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Cybersecurity · head to head

Camio vs Soketi

Camio logo

Camio

Cybersecurity

AI video search that runs on cameras you already own, starting near five dollars per camera per month

From
$4.99/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Soketi logo

Soketi

Developer Tools

Self-hosted, Pusher-compatible WebSockets server with a stalled maintenance record

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Soketi has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Camio the 4.99 US dollars per camera per month starting rate is genuinely a starting rate: Flex add-ons run from 1 to 89 dollars per stream per month, so a busy camera with detailed vehicle labelling can cost more than fifteen times a quiet one and a site budget built on the headline number will be badly wrong.; Soketi maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • They diverge on capability: Camio covers Natural language video search, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Camio and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Camio and Soketi differ
AttributeCamioSoketi
Starting price$4.99/monthFree
Pricing modelPer camera per monthOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, LinuxLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Camio

  • Natural language video search
  • Works with existing cameras
  • Free Box software
  • Zone and schedule rules
  • Vehicle and person attributes
  • Retail and queue analytics
  • Alerting integrations
  • Camio Flex add-ons

Only in Soketi

  • Pusher protocol compatibility
  • Presence and private channels
  • Horizontal scaling
  • App management backends
  • Webhooks
  • Prometheus metrics

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Camio

  • A warehouse that needs an alert when a trailer door opens outside scheduled hours rather than a recording nobody watchesnot Soketi
  • A retailer investigating a shrink pattern who needs to find every instance of a behaviour across a month of footagenot Soketi
  • A manufacturer wanting a safety alert when a person enters a machine zone during a runnot Soketi
  • A property manager who wants search and alerting on an existing camera estate without replacing recordersnot Soketi

Soketi

  • A Laravel application that already uses Echo and wants to stop paying a hosted realtime providernot Camio
  • Realtime notifications or presence indicators where data must not leave your own infrastructure for compliance reasonsnot Camio
  • A local or CI environment that needs a Pusher-compatible server without hitting a paid accountnot Camio
  • A high-connection-count application where hosted per-connection pricing has become the largest line in the infrastructure billnot Camio

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Camio

  • The 4.99 US dollars per camera per month starting rate is genuinely a starting rate: Flex add-ons run from 1 to 89 dollars per stream per month, so a busy camera with detailed vehicle labelling can cost more than fifteen times a quiet one and a site budget built on the headline number will be badly wrong.
  • Camio is analytics and search, not a full video management system, so most sites still need a recorder or VMS alongside it and end up with two products and two bills.
  • The Camio Box gateway must sit on the same local network as the cameras, which means a device, power and network port at every site, and multi-site estates multiply that install work.
  • It is a small private company against Verkada, Eagle Eye and the analytics bundled free into major VMS platforms, so it is structurally exposed to an incumbent bundling equivalent capability at no extra charge.
  • Analytic accuracy depends heavily on the existing cameras’ placement, resolution and lighting, and cameras installed years ago for recording rather than for computer vision often produce detection rates that disappoint against the demo.

Soketi

  • Maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • Dependency drift on Node and uWebSockets.js will eventually force you to fork or migrate, and that cost is unbudgeted at the point you adopt it.
  • There is no commercial support to buy, so a production incident at three in the morning is entirely your problem with no escalation path.
  • Scaling beyond a single node needs Redis and careful configuration, and getting presence channels correct across nodes is a genuine source of subtle bugs.
  • It implements the Pusher protocol rather than tracking it, so any protocol feature Pusher adds later will not appear, and the compatibility guarantee slowly decays.

Pricing, plan by plan

Camio

$4.99/month
  • Camio usage-based plan$4.99/month
    • Starting rate per camera per month
    • Scales with search, storage and feature use
    • Works with existing ONVIF and RTSP cameras
  • Camio Flex add-ons$undefined/month
    • Optional services from 1 to 89 USD per stream per month
    • High-traffic cameras and detailed vehicle labelling at the expensive end
    • Priced per stream rather than per site

Soketi

Free
  • SoketiFree
    • MIT licensed
    • Unlimited connections subject to your own hardware
    • No vendor billing

Which should you pick?

Choose Camio if

  • You need natural language video search.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, Linux.
  • You also want works with existing cameras.
Camio review

Choose Soketi if

  • You need pusher protocol compatibility.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want presence and private channels.
Soketi review

Questions people ask

Is Camio or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Camio starts at $4.99/month and Soketi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Camio or Soketi?
Soketi has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $4.99/month for Camio and Free for Soketi.
Does Camio or Soketi run on more platforms?
Camio runs on Web, iOS, Android, Linux. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Soketi for free?
Yes. Soketi has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Camio starts at $4.99/month.
What is Camio best used for?
Camio is most often used for a warehouse that needs an alert when a trailer door opens outside scheduled hours rather than a recording nobody watches, a retailer investigating a shrink pattern who needs to find every instance of a behaviour across a month of footage, a manufacturer wanting a safety alert when a person enters a machine zone during a run, a property manager who wants search and alerting on an existing camera estate without replacing recorders. Of those, a warehouse that needs an alert when a trailer door opens outside scheduled hours rather than a recording nobody watches and a retailer investigating a shrink pattern who needs to find every instance of a behaviour across a month of footage are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Camio do that Soketi cannot?
Camio covers Natural language video search, Works with existing cameras, Free Box software, Zone and schedule rules. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Camio: Do I have to buy Camio cameras?

No. Camio works with ONVIF and RTSP cameras you already have, which is the main reason to choose it over camera-bundled AI platforms.

Soketi: Is Soketi still maintained?

Barely. The maintainer has stated that available time is very limited and releases have been sparse; treat it as community-maintained.

Camio: Do I have to buy the Camio Box?

Not necessarily. The gateway software can be downloaded onto hardware you already own; Box and Box Pro units are for sites needing more processing capacity.

Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

No. Pusher client SDKs and Laravel Echo work by changing the host, port and credentials.

Camio: What does it really cost?

Plans start at 4.99 US dollars per camera per month, but Flex add-ons run from 1 to 89 dollars per stream per month, so per-camera cost varies enormously by traffic and labelling detail.

Soketi: What does it cost?

Nothing in licence fees. It is MIT licensed; you pay for the server it runs on.

Camio: Does Camio replace my recorder?

No. It adds search and alerting. Continuous recording and evidence retention usually still need a VMS or recorder.

Soketi: What are people moving to?

Laravel Reverb for Laravel applications, and Sockudo, a Rust reimplementation, for others.

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