Self-hosted CCTV for your Raspberry Pi — one-time payment, no subscriptions, full control.
Every month, thousands of households pay $8–$12 per camera for cloud subscriptions like Wyze and Reolink. A recent Hacker News thread (34 comments) broke down the math: 10 cameras × $12/month = $1,440/year. That’s a car payment for basic motion alerts. The frustration is real — users want local control, no monthly bills, and privacy that doesn’t depend on a cloud server.
Existing open-source alternatives like Frigate are powerful but require a $60 Google Coral TPU and hours of configuration. The original CheapSecurity project on GitHub is lightweight but lacks a web interface, notifications, and remote access — exactly the features that make a security system useful. Meanwhile, the Raspberry Pi ecosystem has matured: Pi 5s are back in stock, and RTSP cameras cost under $30. The pieces are ready — but no one has packaged them into a simple, one-time-payment solution.
This is the perfect moment. The HN signal (42 points, cross-platform) shows pent-up demand. Users are actively searching for “Wyze alternative self-hosted” and “cheap CCTV Raspberry Pi.” By offering a $29 Docker-based solution with motion detection, a web timeline, and Telegram notifications, we can capture the wave before bigger players simplify their own offerings.
Point CheapSecurity to any RTSP stream from your existing IP cameras — no proprietary hardware needed. Works with Wyze, Reolink, Amcrest, and any ONVIF-compatible camera on your local network.
Run a single docker-compose command on your Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, or any Linux SBC. The container includes OpenCV for motion detection and a lightweight web server — no compilation, no dependencies.
Receive instant Telegram notifications with snapshots when motion is detected. Browse a clean web timeline of events, review clips, and export footage — all stored locally on your own drive.
One-time $29 covers unlimited cameras on a single device. Compare to $1,440/year for 10 Wyze cams — you keep your money and your footage. No surprise price hikes, no per-camera fees.
Your video never touches a third-party server. Record directly to a USB drive, NAS, or internal SSD. Full privacy — no cloud dependency, no data mining, no subscription required ever.
Docker one-liner gets you from zero to recording in under five minutes. No Python environment setup, no dependency hell. Works on any Linux SBC with Docker — Raspberry Pi 4/5, Orange Pi, or x86.