&gt; <i>a cloud-based recording service</i><p>Well, there&#x27;s the rub, right?  I think what those of us who consider themselves self-hosting partisans would say is that we&#x27;d prefer a device that allows us to send its signals to a server we own and operate.  The recording and image recognition would then occur on that server.<p>In my ideal world, Dropcam (and later Nest) would have provided software I could install on my own server (located either on my home network or at a data center).  I know that sounds like a far-fetched dream, but that&#x27;s the ideal I want, and I will pay twice as much or more for devices that recognize the emergent demand for self-management.<p>I have a Dropcam, and I enjoyed using it for a while.  But I stopped using my Dropcam about a year ago because I grew increasingly unhappy with the idea of its video stream being sent to an untrusted third-party (Dropcam and later Google&#x2F;Nest).  Since there is no &quot;self-service&quot; mode for Dropcams, it has become a decoration in my house.