Canary Reviews

I have been a loyal Canary customer since 2016 and currently own four Canary cameras that are now about 10 years old. On June 26, 2026, I received a notification that my annual subscription had renewed for **$521.48**. In my opinion, this price is excessive and far above what many competing home security camera services charge.

Wish I would have read some of these reviews previously. Canary has Horrible customer experience similar or identical to others with bad reviews. I got charged an amount that was much more than I expected on the day of the renewal. I immediately contacted support via chat to cancel my service and ask for a refund. Customer service only would tell me over and over again that the terms of service say that I cannot cancel until the next billing which is a year from that date. They said they could not issue a refund even though it had only been hours since the renewal took effect and was charged. They told me had I reached out about my concern the day before they would have offered me a substantial discount of 60%. They have a policy for new customers that they can cancel for a refund within 14 days (in the fine print it says not for renewals).

When I first started using Canary I paid for my unit. It was good. After some time they required a subscription to utilize their services. A whopping $50.00. From FREE to $50.00. Or you would not be able to use the camera. I paid for a year, and decided I have had enough!!!

Canary has very bad billing practices. They send an email to remind you that your subscription is coming due. What they do not tell you is the cost of that renewal. In my case, it was over $400 USD. Then, after they take the automated payment, if you want to change your plan or cancel, you get the "Sorry, we have your money, and we don't care anymore, see you next year." Customer service is prompt and consistent to tell you it's your fault for not checking your account for changes.

Absolutely HORRIBLE They automatically charge you EVEN when you cancel your service. NO one will help. NO one will resolve the issue and EVERY YEAR even if you cancel, they WILL charge you. Don't GIVE YOUR CREDIT CARD. THEY WILL SCAM YOU!!!!

Rip off. Added charges that quadrupled bill with no notice. Refused to grant credit or refund for unused devices. Multiple attempts to talk to higher level customer service were refused and refused to discuss why there were added charges.

I used Canary for about 8 years. Video quality wasn't great. Video clips were short and missed important moments completely. My experience at renewal was awful. I did not receive any notice of the upcoming renewal—whether it was never sent or went to junk, I don’t know. As soon as I noticed the charge, within a couple of days, I contacted Canary, canceled the service, and requested a refund. They could clearly see that I had not used the service for months.

Canary is now a rip-off! I ended a 7 year use of this system, a few years too late. The final straw was having my credit card charged over $400, for 3 cameras I use, when last year the fee was half of that. I was charged for 2 cameras that are not in use...haven't been in years. There is no account information online, no invoices, or clear pricing emails. The credit card is just charged an amount, and customer service refused to refund anything, because I cancelled on Monday Dec 29, for billing on Thursday Dec 25th (Christmas Day). There is no phone number to call on the website.

I purchased my 1st Canary in 2015, back when cloud storage was unlimited and free, and they monitored air quality. They eventually did away with the unlimited cloud storage, went to a subscription model, and completely removed air quality monitoring. Over the years, videos got shorter, time that you could go back reduced, and got divided by the number of cameras you had. More features get moved to subscription, fees go up every year, and not by incremental amounts.

Created an account on Consumer Affairs just so I could have another outlet to tell people how bad my experience with Canary has been. I hate signing up for accounts but that's how terrible Canary is, I created new accounts to spread the hate. This is an awful company. I completely forgot I had a subscription - haven't used the cameras since I moved. No refund available for a subscription that renewed days ago and the customer service person hung up on me. I wish I could give them a zero. Avoid this company like the plague that they are.

Their customer service is pathetic. I woke up last week to find a ridiculous charge of $199 being debited. I emailed with no response and then did a chat. “John” said he would cancel this and send me an email confirming this. Now they are saying that I must pay for the whole year. He never said that. I cannot find any email that stated this new price of $199. I only have one camera. I will NEVER do business with them again. Worst customer service that I have ever dealt with.

We’ve had this camera for a couple of years. Not great quality but I could see what was going on. But what turned me against them was that with the last update, you can now only watch 30 seconds of feed before you are interrupted with a huge ad wanting you to upgrade to their premium service. The clock starts running as soon as you hit watch live and by the time you can turn the phone sideways to watch full screen and zoom in, you only have a few seconds before you are hit with another ad to upgrade. It has rendered the camera completely useless. I don’t capitulate to shady business tactics, so I will be purchasing a different camera from a different company as soon as I get home from the trip I’m on.

This is the worst opinion you could choose for home security. They changed the rules in terms as they go. After having them for two years, it literally took me six months to get them to cancel my contracts and stop charging my credit card. They are be particularly turn off features of the cameras that were part of the original purchase agreement. Do yourself a favor and never get involved with this company. Even when I was paying for the premium plan, the cameras continually failed to record movement, alert about events, and often just disconnected from the Wi-Fi for no reason. It’s literally the worst option you could choose for home, security or monitoring.

My Canary renewal withdrawal showed up in my bank account for the amount of ~$330. In the past it was nearer $150. Price more than doubled. I contacted Canary and they basically said, 'Sorry you missed the notice your price was going to double but our policy is no refunds.' Goodbye Canary!

I have 3 different Wi-Fi sec cams. Canary is the most expensive cam for monthly “Pro” service. Canary is the poorest quality by far. The picture is awful. It’s also fixed. Even my most basic cams can pan up and down and side to side. I also can’t view anything except a live feed so unless you plan on watching your Canary app all the time you may as well throw it in the trash. It had not much going for it when you could view past events but now that’s not free so skip this cam if you’re looking to acquire an inexpensive way to secure your home.

Works inconsistently in and out. Also misses motions occasionally, very unreliable. Honestly, better products out there. Complete garbage. My Uncle also made the mistake of purchasing the Canary. Same issues. They will give you a hard time when trying to cancel if you forget and the service auto-renews.

Worst customer service. It takes days for a response then it's literally a different rep telling you to perform the same troubleshooting tasks as the last. It's been 4 days with no resolution. I now have a brick instead of a camera system.

I used the Canary camera monitoring system for a couple years. The cameras were okay at best but the price was tolerable. This past renewal they increased the prices by over 200% without any notice. Once I saw the charge on my credit card, I called to cancel the service. They informed me I was not able to cancel for another year because they already charged my account. Very sneaky. I went back and forth with customer service. They are no help.

Customer service is ridiculous. I called to cancel because I could not find it on their website. I saw the 14 day period and it's been 11 days, but they refused to refund me my money because I've been with them since 2020. The price increased to $199 for a service I do not use. This is ridiculous and they treat you like a criminal. They're obviously hurting for business because this kind of practice is ridiculous. It's almost impossible to cancel the subscription from a mobile device. I do not recommend their services at all!!

Awful customer service. I cancelled the service when I got rid of the camera in October and then got charged in June. They had no record of my cancellation and pretty much called me a liar. They will not provide any refunds. They are clearly hurting for business and choose stealing peoples money instead of providing better products than their competitors.

Stay away from this company, They will charge you without your knowledge and will not work with you. I have had service with them for 4+ years and canceled them last year to find a charge this June that I didn't authorize. They have terrible customer service and don't care about you as a customer.

This is a very petty company. The customer service is abhorrent. They send an email informing that the annual renewal date is approaching a week before it is automatically charged to my account. I was out of town for 12 days and the notice was sent in the middle of that period and went to my spam folder. In addition they charge $149 for premium service which was up from $77 last renewal period. My contract expired apparently on 4/21 and I called on 4/22 when I received notice from my bank and asked to cancel and stop the charge to my account and they refuse to refund. Stay as far away from these people as you can. There are lots of companies far better out there to use where you will be treated fairly.

This is the worst company. The customer service is abhorrent. They send an email informing they are taking money for the next year that is nowhere to be found. Then they charge $149 for premium service and refuse to refund. There is no way we wanted this for another year and certainly not for 149.00. I contacted them immediately upon notice from my bank but they refuse to cancel the service for this year or refund our money. Stay as far away from these people as you can. There are lots of companies far better out there to use where you will be treated fairly.

I bought a Canary camera because it was discounted through my cell phone carrier. I only used it total for about a year before it stopped turning on (i.e. bricked). Canary customer service, clearly staffed by foreigners reading a script, stubbornly refused to replace it. Instead, they were willing to sell me a new one at 50% off the full sticker price, which was what I paid to begin with. It seems their scam is to make a poor quality device and sell a second one when the first one breaks (rinse and repeat). I shouldn't have to pay twice for one device. Also, they spammed me constantly trying to sell me their premium service. The camera (when it worked) was of some limited value without the premium service, hence the two stars instead of one, as you can view in real-time (using mobile device only, not PC) and it saved motion clips of 3 seconds up to one day.

Pay for 3 years. Call with tech problem they say you have not paid. They cancel you. The payment has been taken from my account Automatically the complete time. They just keep telling me I have not paid my service. I think with being a customer for 3+ years a company would try to resolve before canceling.

The tech has fallen off a bunch in the last two years and they will try to fleece you on an annual subscription in every way possible.. Don't go near these guys unless you have an extra $150 to burn. Pure evil.

Worst customer service ever, they say their product is free when you purchase then start charging and when you try to cancel service they refused to provide a refund. They are a scam, the product is not worth the hassle, you can get so much better from other products and you won't have the headache of dealing with their horrible service agents. Funny, this product is to keep you safe, yet they are the ones stealing from you, NEVER purchase this product or trust this company!!!!

Canary is horrible and once you get into it you cannot get out. They are crooks. Just saying. The thing never works as good as you think it would. Believe me you do not want this service because it’s way more trouble than it’s worth.

I was told I would get a 50 percent discount when I renewed and then was charged 200 dollars. When I contacted them they said they could give a 30 dollar refund and 50 percent next time. Not a fan of lies.

Absolutely ridiculous. They charge you an outrageous rate when the unit only works part time. Then you have camera stolen and haven't used it in over a year and are told, "Sorry but we will cancel once paid." Do they cancel service after your year, nooo. They continue to charge you and refuse to work with you. I was literally just told they will NOT cancel my service and will continue to charge me until balance is paid so it's a vicious cycle where they are the only winners. They need a class action lawsuit for their scandalous ways of getting money from consumers.

If you're reading this, do yourself a favor - find another solution. Customer of 6 years. The hardware itself worked ok. Video quality not great, but also not terrible. Only real issue is sometimes has issues connecting form phone. But the one time I needed support after 6 years of being a paying customer, they metaphorically ran me over and left me like roadkill.

Please don't waste your time buying a Canary. Long story short, I purchased a Canary and it worked for about a year until the day I was burgled when it went offline! We tried to get the Canary to work, they even sent me a new camera and it wouldn't connect so I canceled the membership and got a refund. Fast forward a year and I decide it's time to get a new security system and think, let's try the Canary one more time. So we connected it and I paid for Premium Membership. It set up for about a day and then kept disconnecting.

I cancelled my premium service over a year ago and apparently I was still charged for premium service. Two years ago I transferred my service to my new address at that time but apparently they kept both addresses as using premium services with only one device. I spoke to customer service (George) who apparently is the manager, CEO, tech support and everything else.

This is the worst service and camera I have ever used. Notifications can take 10 minutes to receive if you even receive it. The camera only records maybe a 10th of the motion events. Worthless for any kind of security. Customer support is terrible, technical support is even worse. Premium service is useless, camera is even more useless without Premium service.

I canceled the product a year ago. Apparently they are still charging me yearly. Even with an email proof about it they tell me they can't find it and won't give me a refund. They won't budge but will try to give you every discount they can instead of your money back. They don't care if they took the last of your money so you can't feed your family. I will never recommend them and will do everything I can to make it known to not purchase their products.

It is very difficult to reach a service agent, my issue has repetitively been ignored and when I asked for my subscription to be canceled and refunded only a day after it was automatically renewed, I was denied. The cost of this service has risen significantly since I first signed up and the reliability of the service has dangerously diminished. I am very unhappy with the service and can't wait until this years subscription is over so I can switch over to a service that actually works.

Explained my device no longer works, however continue to charge for entire year of service when I tried to cancel a few days after auto-renewal took place. This results in a very expensive bill for a service I cannot use. DO NOT allow auto-renewal!

We have been using the Canary camera for 4 years. Initially it was the basic / free service. The camera stopped working, so for nearly a year of the 4 years it just wouldn’t work. Canary offered a new camera for a low price if we signed up for a 2-year plan at $9.99 per month. We did and the camera would go in and out periodically. If there was storm or power outage the camera would naturally lose its connection but unlike all other wifi devices in the property it would never auto reconnect to wifi. So when we're out of town it stayed disconnected until we returned. Defeating the purpose of the main reason we had the service - to record any potential break-ins while we were gone. All attempts to get help were just constant emails back and forth but never any calls or real help. They repeated the same thing to do our own trouble shooting. They never offered any real Solutions or to replace the camera.

These security does not work at all. It puts your life in danger by not notifying you. Canary lies about the devices they provide. The alarm does not go off, and when it does, there is a long delay. Their system has so many bugs. If you need the videos to provide to the police, they will not be there. Women do not trust this system. Canary will put your life in danger. It put my life in danger.

Canary Merchandise - I received two security cameras as a gift a while back. **DO NOT BUY.** I have indoor and outdoor camera. Basic plan for no charge was changed to a paid plan. No longer can receive photos of objects/people movement. Only receive warning. This is almost a bait & switch scenario; where you receive service on a basic non charge plan that becomes a charge plan and functionality is taken away.