IP cameras vs analogue CCTV: which one should you actually buy?

Almost every article on this subject reaches the same conclusion — IP is better — and then stops, which is unhelpful, because the interesting cases are the ones where it is not. What follows is the comparison as it presents itself when you are actually deciding.

The difference that matters is the cable, not the camera

An analogue camera sends video down coaxial cable to a DVR, and needs a separate power supply at each camera. An IP camera sends video down Ethernet to an NVR, and takes its power from the same cable if the switch or recorder supports PoE.

That is one cable per camera instead of two, and it is the whole reason installers prefer IP. On a four-camera job the difference is an afternoon. On a warehouse it is days.

When analogue is still the right answer

If a building already has coaxial cable in the walls and a working DVR, replacing the cameras with modern analogue HD units is dramatically cheaper than rewiring for Ethernet. The picture from a current 5MP analogue camera is good enough for most purposes, and nobody thanks you for a system that cost three times as much because the specification sheet looked better.

The honest rule: if the cable is already there, use it. If you are pulling new cable, pull Ethernet.

Where IP genuinely wins

• Resolution beyond 5MP. Analogue tops out; IP does not. If you need to read a number plate rather than see a car, this is the deciding factor.
• One cable. PoE removes an adapter and a socket at every position.
• Analytics in the camera. People-and-vehicle classification runs on the camera, so the recorder is not the bottleneck and you get fewer false alerts from a cat and a moving branch.
• Distance. Ethernet runs 100 m without help, and a switch extends that indefinitely.

And the third option nobody mentions

For a lot of homes and small shops the answer is neither: it is a Wi-Fi camera recording to a microSD card, with no recorder at all. No cable, no NVR, no fitting beyond a socket and a bracket. The trade is real — Wi-Fi coverage becomes a dependency, and continuous recording eats a memory card — but for two or three cameras in a house it is both cheaper and quicker, and it is what most of our customers actually buy.

Where it stops working is scale. Past about six cameras, or anywhere you need recording that survives the internet going down, you want a wired system.

What we would suggest

A house or a single shop with two to four positions: Wi-Fi cameras such as the EZVIZ H3C outdoors and an indoor pan-and-tilt for the room with the till.

A larger shop, an office or a warehouse: cabled IP on PoE. The Dahua IPC-HFW2449TL-S-PRO is the bullet we fit most often, and a PoE switch powers eight of them from one socket.

An existing analogue system: keep the cable, upgrade the cameras, and spend the difference on more positions rather than on more megapixels.

If you would rather talk it through than read about it, tell us the building and what you are worried about. We supply the equipment rather than fitting it, so the recommendation costs you nothing and is free whether or not you buy here — see choosing a CCTV system.