Webcams are very common nowadays and most, if not all modern laptops come with one built-in at the top center above the screen. It can be used for a lot of different purposes such as making a video call (chatting, demonstration, conference, webinar), taking pictures of yourself and even logging in to a computer using face recognition. A webcam can also be used as a surveillance camera by installing the correct software and configuring it to automatically record videos, notify you via email and perform custom actions when a motion is detected. This allows you to setup a powerful home based CCTV to monitor a section of your home which is most likely a source of break-ins without spending unnecessary money to install an expensive complete home surveillance system.

ISpy provides security, surveillance, motion detection, online access and remote control. ISpyPRO monitoring multiple video sources. Security Monitor Pro 5.49 Launching a Program when an Alert occurs. The Launch Program action lets you extend Security Monitor Pro to meet a specific requirement. You can run any program or a script when Security Monitor Pro detects a motion, which lets you to perform any action that you can program the computer to handle.

There’s a number of software applications that can turn your computer and webcam into a surveillance system, each has its own pros and cons with different features. There are some that are difficult to configure which are meant for more advanced users while there are also user friendly ones that are lightweight. Below you can find our recommended list of 12 free webcam monitoring software based on your needs.

1. Camera Viewer Pro

Camera Viewer Pro is one of the best in terms of usability and system resource usage. It comes with the right balance of features which makes the program easy to use and configure. Moreover, normally a video surveillance software will constantly hog the CPU but Camera Viewer Pro is very intelligent and uses merely 0%-1% of the CPU during monitoring.

The only thing that you may want to change in the settings after adding a camera is the Frame Rate which by default is 1. A higher FPS gives a smoother recording but you’ll need to decrease the sensitivity level by lowering the threshold level. The only drawback on Camera Viewer Pro is that the official website is no longer accessible which means that the development has stopped. It was last updated in April 2013 and fortunately works perfectly in Windows 8.

Download Camera Viewer Pro

2. ContaCam

ContaCam is another free video surveillance software that is just as good as Camera Viewer Pro. It has all the necessary features to turn your computer into a CCTV system but the scheduler is a bit limited where you get to specify only one range of time frame per day for motion detection recording.

Do take note that by default ContaCam saves the recording as a SWF animation for motion detection. It is very rare for a video surveillance software to use SWF format for recording because of the 16,000 frame limit. That would mean you only get to record nearly 9 minutes of video if you set it to use 30 frames per second. You can of course change it to AVI at the Movement Detection tab in “Device Settings”.

Download ContaCam

3. Genius Vision NVR Community Edition (CmE)

Genius Vision NVR is an enterprise-grade IP camera recording shareware originated from Taiwan. They offer a free version called the Community Edition with full functionality but it has a limit of 16-channels with 4-channel intelligent video which is mostly enough for non-commercial use.

Out of all the video surveillance software listed on this page, Genius Vision NVR CmE is the most difficult to use and configure because of the different terms that are being used on the program. For example, the motion detector is called the “Video Analytics”. The online user manual documentation is not much of a help either. The graphical user interface (GUI) looks a bit dated like it has been made for Windows 98/2000. We experienced a few crashes when testing out this software.

Download Genius Vision NVR Community Edition (CmE)

4. iSpy

iSpy is an open source camera security software that comes with a huge list of features including audio monitoring which is rarely found in video surveillance software. Because of its rich set of features, there are many scenarios and uses of iSpy such as monitoring a sleeping baby, machinery, nanny, pets, staff and etc.

iSpy is a good example that not all open source software is fully functional. Although iSpy comes with a huge list of features, there are some very basic functions such as remote access streaming and email alerts that are only available for paid subscribers. Furthermore, there is an annoyance in playback where by default it plays in iSpy which requires you to sign up for a free iSpy account when all it does in the end is play using your default media player.

Download iSpy

5. Netcam Studio

From the creators of the popular WebcamXP and Webcam 7, Moonware Studios have developed a new product that is similar to their previous webcam software except using a new architecture and graphical user interface for better performance. You can expect a huge list of supported and pre-configured network cameras to make configuration easier. If you are looking for a video surveillance software that is packed with features, Netcam Studio is the answer. Apart from the common features found in a video surveillance software, Netcam Studio has audio detection, license plate recognition, sync recordings to Cloud and NAS.

Do note that Netcam Studio is still in beta and we’ve encountered problems during installation itself, but managed to get it installed by custom installing one module at a time. Both .NET Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2012 C++ redistributable are required by Netcam Studio. The free version embeds a non-intrusive watermark of the Netcam Studio logo at the bottom of the recorded video which blends in nicely with the time overlay.

Download Netcam Studio

6. Rear View Mirror

Instead of a full featured camera surveillance software, Rear View Mirror is a pretty simple one with its own unique feature where the window of the monitored camera only shows up when motion is detected. It can also be configured to enable sound alert playing your favorite .wav file and record a video on motion alert.

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Despite not having a lot of security camera features, Rear View Mirror uses up quite a lot of CPU power ranging from 17%-20% when tested with only 1 webcam.

Download Rear View Mirror

7. SecureCam2

The SecureCam2 installer size is the smallest at only 343KB but it has all the necessary basic features for a security camera software. You can find the ability to manually record or automatically record based on schedule, detect motion, embed a text overlay to frames and a web server for online streaming. It also includes a player to play the MJPG recordings.

The only limitation in SecureCam2 is it only supports up to 4 cameras. A donation to the software author will increase the limit to support 100 simultaneous cameras.

Download SecureCam2

Go to page 2 to continue viewing the remaining video surveillance software and also the features comparison table.

12Next › View All

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The products listed above have been developed for a very long time and look outdated.
I am using “Home Security Camera” free software.

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Check Camlytics Camera Analytics at camlytics.com

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Sight hound Video does not have Motion detection in free program anymore!

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23/july/2017, I just checked the security eye web site, it is not free. why are you saying it is 100% free ?

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The commenter either didn’t bother to check the subject of this article or is trying to spam…

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I’ve just visited website and downloaded Security Eye. And, it seems, it’s really free…

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Security eye for the win!

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f security eye it suks and not free at all

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The information is useful, but it is already outdated. It would be nice to update and add to the review AnyCam, Ksenos and Macroscope.

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Motion detector doesn’t work in Camera Viewer Pro

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Very Purposeful Post, Currently Working on my Productivity Monitoring Setup and this information was Helpful.
#ProperPerspective #DivineFriendship #777adventures

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Hello,
Very informative post. Thank you for sharing.

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You can also convert emailed notifications into SMS using ifttt.com for free. You may be limited to a max number of SMSes per month (10 at the time I posted this). But you can also install the ifttt app on your phone and have it send you unlimited notifications via the app. ifttt can be leveraged in so many other ways. it is an excellent service if you are moving towards automating your home and everything.

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AtHome is pretty good, if really basic. Webcams are monitored by your phone app. Great if you only need to stream to one phone only.
I used to use skype on auto answer but it no longer works since the last update.

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I am writing an alternative to ZoneMinder in Node.js. It is called Shinobi. So far it is pretty barebones. It records video to webm and streams over websocket. I have found other apps like NodeMinder but i couldn’t get them to run properly…

So i made this. I want to share since it is open source and free to use.

Would be swell if you guys could give me your thoughts/opinions.

You can view the github page here

moeiscool.github.io/Shinobi/

Enjoy!

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I tried all these tools. But i could not found the FREE program which:
1) Sends sms alerts.
2) Allows remote access (via browser).
So I have spent several days before I finally found the software that meets my needs: Security Eye.
It’s really 100% free and it has all features of commercial (or “professional”) versions of video monitoring products.

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Thanks Alex i just download Security Eye and it works like a charm

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Second this motion: Security Eye has done what I needed in a very simplistic manner. Free and great. Security Eye should have absolutely made this list.

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where can i download this? how many cams can i connect also? thanks!

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This software does not do any of these things without purchase of the PROFESSIONAL product .

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Yeah, Security Eye is not free. Won’t do anything really until you buy the pro version.

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Contacam found 3 of my cameras and starting recording easily. However, Contacam apparently doesn’t recognize 264 cameras. It found 3 of mine, but not the N.264 one. There is a workaround, but cumbersome. Also, getting motion detection to work is hard. Sighthound could not find any of the cameras.

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for iSpyConnect, it comes with a system of video analysis plug-ins, which are available here iplugs.eu
they provide a VERY efficient plug-in (activity tracker plug-in) to detect intruders without a ton of false alarms

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Which software has App. for smartphone as Android, iOS…?

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At first glance, Camera Viewer Pro worked for my webcam and looks pretty good.
But it installed into a quite bizarre directory without giving any option otherwise – kind of annoying :
Installed here :
C:UsersKentAppDataLocalApps2.044YRC6JX.8P3VW1KXEA5.Q26came.tion_33c0d162bad62362_0001.0002_7e0dc4504937fc92

Nevertheless thanks for the very comprehensive and helpful review of the apps available.

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You should check out kerberos.io as well :) It’s great and easy to install.

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Does anyone know if any of the listed programs provide CCTV diagnostics and system failure reporting?

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I’m surprised to not see BlueIris on this list. Its not perfect, but its a very popular surveillance system

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SecureCam2 does images (up to 15,000 in 1 calender day) as well as video. I’ve been using it for 5 years or so for home sur. Donated the $5, never heard a peep, been promising SC3 for 4 years or more … 12oclocksoftware IIRC.

nice article

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Yes, I had a knowledge about it but its great to get to know details about it. Thanks for sharing

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It seemed that the Camera Viewer Pro seemed to want to download something from the defunct website in order to install. I manually installed it and got it running, but the web services would not start. Later when starting, it just refused to display anything on the screen. It would show up in task manager though.

I next tried Netcam Studio and found it to be fairly awesome and they even have and Android app.

Thanks for this helpful write-up Raymond.CC.Blog!

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I found a interesting project recently, it’s called Kerberos.io. You can install it on a Raspberry Pi, and it takes images when motion has been detected. Everything can be configured by using a web interface. It looks fancy aswell.

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Which one of these programs is best to send a alert to my cell phone by email with pic from snap shot of camera .

This is good stuff
Thanks
I have Windows 7 and Windows 8

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Thanks a lot for sharing.
We’re the best ip camera:)

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Genius Vision works really well. I certainly did not find setting up too difficult. I’m running a number of cameras over a wireless network for a community safety project monitoring routes criminals use.

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I was searching for this in internet and fabulous to find this great information here, the feature comparison table gives me fairly good idea, I hope all these software work nice with Win 8.1 and also in future can I read similar article on Android phone camera surveillance.

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a very useful one….

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Installed the webcam with your guide and it works great.
I have it looking at a room and at 85% sens and 30% tolerance I get some shadow alarms in the morning, but that is ok. I put a attractive box where the camera can see it. I just check the last image in the email and if the container is how it should be and the drawers on the hutch are all in, I’m confident that it is a shadow alarm. I might play with the settings a little more, but satisfied.

Note: it is not a video (obviously), so even if it shoots as fast as it can, if the person does not pause in view you might miss them. Put something attractive to make them pause in view.

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House was broken into today. We live in an active neighborhood and two neighbors were home but did not see anything. Dash and Grab, cash and gold only. Thanks Cash4Gold for fencing goods, I guess it makes the dvd, computer, etc too much of a hassle when they can safely fence gold no problem.

Fixing door tomorrow and installing webcam with this plan.
The FTP works well if in near real time so it can upload pic before they steal the computer. assuming they come back for the stuff the saw while here the first time.

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Ray,
Well done, as usual sir.

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Very nice tutorial, will come handy.

Thanks

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Great for away vacations. Thanks!

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Nice one Raymond – thank you for an excellent article.

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thanks works great i get free email-to-text with telus in canada :)

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I’ve been waiting for this kind of program for a while thanks so much!!!

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thanks for the info Mr Raymond
Peace.

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Only a geek like you can only post this article.
very nice one.

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Thanks Raymond for your very useful info. . . more power…

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yeah i have heard about it but such a detailed and wonderful tutorial; thanks raymond

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Thank’s Ray,I have Logitech Pro for notebook webcam.I tried this motion detector software

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Very good…

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Thanks this will work well with AT&T as they offer their own email-to-text service for free.

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Very detail tutorial on setup webcam as motion detector. I believe it will reduce the burglar happens if everyone take it seriously. Thanks for great sharing.

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That’s Great Raymond :-)

Thank you very very much

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