DS cam vs UniFi Connect
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
DS cam
Monitor and receive alerts from your Synology surveillance cameras. Control PTZ, patrols, and lens functions in real-time. Easily filter recordings and manage essential tasks like disabling cameras or deleting snapshots.
- Real-time camera monitoring
- Alert notifications
- PTZ, patrol, and lens control
- Advanced recording filters
- Essential management tasks
- Snapshot management
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You must own a Synology NAS or NVR to run this app, and be running the latest Surveillance Station to get the complete set of features. DS cam makes it possible to monitor and receive alert notifications from all your surveillance cameras set up on a Synology DiskStation. Smart features such as PTZ, patrols or lens control allow for perfect control of your cameras in real-time, while advanced filters make it easy to pinpoint any specific event from large lists of recordings. You can even perform all essential management tasks, from disabling a camera to unlocking and deleting a snapshot. Find all detailed features about the app on our website: www.synology.com > Solutions > Surveillance > Surveillance Mobile > Specifications https://www.synology.com/dsm/7.2/software_spec/surveillance_station
UniFi Connect
Manage and automate your organization's IT infrastructure, from lighting to EV chargers. Discover, configure, and monitor devices remotely, applying custom settings to groups with ease.
- Remote device discovery, adoption, configuration, and monitoring
- Automate IT solutions like lighting and EV chargers
- Apply custom settings to multiple devices simultaneously
- Enterprise-grade network management
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Build an enterprise-grade network that allows you to connect and automate your organization’s IT solutions - from conference room lighting to multimedia displays, EV chargers, and more! With UniFi Connect, you can: - Discover, adopt, configure, and monitor devices from anywhere. - Apply custom settings to multiple devices and groups with a single tap.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: UniFi Connect at 4.4 against DS cam's 3.0. UniFi Connect also leads on review sentiment (67% vs 32%) and update cadence (monthly vs every 4 months). DS cam's advantage is ratings volume (177 vs 13) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
UniFi Connect holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: DS cam has 177 ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 32% of DS cam's written reviews are positive against 67% of UniFi Connect's.
DS cam ships an update every 4 months, UniFi Connect monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DS cam | UniFi Connect |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (177 ratings) | 4.4 (13 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 32.2% of reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 177 — better | 13 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 85 MB | 72 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Synology Inc. | Ubiquiti Inc. |
Customer experience
DS cam
UniFi Connect
Bugs and requests
DS cam
Reported bugs
16 issues- Regular app crashing
- Cannot scroll back in timeline without issues
- Event viewer rarely works
- Keeps buffering
- Crashes constantly
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- Battery drain
- Push notifications not reliable
- Cannot click on push notifications
- Cannot download h265 videos
- Notifications missing thumbnails
- Slow login process
- Loses remembered connections
- Slow to connect
- Notifications stopped working
- Crashes iPhone 14 Pro
- Incompatible with older Surveillance Station versions
Requested features
11 requests- Selective motion notifications
- Custom notification sounds
- Ability to categorize alerts
- Live scrubbing on timeline
- Bookmarks and advanced filtering
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- Ability to download h265 videos
- Faster login process
- Ability to retain remembered connections
- Apple TV app
- Dark mode for all screens
- Ability to quickly switch between cameras
UniFi Connect
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
DS cam
No in-app purchases
UniFi Connect
No in-app purchases
