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Short version: the Ring plans you may remember as Basic, Standard and Premium have been renamed in 2026. Basic is now Ring Solo and covers one device. Standard is now Ring Multi and covers every Ring device at one address. The top tier, Ring Pro, adds intelligent features and alarm monitoring. Pick by how many devices you have and which features you will actually use, not by the name.
Other pages cover the money side in detail: see how much does a Ring subscription cost for the price and five-year view, and is Ring worth it for the wider verdict. This page answers a different question: given what you own, which plan should you choose? All plans live on the subscriptions and fees hub.
A note on prices: we are not quoting plan prices. The pages we could read did not give US dollar figures we could verify as of September 2026, and Ring changes them. Check ring.com/plans for today’s numbers before you decide.
In Plain English
A Ring camera or doorbell shows you live video for free. What it does not do for free is remember. To save clips you can replay later, you pay for a Ring plan, a bit like paying for a phone contract that includes cloud storage.
Ring used to sell these plans as Basic, Standard and Premium. In 2026 it renamed them Solo, Multi and Pro, which are easier to understand. Solo is for one device. Multi covers all the Ring devices at your home for one price. Pro adds extra smart features and works with Ring’s professional alarm monitoring.
The simple rule: if you have one Ring device, start with Solo. If you have two or more, do the sum and Multi usually wins. Only pay for Pro if you want its extra features or you own a Ring Alarm.
Basic, Standard, Premium: What the New Names Mean
Ring’s article on the changes lists the old and new names. Home Basic became Ring Solo. Home Standard with no add-ons became Ring Multi. Home Standard with 24/7 professional monitoring became Ring Pro. Home Premium, and the older Protect Plus with Alarm, moved to Premium Legacy. Ring says the change came at no additional charge, that subscribers transition automatically, and that videos and settings are not affected. It also introduced two add-on services, Pro Intelligence and 24/7 Continuous Recording.
One thing to be aware of: Ring’s own pages do not describe the top of the range identically. The plan-change article maps Home Premium to Premium Legacy, while the Ring Pro plan page describes Pro as formerly Ring Home Premium. If you already subscribe, the name shown in your Ring account is the one that counts.
| Old name | New name | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Ring Home Basic | Ring Solo | One Ring device |
| Ring Home Standard (no add-ons) | Ring Multi | All Ring devices at one location |
| Ring Home Standard with 24/7 professional monitoring | Ring Pro | All devices at one location, plus intelligent features and alarm monitoring |
| Ring Home Premium / Protect Plus (1st Gen) with Alarm | Premium Legacy | Existing subscribers only |
Ring Solo: One Device
Solo is the entry tier. Ring describes it as enhanced security features for one Ring device. On its plan page, the list includes up to 180 days of video event history with the ability to save, share and replay recordings, person, vehicle and package alerts, extended live view, video preview alerts, device modes for arming and setting recording schedules, and daily event summaries. For a household with a single doorbell or a single outdoor camera, that is the whole story: you pay for the one device you want to remember events for.
The catch is scale. A Solo plan covers only the device you assign it to, so a second camera means a second plan. That is fine for two devices if the price gap to Multi is small, but it becomes wasteful quickly.
Ring Multi: Every Device at One Address
Multi has the same core features as Solo, but it covers all your Ring devices at one location. Ring lists 180 days of recorded events, person, vehicle and package alerts, the ability to watch up to four live feeds at once, digital arming and disarming and customizable camera recording modes. According to Ring’s plan-management page, Multi attaches automatically to new devices you add at that location, so there is nothing to reassign when you replace a camera.
Multi is the plan most multi-camera households end up on, for a simple reason: the moment you own two or three Ring devices, one plan is normally cheaper and simpler than one plan each.
Ring Pro: Intelligent Features and Alarm Monitoring
Pro covers all your devices at one location and adds what Ring calls intelligent features. Its plan page lists Video Descriptions, which are text summaries of events, video search, Active Warnings, which are automatic spoken alerts to deter trespassers, and Familiar Faces recognition on 2K and 4K devices. On the alarm side it lists 24/7 professional monitoring, alarm cellular backup, and, for Ring Alarm Pro owners only, Ring Edge local video storage. Ring says some features are restricted in Illinois, Texas and Portland, Oregon, because of local legislation.
Ring also sells Virtual Security Guard as a separate tier: live monitoring by security professionals with all the Pro features. It is aimed at people who want a person watching their cameras, and it sits well above what most households need.
Important: we sell no monitoring, and we did not test any Ring service. Everything here is Ring’s own description of what each plan includes.
Side by Side
| Feature | Ring Solo | Ring Multi | Ring Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Devices covered | One | All at one location | All at one location |
| Video history | Up to 180 days | Up to 180 days | Up to 180 days |
| Person, vehicle and package alerts | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-camera live view | Listed | Up to four feeds | Yes |
| Video Descriptions and video search | No | No | Yes |
| Familiar Faces (2K and 4K devices) | No | No | Yes, not in IL, TX or Portland, OR |
| 24/7 professional alarm monitoring | No | No | Yes, for Ring Alarm |
The table is compiled from Ring’s plan pages. Ring may change features, so confirm on its plans page before you subscribe.
Which Plan for Which Household
One doorbell, nothing else. Ring Solo. Start with the free 30-day trial and see whether you look at the history often enough to keep paying.
A doorbell plus one or two cameras. Do the arithmetic. Multiply the Solo price by your device count and compare it with the Multi price. If the total is higher, Multi wins on cost and on simplicity, and it also follows you when you replace a device.
Four or more cameras. Ring Multi almost by default. The ability to watch several feeds together is also useful with that many cameras.
A Ring Alarm owner who wants professional monitoring. Ring Pro is the plan Ring lists for 24/7 professional monitoring. Read the requirements on the plan page and check for local permit fees, which Ring notes may apply.
Anyone who would rather pay nothing. Consider a no-fee route from the start: see our guides to Ring cameras and to whether Ring is worth it against brands that record locally.
Start With the Free Trial, but Set a Reminder
Ring says a free 30-day trial of Ring Protect starts automatically when you set up a new or certified refurbished compatible device. Use the month deliberately. Note how often you actually open the history, whether the person and package alerts reduce the noise, and whether you ever wanted a clip that was not there. Ring also warns that when a free trial ends, videos are deleted unless the location already has a Ring plan, so download anything you want to keep before the trial ends.
How We Work
We do not sell any Ring plan, we do not test the service, and we rank nothing on this page. All plan details come from Ring’s own support and plan pages, which we read while writing this. See how we rank for how the rest of the site works.
Going Deeper: The Rules That Catch People Out
Ring’s plan-management page contains the rules that most often surprise owners. The first is location. Subscriptions and add-ons cannot be transferred between locations, so a second property needs its own plan. The second is what attaches automatically. Ring Multi, Ring Pro and Virtual Security Guard attach to new devices at the same location, while Ring Solo, the Pro Intelligence add-on and the 24/7 Continuous Recording add-on require you to cancel and set up a new subscription when you replace a device. That single difference is why a Solo plan is cheap to start and awkward to maintain.
The third is changing tiers. When you upgrade, Ring automatically cancels your existing subscription and applies a prorated credit to the new plan. To downgrade you must cancel first and then subscribe to the lower tier. Switching between monthly and yearly billing on the same tier also means cancelling and resubscribing, except when you upgrade tiers and change billing frequency at the same time. Since the subscription auto-renews until cancelled, a calendar reminder a week before renewal is a cheap habit.
The fourth is what happens when it ends. Ring states that when your plan ends you lose access to all of your recorded videos, and that to save any videos you must download them before the plan ends. Video from Ring plans is kept in the cloud for up to 180 days from the recording date. If you might ever need footage for an insurance claim or a police report, download it while you still can.
Finally, features vary by place and hardware. Ring notes that Familiar Faces and some monitoring services are unavailable in Illinois, Texas and Portland, Oregon, that Familiar Faces needs 2K or 4K devices, and that Ring Edge local storage is limited to Ring Alarm Pro owners. The lesson is to read the plan page for your own devices and state before you pay for the top tier.