There are two major differences between the costs that are associated with an in-house and a cloud based recorder.
The first major difference is the capital costs that are associated with an in-house recorder. That is, you need to purchase the in-house recorder and then treat it as a depreciating asset over its lifetime (usually 5 years). In contrast, there are no capital costs associated with a cloud based recorder.
The second difference is the different types of running costs. For example, with an in-house recorder you need space for the equipment, staff with skills to look after the equipment, out of warranty repairs … In contrast, there is only one running cost associated with a cloud based recorder, the monthly plan fee.
Any comparison in costs will always be subjective, so please treat the following as an example only and always base decisions on your own cost calculations.
When we compared the costs of the Cirrus 30 plan (recorder with 30 recording channels) and the equivalent Total Recall VR Altus product, then the Cirrus 30 plan costs are US$360 per month, while the equivalent monthly cost for the equivalent in-house Total Recall VR Altus product is US$397 per month.
In the calculations we assumed that the in-house Total Recall VR Altus product will run for 5 years, the cost of power is US$0.22 per KW and that the maintenance and space costs are 7% of the equipment costs per year. The calculations do not include any out of warranty repairs that may (or may not) bee needed in the last 3 years of the recorder.
Note, the higher the capacity of the cloud based recorder, the larger the gap between the costs when compared with an equivalent Total Recall VR in-house recorder. That is, the saving with a cloud based recorder increases.
Finally, the cloud based recorder comes with an unlimited number of Activation Licenses for Total Recall VR PC applications. In contrast, you receive 3 Activation Licenses with every purchase of Total Recall VR in-house product. Potentially, that can be a saving of thousands of dollars over the life of your subscription to a cloud based recorder.