{"slug": "zoneminder", "name": "ZoneMinder", "category": "selfhosted", "category_name": "Self-hosted and home server", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 5, "warners": 2, "score": 0.849, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2025-12-29", "latest": "2026-04-16", "why": "Zoneminder [1][2] can be clustered and distributed assuming a large campus.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Zoneminder [1][2] can be clustered and distributed assuming a large campus.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "zoneminder.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://zoneminder.com/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["ZoneMinder"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 764837024, "item_id": 47802314, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47802314", "by": "giantg2", "date": "2026-04-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "PoE Reolinks with Zoneminder on a atom based mini PC.", "excerpt": "PoE Reolinks with Zoneminder on a atom based mini PC. Add an external SSD for more storage if needed. Since you mentioned wifi then you could go with the wifi Reolink. Peer to peer might be more a a bespoke design. Closest commercial thing that comes to mind is cuddleback cuddlelink system.", "context": "", "use_case": "security camera recording", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's your favorite security cam system?"}, {"id": 764548816, "item_id": 47784301, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47784301", "by": "Bender", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Zoneminder [1][2] can be clustered and distributed assuming a large campus.", "excerpt": "Why is there a flock camera indoors at a school in the first place? That seems like something that should be using close circuit PoE cameras to NVR's if there must be cameras. Zoneminder [1][2] can be clustered and distributed assuming a large campus. I'm sure there must be other open source NVR's that can do the same. School IT staff should try out a small deployment first and then extend it year over year. Bob can ", "context": "", "use_case": "Network video recording", "switched_from": "", "story": "Flock employees caught watching kids gymnastic class and pools"}, {"id": 752068449, "item_id": 47004278, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47004278", "by": "yabones", "date": "2026-02-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally, I use Zoneminder", "excerpt": "Frigate is very good: https://frigate.video/ Personally, I use Zoneminder: https://zoneminder.com/ Zoneminder is very \"janky\" but predictable. I set mine up about three years ago, and it's been nice and boring since: https://nbailey.ca/post/nvr", "context": "", "use_case": "home camera NVR", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ring owners are returning their cameras"}, {"id": 742813888, "item_id": 46425868, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46425868", "by": "Bender", "date": "2025-12-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I mentioned Zoneminder as they are used by a number of corporations", "excerpt": "I think a starting point to avoid such things even if one does not use Zoneminder would be to look at their hardware compatibility lists [1] and ask on their forums [2] to find stand-alone cameras and keep them on an isolated network using a layer-7 proxy such as HAproxy [3] to reach your management interfaces so they do not have a gateway but you can still access your devices. The forums of all the assorted open sou", "context": "", "use_case": "open-source NVR", "switched_from": "", "story": "TP-Link only works with a permanent internet connection"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 764589840, "item_id": 47786865, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47786865", "by": "kube-system", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the detection algorithms were so bad that I found them useless.", "excerpt": "Just because someone has an IT staff doesn't necessarily mean that staff really has the expertise to set up a bespoke surveillance system properly. Nor does it really make it a good idea to do so. Nor is it even a good use of time when packaged systems can fulfill most requirements with less integration risk. The software running on an NVR is only one small part of a surveillance system. I'd be much more worried abou", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Flock employees caught watching kids gymnastic class and pools"}, {"id": 764560784, "item_id": 47785049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47785049", "by": "EvanAnderson", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Agree re: Zoneminder being a bad choice today", "excerpt": "Commercially managed doesn't have to mean off-prem. There are vendors local to me who deploy turnkey on-prem video surveillance systems without remote management, if the Customer would prefer not to have it. (It means increased service call costs.) The school district I contract with had one installed last year. (I don't love the Motorola Avigilon software but the cameras were fairly nice. The vendor needed extensive", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Flock employees caught watching kids gymnastic class and pools"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["security camera recording", "network video recording", "home camera nvr", "open-source nvr"], "compared": [{"slug": "frigate", "name": "Frigate", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47784045", "title": "Flock employees caught watching kids gymnastic class and pools", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47768451", "title": "Ask HN: What's your favorite security cam system?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46999545", "title": "Ring owners are returning their cameras", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46425752", "title": "TP-Link only works with a permanent internet connection", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 2, "warn": 2}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 764837024, "item_id": 47802314, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47802314", "by": "giantg2", "date": "2026-04-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "PoE Reolinks with Zoneminder on a atom based mini PC.", "excerpt": "PoE Reolinks with Zoneminder on a atom based mini PC. Add an external SSD for more storage if needed. Since you mentioned wifi then you could go with the wifi Reolink. Peer to peer might be more a a bespoke design. Closest commercial thing that comes to mind is cuddleback cuddlelink system.", "context": "", "use_case": "security camera recording", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's your favorite security cam system?"}, {"id": 764589840, "item_id": 47786865, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47786865", "by": "kube-system", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the detection algorithms were so bad that I found them useless.", "excerpt": "Just because someone has an IT staff doesn't necessarily mean that staff really has the expertise to set up a bespoke surveillance system properly. Nor does it really make it a good idea to do so. Nor is it even a good use of time when packaged systems can fulfill most requirements with less integration risk. The software running on an NVR is only one small part of a surveillance system. I'd be much more worried abou", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Flock employees caught watching kids gymnastic class and pools"}, {"id": 764560784, "item_id": 47785049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47785049", "by": "EvanAnderson", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Agree re: Zoneminder being a bad choice today", "excerpt": "Commercially managed doesn't have to mean off-prem. There are vendors local to me who deploy turnkey on-prem video surveillance systems without remote management, if the Customer would prefer not to have it. (It means increased service call costs.) The school district I contract with had one installed last year. (I don't love the Motorola Avigilon software but the cameras were fairly nice. The vendor needed extensive", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Flock employees caught watching kids gymnastic class and pools"}, {"id": 764548816, "item_id": 47784301, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47784301", "by": "Bender", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Zoneminder [1][2] can be clustered and distributed assuming a large campus.", "excerpt": "Why is there a flock camera indoors at a school in the first place? That seems like something that should be using close circuit PoE cameras to NVR's if there must be cameras. Zoneminder [1][2] can be clustered and distributed assuming a large campus. I'm sure there must be other open source NVR's that can do the same. School IT staff should try out a small deployment first and then extend it year over year. Bob can ", "context": "", "use_case": "Network video recording", "switched_from": "", "story": "Flock employees caught watching kids gymnastic class and pools"}, {"id": 752068449, "item_id": 47004278, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47004278", "by": "yabones", "date": "2026-02-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally, I use Zoneminder", "excerpt": "Frigate is very good: https://frigate.video/ Personally, I use Zoneminder: https://zoneminder.com/ Zoneminder is very \"janky\" but predictable. I set mine up about three years ago, and it's been nice and boring since: https://nbailey.ca/post/nvr", "context": "", "use_case": "home camera NVR", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ring owners are returning their cameras"}, {"id": 742813888, "item_id": 46425868, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46425868", "by": "Bender", "date": "2025-12-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I mentioned Zoneminder as they are used by a number of corporations", "excerpt": "I think a starting point to avoid such things even if one does not use Zoneminder would be to look at their hardware compatibility lists [1] and ask on their forums [2] to find stand-alone cameras and keep them on an isolated network using a layer-7 proxy such as HAproxy [3] to reach your management interfaces so they do not have a gateway but you can still access your devices. The forums of all the assorted open sou", "context": "", "use_case": "open-source NVR", "switched_from": "", "story": "TP-Link only works with a permanent internet connection"}]}