If you're looking to beef up your home security, Amazon's Ring brand offers a solid range of smart security cameras, video doorbells, and security systems. However, to get the most out of your Ring products, you'll need to get Ring Protect, a subscription plan that unlocks extra features and capabilities for your security cameras and video doorbells.

Buying a Ring Protect plan isn't a requirement for using your Ring products. Rather it's an optional upgrade that provides extra protection and perks for a fixed monthly or yearly fee. If you're wondering whether you really need to buy a Ring Protect plan, here's everything you need to know.

What benefits do you get with Ring Protect?

As mentioned above, you can use your Ring security camera or video doorbell without any subscription. Without Ring Protect, you can still view video footage with Live View, motion-activated notifications, two-way talk, and Theft Protection. However, you won't be able to record videos or access old history. For that, you'll need a Ring Protect plan.

There are three plans you can choose from:

• Ring Protect Basic: This is the cheapest plan and unlocks all essential features, including a video recording history of the last 180 days, the ability to download and share recorded videos, custom motion notifications, and Snapshot Capture. The Basic plan only covers one device and costs $3.99 monthly or $39.99 yearly. You can buy an individual subscription for two devices and still pay less than the Plus plan.
• Ring Protect Plus: You should consider the Plus plan if you have more than three Ring devices. It covers all Ring devices in your household, and there's no upper cap on how many devices you can enroll. You can pay $10 monthly or $100 for the annual subscription. The benefits are the same as the Basic plan. You get access to video recordings, Person Alert, Snapshot Capture, etc. The only extra perk the Plus plan adds that's missing on the Basic tier is extended warranties for your devices. But it's still much better value if you have a lot of Ring devices.
• Ring Protect Pro: This is the most comprehensive plan for those who are deeply invested in the Ring ecosystem and want the best protection. In addition to all benefits that the Plus plan provides, Ring Protect Pro adds features like 24/7 professional monitoring for your Ring Alarm security system, backup cellular internet to keep your devices online in the event of a Wi-Fi outage, Alexa Guard Plus, and the ability to locally process videos and Smart Alerts and store them on a microSD card. The Pro plan is a bit more expensive at $20 a month or $200 a year.

Bottom line

To summarize, you don't need Ring Protect to use your Ring devices. But considering Ring's affordable pricing and the extra protection you get, there's no reason why you shouldn't get a Ring Protect plan. Even if you don't care for features like Snapshot Capture and Person Alert, the protection plan is worth it alone for video recording. In case of a break-in or burglary, you can hand the video recording as hard evidence to police and authorities and help them with the investigation. Ring has no option for local storage, so it's almost an essential feature to have.