WHY BUYERS LEAVE VERKADA

Beautiful interface. Expensive cage.

Verkada is a polished product. The complaints are not about pixels - they are about the business model under the pixels, repeated across integrator forums and end-user reviews.

Cameras tied to one cloud

Verkada cameras only work with Verkada cloud. Stop paying - they stop working. No ONVIF fallback, no second-source vendor, no escape route if the relationship sours.

Hardware + annual licence stack

Cameras $599-5,199 each (PTZ + multi-sensor reach the top), plus annual licences $199-1,799 each, plus more for advanced features. A 10-camera site lands at $10,000-25,000+ before the first frame is recorded.

Sells around the integrator

"They will sell around the installer, as in they have no qualms cutting you out of a deal." Integrator forum quotes consistently flag this. Once Verkada knows the customer, the integrator becomes optional.

2021 breach + 2024 FTC fine

150,000 cameras exposed in 2021 - now permanently referenced in cybersecurity education. $2.95M FTC settlement in 2024 for CAN-SPAM violations. Risk-conscious buyers ask why.

Forever-subscription waste

Cameras that stop working without an active subscription are throwaway hardware. Customers paid for them. Sustainability and accounting both notice.

One-size pricing

Mid-market and enterprise pay the same per-camera economics that scale-tested at large customers. SMB integrators routinely price out before the demo finishes.

VERKADA vs TETHERX

Closed ecosystem versus open platform.

Verkada

Verkada cameras only - no Hanwha, no Axis, no Hikvision, no ONVIF

Cameras stop working if the subscription lapses

Hardware ($599-5199) + annual licence ($199-1799) per camera

Direct-sale culture - "sells around the integrator"

2021 breach (150k cameras), 2024 FTC fine reference everywhere

Customer relationship lives with Verkada, not the integrator

TetherX

200+ manufacturers + any ONVIF device - cameras you already own

Cameras keep working with their own firmware if subscription ever lapses

Annual platform subscription, no hardware tax, no per-camera licence cliff

Channel-only - we NEVER sell direct to your customer

No breach history, ISO 27001 / SOC 2 cloud infrastructure

Customer relationship lives with you - subscriptions are your RMR

BUILT FOR THE CHANNEL

We never compete for your customer.

Integrator forums are full of the same Verkada quote: "They will sell around the installer, as in they have no qualms cutting you out of a deal." That is not a one-off - it is a recurring complaint across r/accesscontrol, r/techsales and integrator forums.

TetherX is sold exclusively through integrators. No direct sales team, no end-customer billing, no chance of finding TetherX quoting your customer behind your back. The relationship - and the revenue - is yours.

See the partner programme
TetherX channel partner programme dashboard
FAQ

Questions before you switch from Verkada

Three recurring reasons: proprietary hardware lock-in (Verkada cameras only work with Verkada cloud and stop working without an active subscription), total cost (annual licences from $199 to $1,799 per camera plus the hardware), and direct-sale culture that integrators repeatedly describe as "selling around the installer". Add the 2021 breach (150,000 cameras exposed) and 2024 FTC settlement, and the risk profile is uncomfortable for many buyers.

Yes. TetherX supports 200+ camera manufacturers plus any ONVIF device. The cameras you have installed at the customer site stay. No rip-and-replace, no proprietary lens hardware, no per-camera annual licence on top of the cost of the device.

Verkada combines high-cost cameras ($599 to $5,199 each) with annual licences ($199 to $1,799 each). TetherX is an annual platform subscription priced by channel count through your channel partner, with cloud recording and AI as optional per-camera services - no hardware floor, no licence cliff at renewal, no captive-camera waste if the customer ever moves off.

TetherX AI launches with natural-language search alongside the open-platform model. The trade-off historically was "AI search but locked-in" (Verkada, Rhombus) versus "open but no AI" (Eagle Eye, Videoloft). TetherX closes that gap so the open option is no longer the compromise option.

Yes. TetherX is sold exclusively through integrators - we never sell direct to end customers, ever. Every subscription is RMR on your books. The "they will sell around the installer" pattern that integrators repeatedly cite as a reason to avoid Verkada cannot happen with TetherX by design.

TetherX unifies cameras, alarms and access control in one dashboard already - that is the platform thesis, same as Verkada. The difference is the hardware underneath. With TetherX the integrator picks the best-of-breed Hanwha / Axis / Avigilon / Salto / Paxton for the site rather than being locked into one vendor for the whole stack.
ALSO COMPARED

See TetherX against another VMS

Researching options? Read the side-by-side for each VMS the channel asks about most.

Avigilon Alta

Motorola ecosystem pull vs genuinely brand-agnostic.

Compliance and ringfencing

Keep existing kit secure where rules allow; phase replacement where they require it. Covers NDAA, UK, AU, India.

HikCentral

Hikvision's central VMS - cloud-native vs Windows-server architecture.

Rhombus

Rhombus cameras only vs 200+ manufacturers.
See all comparisons

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About this comparison. Information about other vendors is drawn from their public product pages, datasheets, integrator forums (Reddit, vendor user groups), public CVE databases (NVD, CISA) and customer conversations - accurate to the best of our knowledge as of 21 May 2026. Pricing, features, security posture and policies change. A vendor may have shipped a fix, dropped a price, added a region or changed an architecture since this page was last reviewed.

If you believe anything here is inaccurate or out of date, please contact us and we will review and correct it. Trademarks and product names belong to their respective owners and are referenced here for identification only.