Eero’s subscription plan just got more expensive

Earlier this month, Eero announced it would be transitioning its paid subscription plans to one flat rate of $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. Formerly called Eero Secure Plus, Eero Plus is now the only option for users of the mesh Wi-Fi system if they want to access features like parental controls, ad blocking, or any network usage information.

Today, subscribers to the now-defunct cheaper plan, Eero Secure, started to receive notifications that their plan was ending and would be transferred to the new — more expensive — Eero Plus plan starting on November 15th.

A subscription is not required to use Eero devices, but without one, you can’t set parental controls or see how devices behave on your network, including how much data is being used. These are services that most router manufacturers offer for free. For example, Google Nest Wifi offers parental controls and network activity information for free on its mesh network system.

Eero is offering existing Secure users 50 percent off Eero Plus for a year, but that still means they are paying at least $20 more than the $29.99 a year or $2.99 a month they were paying. After the discounted year, they will pay the full rate of $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year.

The Eero Plus service includes all the services that were part of Secure — such as parental controls, ad blocking, and network activity data — and adds Dynamic DNS remote network access and annual subscriptions to Malwarebytes antivirus, 1Password password manager, and Encrypt.me VPN service. If you are already paying for one or more of those services, the plan makes sense, but if you aren’t interested in those, it’s less compelling.

Eero is bringing a new internet backup service to Eero Plus that will let you wirelessly connect your network to a backup internet source if your main service goes down. But whether that feature is worth paying $10 a month for is debatable.

Unfortunately, this change is opt-out. After November 15th, existing Secure subscribers must cancel their plans before they renew to avoid being automatically charged for the new Eero Plus service. You can cancel at account.eero.com.