Video Surveillance & NVR

Why Self-Host Your Video Surveillance?

Google Nest and Ring upload your security camera footage to cloud servers, where it is processed by AI systems you do not control, stored according to the company’s retention policies, and accessible to law enforcement through legal requests — sometimes without notifying you. Ring has faced repeated controversies over sharing footage with police departments without user consent. Self-hosted video surveillance keeps your camera feeds and recordings entirely on local hardware, with AI detection running on your own server.

Frigate is the most advanced self-hosted NVR (Network Video Recorder), providing real-time AI object detection using Google Coral TPU or CPU-based inference. It distinguishes between people, cars, animals, and other objects, reducing false alerts from motion-only detection. Frigate integrates tightly with Home Assistant for automation — trigger lights when a person is detected, send notifications with snapshot images, or start recording only when relevant motion occurs. ZoneMinder is the longest-running open-source surveillance platform, supporting hundreds of cameras with motion detection, event archiving, and a web-based management interface.

Scrypted provides a home video integration platform that bridges IP cameras to HomeKit Secure Video, Google Home, and Alexa, enabling smart home camera features without cloud NVR subscriptions. Viseron offers AI-powered video surveillance with object detection and face recognition. Shinobi provides a node.js-based NVR with multi-monitor support and ONVIF camera management. Blue Iris is a commercial but self-hosted NVR for Windows with one-time licensing rather than subscription fees. UnBlink provides a lightweight surveillance option for simple recording needs.