I'm done with Nest — here's why I'm switching to Reolink

Even though I like self-hosting most services, I used Nest cameras for the better part of four years. I had UniFi cameras previously, and while I like what Ubiquiti does with its products, lack of integration with Google Home and Home Assistant was a deal-breaker. That's why I went with Nest; I wanted cameras that would be easy-to-use and tied in with Google Home.

While it was annoying to buy Nest Aware just to be able to access footage from my cameras, I did so because of the convenience, even when Google hiked the price to $80 a year in 2023. But with another round of hikes — with the plan now going up to $100 — I decided to move to another platform.

I needed three things: strong focus on privacy, local access, and an easy way to power the devices. I had to rule out Eufy and most other Chinese brands because of previous vulnerabilities or lack of transparency, and finally landed on Reolink. I tested the Argus 4 in the past, but my unit had issues with battery life — more so than the Nest Cam Outdoor — so I wasn't able to use it outdoors.

Given that I didn't want to deal with the hassle of charging the security cameras, I wanted a model that was powered by PoE or wall outlet. Thankfully, Reolink's Elite Floodlight fit my needs ideally; the camera has 180-degree coverage thanks to two lenses, and as the name suggests, it has built-in lighting to illuminate its surroundings at night.

It comes with local storage via a MicroSD slot, and there's no monthly or annual fee. Best of all, I was able to integrate it easily into my network video recorder, giving me the ability to view the camera feed from anywhere. I used the Elite Floodlight for just over three months now, and it has been nothing short of excellent.

Image quality is clean and detailed, and the camera does a great job stitching footage from the dual lenses. I didn't see any issues with low-light footage either, and the built-in floodlight gets incredibly bright (going up to 3000 lumen) at its highest setting.

It has good connectivity over Wi-Fi 6, and I didn't see any issues in this regard. By contrast, I had problems connecting to my Nest Cam Outdoor, and it would regularly glitch out when I pulled up the feed to view who's at the door. There are no such issues with the Elite Floodlight, and its motion detection along with zone intrusion alerts combined with local storage give it a definite edge.

I have the Elite Floodlight mounted outside the front door, and its IP66 ingress protection has proven to be reliable in India's monsoon weather. Setting it up was straightforward, and Reolink's mobile app is good in its own right. Best of all, as it delivers an RTSP stream, it's easy to link the camera to an NVR without any hassle.

In addition to the Elite Floodlight, I've been using the Atlas, a battery camera with a 2K lens and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity. The Atlas comes with a solar panel, alleviating the need to dismount it and charge the device. The Atlas misses out on RTSP, so I have it set up in a balcony that doesn't get much use.

Reolink also has a cloud-based tier that lets you store footage, but given that its cameras have built-in MicroSD slots, I didn't see the point of leveraging the feature. While I generally don't like using MicroSD storage, it has been decent enough in the three months I used the Elite Floodlight and Atlas, and I didn't run into any issues. If you are interested in saving footage in the cloud, Reolink uses the industry-standard AES encryption when data is in transit.

The biggest reason I switched to Reolink cameras is the ease of access; it would take anywhere between five to 10 seconds to load the footage after pulling up the feed on my Nest cameras, and it's considerably faster on the Elite Floodlight and Atlas. I can view the feed within a few seconds. With the footage going out to my NVR, I'm able to store 24/7 recording for as long as I need (I set it to 90-day intervals).

Another positive with Reolink is the affordability. The Atlas costs $135 as of writing, with the Elite Floodlight available for $197 on Amazon. Considering there's no fee to access footage, that's a pretty great value when you consider the rest of the feature-set.

With these cameras set up, I'm looking to get my hands on additional Reolink cameras; the brand makes PoE products as well, and that's what I'm interested in picking up next. Overall, Reolink has proven to be the ideal alternative to Nest, and the flexibility combined with the feature-set makes the brand my go-to recommendation.