14 Open Source Free NVR Solutions For Home and Business Security

Network Video Recorder

14 Open Source Free NVR Solutions For Home and Business Security
Photo by Siarhei Horbach / Unsplash

What is an NVR program?

An NVR or Network Video Recorder program is a part of a digital video surveillance system that allows recording CCTV through the network into a digital recorder.

As the market has many commercial and enterprise software, which are sometimes overpriced, here we offer you a list of open-source free NVR alternative solutions.

We published an article about open source CCTV systems which contains some complete NVR/ DVR systems, however, since many search for NVR systems, we compiled this list for you.

Yet, we have to note that some open source solutions are community based, and they offer community-based support, yet they also offer a pro and enterprise editions for businesses.

Open source solutions will help you maintain your control over your data, setup, configuration, without the need to register or subscribe to any third-party service.

However, you also can build your own CCTV/ NVR system using single board computers like Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, and others.

19 Open-source and Free IP Camera Software for Windows, Linux, macOS and Phone
IP Camera software is used for managing and monitoring IP cameras, which are digital video cameras that can send and receive data via the internet. IP Camera apps are software applications that allow users to access and control their IP cameras from a smartphone or tablet. One of the main

In this article, we offer you a collection of various open source free NVR solutions with different features. We highly recommend going through their features and documentation to pick up the right one that fits your requirement.

16 Open-source Projects to Build a CCTV System With Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi is still the most popular affordable SBC (Single Board Computer). It is used as the core in many of projects for education, healthcare, security, and IoT. In this post, we list the best Raspberry Pi project that will give good alternatives for anyone who want to build their

1- Camera UI

Camera UI is a free open-source NVR system that works as a self-hosted web-based system. It is easy to setup, configure and use, as it also comes with a dozen of useful features and multilingual support.

Camera UI Highlights

  • Live Streams on Web
  • Camview: A resizable, drag & drop camera overview
  • Web Application with almost full PWA support like push notification and more
  • Multi-language: Easily expandable multi-language support
  • Motion Detection via video analysis, MQTT, FTP, SMT or HTTP.
  • Image Rekognition via AWS Rekognition
  • Notifications via Alexa, Telegram, Webhook and WebPush
  • Snapshot/Video: Save recording of snapshots/videos locally when motion is detected
  • Prebuffering: See the seconds before the movement event
  • User Interface: Beautiful and with love designed interface with 8 different color themes, dark mode and more
  • HomeKit: Easily expose the cameras to Apple Home with HSV support
GitHub - seydx/camera.ui: NVR like user Interface for RTSP capable cameras
NVR like user Interface for RTSP capable cameras. Contribute to seydx/camera.ui development by creating an account on GitHub.

2- OS-NVR

OS-NVR is a free open-source CCTV NVR system with a light speed performance. It is written in the Go programming language and comes with a mobile-friendly user interface.

The project has been rewritten in Rust and renamed to SentryShot.

GitHub - OSNVR/OS-NVR: OS-NVR is a lightweight extensible CCTV system. Mirror of Codeberg.
OS-NVR is a lightweight extensible CCTV system. Mirror of Codeberg. - GitHub - OSNVR/OS-NVR: OS-NVR is a lightweight extensible CCTV system. Mirror of Codeberg.
GitHub - SentryShot/sentryshot: Video Management System. Mirror of Codeberg.
Video Management System. Mirror of Codeberg. Contribute to SentryShot/sentryshot development by creating an account on GitHub.

3- Viseron

Viseron is a web-based self-hosted NVR system with an artificial intelligence computer vision support. It is written primary in Python and comes with many useful features as motion detection, object detection, face recognition, and many more.

Viseron can also be installed on Raspberry Pi 3b+ and 4, also it supports Intel NUC and Linux machines with NVIDIA GPU.

GitHub - roflcoopter/viseron: Self-hosted, local only NVR and AI Computer Vision software. With features such as object detection, motion detection, face recognition and more, it gives you the power to keep an eye on your home, office or any other place you want to monitor.
Self-hosted, local only NVR and AI Computer Vision software. With features such as object detection, motion detection, face recognition and more, it gives you the power to keep an eye on your home…

4- Surveillance Center

Surveillance Center is a cross-platform open-source free web-based video surveillance system.

It accepts images using the built-in FTP server or via an external MQTT broker and has a web-based, mobile optimized interface to browse and manage surveillance snapshots.

While it offers a great mobile-friendly interface, and a set of a great features, it does not come with a built-in motion detection. However, you can use the built-in motion detection from your IP camera.

GitHub - 1element/sc: Surveillance Center is an open source, self-hosted, web-based video surveillance software.
Surveillance Center is an open source, self-hosted, web-based video surveillance software. - GitHub - 1element/sc: Surveillance Center is an open source, self-hosted, web-based video surveillance s…

5- Moonfire NVR

Moonfire NVR is an open-source security camera network video recorder, It saves H.264-over-RTSP streams from IP cameras to disk into a hybrid format. It requires little CPU and can also run on a Raspberry Pi 2 with 1080p/30fps streams.

GitHub - scottlamb/moonfire-nvr: Moonfire NVR, a security camera network video recorder
Moonfire NVR, a security camera network video recorder - GitHub - scottlamb/moonfire-nvr: Moonfire NVR, a security camera network video recorder

6- Simple NVR

This is a simple Network Video Recorder (NVR) that is designed to run on low-resource cheap hardware, such as a Raspberry Pi with a hard drive. 24/7 video streams from network cameras are saved, and the recorded files are browsable from a basic web interface.

Simple NVR requires FFmpeg installation, and minimal configuration.

GitHub - TomHumphries/simple-nvr: A simple Network Video Recorder written in Node.js and using ffmpeg
A simple Network Video Recorder written in Node.js and using ffmpeg - GitHub - TomHumphries/simple-nvr: A simple Network Video Recorder written in Node.js and using ffmpeg

7- Frigate

Frigate is a full CCTV NVR security system that uses real-time object detection. It can be used to decrease false positive alarms with local object detection. It also supports multiple cameras, zone detection, and many other features.

Frigate can integrate easily with your home automation system such as Home Assistant; the open-source home automation solution.

Frigate NVR
NVR with realtime local object detection for IP cameras

8- Feniks

Feniks is a free open-source NVR with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. It records your camera streams 24/7, supports 80 object detection including human body, and face, and allows developer to custom their own AI-based object and motion detection options.

Feniks can be installed natively on Linux systems, but it also can be installed on macOS and Windows with Docker/ Docker Compose.

GitHub - mehmetgoren/feniks: A computer based NVR (Network Video Recorder) with AI capabilities
A computer based NVR (Network Video Recorder) with AI capabilities - GitHub - mehmetgoren/feniks: A computer based NVR (Network Video Recorder) with AI capabilities

9- NVRJS

NVR JS is a simple, very lightweight and efficient CCTV NVR based on Node.js.
it's primarily aimed for 24/7 recording and live viewing.

Under the hood it uses the FFmpeg library, Node.js, Web Sockets and SQLite, all wrapped in a web based user interface. The NVR has an API that allows to create events and timestamp them on the 24/7 recordings.

The 24/7 recordings can be reviewed using a timeline UI where the events are also time aligned on that same timeline.

GitHub - marcus-j-davies/nvr-js: A simple, lightweight, but very functional NVR aimed at 24/7 recording using nodejs.
A simple, lightweight, but very functional NVR aimed at 24/7 recording using nodejs. - GitHub - marcus-j-davies/nvr-js: A simple, lightweight, but very functional NVR aimed at 24/7 recording using…

10- VigilantPI

Raspberry Pi
Photo by Jainath Ponnala / Unsplash

Vigilant is an NVR system for IP cameras, having mainly Raspberry Pi as target.

It can record any URL supported by FFmpeg. It provides some HTTP hooks that can be used to deal with IP camera's instabilities.

If you want to use Raspberry Pi as a surveillance system, we got you covered in this article that contain a collection of projects, documentation, scripts to help you build your Raspberry Pi CCTV/ NVR system.

GitHub - petersondmg/vigilantpi: VigilantPI is a lightweight NVR which targets mainly Raspberry Pi
VigilantPI is a lightweight NVR which targets mainly Raspberry Pi - GitHub - petersondmg/vigilantpi: VigilantPI is a lightweight NVR which targets mainly Raspberry Pi

11- Bluecherry

Bluecherry is a free open-source complete surveillance solution for Linux systems. It supports ONVIF, GPU motion detection, and IP cameras.

Bluecherry supports multiple users and comes with an easy installation script, and cross-platform clients.

The community edition is free and open source, but it supports only 4 cameras.

It works seamlessly on Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch Linux, and Manjaro.

Bluecherry
Powerful Video Surveillance Software

12- iSpy

iSpy is a complete DVR and NVR surveillance solution that supports wide range of cameras, multiple recording formats, large number of sensors for motion detections and more.

iSpy is a free system that offers agents for desktop, mobile, and the web. It is also ready to integrate with Amazon Alexa, Home Assistant, IFTTT, DeepStack AI, and many platforms.

From the download page, you can choose your favorite package for your platform of course: Linux, Docker, or Windows.

iSpy - Open source camera security software
iSpy - Open source camera security software. iSpy provides security, surveillance, motion detection, online access and remote control

13- Shinobi

Shinobi a complete straightforward lightweight web-based CCTV/ NVR solution that supports recording in MP4 and WebM formats, real-time streaming monitoring, and mobile recording.

It supports local USB cameras and IP cameras as well without the need for a complex configuration.

Shinobi offers two editions a community edition with is free and open source, and an enterprise Pro edition for businesses.

Shinobi

14- ZoneMinder

ZoneMinder is an industrial grade open source full surveillance system for home, office, companies, factories, and farms. It comes with a scalable NVR/ DVR, developer-friendly API, and a great mobile/ desktop app that put the whole system under your control.

Best 20 Free Open-source CCTV, NVR and DVR solutions
CCTV or closed-circuit television system makes use of camera networks and monitor to watch and monitor of interior and exterior of a property. Companies, museums, art galleries, and houses are using CCTV networks for video surveillance and security. There are dozens of commercial CCTV software pa…
13 Free Open Source CCTV and Camera Surveillance Solutions [2022]
Building a security surveillance system for home or business security, often cost a large sum of money, that include hardware, software, setup, and maintenance. Security surveillance software solutions like CCTV systems, IP camera monitoring programs, DVR apps and NVR apps, are regularly commercial…

Wrap-up

Open source NVR solutions is an ideal for home, business and industrial security.They are cost-effective, scalable, feature-rich, and community-supported.

Yet, they may require a certain technical skill level for the setup and installation process.

If you know of any other open source free NVR software that we did not list here, let us know, and we will gladly add it to our list.








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