A homeowner gets three surveys for cameras on a semi. The quotes come back, and the largest is several times the smallest. Same house, same brief, and three numbers so far apart that at least one installer must surely be at it.
Usually nobody is at it. The three firms have quoted three different systems, and the single page each quote arrives on hides where the money went. Take the quote apart and the spread almost always comes from four places.
The cameras are not the same cameras
A camera is a lens, a sensor and a processor, and the range in quality is enormous. The budget quote is built on basic fixed-lens units that show a figure in the garden. The expensive one may specify higher resolution, better low-light sensors or varifocal lenses you can zoom after fitting, the difference between knowing someone was there and recognising who. Neither choice is wrong; they answer different questions. Ask each installer the same thing: at my gate, at night, will this camera give a face or a shape?
The cabling is where the labour lives
On a wired system, much of what you pay for is the routing of cables, and installers read the same house differently. One plans a quick run down the outside wall in trunking; another quotes for going through the loft and dropping inside cavities, invisible but slower. A long run to a detached garage might double the labour on its own. When a quote is oddly cheap, this is the first place to look, because clip-on external cable is the corner most often cut.
The recorder decides what your footage is worth
The recorder gets one line on the quote and deserves three. How many days does the drive hold at full quality? How many spare channels are there for cameras you add later? Is the drive one built for continuous recording? A recorder that keeps thirty days of footage costs more than one that keeps five, and the week you come to need footage is precisely the week a five-day loop has already eaten it.
One quote includes a subscription
Monitoring is the quiet divider. One firm quotes a system that records and phones you; another includes an app service or a monitored contract where a control room responds to alerts, sometimes with parts of the hardware effectively rented. That can suit a business or an empty holiday house, but it changes the arithmetic completely, because you are now comparing a purchase against a purchase plus years of fees. Ask of every quote: what is the total by year three, and what stops working if I cancel?
Making the three quotes comparable
Ask each firm to break out cameras, cabling and labour, recorder, and any recurring charges, and the mystery usually dissolves into visible choices. Then you can decide which of the three systems on the table is the one you want. There are 335 CCTV system installers listed on this site, with listings showing coverage and specialism, so getting three surveys is not hard: start with installers covering your postcode or send the job out for quotes. And keep the surveyor's sketch from each visit; the firm that drew the most careful plan is telling you something the price cannot.
