Ubiquiti has been producing and developing UniFi Protect for around four years now. Back when the platform was launched, the only device capable of running the software was the Cloud Key Gen2+. The decision to stop allowing end users to host the software themselves was met with a lot of negativity, but as Ubiquiti released more and more hardware devices it did become less of an issue.

The question is does UniFi Protect have a monthly fee? The answer is no, as because the software can only be run on hardware Ubiquiti sells, it is already subsided in a way. Also, because you as the user store the footage yourself on premise, there are no ongoing cloud fees and lock-in – something you would typically find with more consumer focused camera recording systems. The only time the cloud is involved is as a broker, when you log in from remote to your home, so that port forwarding isn’t required.

If you want to learn more about UniFi Protect, check out the latest version of our annual “Ubiquiti UniFi Protect Product Line Guide.”