. Then the pricing plan kicked in. Reevaluated my situation and decided to switch to Eufy. Have five of them now, Eufy 2, looking at two more, probably the 2c pro. Love them!
Thanks for the comment Bill, and I’m glad to hear that Eufy are working out well for you. Eufy does seem to have a fair number of ‘like for like’ (or better!) replacements for Wyze.
Regardless of when they were purchased, Wyze Cams, both V2 and V3, DO work as of May 2022. A subscription to Cam Plus Lite is required, but it is “Name Your Price”. One can simply put in $0 for it to be free.
To get my cams working again, I did the following:
– Clear out the Wyze app storage: Android Settings > Apps > Wyze App > Storage > Clear Storage. This will require logging in again the next time the app is started.
– Install fresh MicroSD cards in each camera: MicroSD cards have limited life time, and the cams tend to act strangely if the MicroSD card is not working properly. Cam Plus Lite is limited to 12 seconds of recording every 5 minutes. With a MicroSD card, any additional video that could not be saved the the cloud will be saved to the card.
– Format the SD card in each cam: Wyze App > for each cam > Settings (cogwheel) > Advanced Settings > Manage MicroSD Card > Format
– Make sure that each cam is on the Cam Plus Lite plan: Wyze App > Account > Services > [ Close the Cam Plus Pro ad ] > Cam Plus Lite. All cams should appear in the list. If they don’t, add them by going to wyze.com.
– Ensure the cams are set up to record: Wyze App > for each cam > Settings (cogwheel) > Event Recording > Detects Motion > On. And go to Detection Settings and increase sensitivity to something like 80%, just to make sure it will trigger. Adjust down as required if it triggers too often.
Thanks for the super-helpful comment, Roger. That’s what we have found too (i.e. that you can continue to have the cloud recordings, by setting a $0 in name your price). Your detailed steps are definitely helpful, including the extra steps to format the SD card if you don’t have luck with the standard approach.
I’m not sure of why I am reading what I am reading in the comments. I have 8 Wyze cams, 2 V2, the rest V3. I have subscribed to no service. I have SD cards in all the cams. I have set for events to be recorded to the SD cards. All of my cameras record motion events which I can play back and If I want to, I can record them, to be saved in the “album” feature. All motion events are available for 7 days. All events I decide to record stay in my album unless I erase them. As far as I know, I have the latest version of the app (on android). Not sure why I am not experiencing the issues others have mentioned. The only negative I can say is, though I have the cameras set to record sound also, they do not. They show sound events, but, when I go to play back, it says not event recorded. The only other negative is, I do get a lot of false events on sunny days, due to shadows, and also from trees and shrubbery, especially if it is breezy out.
Thanks for the comment Anthony, it’s good to hear a positive experience of Wyze – they do seem to offer a good set of features, but it’s hard to know if the complaints are due to app bugs, or some other reason.
Wyze really is a joke. Their support doesn’t really even know how the cameras or plans work. Unless you pay a fee there is no video recordings regardless of what they tell you. Don’t waste your money this is a toy product that rarely works, get an actual security system if you need something reliable.
Sorry that you’re having issues with Wyze, some of their recent changes are annoying. We have had luck getting recordings without paying a fee (as our step-by-step guide shows), but it’s not the most clear.
I ordered cameras from Amazon and received a set of Wyze cameras instead of the ones ordered. I decided to set them up and keep them rather than returning. I have had them about 6 months and thought they were great at first. Images were clear and captured and they appeared great. Then came the updates of cameras and the new “pay me plans”. Now I have blurry or no images and cameras not worth much to me. After reading all the reviews I now know why. Wyze you are not too great of company to leave your customers with just junk taking up space. Pricing is way to costly for your services. And now I see that the company was created by former Amazon employed I understand why I received these instead of my original order. Should have returned.
Sorry to hear your experience Cheryl. That is concerning for sure. I could understand if Wyze announced these changes, but ensured that nothing changed for existing customers. But they seem to have said one thing, but (for many customers) done something different.
So difficult and “clunky” to navigate. Ring is so much easier.
I would tend to agree. While I don’t dislike Wyze, I do find the Ring app to be more polished and user-friendly.
I am disappointed there is not PC app, or even free website to view the live video feed. I don’t need this to be a security camera, it is actually being used to monitor a 3d printer, so I want only live view. I really don’t want to use my cell phone for it all the time.
It is pretty frustrating, it would be nice if there was a simple way to view it on the PC. Unfortunately many smart home makers seem to forget PC apps.
Thankfully Wyze Web View is available to paid subscribers, although it’s frustrating that you don’t get this with Cam Plus. Another option is to explore Wyze’s RTSP streaming features, but Wyze seem to have nerfed the firmware for this recently – so you would have to do some digging. But if you can get RTSP set-up, you will then be able to use a free RTSP app on the PC to view the stream.
I have been doing research on cameras. My son recommended WYZE but when I was reading reviews I did not like what I was reading. I am older so I need customer support and want to know if I need help I can get it. I called DEKCO USA camera customer support to find out about their subscriptions, warranty and downloads, and they answered all my questions. That’s the service I enjoy! Ordered my camera!
Hi Vivian, that’s awesome to hear. Yes, being able to pick up the phone and easily speak to someone who is helpful and informative is a massive benefit. I hope your DEKCO cameras work out well for you.
Wyze definitely is going to lose so many customers with this last update change. I couldn’t figure out why some cameras were fine and others won’t play back my video recordings anymore.
It’s called Bait and switch. Wyze used to have pretty good customer service but they seem to be more interested in money now. My newest camera on my deck (which I need the videos to be played back) won’t playback anymore without me signing up for service.
I agree entirely with your point about bait and switch. It’s really frustrating to see so many smart home companies do this – Amazon have (with their Prime Music change), Ring have (with multiple worsening changes to Ring Protect), and a few others have. It’s annoying for sure.