These days, it seems like every smart home device purchase you make comes with some sort of subscription. Subscriptions are a trend that has been sweeping the smart home industry over the past few years, and while you may not agree, I’m honestly sick of it.
In this article, you’ll learn why these subscriptions may not be necessary and how you can manage your smart home without them. Check out Is Matter Still the Smart Home Standard of the Future?
1. Subscriptions gradually drain your budget.
There’s no better way to describe the feeling of being forced to pay for multiple smart home subscriptions than “death by a thousand little cuts.” Many smart home device manufacturers aren’t shy when it comes to charging endless additional fees to unlock the best features of their products.
But these fees are really just a way for companies to rip you off and make you pay over and over again for products you’ve already purchased. They know that if these fees are low enough, you won’t really complain as long as you think you’re getting some kind of added value from them. Or these companies think you won’t keep track of all your subscriptions. But if you have a lot of smart home products, these fees can add up to a lot of money in the long run.
Take a subscription Ring Protect For example, a Ring video doorbell will cost you between $150 and $220 initially. However, subscription costs will double that price depending on which Protect plan level you buy. For the highest-tier subscription, you’ll pay around $16 per month — which doesn’t sound like a lot of money.
But if you pay $16 a month for the next five years, you'll easily have paid the company more than $1,000, including the price of the new doorbell.
Now, you probably wouldn’t try to spend that kind of money on a doorbell right away. But when the fees are low enough and spread out over a long enough period of time, you hardly notice what you’re paying. In fact, companies are counting on you not to notice. Because if you noticed the real cost, you’d realize they’re ripping you off.
2. Questionable value
Subscriptions are also of questionable value. Take Ring Protect, for example. The top-tier plan includes things like native video processing, ad blocking, and unlimited data usage.
It seems like these features should be included with every video doorbell purchase anyway. I mean, ads — really? Unlimited data? On your home network? Now, you can choose not to pay for Ring Protect. But Ring’s free tier is limited.
However, Ring still feels comfortable asking you to pay these costs every month. Of course, this is just one example, but this is the kind of “added value” companies offer. Does this sound like you’re really getting extra value?
Because to me, it doesn’t feel like there’s a whole lot of extras there. It feels like the company has restricted the devices so that you pay for features you expect to come standard. Check out the essential devices that every smart home should have.
3. Costs add up quickly.
Worse still, you may not be paying for just one smart home device subscription. With multiple subscriptions, the costs can quickly add up. All it takes is a $20 monthly fee or two to have you spending a few hundred dollars extra each year.
Again, you probably don’t notice these fees right now because they’re so inexpensive. But if you do the math, I’m sure you’ll be shocked at how much you’re actually spending. Check out the best Android and iOS apps for managing subscriptions.
4. Encourage more subscription models
The final problem here is that when you continue to pay subscription fees, you effectively give companies permission to continue to rely on subscription-based products. By paying every month, you’ve proven that the subscription model works. This makes more companies want a piece of the pie. This is why you rarely see devices these days that don’t have subscriptions attached.
Overall, I think subscription models are rarely worth the extra cost. As an industry insider, I’d love to see companies go back to the days when they made quality products that didn’t require expensive subscriptions or even a subscription. Unfortunately, these models don’t look like they’re going away anytime soon. Here’s how my smartphone has impacted my life and what I’ve fixed to fix the issues.
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