One can use Frigate + Home Assistant + some secure remote access solution (e.g., VPN) to get a usage model similar to Secluso. Secluso however provides the following advantages:

1) You'll get advanced end-to-end encryption (MLS).

2) You'll get a trusted firmware (fully open source and verifiable software running on a Raspberry Pi). An important advantage of having trusted firmware is that you won't have to worry about putting a firewall in front of a camera that comes with closed source firmware and hence can't be trusted.

3) Secluso is easier to set up. All you need is to run our released binaries in a Raspberry Pi, a server, and then use our app. We are also open to providing server support for for a limited number of interested users. This will further simplify the setup. Please contact us if you're interested.

4) With Secluso, you won't need a hub or an NVR. All you need is a Raspberry Pi (and its camera).

There are several differences.

1) Usage model: RTSP cameras can be used for on-demand livestreaming. In contrast, the usage model of our camera is similar to a Ring camera: not only does it support livestreaming, but also it detects events (motion, person, pet, etc.), records a video clip, and sends it to the phone.

2) Connection and ease of use: with an RTSP camera, the camera acts as a sever. You can easily connect to it from your phone if your phone is connected to the same LAN. But if you're outside (which is very typical in the case of home security camera), you will need to connect to your LAN from outside. You have several options to achieve this (port forwarding, VPN, reverse proxy, etc.). Some of these options are not very secure. And they all require some non-trivial setup. In contrast, with our camera (again, similar to a Ring camera), the camera sends the videos to a cloud server and the app downloads them. Therefore, there's no need for the phone to access the LAN. (But note that in contrast to Ring, the videos in Secluso are always end-to-end encrypted. Ring supports an optional end-to-end encrypted mode, but you will lose advanced AI features such as person detection if you enable that since that is performed in their servers.) With the cloud-based video relay, we can then make it very easy to set up and use our camera. More specifically, our plug-and-play camera (https://secluso.com) is very easy to use: scan a QR code, pair, and you're good to go.

3) Encryption: Secluso uses MLS, which provides advanced end-to-end encryption features such as forward secrecy (per message) and post-compromise security.

4) Trust in firmware: Our goal with our recent Raspberry Pi camera is to provide a home security camera with a fully open source firmware. In fact, we now support a reproducible build, which allows you to verify that the firmware binary is built from the open source software in our github repo. This is in contrast to IP cameras that come with closed source firmware, making it difficult to assess their trustworthiness.