Is Ring Protect Plan Worth It? Which Ring Option Is Best For You.

Updated April 21st, 2023

Ring was one of the first video doorbells available that let you see and talk to whoever is at your door. A Ring Doorbell will set you back anywhere from $100 to $350 just for the doorbell. Once you get home you discover that there is an optional monthly fee called the Ring Protect Plan you can buy too. Is Ring Protect Plan worth it or can you get by without it? Are you better off getting a Eufy or other video doorbell that can store videos without a monthly fee? Let’s have a look.

There are 2 levels of Ring Protect Plan, the Protect Basic Plan costs $3 per month or $30 a year. The Protect Plus Plan will set you back $10 per month or $100 per year. The Ring video doorbell will worth without purchasing a subscription. What exactly do you get for your money?

What will Ring do for free?

For no fee, your Ring doorbell can still do some things. It will still show live video from the Ring App live view on your phone. It will send you alerts whenever motion sensors detect someone is at your door. You can see who is there is you happen to be at your phone and can switch on the app and see right away. You can talk through the speaker to whoever is at your front door. Without a subscription, the Ring doorbell has a 1 year warranty if something goes wrong.

What won’t the Ring video doorbell do without a subscription? It won’t record video. You only get to see what you can see live from your phone. If you do open it and someone is breaking into your home, there is no way to save the ring camera evidence. It’s gone. Without a subscription, you lose one of the biggest features of a video doorbell.

Crimes can happen any time of day. Most home break ins happen between 10am and 3pm. You may be at work, in a meeting, or doing something else. You may not always be able to view the app as soon as the alert goes off. The Ring video doorbells are not worth buying if you don’t get at least the basic subscription plan.

Ring Protect Basic Plan

The Ring Protect Basic plan costs $3 per month or $30 per year. You get motion sensor alerts and 2 way talk that you got with the free plan. You get 60 days of saved video history saved to the Ring cloud storage. You no longer have to worry about missing alerts on the app. You can view the videos from any motion sensor event that occurred within the last 60 days. You can download, save and share the videos. If something happens you can give the video evidence to the police or share with your neighbors.

The basic plan only works for 1 camera or door bell. If you add a second camera you would need to add another basic plan.

Click here to learn more about the details of the Ring Protect Basic Plan

Ring Protect Plus Plan

The Ring Protect Plus Plan is the next step up from the basic plan. The cost increases to $10 per month or $100 per year. What do you get for this added money? The Protect Plus Plan covers as many cameras as you want to add. If you are using more than 3 cameras than the plus plan will cost less than the basic plan.

This plan adds an extended warranty for all your Ring devices for as long as you have the Protect Plus Plan. The only caveat is that you must subscribe to Protect Plus before the original 1 year warranty runs out.

You get a 10% discount at Ring.com if you happen to want another Ring product.

If you have a Ring Alarm System base station you will need to get the Protect Plus Plan to make use of its features. The Protect Plus plan includes 24/7 professional monitoring service. It gives you cellular backup for your Ring Alarm. If your wifi goes down, the cellular backup will keep sending video to Ring Cloud Storage.

Click here to learn more about the Ring Protect Plus Plan.

Is Ring Protect Plan Worth It?

For Ring users who also have a ring security camera or Ring Alarm System, the plus plan is the way to go. $10/month is a pretty good bargain when it comes to a home security system with video recording and professional monitoring. If you only have a single Ring video doorbell, the extended warranty is really the only advantage. If you have a basic $100 Ring doorbell, paying an extra $70/year doesn’t really make sense just for the warranty. If you bought a $350 Ring Elite then the warranty cost might be justified.

What about subscription free options like Eufy?

What if you really don’t want to pay a monthly subscription? What if you don’t like the idea of your videos being stored on the cloud? Are there options out there other than Ring? Yes, you are in luck. Eufy makes several smart doorbells that can store video data without a subscription. These devices store the video either on the doorbell itself or on a base station inside your home. You control your data with these. The downside to storage on the doorbell itself is that you lose it if someone steals the doorbell.

From a price standpoint, these doorbells have a similar price range as a Ring doorbell camera. In a world of you get what you pay for, their features and motion detection ability vary with the price. A Eufy has good night vision, motion alert, and live view from your phone app. Their performance is on par with similar priced Ring video doorbells. They do not have as good integration with other home smart devices as a Ring device. For those that want a cloud storage backup, Eufy and most other subscription free video doorbells still offer a cloud storage subscription plan.

See our review of the best video doorbells that don’t require a monthly subscription to store videos to learn more.

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