I Sell Dahua, Now What?

I'm not one to say what your clients will or will not pay for. If they truly won't pay for more than what they're paying now. I would look at using Digital Watchdog NVR's or a different brand from Dahua. Axis Companion NVR is an option too. Upgrading firmware should help but who knows if it really will or not.

That being said, I thought my clients wouldn't pay for more either. Until I started selling them servers and putting in legitimate systems using a real VMS. IMO it's time for integrators like you and me to be more innovative. We are currently working to release a platform using a real VMS and HDTVI cameras. When I'm done, we will have our cost of 8 cameras, VMS licenses and a 1TB server well below $1,000 for everything. This system is of course intended for homes and small businesses, and to compete with plug-n-play.

Possibilities are endless right now. Being more creative and thinking outside the box will help midgate a lot of risk with using Hik and Dahua NVRs, and deliver a better end product for your customers. Since we started using the VMS we're using our tech support department has seen a huge decrease in tickets submitted for help and we are generating more referrals. 

I realize I am being pretty vague, but I have spent many hours coming up with these solutions to just give all my hardwork away to other integrators. 

@OP: Using a VPN is the best you can do if you need access to the installed devices through the internet. A VPN does not need to be expensive, with some basic linux knowledge (or a tutorial found at google), you can build a VPN-Server based on cheap hardware (e. g. Raspberry Pi 3). If you need more throughput, then use more cheap hardware, use a stronger Hardware or buy a ready-to-use solution.

Security is not expensive!

Never use portforwardings directly to your cameras or recorders, no matter what brand they are. Often the communication between the browser and the device is not safe and contains too many clear text information (user acoounts are the worst case) that makes you vulnerable to packet repeating attacks, session hijacking or other "funny" stuff. 

The easiest thing to do is to install an open vpn certificate on their router and connect that way. This isn’t the best solution but it’s better than nothing and it’s not that hard to setup.

If we wanted to get away from Dahua completely, what would be the next alternative trying to same in the same price or as close as possible? Not interested in Hik, and Uniview is not that appealing either. We used Uniview a couple years ago, had some significant issues and ditched them. Plus it looks like they have some security issues as well.

I hear some praise about Hanwha. Most of our systems are below 20 cameras but they need to remain IP since we do a lot of wireless.

Any other suggestions?