Quick reference. We try to make Free actually useful — not a crippled trial.
Free (forever)
- Live viewing — peer-to-peer, full quality, unlimited duration
- Local recording — continuous + event clips stored on the camera phone
- Motion detection — get a notification when something happens
- One paired camera — one camera phone per Oriel account
Premium (subscription)
Adds:
- Cloud event storage — short motion clips uploaded and retained for 30 days, viewable from anywhere even if the camera phone is offline
- Multiple cameras — pair up to 5 camera phones to one viewer
- Higher detection sensitivity tiers — finer-grained motion zones, ignore-pets mode, person-vs-object detection
- Apple Watch live view (when shipped)
- Family sharing — share your camera with up to 4 family members’ Oriel accounts
Pricing
See oriel.camera/about for current pricing — we update there, not here, so this post doesn’t go stale.
Why this split?
- Live viewing free, always — that’s the core promise. Charging for it would betray the “your camera is your camera” idea.
- Cloud storage paid — uploading/storing video has real ongoing cost (Cloudflare R2 is cheap but not free). Charging the people who use it keeps Oriel sustainable without ads or data sales.
- Multiple cameras paid — supports more advanced setups (whole-house multi-cam) where the value is clearly higher.
Can I switch?
Yes — upgrade/downgrade anytime in the iOS Settings → Subscriptions. Existing local recordings stay. Cloud event clips: if you downgrade, they’re retained for 7 days then deleted (export them to your phone first if you want to keep them).
— Oriel team