What is Solink? Buyer's guide and alternatives

What is Solink? A buyer's guide and alternatives for 2026

Solink is a cloud video security platform that pairs camera footage with point-of-sale and business data so retail, convenience, and restaurant teams can review flagged transactions and investigate incidents quickly. If your central problem is register fraud and you want video tied to till events, Solink is a credible, established option; if you also need outdoor coverage and real-time action across the whole property, it is worth understanding where its scope ends. This buyer's guide explains what Solink is, its history and market position, what it does, who it fits, and the alternatives to weigh, using only what Solink publishes or what credible reporting confirms, and marking anything undocumented as not publicly specified.

The reason to evaluate carefully is the size of the exposure. US retail shrink reached $112.1 billion in 2022 at an average rate of 1.6% of sales, and internal and external theft together made up nearly two-thirds of that loss (Source: National Retail Federation). A platform that only watches the register leaves the rest of that risk unaddressed, so scope belongs in the decision alongside the software itself.

The table below summarizes Solink's documented capabilities so you can see the shape of the platform before reading the detail. Every cell reflects what Solink publishes or what is not publicly specified.

What Solink is, and its market position

Solink is a hybrid video platform, which means an on-site appliance called the Solink Recording Device stores footage locally at each site and streams it securely to the cloud. In the cloud, that video is tied to point-of-sale transactions for exception-based review. In plain terms, when the register logs an event that often signals fraud, such as a void, a refund, or a no-sale, Solink surfaces the matching clip so a reviewer can confirm what happened without scrubbing hours of footage.

The company is well established. Solink was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, and it has grown into one of the larger names in cloud video for loss prevention, with a multi-location footprint across many countries and named customers spanning restaurants, big-box retail, and specialty stores. It raised a Series C round led by a major asset manager, which signals both scale and staying power. For a buyer, the takeaway is that Solink is not a niche startup; it is a mature product with a deep bench in transaction-anchored review. That maturity is part of why it shows up on so many shortlists for retail and restaurant loss prevention.

Who uses Solink, and typical deployments

Solink's natural buyer is a loss prevention or asset protection leader, or the IT owner who supports them, at a multi-location operator where register fraud and shrink are the daily pain. In practice, that skews toward single-site and multi-unit operators in a few segments:

1. Convenience stores and fuel retail. High transaction volume, cash handling, and 24-hour operation make till events the obvious place to watch, which is squarely Solink's lane.
2. Quick-service and full-service restaurants. Refund and void abuse, discount misuse, and drawer shortages are common, and pairing each with video shortens the investigation.
3. Small-format and specialty retail. Franchise and multi-unit chains that want consistent, head-office visibility into register activity across many similar stores.

Across these deployments the workflow is consistent: connect existing cameras, integrate the POS, and let head-office reviewers work exceptions from one cloud dashboard. If your evaluation is anchored on till fraud across many similar sites, that focus is a genuine strength. For convenience formats specifically, it helps to map the full incident mix first, which the guide to convenience store camera systems walks through.

Key capabilities

Solink's documented capabilities cluster around video plus transaction data, delivered through the cloud:

• POS-video exception reporting. The signature feature. Transaction events are matched to the corresponding video so a reviewer sees the sale and the clip together, which is what makes register-fraud review fast. The mechanics of this model are unpacked in exception-based reporting.
• Cloud dashboards and alerts. A web dashboard gives cross-site visibility, search, and alerting, so a head-office reviewer can work several stores from one screen.
• Business analytics. Beyond loss, Solink reports on traffic and operational trends, which some operators use for staffing and merchandising decisions.
• Camera compatibility. An open-ecosystem approach connects existing ONVIF or RTSP cameras, so most sites keep the cameras they already own.
• Hybrid recording. The on-site appliance records locally and backs up to the cloud, which balances local retention with remote access.
• Support and onboarding. A dedicated Customer Success Manager and 24/7 support are bundled into the per-location subscription, with fixed pilots to validate impact.

The broader mechanics of pairing transaction data with video, and why that integration matters, are covered in retail POS and video integration. Solink references SOC 2 for its security posture; details beyond that are not publicly specified.

Strengths and considerations

Read as documented strengths rather than guarantees, Solink earns its reputation on a few clear fronts. Register-fraud review is fast and focused, because tying flagged transactions to video removes the slowest part of an investigation, which is finding the clip. Per-location pricing keeps a camera-heavy single store predictable, since adding a camera inside a store does not add a license line. Because it connects existing ONVIF or RTSP cameras, most operators avoid a hardware overhaul to get started. And flexible commercial terms, month-to-month or multi-year plus 30, 60, and 90-day pilots, let a buyer test on real stores first.

The considerations, stated cautiously and sourced to what Solink documents or leaves unspecified, are the points to pressure-test in a demo:

1. Scope is centered on the register. The value is anchored to transaction events, so Solink is strongest at the till. Autonomous, real-time action across the lot, aisles, and back room is not its core design, so confirm how it handles incidents that never touch the POS.
2. Cloud-first delivery has downstream costs. Streaming video off-site means bandwidth, longer cloud retention, and PCI scope or data-residency planning become real line items at scale. None of these are unique to Solink, but they belong in your total-cost math.
3. Pricing is set through a quote. Third-party software marketplaces list a starting figure of about $175 per month per location, but that is a starting point, not a full quote. Full list price, tier names, per-site ceilings, and retention pricing are not publicly specified. The Solink pricing guide breaks down what is and is not published.
4. Deployment profile. Solink is built around SMB, franchise, convenience, and QSR operators. If you are running a large, multi-surface program with committee sign-off, verify that its coverage and controls match your evaluation criteria.

Solink alternatives to know

Solink is one of several credible platforms in retail video, and the right pick depends on how much of your risk sits at the register versus across the property. These are the real alternatives buyers most often weigh, described from each vendor's own positioning; a fuller side-by-side lives in the best Solink alternatives for 2026.

• Spot AI. A per-camera, camera-agnostic video AI platform whose AI Security Guard adds real-time active deterrence and unified indoor and outdoor cases, plus POS-to-video correlation at the till.
• Verkada. A cloud platform that sells its own cameras and also supports third-party ONVIF and RTSP cameras through its Command Connector; strong brand recognition from single-site offices up to enterprise.
• Coram AI. A cloud video platform with AI-driven investigation that is funded and actively targeting retail alongside education, healthcare, and manufacturing.
• Lumana. A video AI platform that markets retail loss prevention with POS integration, including self-checkout scenarios.

The Spot AI alternative: real-time action on the cameras you already own

The most common alternative buyers weigh against Solink is a per-camera video AI platform, and Spot AI is the one built for teams that need coverage and action beyond the till. Spot AI is camera-agnostic and works with the cameras you already own, so the subscription covers the IVR (Intelligent Video Recorder) and software rather than a rip-and-replace. Its AI Security Guard runs a Detect, Secure, Deter flow: agents detect events in context, trigger protective actions, and deter in real time with active deterrence such as strobes, sirens, and natural-conversation AI Talkdown, then hand back case-ready, timestamped evidence. Because Spot AI also ties video to point-of-sale data, register review and property-wide cases live in one system rather than two.

The table sets the two approaches side by side. Solink cells reflect only what Solink documents, or are marked not publicly specified; Spot AI cells come from its own platform documentation.

The reason coverage matters shows up in results. Because internal and external theft together account for nearly two-thirds of retail shrink, a platform that reviews only the till after the fact leaves the lot, the aisles, and the back room out of the picture. All Star Elite, a retailer running 80 sports apparel stores, moved cameras, case management, and analytics onto one platform and reported cutting cash shrink from about 6% to about 1%, reducing merchandise shrink from a 10 to 15% range to about 6%, and improving investigation efficiency by more than 50%, results the company attributes to unifying those functions in one system.

"The ability to formalize our incident reporting with Spot AI, keep every case in one database, and attach video directly to those cases has been a game changer."

Andrew Gonzalez, Corporate Director of Loss Prevention and Safety, All Star Elite

Those figures are customer-reported, not a guarantee, and your outcome depends on your stores and how you use the tools. For a direct, criterion-by-criterion look, see Spot AI compared with Solink.

How to evaluate Solink against the alternatives

Run every platform against the same scorecard rather than a vendor demo script. Five criteria separate the options for most retail and convenience teams:

1. Incident mix. What share of your losses happen at the register versus the lot, aisles, and back room? That ratio decides how much weight to give POS review against property-wide coverage.
2. Response model. Do you need review after the fact, action in the moment, or both? A platform strong on exception reporting may still leave real-time deterrence to another system.
3. Architecture and data path. Confirm where video is stored and what crosses the network, since that drives bandwidth, retention cost, and PCI or data-residency scope.
4. Total cost across the fleet. Compare per-location and per-camera models on your real camera counts, and include cloud retention and integration work, not just the headline number.
5. Case workflow. Check how each platform documents incidents, attaches video, and hands evidence to law enforcement, because slow case handling erodes the value of good detection.

If you want to see how a per-camera video AI platform would perform against your current setup, book a demo on the Spot AI platform. The team can model the comparison on your existing video so you evaluate coverage, real-time action, and cost together. Book a demo to scope it for your locations.

Frequently asked questions

What is Solink and what does it do?

Solink is a cloud video security platform that pairs camera footage with point-of-sale data so retail, convenience, and restaurant teams can review flagged transactions and investigate incidents quickly. Its signature capability is POS exception reporting, which matches events such as voids, refunds, and no-sales to the corresponding clip. An on-site appliance records locally and streams to the cloud for review.

Who uses Solink and what is it best for?

Solink's typical buyer is a loss prevention or asset protection leader at a multi-location retail, convenience-store, or restaurant operator focused on register fraud and shrink. It is best for single-site and multi-unit SMB, franchise, convenience, and QSR businesses whose losses concentrate at the till. Larger, multi-surface programs should confirm that its coverage matches their evaluation criteria.

Does Solink work with existing cameras?

Yes. Solink takes an open-ecosystem approach and connects existing ONVIF or RTSP cameras, so most operators keep the cameras they already own rather than replacing hardware. An on-site recording appliance records locally and streams to the cloud for review.

How much does Solink cost?

Third-party software marketplaces list a starting price of about $175 per month per location, but that is a starting point, not a full quote. Full list price, tiers, retention pricing, and add-on rates are not publicly specified, so the complete cost for your fleet is set through a custom quote. The Solink pricing guide breaks down what is and is not published.

What are the best alternatives to Solink?

Real alternatives include Spot AI, Verkada, Coram AI, and Lumana. Operators who need coverage and action beyond the register commonly compare Solink to a per-camera video AI platform such as Spot AI, whose AI Security Guard adds real-time deterrence and unified indoor and outdoor cases. The Solink alternatives guide walks through the options and how to choose among them.

About the author

Sud Bhatija is COO and Co-founder at Spot AI, where he scales operations and go-to-market strategy to deliver video AI that helps operations, safety, and security teams boost productivity and reduce incidents across industries.