Agent DVR and Blue Iris are both capable video surveillance applications. The main differences are platform support, pricing model, and remote access. This page compares them on the facts that matter most.
Platform Support
| Feature | Agent DVR | Blue Iris |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| macOS | ✓ | ✘ |
| Linux | ✓ | ✘ |
| Docker | ✓ | ✘ |
| Raspberry Pi / ARM | ✓ | ✘ |
| Browser-based UI | ✓ | ✓ (limited) |
| Native mobile apps | ✓ iOS & Android | ✓ iOS & Android |
Pricing
| Feature | Agent DVR | Blue Iris |
|---|---|---|
| Free for local private use | ✓ Unlimited cameras | ✘ 15-day trial only |
| One-time purchase | ✓ Perpetual local license* | ✓ LE (~$35, 1 camera) / FE (~$70, up to 64 cameras) |
| Subscription (remote access) | ✓ from $7.95/mo | ✘ |
| Maximum cameras | Unlimited | 64 (FE edition) |
| Third-party cloud uploads | ✓ (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox) | ✘ |
* A perpetual local-use license is included with an annual pre-pay subscription. Local access only - remote access requires an active subscription. Port forwarding or VPN required for remote use with a perpetual license.
Remote Access
| Feature | Agent DVR | Blue Iris |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in relay (no port forwarding) | ✓ | ✘ |
| Remote access via subscription | ✓ | ✘ |
| DDNS / manual port forward | ✓ | ✓ |
AI & Detection
| Feature | Agent DVR | Blue Iris |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in motion detection | ✓ | ✓ |
| Object / person detection (AI) | ✓ Built-in + OpenVINO, ONNX, DeepStack, CodeProject, Blue Onyx & others | ✓ Via DeepStack / CodeProject |
| Learns from your feedback | ✓ On-device, instant | ✘ |
| LLM integrations | ✓ (ChatGPT, Ollama, Gemini…) | ✘ |
| AI assistant integration (MCP) | ✓ Built-in MCP server - Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini & any MCP client | ✘ |
| Facial recognition | ✓ | ✓ (via plugin) |
| License plate recognition | ✓ | ✓ (via plugin) |
Ask Your Cameras Questions - AI Assistant Integration
Agent DVR has a built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, so you can connect Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor or any other MCP-capable AI assistant directly to your surveillance server and talk to it in plain language: "Has anyone been to the front door today?", "What happened in the garage last night?", "Arm the system." The assistant requests just the snapshots, recordings and alerts it needs, looks at them, and answers. Nothing is uploaded ahead of time and nothing is trained on your footage.
You can also create standing rules from a sentence - "tell me if a red car turns up in the next 6 hours" - and they run on your own server with no assistant connected. Local use is free; with an iSpyConnect subscription the same assistants can reach your cameras from anywhere over the secure relay, with no port forwarding. Blue Iris has no equivalent: connecting an AI assistant means building your own bridge on top of its web API. Learn more about AI assistants for Agent DVR.
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