Your footage stays home
Every camera records 24/7 to a disk you own — a NAS, a NUC, a Pi with a big SSD. The cloud only ever receives the event clips you explicitly opt into. Nothing else leaves your network.
open-source nvr · optional cloud
The night watch for your cameras.
Nightjar is an open-source NVR that records to your disk, streams live from anywhere with zero port forwarding, and runs AI detection on your own hardware — with an optional cloud that costs half of Nest Aware.
AGPL-3.0 · Works with any RTSP/ONVIF camera
01why nightjar
Nightjars perch motionless and watch all night. So does this one.
Zero port forwarding
Your node keeps a single outbound WebRTC link. No open ports, no dynamic DNS, no VPN gymnastics. Remote live view flows peer-to-peer, straight from your house to your phone.
AI without fees
Person, vehicle, animal, and package detection runs on your own hardware. No per-camera inference bill, no alerts held hostage behind a subscription. It just watches.
02how it works
Up and watching in an evening.
1.Run one docker compose
On a NUC, a NAS, or a Pi 5 — any Linux box that runs Docker. One command pulls the node, the recorder, and the local UI. You have live view on your LAN in minutes.
2.Add your RTSP cameras
Paste an RTSP URL or let ONVIF discovery find them — Reolink, Amcrest, Hikvision, Dahua, Ubiquiti, and anything else that speaks the open protocols. If it streams, it works.
3.Pair with a 6-letter code
Create a free account at app.nightjar.ca and type the code shown in your local UI. Your cameras are now with you anywhere — still with zero ports open, still recording at home.
$ curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Snapsonic/nightjar/main/docker/docker-compose.yml && docker compose up -d
03switching
Leaving Nest Aware?
Bring your own cameras and keep your own footage. Here's how Nightjar's plans line up against Google's.
| Nightjar | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Plus | Pro | Nest Aware | Nest Aware Plus | |
| 24/7 recording lives on | Your disk | Your disk | Your disk | Google's cloud | Google's cloud |
| Event clip history | 3 days | 30 days | 60 days | 30 days | 60 days |
| Person · vehicle · animal · package alerts | Yesfree, on your hardware | Yes | Yes | Paid only | Paid only |
| Works with any camera brand | Yes | Yes | Yes | Nest only | Nest only |
| Open source | YesAGPL-3.0 | YesAGPL-3.0 | YesAGPL-3.0 | No | No |
| Price | $0 | $4.99/mo | $9.99/mo | $10/mo | $20/mo |
Already own Nest cameras? A Nest camera bridge — via Google's Device Access API — is on the roadmap, so they can join the same wall of cameras.
04open source
Security software you can actually read.
The entire stack — the node, the recorder, the detection pipeline, even the cloud dashboard — is AGPL-3.0 on GitHub. Self-hosting is free forever, including remote live view. The paid plans exist to fund development, not to ransom features back to you.
If you've got opinions about ONVIF quirks, ffmpeg flags, or ONNX models, we would genuinely love the company. Issues and pull requests are open.
What AGPL means here
- You can audit every line that touches your video.
- You can run it, modify it, and fork it — no permission needed.
- Anyone who runs a modified service for others must share their changes back.
05pricing
Half of Nest Aware. None of the lock-in.
Self-hosting is free forever. Paid plans add cloud event history and alert niceties — and fund the project.
Free
$0forever
Everything you need to watch your own house from anywhere.
- Unlimited cameras
- 24/7 local recording on your disk
- Remote live view, zero port forwarding
- AI detection on your hardware
- 3-day cloud event history
Plus
Early access$4.99/mo
Longer memory and smarter mornings.
- Everything in Free
- 30-day cloud event clips
- Smart alerts (person, vehicle, animal, package)
- AI daily digest of what happened overnight
Pro
Early access$9.99/mo
For big camera walls and long tails of history.
- Everything in Plus
- 60-day cloud event clips
- Familiar faces — coming
- Priority TURN relay for tricky networks
All prices in USD (yes, even though we're Canadian). Billed monthly. Cancel anytime — your recordings are on your disk either way.
06questions
Asked in the small hours.
No. The node runs entirely on your LAN: 24/7 recording, local live view, and AI detection all work without any account. A free cloud account adds remote access from anywhere — still $0 — and paid plans only add cloud event history and alert extras on top.
Anything that speaks RTSP or ONVIF — which is most of the IP camera world: Reolink, Amcrest, Hikvision, Dahua, Ubiquiti, Annke, TP-Link Vigi, and plenty of no-name PoE cameras. If your camera can hand over an RTSP URL, Nightjar can record it.
A small Linux box with Docker: an Intel NUC, a Raspberry Pi 5, or a NAS that runs containers. A Pi 5 comfortably handles a handful of cameras; a NUC handles a wall of them. WebRTC works best with network_mode: host, so a Linux host is recommended — Docker Desktop on macOS/Windows runs but remote live view will be degraded.
Your 24/7 footage never leaves your disk. If you enable cloud event history, only those short event clips are uploaded — encrypted in transit and stored in your account's private bucket, readable only by you. And because the whole stack is AGPL-3.0, you don't have to take our word for any of this: the code that touches your video is public and auditable.
A Nest camera bridge is on the roadmap, built on Google's Device Access (Smart Device Management) API, so existing Nest cameras can sit on the same wall as your RTSP ones. Until it ships, Nightjar is for cameras that speak open protocols.
Yes — paid plans are monthly with no contract. If you cancel, remote live view keeps working on the free tier, and your 24/7 recordings are untouched because they were never ours to begin with. Cloud event clips simply age out on the free tier's 3-day window.