IP Camera Software for Windows, Free Versions Included
Four programs that record network cameras on a Windows PC: what each costs, how many cameras the free versions allow and what your camera must support.
Agent DVR records as many network cameras as your PC can handle and costs nothing for private use on your own network, so it suits a house or a flat. It runs on 64-bit Windows 10 or later. Blue Iris is the pay-once alternative, at $99.95 for up to 128 cameras or $39.95 for a single camera.
One rule before anything else: only record cameras you own or have permission to monitor.
Price and camera limit of each program
| Software | Price | Camera limit | Connects to | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agent DVR | Free for private local use. From $7.95 a month for remote access or business use | None | IP cameras, ONVIF, RTSP, USB webcams | 64-bit Windows 10 or later. Also macOS, Linux |
| Blue Iris | $99.95, or $39.95 for the one-camera LE licence. 15-day free evaluation | 128, or 1 on LE | Network IP cameras, webcams, analog capture cards | 64-bit Windows 10 or later |
| Xeoma | Free edition. Lite $15 a camera, Standard from $9.20 a camera | Free: watch any number, record 2. Lite: 4 | Network cameras. The maker recommends ONVIF models | Windows, Linux, macOS, Android |
| ContaCam | Free, with a requested $10 donation per installation | None | RTSP or MJPEG network cameras, webcams | Windows 7 to 11 |
Whichever you choose, the PC has to stay on for as long as you want it recording.
Agent DVR: free for private use
Agent DVR is made by iSpyConnect. It replaced the company’s older Windows program, iSpy, which the site says is no longer actively developed. It runs in the background as a Windows service, and you use it through a web browser on the same PC. It is also the closest free alternative to Blue Iris.
The site says it works with IP cameras, ONVIF devices, RTSP streams and USB webcams, and that the only limit on camera numbers is your hardware. Local recording, motion detection and playback are in the free version.
What costs money is everything beyond your own network. Remote access, the phone apps and push notifications need a subscription, which starts at $7.95 a month, and so does any business use. The download page adds that HD video also needs a licence, so read the pricing table before you settle on it.
Blue Iris: pay once
Blue Iris, from Perspective Software, is a Windows program now at version 6. The full licence is $99.95 and handles up to 128 cameras. The LE licence is $39.95 and handles one. There is a 15-day free evaluation, and the site asks you to use it before buying: once activated, a licence is normally non-refundable.
It takes network cameras, webcams and analog capture cards, records on motion or continuously, and has a built-in web server for watching from a browser or its phone apps. Version 6 has AI detection built in, where earlier versions relied on a separate program.
The price includes a year of updates and email support. Extending that costs $44.95 a year on auto-renewal, or $49.95 for a single year.
On the PC side, it asks for at least a recent Intel processor, 8GB of RAM and 64-bit Windows 10. The recommended set-up is Windows 11, 1GB of RAM for each high-resolution camera, and fast hard drives or SSDs for the recordings. Copies you want kept off that PC can go to a home cloud storage box on your network.
Xeoma: a free edition with limits
Xeoma, from Felenasoft, runs on Windows, Linux, macOS and Android, with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows downloads. We found no stated minimum hardware. Its free edition lets you watch any number of cameras but records only two, keeps recordings for five days and offers no remote access except through Xeoma’s separate Repeater service. It needs no licence and has no time limit, which suits one or two cameras on an older PC.
Paid licences are bought once, per camera. Lite is $15 a camera with a ceiling of four cameras on one PC. Standard runs from $9.20 to $33 a camera and Pro from $27.60 to $99, cheaper per camera the more you buy. Standard and Pro include a year of updates. Lite includes none.
ContaCam: small and open source
ContaCam is a Windows-only program written by one developer, with its source code published under the GPL. It is donationware: free to use, with a request for $10 per installation and a no-donation notice in the program until you give.
It supports Windows 7 through 11, connects to network cameras over RTSP or MJPEG, and sets no limit on the number of cameras. Its maker describes it as light enough for modest machines, so it is the other choice for an older PC. Its feature list does not mention ONVIF, so have your camera’s RTSP address ready.
The sum for a shop or office
Do the sum first. Agent DVR’s business subscription at $7.95 a month comes to $95.40 a year. On Blue Iris, commercial use is ticked only against the commercial licence, which at $39.95 a month comes to $479.40. Four Xeoma Lite licences cost $60, once.
Will your camera connect?
Two names decide whether a camera will work with any of this software. ONVIF is an industry standard, founded by Axis, Bosch and Sony, that lets cameras and software from different makers work together. Its Profile S covers basic video streaming, and Profile T adds H.265 video and motion events. A camera listed with either should connect to software that supports the same profile. RTSP is the plainer route: the camera publishes a stream address and the software reads it.
Many cloud cameras offer neither. ContaCam’s maker warns that some producers limit their cameras to their own apps, and that without RTSP no outside program can connect. Look for ONVIF or RTSP in a camera’s specification before you buy it.
Two free tools help when a camera will not connect, and Blue Iris’s own site points to both. ONVIF Device Manager is an open-source Windows program that finds the ONVIF cameras on your network. VLC can open a camera’s RTSP address directly: choose Media, then Open Network Stream, and paste the address in. A live view of one camera and nothing more needs only VLC or Windows’ own camera settings.
What Windows does on its own
Windows can show a network camera with nothing extra installed. Microsoft’s documentation says Windows 10 and 11 can connect to cameras on the local network that follow the ONVIF Profile S standard. In Windows 11, open Settings, then Bluetooth & devices, then Cameras, and choose Search for cameras. Once it is added, the camera shows up in any camera app the way a webcam does.
There are conditions. The camera and the PC must be on the same network subnet, and the stream has to be H.264 or MJPEG. Microsoft’s page covers connecting and viewing. It does not mention motion detection, recording schedules or alerts, and those are what the programs above are for.
Other names you may come across
Ivideon Server is still a download on Ivideon’s site and works through an Ivideon account, with the newest version on the downloads page dating from 2024. ZoneMinder is a Linux program: its installation guide covers Ubuntu, Debian and Red Hat, and Windows only through the Windows Subsystem for Linux. C-MOR is sold by its German maker as a virtual machine or a ready-built appliance, in sizes from 3 to 15 cameras.
Sighthound now calls Sighthound Video legacy software that no longer gets regular updates. Genius Vision is still offered, with a Community Edition that is free for non-commercial use, though its pages carry no release dates, so we could not tell how current it is. Freedom VMS is still published by its Australian maker, for CCTV systems built around separate recorders. We could not find a maker’s site for Sentry Vision, Rear View Mirror or SecureCam 2.
Milestone’s free XProtect Essential+ is no longer on Milestone’s product pages, where the range now starts at the Express+ edition. Frigate is open source, but its documentation says Windows is not officially supported.
