Baby monitor app without a subscription: 28 apps compared

People looking for a baby monitor without a subscription usually aren't after the cheapest option. They want the one that still works in a year without anything being charged again. This page shows which apps meet that, what the others cost, and why so many of them need a subscription at all.

Which 28 apps, and why these?

The stores hold far more: the “phone-to-phone app” category alone lists over 120 entries. The vast majority have a handful of ratings and no visible user base – including them would inflate the list without improving it.

So this comparison covers the 28 apps that are genuine options by rating count and installs, plus a few newer apps with very similar positioning. Prices are given in Swiss francs where the Swiss store lists them, which applies to 18 of the 28. The remaining ten appear in the currency of their store listing, usually US dollars.

Three things sold as “no subscription”

The term is blurrier in the stores than it sounds. There are three variants, and only one is genuinely subscription-free.

1. One-time purchase

You pay once and the app is yours. No expiry, no renewal. This is what people mean by “no subscription”. Eight of the 28 apps work this way.

2. Subscription with a “lifetime” option

The most common trap. The app offers weekly, monthly and yearly plans – and alongside them a one-time price that is often several times higher. Annie Baby Monitor charges CHF 140.00 for lifetime access, Baby Monitor Nancy CHF 100.00. Technically that is a one-time purchase, but it is priced so that the subscription feels cheaper. Nine of the 28 apps do this.

3. No price, unclear in-app purchases

Five apps are available without a purchase price but list in-app purchases whose purpose isn't clear from the listing – in one case ranging from USD 0.49 to 334.99. Which of those are subscriptions only becomes clear inside the app.

Two further apps show no price at all. Both are iPhone-only, and one has 28 ratings at 2.8 stars. Whether they are funded by advertising isn't stated in the listing.

The market in numbers

28 baby monitor apps, surveyed 19 August 2026.

Price comparison: what a baby monitor really costs

Prices surveyed 19 August 2026. Providers change prices without notice – check the store if in doubt.

The spread is the real finding: over a year of use, the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive option is a factor of 70. A weekly plan at CHF 7.00 adds up to CHF 364.00 a year – for an app you typically need for 18 months and then never again.

Dormi appears in the table with two pricing models at once and is especially widespread among Android users. If you are switching from it specifically, there is a detailed comparison under Dormi alternative.

Cheap on its own isn't enough

The table makes one thing clear: Murmeli is not the only inexpensive app. There are several solid one-time purchases between CHF 4 and CHF 7. But looking only at the price misses three things that shrink the field quickly.

Half of them run on one platform only. Of the eight one-time purchase apps, four exist exclusively for iPhone or exclusively for Android. That's fine as long as both parents carry the same phone – and fails the moment one device is on the other platform. Murmeli connects iPhone and Android in any combination.

“Available on both” isn't the same as “good on both”. Cloud Baby Monitor, for instance, has over 18,000 ratings at 4.8 stars on iPhone, but just under 200 at 3.5 in its Android version. It's worth checking the ratings for the platform you actually use.

Some prices aren't fixed at all. One app's in-app purchases range from USD 0.99 to 18.99 without the listing saying which one unlocks the full version.

And then there are the questions a price tag never answers. For Murmeli they are:

For other apps these details are in their privacy policy – the store description usually isn't enough.

Why do so many apps need a subscription?

It isn't simply greed; it follows from how they work. Most baby monitor apps route audio and video through the provider's servers. That is convenient – it works on any network with no setup – but it costs the provider money every month, for every user, for as long as the app runs. Ongoing costs like that can't be covered by a single purchase. A subscription is then the honest consequence.

The reverse is also true: an app can only stay subscription-free if it has no running cost per user. That is exactly why Murmeli can cost CHF 4.90. When both phones are on the same WiFi they connect directly to each other and no server is involved at all. There is nothing that would need paying for monthly.

When you're away, the phones find each other through our Swiss server – but even then audio and video travel directly between the phones whenever the network allows. The server only brokers the connection. And the key is derived from a PIN and a remote code: both exist solely in the QR code on the two phones and never reach our server. We could not watch even if we wanted to.

Murmeli in detail

• Price: CHF 4.90 once. No further purchases in the app.
• Trial: 48 hours free on iPhone, 2 hours on Android.
• Account: none. No registration, no email address.
• Platforms: iPhone and Android, in any combination.
• Languages: German, French, Italian, English.
• Servers: Switzerland. No analytics or tracking services.

Frequently asked questions

Prices and models surveyed 19 August 2026, 28 apps. All details about third-party providers come from their public store listings and may change at any time.