Wyze’s home monitoring plan may be among the best values in the smart home industry, but its monthly fees are about to double for new signups.
In an email sent to Wyze users this week, the company announced that the price for its 24/7 home monitoring plan will rise from $4.99 to $9.99 a month after April 6, while the annual price will go up to $99.99, a roughly $40 increase.
Current subscribers and those who sign up before the deadline will keep the “early adopter” rate of $4.99 a month, a Wyze rep confirmed to TechHive.
Wyze says the price hike, which was first reported by The Verge, will “help us cover rising costs, make the service more sustainable, and allow us to continue adding new features.”
This news is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best smart home systems, where you’ll find reviews of the competition’s offerings, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.
Wyze outlined some of those new features in the email. For starters, Wyze’s water leak and climate sensors will soon be professionally monitored, and they’ll also trigger warning sounds on the Wyze Hub when leaks or freezing temperatures that could lead to burst water pipes are detected.
The company will also throw in Sprinkler Plus, a $10-a-year add-on for the Wyze Sprinkler controller that adds features such as “smart” schedules based on “hyper-local” weather data, along with insights on the soil moisture level in each sprinkler zone.
Finally, Wyze will add person detection and 12-second cloud-based motion event recordings to your “security-assigned” cameras (with an overall five-camera cap). That feature is in addition to the single Cam Plus license that already comes with Wyze’s home monitoring plan.
Administered by third-party service Noonlight, Wyze’s home monitoring plan debuted a year ago. Initially, annual subscribers to the plan got a full-on Wyze starter kit, including a hub, a keypad, two entry sensors, and a motion sensor, for free. Wyze has since pared down the offer for annual signups to just the Wyze Hub, which normally costs $30, and a year of its Cam Plus plan, a $15 value.
Even with the steep price hike, the Wyze home monitoring plan remains a bargain compared to its competitors. Ring, for example, charges $20 a month for 24/7 home monitoring, versus $10/month for Wyze under its new pricing plan.
In his review of Wyze’s home monitoring service last year, TechHive Executive Editor Michael Brown called it a “strong offering” with “a few gotchas,” including the lack of cellular failover and no support for third-party devices.
Author: Ben Patterson, Senior Writer
Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he covers smart speakers, soundbars, and other smart and home-theater devices. You can follow Ben on Twitter.