DS cam vs InstarVision
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
InstarVision
View, control, and manage your IP cameras from anywhere. This app allows real-time video and audio streaming, camera settings adjustments, and playback of recorded footage.
- Live video/audio streaming
- Add/edit/delete cameras
- Pan/Tilt/Zoom control
- Change camera settings
- Save/share snapshots
- Playback recordings
- Motion detection activation
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InstarVision is the perfect companion to your INSTAR IP camera. This user-friendly application allows you to view the video streams of your camera, to control it real-time or to change its settings. • FUNCTIONS • - Play live- video/audio streams - Add/edit/delete cameras - Pan/Tilt/Zoom functions - Swipe control - Change camera settings (brightness, contrast, resolution ...) - Save or share snapshots - Saving preset positions - Controllable IR LEDs and I/O Relay (depends on the camera model) - Activate / deactivate camera motion detection - Play recordings from the Cloud or SD card Additional to the INSTAR models you can use cameras of the following manufacturers: - 7Links - ABUS - Allnet - Apexis - Axis - Bosch - Dericam - Digitus - D-Link - EasyN - Edimax - Elro - Foscam - Hama - JVC - Linksys - Mobotix - Panasonic - Reolink - Samsung - Siemens - Sony - Swann - Vilar - Wanscam - Wansview If you have any suggestion or problem with this app please contact us at support@instar.com. You can help us to extend the functions and supported cameras in this app by providing: - Documentation to your camera - Test account if possible This software uses code of FFmpeg licensed under the LGPLv2.1 and its source can be downloaded here: https://github.com/instarcam/InstarVision-iPad
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: InstarVision at 90% against DS cam's 32%. InstarVision also leads on rating (4.4 vs 3.0) and update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 4 months). DS cam's advantage is ratings volume (172 vs 9). 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.
InstarVision holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: DS cam has 172 ratings behind it against 9, 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 90% of InstarVision's.
DS cam ships an update every 4 months, InstarVision every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DS cam | InstarVision |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (172 ratings) | 4.4 (9 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 31.8% of reviews | 90.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 172 — better | 9 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 85 MB | 152 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Synology Inc. | INSTAR Deutschland GmbH |
Customer experience
DS cam
InstarVision
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
InstarVision
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
DS cam
No in-app purchases
InstarVision
No in-app purchases
