Ring announced a rebrand to its Ring Protect subscriptions at the beginning of October 2024, with the name change and new features due to come into effect from November 5, 2024. Ring Protect will change to Ring Home from that date onwards, with new subscription plans being made available from that date, alongside some extra tricks, and current Protect subscription plans automatically transferring over.
If you’re confused and wondering what Ring Home is, how it will be different from Ring Protect, how much the subscriptions will cost, and crucially, what you’ll get for that money, we have you covered. Below you’ll learn everything there is to know about Ring Home and what it means for you and your current Ring Protect subscriptions.
What is Ring Home?
Ring Home will be Ring’s subscription plan for its video doorbells, security cameras and alarm system from November 2024. It will replace Ring Protect and is similar to Nest Aware that is the subscription service for Nest Cams and Philips Hue Secure, which is the subscription service for Hue’s Secure security range. Arlo also has a subscription service called Arlo Secure so it’s standard practice across user-installed security systems.
Like many of its competitors, the Ring Home subscription has various different plans available. The one that you will need to select will depend on which devices you own, how many device you have and what features are important to you.
How much are the Ring Home subscriptions?
There are three Ring Home subscriptions including Ring Home Basic, Ring Home Standard and Ring Home Premium. All will be introduced from November 5, 2024.
- Ring Home Basic will cost £4.99/$4.99 a month or £49.99/$49.99 a year.
- Ring Home Standard will cost £7.99/$9.99 a month or £79.99/$99.99 a year.
- Ring Home Premium will cost £15.99/$19.99 a month or £159.99/$199.99 a year.
What will happen to my current Ring Protect subscription with Ring Home?
For the most part, if you are already a Ring Protect subscriber, your plan will get better and more features will be added, but the name of your plan will change. The Ring Home Basic replaces the Ring Protect Basic plan. The price remains the same.
The Ring Home Standard plan replaces the Ring Protect Plus plan, and again, the price remains the same. The Ring Home Premium plan is a new plan entirely so you would need to upgrade from the Ring Home Standard plan or Ring Home Basic plan to access that plan and its features.
For those in the US, there was also the Ring Protect Pro plan, which will change to Ring Home Standard with Alarm Professional Monitoring by default from November 5, 2024. You won’t get 24/7 Backup Internet, eero Secure and Ring Edge (Local Video Storage) on this plan however. You also won’t get SOS Emergency Response if you don’t have a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro device.
You will however, be eligible for a one-year trial of the Ring Home Premium plan that has all those features and if you want to keep them at the end of the trial, you can change your Ring Home subscription to the Ring Home Premium Plan, with the Alarm Professional Monitoring add-on, which is $10 a month.
What do you get with a Ring Home subscription?
Let’s get to the good stuff then shall we? Below we’ve listed what you will get with each Ring Home subscription plan, as well as the new features that were announced with the rebrand and what plan you need to be signed up to in order to get the new features.
Ring Home Basic
Starting with Ring Home Basic, which is the cheapest of the subscription plans and as we mentioned, replaces the Ring Protect Basic plan. It covers one Ring device, offers up to 180 days of video event history and it offers person and package alerts, which we’ve explained how to set up in a separate feature.
You also get Live View so you can drop in on your video doorbell or Ring camera whenever you want and watch for 10 minutes.
The new feature you get with Ring Home Basic over Ring Protect Basic is Video Preview Alerts, which are an extension of Rich Notifications. When a notification comes through, the pop up will feature a video so you can see what has happened and take the action you need to.
Ring Home Standard
As you would expect, everything that you get with Ring Home Basic you get with Ring Home Standard, but it covers all your Ring cameras rather just one like Ring Protect Plus did. You also get extended warranties, alarm cellular backup, Ring Modes so you can arm and disarm your Ring devices remotely, and a daily event summary that offers a scrollable feed of the motion events that have happened that day.
You get access to a Multi-Cam Live View with this subscription plan too, allowing you see up to four camera feeds on ring.com at once, as well as Picture-in-Picture that lets you carry on watching Live View on your phone even if you open another app.
The new features for Ring Home Standard compared to Ring Protect Plus come in the form of Doorbell Calls that see you getting what looks like a video call on your phone when someone presses your doorbell, while extended Live View lets you watch your Ring cameras for 30 minutes rather than the 10 minutes included with Ring Home Basic.
Ring Home Premium
For Ring Home Premium, you get the same features as Ring Home Standard, and that applies to all your Ring devices too. You also get Continuous Live View however, allowing you to watch Live View for longer than 30 minutes. The big extra here however is 24/7 Recording if you have a compatible device, allowing you to see what has happened around your home, even outside of your motion zones.
Do the Ring video doorbells and cameras need a Home subscription?
As with Nest Cams, Philips Hue Secure cameras and Arlo cameras, Ring security cameras and doorbells don’t need a subscription to operate. You can attach a Ring Video Doorbell to the front of your house and it will record footage, offer alerts through the Ring app and you will be able to speak to any visitors that appear at your door through the Two-Way Talk feature. The same applies for the company’s indoor and outdoor cameras.
Functionality of the devices is reduced however. You won’t get person or package alerts on the Ring Video Doorbell for example, your notifications won’t offer a Video Preview without a subscription, you won’t get Doorbell Calls, and perhaps most crucially, you won’t be able to store, download or share footage.
