How Much Does CCTV Installation Cost?
Ask three suppliers for a CCTV quote and the figures can differ wildly. One quotes £4,000, another £9,000, a third offers a monthly subscription that looks cheap until year three. No wonder many finance teams struggle to set a sensible budget. The good news is that CCTV pricing follows a handful of predictable rules. Understand those rules and you can compare proposals on a like-for-like basis and protect your project from last-minute extras.
This article keeps the maths straightforward, avoiding jargon wherever possible. We look at the eight cost drivers that matter most, explain why they move the needle and give realistic price bands drawn from recent ACCL projects across offices, warehouses and retail estates.
Camera Count and Quality
The single biggest cost driver is the number of cameras and the resolution they capture. A 2-megapixel dome might cost £90; a 4-megapixel version from the same brand is closer to £140; a 4K model with built-in analytics can reach £280 or more. Multiply those numbers by ten or twenty channels and the spread soon reaches four figures. Before you fixate on pixels, map the areas you genuinely need to monitor. Coverage planning, like the walk-through outlined in our camera-placement guide, often trims the camera count without compromising security, which can save more than any model swap.
Environment and Mounting
An indoor reception camera lives in a mild, dry space; an external camera on a coastal wall endures salt, cold and wind. Outdoor housings require higher IP and IK ratings, better seals and sometimes built-in heaters. Expect each weather-rated unit to add £40–£70 over its office-friendly twin. Mounting height also plays a part: pole-top brackets and cherry-picker hire can double the labour component for that single camera. Listing these constraints in a survey brief helps installers quote accurately first time.
Storage and Retention
Recording footage is non-negotiable, yet storage tends to hide in the small print. An HD stream running around the clock can consume 8–10 GB per day. If your insurer insists on thirty-day retention that is roughly 240 GB for just one camera. Multiply by twenty cameras and you need a recorder with at least 5 TB of usable space. A four-bay NVR chassis with enterprise-grade drives sits in the £700–£1,000 range; doubling the disk capacity later is rarely as cheap as sizing correctly up-front. Cloud storage spreads cost monthly but adds bandwidth fees, as explained in our cloud vs on-prem guide.
