Deciding between Nest and Arlo home security cameras? Steve compares the Nest IQ cameras to the Arlo Ultra and Arlo Pro 3. He'll go over pricing, installation, image quality, and more in this deep dive comparison. While neither is exactly a budget option, and both are clearly premium products, they have different enough skill sets that it's worth a close look at how Nest compares to Arlo.
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For a deeper dive on these topics, head to these links:
Best outdoor security cameras:
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor full review:
Nest Cam IQ Indoor full review::
Arlo Secuirty Cameras review:
Best cheap security cameras:
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Skip to a topic:
1:08 – Pricing – equipment
2:42 – Pricing – subscriptions
4:06 – Installation
5:25 – Mounting options
6:43 – Image quality & the app
12:00 – Other features (spotlights, sirens, facial recognition)
12:38 – The bottom line – Who wins?
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Todd McCready
Great video and very informative!
Neil Boone
Bought Arlo Ultra 2 pack, one solar panel, and doorbell with plug-in chime. Love the system overall. It’s not perfect–I wish they will clean up the slight delay when pressing “play” to view a live feed from the Arlo app. The live feed works quicker on the Apple Home app. Thanks for your reviews. They were very helpful when I researched various camera systems before buying. Keep them coming!
Arawforyou
Thanks for the information! I’ve used Arlo 1 when they first came out and upgraded to Arlo Pro a year later. I don’t believe I’m too excited about updating to the newer versions Arlo Pro. I have always liked how easy they are to set up, and the app has always been good to me. I can do without the 3 to 10-second lag. I know that Arlo’s sensors work best when the motion comes in from the sides and not straight at the camera, however, the sensors seem to activate the cameras to late for example a 14-second clip will only catch <1 second of what activated it. The biggest issue and the main reason I'm looking elsewhere is one camera or another will always randomly go offline, does not matter if its 10 feet away for 100 feet away. Restarting the smart hub does not fix this as you will need to go to the camera itself and pull out the battery and put it back in. This is very discouraging when I'm away from home for more than a day, and I've heard that people are having similar issues with the newer versions of Arlo cameras.
Arawforyou
@Shadow B Yes, all the issues I mentioned in this post are still occurring.
Shadow B
Arawforyou okay thank you just asking because maybe I wanted to upgrade to from the Arlo one to the ultra one but didn’t know if it would be worth it
Arawforyou
@Shadow B I couldn’t say first hand if the Ultra is better however, per users reviews, some people are saying that the Ultra still randomly disconnects from the base station. I wasn’t willing to take another chance, so I decided to make the switch and try out Nest cameras.
Shadow B
Arawforyou how are nest cameras for you in terms of quality???? Than Arlo? What about the plans is it cheaper with nest?
Shadow B
Arawforyou basically I want the best quality due to someone scratching my car and want to know who it is
JME383
Nice vid and very comprehensive. Helped me understand which camera I should go for. Thanks so much!
Manny T.
I’m sure someone mentioned this already, but you’re incorrect about next to where is price plan. That is a bundle for any amount of cameras you want to add. I currently have the nest aware 10-day plan and have seven cameras on it. It is that one price for all seven cameras.
Misty
That’s new. Nest recently started offering bundle. When the video was made in April, Nest was still charging per camera.
Herbert Mascarenhas
Yeap! That’s new
Quincy Morris
I bought two Nest Outdoor IQ’s. The picture looks good until something moves. Then a terrible motion-blur occurs, making facial recognition impossible at any range. Every face is a nondescript, extremely low-res blur. Very disappointing, and something that days on the phone with tech support cannot cure.
jocoloco
Arlo battery life is heavily dependent on the traffic. Those batteries last me a week tops with normal family of three traffic. That said the convenience of not having to wire them is huge and I’d go with them again just for that.
Keith Brown
Damn!! I so much enjoyed this review. Excellent job. I personally think the Arlo cameras are better overall.
Sue R
Can you hook two base stations up together to get stronger reception ?I have a lot of problems with this. I have a Night Hark Router and two Netgear Range Extenders hooked up to it already and still having the problems. I have my Arlo Cameras on electric cables and it’s a lot nicer than having to worry about charging them up.
Ray Wong
Yes. You can. But your additional base station has to connect to Ethernet port
Steve
I have 5 Nest outdoor cameras and I am very happy with them. I only pay #12.00 a month for the Nest Aware Plus. subscription.That gives me 60 day event recording and 10 day 24/7 video history. It is so much easier to scan a 24 day because you can see every minute of the day and that can be done ib seconds.The cameras are very easy to install with a qr code on the cameras. I would hate to have to worry about changing batteries. I researched both Arlo and Nest and in my opinion Nest is far better than Arlo.
Ransom Baggins
Now that the Nest Aware subscription includes ALL of your devices for one price….that’s a BIG plus.
Jay Garcia
And the price has been drastically reduced compared to the pricing at the time of the video.. think I’m gonna go with Nest tbh
Ing.Antonio Solis A
Great review thanks. The latency would be an issue, so I will choose Nest. Is the outdoor IQ really better than the standard outdoor?
ibanezgod
great review. Man you are making it tough to choose. We have a security camera already but looking for indoors to monitor our toddler and nanny. The Arlo seems to be the best bet but the latency is a real concern to actively monitor him playing and sleeping. But the battery feature and mounting seem to be paramount.
Pete Carandang
Biggest problem with Arlo is the delay… 5 to 10 seconds is a whole lot of time for something to happen
Uk Vaper
Completely agree. If you have someone steal a bike from your garden, he’s off before you get notified!
LuckyFarm
Thanks Steve, really good job on this one. I have a Nest absolutely love it, but was about to switch to Arlo for another location, but not getting a live feed on the app and the 10 second delay you mentioned is total killer for me. Thanks for making me aware of that, I would have been extremely frustrated, and it’s nowhere on their site.
Danielle
I agree 💯
Kenny Bautista
You need to update this video, with the new Nest Aware price points for all Nest casms
dgbrownnt
I tried switching from Nest to Arlo for the increased video quality (and a couple AI features), but the software and reliability just isn’t at the same level for me. With Nest, the cameras just work, and I’ve never really had issues with the app. With the Arlo cameras, setup was messy (lots of hiccups) and the app is laggy and glitchy (especially if you want to look at live images or specific points in time).
When you’re having the “what was that sound?” moment at 3am, I’ve just depended on the Nest cameras to quickly show me what’s up (usually my cat knocking something large over). And I wasn’t getting that with the Arlo cameras.
Laura Dempsey
Great review. Thank you. Your little girls are adorably cute BTW.
firecrackerNJ2CA
Great analysis. Can you please clarify the degree coverage with the camera? I’m trying to mount a camera in the corner of the house to get coverage of the garage door and front door and ideally anyone venturing behind the camera towards the patio. Do the cameras cover 180 degrees for example?
Dave
Will you be reviewing the NEW Wireless outdoor Nestcam? I just received a pre order offer as I have other Nest cameras. Really interested in how this product stacks up agains Eufy and Arlo wireless cameras!!