Today, Blink announced a new subscription service for customers that provides more flexibility in how they store their cloud footage. Customers can sign up for a Blink subscription plan for $3 per month for the Basic Plan or $10 per month for the Plus Plan. The cost is in line with other similar subscription services from rivals like Ring, Google Nest, Arlo, Wyze, and much more.
The Basic Plan includes rolling 60-day unlimited storage for video clips and live-view recordings, but is a per-camera plan. The Plus Plan includes these same benefits for an unlimited number of cameras in the home. If you’re subscribed to the Plus Plan, you also receive 10% off certain Blink devices on Amazon, as well as extended warranty coverage for your devices.
If you prefer to avoid the monthly subscription cost, you can choose to use local storage through the Sync Module 2. This requires no monthly fee and can be a more economical option for many customers. While the Sync Module 2 was once a separate purchase, it now comes included with the purchase of a Blink Outdoor or Blink Indoor Camera. It is also available as an add-on. You can store up to 256GB of video footage simply by plugging in a USB flash drive to the Sync Module 2.
Historically, Blink did not charge users for cloud storage of video clips. This changed in April of 2020 when the Blink Mini launched.
In April of 2020, Amazon allowed existing Blink XT2 customers to continue to have their free year-long cloud storage. Based on a forum topic on Blink’s website, accounts created before April 15, 2020 still have access to 7,200 seconds of cloud storage per Sync Module.
$10 per month for a cloud storage subscription is a fairly competitive price, especially since it includes unlimited cloud storage. Many opposing plans charge as much as $15 per month while maintaining bandwidth limits. Blink has a leg up on the competition thanks to its local storage options. As long as the Sync Module 2 is included with most purchases, customers can save money and store their footage locally, although 256GB may not equal 60 days of footage.
Though the change from a free plan to a paid plan is never a welcome one, Blink’s new options could be worse. Customers still have a lot of flexibility in their choices.
