Nest Aware vs. Ring Protect: Which is the better deal?

Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest brands are two of the most recognizable names in the home security space these days. Both companies offer an assortment of smart video doorbells, cameras, and connected lighting solutions, and both also offer home security systems connected to their respective personal assistants, Alexa and the Google Assistant. However, all of that smart video footage and safety alerts need to be stored and monitored somewhere, and that's where Ring Protect and Nest Aware come in to play. We'll go through their features, similarities, and differences to help you decide which is the best option for you.

Nest Aware vs. Ring Protect: Security showdown

Both Ring Protect and Nest Aware offer two separate plans with differing amounts of video storage, monitoring, and other features at a few different price points. Ring Protect has a few more options and still offers a single-camera solution making it a great entry-level solution, but is less economical overall when it comes to multi-camera solutions. Ring, however, offers more home security options such as Ring Alarm Pro devices with local storage and internet backup as well as things like window and door sensors.

Nest Aware vs. Ring Protect: Ring pros and cons

Ring's Protect plans have always been fairly straightforward though the company now offers three plans for camera customers. The Basic plan is only $3.99 per month and gets you nearly all of the features of the pricier mid-tier Plus plan. The only downside? It's only good for one device.

As soon as you move to want multiple devices covered, you have to pay more than three times as much ($10 per month or $100 per year) for the Plus plan. The bonus to the Basic plan though, is that if you only have one device (say an external camera or a video doorbell), you're only paying for that one device.

Ring Protect Plus comes with most of the same features as the basic plan with support for unlimited devices. If you've got more than two cameras, this plan becomes your cheapest option. With your increased investment in the Ring ecosystem, this plan also comes with extended warranties for all of your Ring devices at that address.

The Pro plan is the most expensive but if you've got some of Ring's other home security tech, it could very well be worth the price. Ring Protect Pro includes all of the above with 24/7 professional alarm monitoring, cellular backup for your alarm system, internet backup with Ring Alarm Pro, eero Secure if you're using an eero system, like eero 6+ for Wi-Fi, and Ring Edge that allows local video storage. Ring also points out that you can potentially save on home insurance with its plan.

You don't necessarily have to get a Ring Protect plan to use a Ring camera. You'll still be able to check and monitor your cameras, see who's at the door and speak to them, and view the last image captured by your camera. One thing to note is that the  Ring has moved a feature that included Home and Away modes to its subscriptions so you'll need a plan to automatically switch modes. This change was announced with an email that went out to customers in March of 2023.

Nest Aware vs. Ring Protect: Nest pros and cons

Nest Aware comes in two flavors: a cheaper Nest Aware plan and a Nest Aware Plus plan. Nest Aware comes in at $6 per month or $60 per year while Nest Aware Plus asks for $12 per month or $120 per year.

At first glance, the "basic" Nest Aware plan looks like a terrible deal compared to Ring Protect's Basic plan, coming in at 150% of the price, but once you read the details, you see that it's a better deal if you have more than one device. Nest's lower-tier Aware plan covers as many devices as you have with 30 days of event video history. True, this is less than what Ring Protect Basic offers (180 days), but it covers more devices.

The Nest Aware Plus plan is mainly for those looking to hang on to videos and event history for longer. Plus extends the video event history from 30 days to 60 days. It also comes with 10 days of 24/7 video history so you can go back and gather more information or just want to see what went on when you were away from home.

 Both plans come with Nest's intelligent alerts which can notify you about things like seeing a familiar face, smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, and the sound of glass breaking.

If you're a Nest Secure user, you have likely been notified that your service is coming to an end. Nest Secure was a system more focused on home security with things like a keypad and window sensors. Since Google is ending the service, it has offered customers a free upgrade to an ADT system.

Nest Aware vs. Ring Protect: Which service should you go with?

I know it sounds like a cop-out when a reviewer says, "just go with whatever ecosystem you're comfortable with," but in this case, that rings true (no pun intended). Both companies make some of the best wireless home security cameras you can buy, so it mostly comes down to preference.

If you have a lot of Amazon Echo or Ring devices already, then going with Ring Protect is a no-brainer. If you prefer Nest hardware and the Google Assistant, and if you already have some of Nest's great smart home devices, then go with Nest Aware.

Both companies make excellent connected home products, and both video recording and monitoring plans offer similar features that are competitively priced. Yes, there are nuances in the structure and costs of each plan and tier, but that's not what's going to make you choose one service over the other. The ecosystem will.

However, if you want to know which one is the better deal, it depends on how many devices you have. Ring can be cheaper overall with more features for that price, but it gets way more expensive when you have more than one device. Nest is more expensive, but is a better deal if you have a lot of devices.

I have smart devices from both Ring and Nest in my home, but we tend to rely much more on Amazon Echos and Alexa to run our connected home than our Nest speakers, so if I'm forced to choose right now, I will go with Ring. However, your choices will be influenced by how you've set up or plan to set up your home. Just know that either way you go, you're going to be getting an outstanding value.