We are deliberately not publishing a price list. A number without a building attached is marketing rather than information, and the honest range for commercial work is wide enough that quoting one would mislead more people than it helped.
What is genuinely useful is knowing which variables move the figure, so you can read two quotes against each other and understand why they differ.
Camera count matters less than expected
Cameras are rarely the largest line on a commercial quote. Doubling the count does not double the project, because much of the cost sits in labor and infrastructure that scales differently. This is why comparing quotes on price per camera is misleading.
How hard the cable is to run
Frequently the single largest variable and the least visible one. An open warehouse ceiling with clear routes is straightforward. A finished building with no accessible path, a long exterior run requiring conduit, a masonry facade, or a listed structure is not.
Two buildings needing an identical camera specification can differ substantially on this alone, and it is the main reason a quote produced without a site visit is unreliable in both directions.
Retention and storage cost
Storage is inexpensive relative to the project, but the target changes the recorder specification. Thirty days and ninety days at the same image quality are different machines, and the difference is real if modest.
Low-light performance
The gap between a camera that produces an image at night and one that produces evidence at night is genuine and priced accordingly. Spent on the positions that matter it is the best money in the project. Spread evenly across every position it is waste, which is the argument for specifying per position rather than buying a uniform kit.
Whether the network is ready
Cameras need switching with adequate power budget and somewhere sensible to terminate. Where a building has no suitable location or insufficient capacity, that becomes part of the job. It is often invisible in a cheaper quote because it has simply not been accounted for.
Analytics and specialist positions
Plate capture, active deterrence and classification-based analytics add cost at specific positions. They earn it where they replace someone watching, and they do not where they were added because the camera supported the feature.
What is not a cost driver here
Ongoing fees. There is no monthly per camera and no charge for remote viewing, which changes how two quotes should be compared. A lower installation price attached to a monthly agreement is frequently the more expensive option across five years.
How to compare two camera quotes properly
Put both on the same basis. Named hardware against named hardware. Retention in days at the same settings. Cable method stated in both. Then add sixty months of any recurring fee to each, and compare the totals.
Quotes that look far apart often converge once that is done, and quotes that looked similar sometimes do not. The number worth knowing is the five-year one.
The five-year number is the one worth comparing, and it is rarely the one on the quote. Elite Security will write out what is actually included. More like this in the blog; start with commercial CCTV when you want the figure for your building.