Skip to content
Live monitoring — (702) 874-8777

Comparisons

12-hour vs. 24-hour camera monitoring: which does your site need?

A decision framework based on exposure hours, staffing, and what sits outside — plus what each window costs.

5 min read

Start with exposure, not with the price

The right window is the number of hours your property is genuinely unwatched or vulnerable. For most commercial sites that is the closed overnight block. For retail, dealerships, and multifamily, exposure runs straight through the business day.

Overnight monitoring is $24.99 per camera, per month. 24-hour continuous monitoring is quoted per site, because daytime traffic and business-hours escalation rules vary far too much for a flat rate to be honest.

12-hour overnight monitoring

  • Covers the closed, unstaffed window where most commercial loss occurs
  • Best fit: job sites, contractor yards, warehouses, industrial bays, offices
  • Published rate: $24.99 per camera, per month
  • Delivers overnight event clips you can review in the morning

24-hour continuous monitoring

  • Covers every hour, including business hours
  • Best fit: retail, dealerships, multifamily, sites with constant dock traffic
  • Adds daytime theft, loitering, and safety response
  • Quoted per site based on camera count, traffic, and escalation rules

Questions that usually settle it

If you answered yes to two or more, daytime coverage is likely worth quoting. If your property is genuinely staffed and observed during the day, overnight monitoring usually does the job.

  • Is your valuable inventory outside while your staff are inside?
  • Have incidents happened during business hours, or only after close?
  • Does the public have daytime access to your lot or perimeter?
  • Would a daytime incident create a serious liability problem?
  • Is anyone actually watching cameras during the day today?

You can start narrow and expand

Most properties begin with the overnight window on the cameras that matter most, then adjust once they can see their own event log. Coverage hours and camera count are both easy to change; guessing high on day one is not required.

Questions

Quick answers

Can different cameras have different coverage hours?
Coverage is set up around how your property is used, and that is part of what the assessment defines. Tell us which views need daytime attention and which only matter after close.
Which window is more common?
The 12-hour overnight window, because most commercial losses happen when nobody is on site.
Why is 24-hour monitoring not a published price?
Because it depends on camera count, how busy the site is during the day, and what you want agents to do during business hours. Publishing a single number would be misleading.

Next step

Put this on your own property

A free assessment covers camera placement, which views are worth monitoring, and an exact monthly number.

Get a free security assessment for your property

Tell us about your site and we will build a deterrence plan that fits it — monitoring starts at $24.99 per camera, per month.

Call nowFree assessment