Your cameras.
Your hardware.
Your footage.

No. All footage stays on your machine. What uses the internet: a license and update check (always), plus — only if you enable them — crash reports, remote access, and Telegram alerts. Never your video or your data.

No. There's a free Community tier, a pay-once Pro Forever option, and yearly plans — your choice. No monthly fee to watch your own cameras.

Pro Forever is a one-time purchase — a perpetual license that never expires and is never remotely disabled. It includes all updates for your current major version plus at least 3 future major releases. After that, keep getting the latest updates for an optional €29.99/year — or just keep using the version you have, forever, at no further cost. Pro Forever is a launch offer: it's on sale only during Calyston's first year — once it retires, the paid options are Pro (yearly) and Founder while seats last. Buying it locks in your license forever; only the ability to buy goes away. (Want every future version free, forever, with no renewal? That's the Founder Edition.)

Any IP camera on your network that exposes an RTSP or ONVIF stream (H.264 or H.265) — most security cameras do. Wired/PoE is best for 24/7; Wi-Fi RTSP cameras work too. Cloud-locked cameras (Ring, Nest, Wyze and similar) only talk to their own app and can't be recorded by Calyston — or any local NVR. See our camera buyer's guide.

Any Linux machine running Debian 12/13 or Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 — a mini-PC, an old desktop, a NAS VM, or a homelab server. If you're buying something for it: a small Intel mini-PC (an N100, or any 8th-gen+ desktop chip) comfortably records and motion-detects a handful of cameras.

Everything runs locally on your machine — nothing is analyzed in a cloud. The standard detection model runs fine on a modern CPU, because detection only wakes up when motion is seen, not on every frame. Many Intel machines can run even the larger, more accurate models on their built-in GPU — our reference box handles 8 cameras with AI on a 13th-gen desktop i5, no graphics card added. For the biggest models, any recent NVIDIA card works. You pick the model in the dashboard and can change it anytime.

Yes — on every plan, for free. Calyston pairs with Tailscale to give you a direct, end-to-end encrypted connection to your own server — no port-forwarding, no exposing your network, and your video never touches anyone's cloud, including ours.

Yes — natively. Point Calyston at your MQTT broker (four fields in Settings) and every camera appears in Home Assistant automatically as a device with motion, person, vehicle and animal sensors, availability, and a last-detection snapshot. No YAML on either side, and the bridge is free on every tier. Read how it works.

There's a 30-day money-back guarantee, and after a yearly plan lapses you get a 30-day grace period (it keeps working, with reminders). Then it gently reverts to free Community — nothing is ever deleted.

No. A one-line install, then a built-in scanner finds the cameras on your network and you add them with a click. No config files to hand-edit.