DS cam vs Amcrest View Pro 2
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
Amcrest View Pro 2
Monitor your Amcrest IP cameras, DVRs, and NVRs remotely. This application allows you to view live feeds from your security devices directly on your iOS device, providing peace of mind and enhanced home security.
- Live camera viewing
- Remote access
- Monitor IP cameras
- Monitor DVRs
- Monitor NVRs
- Home security
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The Amcrest View Pro 2 app was specifically designed for our Amcrest IP Cameras, HDCVI DVRs, and NVRs. Watch your cameras live using your iOS device! As a leader in the home security space, Amcrest offers products to help you and your loved ones feel safe, no matter where you are. With the Amcrest View Pro 2 app, it's simple to check in on what you care about, from anywhere.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: DS cam at 3.0 against Amcrest View Pro 2's 2.1. DS cam also leads on review sentiment (32% vs 15%) and update cadence (every 4 months vs every 8 months). Amcrest View Pro 2's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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.
DS cam holds the better App Store score, 3.0 against 2.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 172 and 93 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 32% of DS cam's written reviews are positive against 15% of Amcrest View Pro 2's.
DS cam ships an update every 4 months, Amcrest View Pro 2 every 8 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DS cam | Amcrest View Pro 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (172 ratings) — better | 2.1 (93 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 31.8% of reviews — better | 14.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 172 — better | 93 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months — better | Every 8 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 85 MB | 231 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Synology Inc. | Amcrest |
Customer experience
DS cam
Amcrest View Pro 2
User reviews
DS cam
From 172 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Works great
- 👍 Good and useful app
- 🚀 Fast and stable
- 👍 Completely control camera recordings
- 👍 Toggle through events easily
Room to improve
- 🐛 Regular app crashing
- 🐛 Crashes frequently
- 🐛 Cannot scroll back in timeline without issues
- 🐛 Event viewer rarely works
- 🐛 Slow and clunky
Amcrest View Pro 2
From 93 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easier to use interface
- 🚀 Improved camera adding process
- 👍 Better than previous version
- 👍 New look is appreciated
- 👍 Works well with GPU option enabled
Room to improve
- 🐛 App crashes frequently
- 🐛 App is unreliable and buggy
- 🐛 Playback is terrible (stalling, skipping)
- 🐛 Live view and playback are separate
- 🐛 iPad app doesn't fill screen
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
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- 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
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- 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
Amcrest View Pro 2
Reported bugs
50 issues- Push notifications stopped working
- Playback stalling, skipping, jumping to beginning
- App closes current camera or exits full screen
- Event notifications not provided
- Motion sensor enabled but push notifications not working
Show 45 moreShow fewer
- App will not let user view cameras
- App keeps timing out when viewing live feed or recordings
- App won't add camera, says Device SN doesn't exist
- Cameras seldom connect
- Continually time-out
- NVR fails to log cameras in quick view
- Recording scheduling portion is unintuitive
- General interface is outdated
- Audio is unintelligible
- Intercom mode crashes camera firmware
- Message in Chinese
- Cannot find IP address of camera
- QR code scan failure
- App doesn't allow remote access
- Event recording doesn't work
- Login timeout when not on local Wi-Fi
- Home screen shows incorrect camera image
- Maximum connections exceeded error
- Dual 4K resolution cropped on iPhone 16
- App doesn't work on M1 Mac
- App doesn't work with iPhone
- App doesn't recognize all Amcrest cameras
- App doesn't accept P2P Amcrest camera with serial starting with Z
- No P2P Gateway import feature
- Motion detector playback does not work
- Smart motion detection (human/vehicle) not working
- Events don't show up on iPhone event list unless push notification is clicked
- Unable to add NVR via P2P on iOS version
- App doesn't load cameras after closing and reopening
- App constantly crashes
- App doesn't fill iPad screen
- Turning device sideways resizes image weirdly
- Notifications not working
- App crashes with 4K cameras without GPU option
- App doesn't connect to streams
- App is unstable and has numerous bugs/errors
- App is worse than the first version
- App requires too many taps for simple tasks
- App doesn't support self-search for Amcrest cameras
- App fails to connect to camera
- App renders camera system unusable
- No live view or playback after update
- App is primitive
- App is a mess
- Old app is better
Requested features
12 requests- Add screen lock feature
- Add PTZ set point feature
- Add cloud storage access
- Add ability to show events and jump to them
- Add GPU option for iOS app
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Add P2P Gateway import feature
- Allow user choice for password change
- Improve Mac OSX support
- Fix dual 4K resolution cropping on iPhone 16
- Improve iPad app scaling
- Add timeline under live view for easier playback
- Fix messages appearing in Chinese
In-app purchases
DS cam
No in-app purchases
Amcrest View Pro 2
No in-app purchases
