The Pros & Cons of Nest Cam (Drop Cam): Nest Cam vs. Other Mini Wi-Fi IP Cameras

The Nest Cam (previously Drop Cam) is a kind of Mini Wi-Fi IP Camera designed for indoor use only. It has a great design and solid build quality. However, it is a completely proprietary device that does NOT work with any other cloud storage (surveillance) services or any other PC-based IP camera management software.

Most other Mini IP cameras or regular IP cameras support open standards such as ONVIF, RTSP and FTP so that you can use any professional camera management software or cloud recording services. Please visit our camera support page for more detailed information. If you want a Nest Cam style mini IP camera, but still want to use our cloud recording service, please visit how to configure Mini Wi-Fi IP cameras for cloud recording.

Before you decide to buy a Nest Cam camera, please make sure you understand the advantages and disadvantages.

Nest Cam Advantages

  • Impressive hardware design and specification;
  • Great video quality during both day-time and night-time;
  • Wide angle lens;
  • Two-way audio;
  • Very easy-to-setup with live view support from anywhere;
  • Integrated cloud recording service.
  • Integrated with Nest's other services and smart thermostat

Nest Cam Disadvantages

  • Expensive hardware - one-time cost
  • Expensive cloud service - recurring cost
    • Granted, it is optional, but cloud recording is too important to not have. It only works with Nest's own service with only two retention plans (10-day retention or 30-day retention).
  • Does not support local video streaming
    • Your camera must be always connected to the Internet to work!
  • No SD card or any other local storage support
  • Completely proprietary
    • It is incompatible with any other cloud recording service or IP camera management software; does not support IP camera standard protocols such as ONVIF, FTP or RTSP.
  • Wi-Fi only
    • With 1080P video streaming, Wi-Fi connection may not be reliable and the video quality may degrade.
  • Indoor only and does not support PoE.
  • High bandwidth usage
Nest Cam (Drop Cam) cameras offer great video quality at the expense of high bandwidth usage. If you have multiple Nest Cam cameras, you are likely to run into a few problems:
  • Your Wi-Fi connection will become less reliable;
  • Your might reach your Internet connection's maximum upload bandwidth;
  • Your might reach your ISP's max monthly data usage limit. Many users probably don't know their ISPs limit their max monthly data usage, e.g. AT&T's ADSL may limit the monthly data usage to be only 150GB, Comcast may limit your monthly data usage to be only 250GB.

Comparison of Nest Cam, Other Mini Wi-Fi IP Cameras and Regular IP cameras

Nest Cam Other Mini Wi-Fi IP Cameras Regular IP Cameras
Camera Price $199 $30-60 not including PC Any price points
Max video/image Resolution Up to 30 fps Live View: 1280 or 640x360 or 320x180
Image Recording: 640x360
Video recording: 1280x720, 800x600, 640x360, or 320x180 		Any Resolutions
Cloud Recording Video Recording Camera Dependant Both
Motion-trigger Recording Yes Yes Usually Yes
Continuous Recording Yes Yes for cameras that support video Usually Yes
Frames/second Up To 30 fps Live view:up to 30 fps
Image recording: 1 image/min
Video recording: 1 to 30 fps		 Value 3
Monthly Cloud Storage Price
7 to 10 days		 $10/m
10-day retention		 Completely flexible pricing Based on your CameraFTP subscription parameters.
Monthly Cloud Storage Price
30 days		 Value 1 Completely Flexible Flexible Service Pricing
Other Retention Options No 7-day, 15-day, 3-month, 6-month, 1-year
Network Interface Wi-Fi Only Wi-Fi Only Wi-Fi and/or Wired
Night Vision Yes Yes Mostly Yes
Indoor/Outdoor Indoor Indoor Indoor/Outdoor
Browser-based Management Interface No No Mostly Yes
FTP Upload Yes (but cannot configure email server Yes Mostly Yes
Motion Triggered Email Upload Value 1 Value 2 Value 3
Others May support PTZ, PoE, large lens, great ight-vision or super high resolution image or video