The Wyze Cam v3 is finally available for purchase after a short launch-day website snafu, but that $20 launch price the company told us during our review hasn’t quite panned out — at least, not the way any of us thought it would. Right now, the only way to way to buy the camera is with a Cam Plus subscription, which can cost you almost twice as much, depending on how you do it. And when sales open more widely later, it still won’t be $20.
Right now, there are two ways to buy the Wyze Cam v3. Cam Plus subscribers already paying for a subscription can pick one up for $20 (plus $5 for shipping, as usual). Everyone else will need to either pay $35 (plus $5 for shipping) for a Wyze Cam v3 plus a year of Cam Plus, or you’ll need to subscribe to Cam Plus separately ($2 a month or $15 a year) and qualify for that $20 pricing. Additional cameras on top of the $35 price will only cost $20, so you can add one $35 camera to your cart and then load up on the $20 versions, and the Wyze Cam v3 does not need Cam Plus to work, so you can buy one for a friend or cancel your subscription after purchase.
If you think you can circumvent the Cam Plus requirement by buying another Wyze product with a Cam Plus trial, we’re told by the company that won’t work.
The product listing originally and misleadingly claimed that the $35 price included free shipping, but we’re told that was a “typo.”
Wyze claims this adjusted pricing is due to issues securing components and that things will change when supplies even out. But even then, we’re told that non-Plus subscribers won’t get the camera at the original $20 price the company claimed last year. The stabilized price for non-subscribers will be $24 (again, plus $5 shipping — see a trend?), though it will remain $20 for Cam Plus subscribers. This is even more frustrating when you consider pre-orders managed to get the real $20 price without being Cam Plus subscribers.
Jump to 0:41 for Wyze’s original claim that pricing wouldn’t change.
In short, Wyze’s original claims that the new camera wouldn’t raise prices over the prior version, which ran a flat $20 without any required subscriptions, are bunk. Customers either pay more right now by virtue of the mandatory cost of Cam Plus, or they pay more later at the higher $24 non-Cam Plus pricing. But no matter what, everyone pays more than the $20 the company originally claimed last year, and more than the $20 folks paid during the original pre-order period.
As an aside, I was on deck to pick up probably five of these for my new house, and while I’m totally fine paying more, the company’s efforts to lampshade this new, higher, overly-complicated pricing have me sketched out, and I’d rather not reward this behavior. I’ll buy something else for my house.
