Blink Security Camera System Costs and Pricing

When it comes to buying anything cheap, we tend to think of the old auto parts commercial with the tagline, “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later.”

However, there are exceptions to the idea that cheap stuff breaks down easily, and one of those is the line of cameras from Blink. The Amazon-owned company has high standards for its price point and Blink’s devices are great for people who just want something that’s dependable.

That’s the conclusion we came to after testing several different Blink cameras over the course of six months. In addition to being dependable, they also integrated seamlessly with our existing Amazon devices. Let’s go through the different Blink cameras we tested, what they cost us, and what we got for our money.

>> Related: The Best Indoor Security Cameras

Blink Equipment Pricing and Packages: How It Compares

Choosing the best Blink cameras for our needs was easy. It was a completely different experience from when we tested Lorex, which seemed to have hundreds of product variations. On Blink’s website, there were eight choices:

• Blink Mini Pan-Tilt
• The indoor/outdoor Blink Mini 2
• The Blink Outdoor (Outdoor 3)
• The Blink Outdoor (Outdoor 4)
• The Blink Indoor battery-powered camera
• The wired Blink Floodlight Camera
• The wireless Outdoor 4 Floodlight Camera
• The Video Doorbell Camera

So if you’re out shopping for a specific type of camera – let’s say, a battery-powered outdoor camera for your front porch – you don’t have to compare a handful of options. You can go with either the older but still capable Blink Outdoor 3 or the flagship Blink Outdoor 4. Read our Blink review for a detailed look at each of Blink’s cameras.

In the meantime, let’s break down how much it will cost you for a one-camera Blink system.

There are also a couple of significant accessories. First, there’s the Solar Panel Mount for the Outdoor cameras, which charges the camera’s batteries using solar power. There’s also the Floodlight Mount for the Blink Outdoor, which is a battery-powered floodlight with a casing where you can place the Blink Outdoor. And lastly there’s the Sync Module XR, which is a base station that also extends the range of the Outdoor 4 camera.

Those accessories are available a la carte or bundled with the cameras they work with:

A Closer Look Into The Blink Lineup

Blink’s claim to fame back in its early days was its battery-powered cameras that can last for up to two years on a single charge. We’ve tested one of its older cameras called the Blink XT and it really did last more than a year on its non-rechargeable AA batteries. The key to that battery life? The use of a hub called Sync Module.

Even today, battery-powered Blink cameras boast a long battery life. And still, that’s mostly thanks to the Sync Module, now upgraded to the XR version. The Sync Module XR connects to all Blink devices, but the Extended Range functionality only works with the Outdoor 4 cameras.

If you’re looking to mix and match Blink Indoor and Outdoor cameras, we recommend buying one camera with a Sync Module and then adding add-on cameras. If you’re looking to add on a second Outdoor camera, you can save by bundling it together with a Sync Module and another Outdoor camera.

Obviously, setting up cameras that require a hub takes longer than those that don’t. We were able to set up the Wyze Cam we reviewed in under five minutes. The Blink Indoor, on the other hand, took more than 10 minutes, including setting up the hub. But the Sync Module XR has a unique advantage because it can function as a hub for local video storage as well.

Unlike the previous Sync Module 2 that used a flash drive, the XR model offers local storage for videos, up to 256 GB with a separately-sold microSD card. Cameras paired with the Sync Module XR can use the flash drive as backup local storage.

Blink’s Sync Module is actually similar to how base stations from Arlo camera packages and eufy camera bundles work. Those are two of the best wireless camera brands, so in a way, Blink works similarly as some of the industry leaders.

As mentioned earlier, some Blink cameras don’t require the Sync Module. These are the wired models – the Blink Mini, the Blink Mini 2, and the Wired Floodlight Camera.

For these, our setup experience went quicker. We just paired them with our app and then connected them to Wi-Fi directly. One word of caution though: Having multiple devices connecting to your Wi-Fi isn’t good for your network. Five cameras or fewer are fine, but any more than that and we’d recommend getting a Sync Module to act as a bridge.

Now let’s talk about the cameras themselves.

The Blink Mini plugs into an outlet and connects to Wi-Fi directly. It’s a simpler and more practical option than the Blink Indoor, as long as you’re fine with its lack of battery power. It’s also very inexpensive compared to similar plug-in indoor cameras like the SimpliCam.

>> Learn More: SimpliCam Review

The Blink Mini 2 improves on the first-gen Mini by adding a weatherproof camera body. That means it can work outdoors. It also has a small spotlight just above the lens that can function both as a motion-activated security light and a light source for color night vision. But the greatest improvement is the addition of A.I. person detection. That feature is reserved for those who have a Blink cloud subscription. Still, it can do more than the Blink Mini for only a few bucks more.

Of course, not everyone needs floodlights outdoors. If that’s the case, go with the Blink Outdoor 4. At $99.99, it offers a wire-free setup, a 143-degree viewing angle (compared to 110-degree in the previous version), advanced motion detection technology, and person detection. Just note that person detection requires a cloud subscription, unlike the Nest Cam (battery) we reviewed that offers the feature right out of the box.

Bundle Pricing

Chances are, you’re out to buy more than one camera. After all, you’d need both indoor and outdoor cameras to cover the ground of your house. Plus, with the limited viewing angle of the Blink cameras (except the Outdoor 4), you might need more than one camera to monitor your front yard.

The good news is you get to save if you buy into the whole Blink lineup. Blink offers multi-camera kits, and they come with discounts. Let’s say you’re buying three Blink Outdoor 4s. That’s $119.99 for the first one including the Sync Module 2 and $109.99 each for the two other cameras. Total? $339.97. The three-camera Outdoor 4 kit, on the other hand, costs only $269.99. You save $70, which is exactly the cost of a Blink Indoor – take the savings or use it to boost your home security.

Blink Pricing: Monitoring and Storage

With the Blink Wired Floodlight Camera, Outdoor, Indoor, and Mini, we chose from one of two subscription plans: the Basic plan for $3 per month, or the Plus plan for $10 per month.

Both offer 60 days of cloud storage, which is quite generous in our view. That 60-day cloud storage means the cameras will record every motion event and keep the clips in the cloud for 60 days. During that time, you can download or share important clips.

Technically, we could have skipped the subscription option and paid nothing after the initial equipment costs. By not signing up for a subscription, we still got motion alerts and access to live footage. But we wouldn’t have been able to store, share, or download video. That would have meant no person detection for the Blink Outdoor 4, Blink Mini 2, and the Wired Floodlight Cam.

Alternatively, we had the option of inserting a USB flash drive into the Blink Sync Module 2 and storing our video footage locally. But we like that Blink still keeps cloud video storage costs low. Blink’s Basic plan costs almost the same per month as the Ring Protect Basic ($4.99) plan for Ring cameras.

As Amazon owns both companies, we doubt this is a coincidence. Add more cameras, and the cost goes up to $10 a month, again, the exact same prices as Ring.

While we wish Blink gave us at least some free cloud storage without a subscription, with Blink, local video storage is still an affordable and convenient option. Plus, users can get a 30-day free trial of the Blink Plus subscription with the purchase of a Blink Mini, Blink Outdoor, or Blink Indoor camera.

In our opinion, Blink’s cloud plans are reasonable. We encourage buying a subscription to store videos in the cloud; that’s safer than relying on just local recording. Another reason why you should go for a cloud subscription is person detection. The Blink Outdoor 4 and the Wired Floodlight Cam both offer person detection, which can greatly reduce false alarms and improve notifications, but only if you’re on a cloud subscription plan. If you’re not on one, they’ll detect any movement – even passing cars, animals, and sometimes even shifting shadows.

Accessories

In addition to its cameras, Blink also offers mounting brackets, silicone skins, and USB flash drives as separate accessories. Take a look at our Blink accessories breakdown:

Blink’s Best Features

We think that Blink cameras are worth their prices, and here’s why:

• 1080p HD video quality: All five Blink cameras record video in 1080p.
• Two-way audio: The Blink Mini, Blink Indoor, and Blink Outdoor cameras have two-way audio, letting us speak to whomever we were looking at, which could have come in handy during an intrusion.
• Infrared night vision: Blink cameras come equipped with infrared LED sensors, which let us see clearly in black-and-white at night.

• Alexa integrations: All of the cameras work with Alexa, which lets us control them with our voices.
• Long battery life: The wireless, battery-powered Blink Indoor and Blink Outdoor cameras have two-year battery lives, which is the longest we’ve seen from wireless home security cameras.
• Free app: We used the Blink Home Monitor app with all of our Blink cameras to live-stream footage and receive motion detection alerts, all without paying monthly fees.

Alexa, IFTTT, and Blink

Since Amazon owns Blink, the fact that all of Blink’s cameras work with Alexa makes perfect sense. We downloaded the Blink SmartHome skill on our Echo Show 8 because sometimes our smartphones are just too far away. Using our voices alone, we could have Alexa show our cameras’ footage on different Echo devices and hide it when we were done.

We could also tell Alexa to show us the cameras’ last activities, arm or disarm the camera system (the latter of which requires a PIN for security), and tell us when the latest motion alert was, the number of motion clips, our arming/ disarming schedule, or our current system status. Alexa even told us when the batteries were getting low and helped us to reorder new ones so that we never missed a day without our Blink cameras. That’s where that whole “being owned by Amazon” thing really comes in handy!

On top of that, we set our Blink cameras so that our Echo devices, including our Echo Dot with Clock and Echo Flex smart speakers, told us whenever our cameras detected motion. For us, this meant that even if we left our phones downstairs overnight, our alarm clock would let us know if our downstairs cameras detected motion while we were sleeping. This capability gave us the added assurance that if someone broke into our home, we’d know as soon as possible.

Taking it a step further, since we have smart lights downstairs, we set up a routine that had our lamps turn on as soon as the Blink cameras detected motion, making the would-be burglar very conspicuous.

All three Blink cameras work with IFTTT,1 which means that they could trigger or be triggered by a whole slew of Internet of Things devices. The IFTTT compatibility expanded our voice commands to even our Google Home Hub, so although there isn’t a direct Google action for Blink, the cameras can still work within a Google smart home ecosystem.

Recap

All in all, Blink provides decent home security at affordable prices. Blink’s Indoor, Outdoor, Mini, and Wired Floodlight cameras are all reasonably priced and perfect for folks on a budget. Without a subscription, users can still access live video and turn on motion alerts from the Blink Home Monitor app. With monthly cloud storage fees as low as $3, Blink’s subscriptions are inexpensive compared to rivals in the industry.

However, if Blink doesn’t seem right for you, we recommend checking out our list of the most affordable security cameras, which includes Blink, among other fantastic options.