Combien coûte une licence Synology Surveillance Station ?
License cost for Synology Surveillance Station: live prices for the 1, 4 and 8-camera packs, the per-camera maths, and the two channels every NAS already includes free.
The short answer is that the license cost depends on one number: how many cameras you want recording, minus the two licenses your NAS already came with. The software itself is free, there is no subscription, and nothing expires.
What follows is the current price of each pack, the per-camera maths so you can see whether a bigger pack actually saves anything, and the handful of things that quietly change the total. Every price on this page is pulled live from our store rather than typed in, so it cannot drift out of date the way a written-down figure does.
The mistake we see most often is people budgeting for cameras they do not need to license. Every Synology NAS ships with two device licenses already included, and DVA-series units include eight. A four-camera house on a DS923+ needs to buy two channels, not four. Do that subtraction before you look at any price list, because it is the difference between a small purchase and a pointless one.
SynoPower Club — Remarques sur la vente de licences Surveillance Station
Table des matières
What a Surveillance Station License Cost Actually Buys
A Synology device license buys one recording channel into Surveillance Station on your own NAS. It is not tied to a brand of camera, it is not a subscription, and it does not expire. One license lets one more camera record; that is the whole product.
Three things people expect to pay for are already included, and they account for most of the confusion around the license cost:
- The software is free. Surveillance Station is a package you install from Package Center at no charge.
- Viewing is free. The desktop and mobile clients cost nothing and consume no licenses, no matter how many people use them.
- Two channels are free. Every NAS includes two device licenses; DVA-series models include eight.
So you only reach a price list when your camera count exceeds what the hardware already covers. Anything beyond that is a one-time purchase per channel.
License Cost Today: 1, 4 and 8-Camera Packs
Three pack sizes are sold, and between them they cover any license cost you are likely to face. The figures below are live from our store and shown in your own currency, so they reflect whatever is current today including any discount that happens to be running.
| Paquet | Channels | Price now | List price | Par caméra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLP1 | 1 | US $62.10 | US $69.00 | US $62.10 |
| CLP4 | 4 | US $243.43 | US $276.63 | US $60.86 |
| CLP8 | 8 | US $481.89 | US $553.89 | US $60.24 |
Packs are additive, so you combine them freely. Eleven extra channels is an 8-pack plus a 4-pack, or an 8-pack plus three singles — whichever works out cheaper on the day. There is no penalty for ending up with a spare channel, and a spare is often worth having.
Start From Two: The Free Licenses You Already Own
Before any purchase, subtract what the hardware gave you. Every Synology NAS includes two device licenses at no cost, and DVA-series models include eight. Those are full licenses, not a trial.
| Your setup | Appareils photo | Gratuit | Need to buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front door and back garden on a DS223 | 2 | 2 | Rien |
| Four cameras on a DS923+ | 4 | 2 | 2 channels |
| Six cameras plus a spare phone on a DS1821+ | 7 | 2 | 5 channels |
| Ten cameras on a DVA1622 | 10 | 8 | 2 channels |
That last row is why DVA-series units are worth a second look if you are buying hardware at the same time: six extra free channels is a real part of the license cost equation, not a rounding error.
The counting rule catches people out in one specific way. A phone used as a camera consumes a channel, because it is a source: La LiveCam Synology transforme un vieux téléphone en appareil photo. A phone used to watch cameras does not, because it is only a viewer: Synology DS cam is the mobile client.
Working Out What You Need in 4 Steps
Four steps to your actual license cost, and the arithmetic is deliberately boring. The only judgement call is the last one.
Count every device that will record, not every device you own
List the cameras that will actually send video to the NAS. Include any phone you intend to run as a camera, because that consumes a channel exactly like a fixed camera. Do not include phones, tablets or computers used only for watching, and do not include cameras you are thinking about but have not bought.
Subtract the free licenses your NAS already has
Two on almost every Synology NAS, eight on DVA-series models. Check the license screen in Surveillance Station rather than trusting memory, because it also shows anything already allocated. What is left after the subtraction is the number of channels you actually need to buy.
Choose the pack combination that covers that number
Packs come in one, four and eight channels and stack freely, so any total is reachable. Compare the combinations on price rather than assuming the largest pack is automatically the best value, because the per-camera difference between sizes is smaller than most people expect.
Decide whether to buy a spare channel now
This is the judgement call. Installations grow, and an unused channel costs nothing to hold. If a fourth camera is plausible within a year, rounding up to the next pack size is usually cheaper than buying a single later. If it is not plausible, buy exactly what you need.
License Cost Per Camera: Do Bigger Packs Save Money?
Yes, but less than people assume, and it is worth being honest about the size of the saving. Compare the per-camera column in the price table above: the 8-pack is cheaper per channel than the 4-pack, which is cheaper than a single, but the gap between them is a few percent rather than the bulk discount the pack sizes imply. On a small system the license cost barely moves between pack sizes.
The practical consequence is that buying a larger pack to save money is usually the wrong reason. Buying a larger pack because you will genuinely use the channels is the right one. Paying for four channels to use two does not save anything — it spends more.
Where the larger packs do earn their place is growth. If you know a site is going from four cameras to eight over the next year, the 8-pack removes a second purchase, a second activation and a second piece of admin. That convenience is worth more than the few percent on the unit price.
One-Time License Cost, Not a Subscription
This is the part that separates the total cost from every cloud camera system, and it is the reason the arithmetic above is the whole arithmetic.
- No monthly fee. A license is bought once. There is no per-camera monthly charge and no annual renewal.
- No expiry. Activated licenses stay valid. There is no date to diary and no service that stops working.
- No charge for software updates. Surveillance Station updates are free for the life of the product.
- No cloud storage bill. Recordings land on your own disks, so storage costs what disks cost, once.
- Licenses move with you. Replace the NAS and the licenses transfer; they are not welded to the hardware they were first activated on.
So a three-year total for a Synology system is the license cost plus the hardware plus electricity. For a subscription system it is the monthly fee multiplied by thirty-six, per camera, and it keeps going. That gap is the actual argument for on-premises recording, and it widens every year you keep the system.
What Changes Your License Cost, and What Does Not
A few things genuinely move the license cost, and several things people worry about do not.
| Changes the total | Does not change it |
|---|---|
| More cameras recording | More people watching |
| A phone used as a camera (LiveCam) | A phone used as a viewer (DS cam) |
| Choosing a NAS with more free licenses | Which desktop or mobile client you use |
| Storage for longer retention | Camera brand or resolution |
| Cameras with built-in licenses (some Synology models) | Number of NAS users or accounts |
Two entries deserve a note. Some Synology cameras ship with their own license included, which removes a channel from your purchase — worth checking on the model before you buy. And retention is a storage question rather than a license one: recording for ninety days instead of seven costs disks, not channels.
For the wider picture of how Surveillance Station fits together before you commit to a camera count, start here: Surveillance Station : le système de sécurité tout-en-un intégré à chaque NAS Synology.
Why Cheap Keys Are Not a Saving
Search for the price and you will find listings well below the figures above. They are worth understanding rather than simply avoiding, because the reason their license cost looks low is also the reason they fail.
A Synology device license registers against your NAS and your Synology Account. A key from a keygen, a marketplace listing with no named seller, or a bundle resold from elsewhere either fails that registration outright or fails it later, during an update or a migration, with nobody to go back to. The full reasoning is here: Pourquoi les packs de licences officiels Synology sont le bon choix.
The practical test is simple: if you cannot identify who you are buying from and what happens when the key does not activate, the discount is not a discount. Genuine licenses are also transferable between NAS units, which is worth considerably more over a system’s life than the difference in purchase price.
Où trouver plus de ressources officielles
Three walkthroughs of Surveillance Station itself — useful context for what the licenses are unlocking, rather than pricing videos.
License Cost Mistakes That Catch People Out
Counting cameras you have not bought. Licenses are cheap to add later and packs stack, so there is no advantage in licensing a camera that is still hypothetical. Buy for the cameras going up this month.
Forgetting the two free channels. It is the single most common overspend, and it is entirely avoidable by opening the license screen before opening a price list.
Assuming bigger packs are dramatically cheaper. They are slightly cheaper per channel. Sizing up for growth is sound; sizing up purely for the unit price rarely pays for itself.
Établir un budget pour les téléspectateurs. Desktop and mobile clients are free and license-free. Nobody needs a license to look at a camera.
Overlooking retention. The license lets a camera record; the disks decide how long that recording survives. A cheap license plan on a full volume is a system that quietly keeps nothing.
Buying offline without a plan. If the NAS has no internet connection, activation still works, but only from specific clients and with an extra step. Know that before the install day: activating Synology Surveillance licenses offline.
Références
- Pack de licences pour dispositifs de surveillance — page produit officielle
- Licence — Centre de connaissances Surveillance Station
- How do I add surveillance device licenses? — Synology Knowledge Center
- Spécifications techniques Surveillance Station
- Solution de surveillance Synology — présentation officielle
Questions fréquemment posées
How much does a Synology camera license cost?
The license cost depends on the pack size, and the current figures for the 1, 4 and 8-camera packs are in the price table above, shown in your own currency and pulled live from our store. A license is a one-time purchase per recording channel, with no subscription and no expiry.
How many Surveillance Station licenses are free?
Two on almost every Synology NAS, and eight on DVA-series models. They are full licenses rather than a trial, so a two-camera installation typically costs nothing in licensing at all.
Is Surveillance Station free?
The software is free to install and free to update, and it comes with two device licenses. You pay only when the number of cameras recording exceeds the free channels your NAS included.
Does Synology Surveillance Station require a subscription?
No. Device licenses are bought once and do not expire, software updates are free, and recordings live on your own storage rather than in a paid cloud. There is no recurring charge of any kind.
Is an 8-camera pack cheaper than two 4-camera packs?
Per channel the license cost is slightly lower on larger packs, but the difference is a few percent rather than a steep bulk discount. Choose the size that matches the cameras you will actually run, and treat the unit-price saving as a tiebreaker rather than a reason.
Do I need a license for each person who views the cameras?
No. Viewing is free on every client. A license pays for a camera recording into Surveillance Station, not for the people watching, so you can put the apps on as many phones and computers as you like.
Can I move a license to a different NAS later?
Yes. Synology device licenses are perpetual and transferable, so replacing or upgrading the NAS does not mean rebuying. That portability is also why keys from unidentifiable sellers are a poor trade.
Do Synology cameras need a license too?
Some Synology camera models include a license of their own, which removes a channel from what you need to buy. Check the specific model before ordering, because it changes the arithmetic.
Ready to work out your own license cost? The pack pages carry the current price and deliver the key on screen and by email, around the clock: 1-Caméra, 4 caméras et 8-Caméra. The step-by-step version of the subtraction, with screenshots, is in the buying guide, and the other Synology license types are compared here: Packs et plans de licence Synology.