If you're a convenience store or gas station operator researching loss prevention, you've likely encountered Solink — a well-regarded cloud video security and analytics platform that uses AI to correlate POS data with video footage, detect anomalies, and deliver alerts. Solink is genuinely strong technology. Their AI-powered analytics, Sidekick AI assistant, 300+ integrations, and cloud-first architecture represent some of the best available in the video intelligence space.
DohShield is a fundamentally different service. It's a managed daily audit where trained human reviewers cross-reference your POS data with video footage every day, identify confirmed theft and fraud, and deliver investigation-ready evidence packages. DohShield isn't a platform you log into — it's a team that works for you.
This comparison is designed to help you understand where each solution excels, where they differ, and why a growing number of operators are discovering that the most effective loss prevention strategy uses both.
The $50,000 Problem: 300 Alerts Per Day, Zero Actions Taken
Here's a scenario that plays out in thousands of convenience stores every day: A Solink-class AI analytics platform is installed. The cameras are connected. The POS integration is live. The system is working exactly as designed — flagging voids, no-sale drawer opens, refund anomalies, after-hours access, behavioral patterns, and dozens of other exception types. The dashboard is populated with alerts. Notifications are being sent.
And nobody is reviewing them.
A typical convenience store generates between 100 and 300+ exception alerts per day. Each alert represents a POS event that the AI has flagged as potentially suspicious. Some are legitimate — a customer changed their mind and the cashier voided the item. Some are procedural — a manager opened the drawer to make change. And some are actual theft — a cashier voided a $45 transaction after the customer left with the merchandise and pocketed the cash.
The problem is that all three look the same in a dashboard. Separating the legitimate voids from the genuine theft requires pulling up the synchronized video for each alert, watching what actually happened, determining whether the POS event matches the physical behavior, and documenting the finding. For a single alert, this takes 3 to 5 minutes. For 200 alerts, that's 10 to 17 hours of review work. Per day. Per store.
No convenience store owner has that time. No district manager has that time. No one running a real business with vendor deliveries, staffing challenges, compliance requirements, and customer operations has a spare 10 hours per day to sit in front of a loss prevention dashboard.
The result is predictable. Industry data suggests that less than 15% of exception alerts in self-serve loss prevention platforms are actually reviewed and acted upon by store operators. The remaining 85%+ of alerts sit in the dashboard, aging out unreviewed. The software is working perfectly. The analytics are excellent. The AI is detecting real anomalies. And none of it matters because nobody is doing the verification work.
This isn't a criticism of Solink's technology. It's a structural reality of any self-serve analytics platform: alerts are only as valuable as the review process behind them. The most sophisticated AI in the world can't stop theft if the alerts it generates go unread. This is the gap DohShield fills.
Software That Alerts vs. A Team That Catches
Understanding the difference between Solink and DohShield starts with understanding what each product actually delivers to you at the end of the day.
Solink is an AI-powered video analytics platform. It connects to your existing cameras and POS, uses machine learning and computer vision to detect anomalies, and presents findings through a cloud-based dashboard with mobile access. It answers the question: "What happened at my store?" — and gives you powerful tools to find out. You get alerts, dashboards, remote live viewing, AI-assisted search via Sidekick, and integrations with 300+ systems. The review, verification, and evidence compilation are up to you.
DohShield is a managed daily audit service. Trained human reviewers pull your POS data, cross-reference it with synchronized video footage, and identify confirmed exceptions — every single day. It answers the question: "Who stole, when did they steal, and here's the video evidence to fire them." You get a morning email with incident reports. Each incident includes timestamped video, POS receipt data, employee identification, and a documented narrative. The review, verification, and evidence compilation are done for you.
Solink tells you something might have happened. DohShield tells you exactly what happened, who did it, and gives you the evidence package to act on it.
The distinction isn't about which product is "better" in the abstract. It's about which operational model fits how you actually run your business. If you have a dedicated loss prevention team that lives in dashboards all day, Solink's self-serve analytics are a powerful accelerator. If you're an owner-operator or district manager who needs someone else to do the daily audit work, DohShield delivers the output without requiring your time.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | DohShield | Solink |
|---|---|---|
| Daily POS + Video Audit | Included (human-reviewed) | Self-serve (AI-assisted) |
| AI-Powered Alerts | Not primary focus | Excellent (Sidekick AI) |
| Remote Live Viewing | Not primary focus | Full mobile + desktop |
| Cloud Video Storage | Evidence clips retained | Full cloud storage |
| Evidence Packages | Investigation-ready, delivered daily | Self-compiled from platform |
| Exception-Based Reporting | Human-verified daily | Automated AI alerts |
| Alert Review & Verification | Done for you daily | You review yourself |
| Sweethearting Detection | Daily monitoring | Via AI pattern detection |
| Safe Drop Verification | Video-verified daily | Camera coverage available |
| Hardware Required | Uses existing cameras | Uses existing cameras |
| POS Integration | Major c-store POS systems | 300+ integrations |
| Back-Office Integration | Full DohAssist ecosystem | Limited |
| Contract Terms | No contracts | Varies (contact for pricing) |
| Best For | Operators who want done-for-you theft verification | Operators who want AI-powered self-serve video intelligence |
Why the Smartest Operators Use Both
This is where the conversation around DohShield vs. Solink takes a turn that most comparison pages don't make: the best answer for many operators isn't one or the other — it's both.
Think of it as two layers of a loss prevention stack:
- Solink provides the infrastructure layer. Cloud video management, AI-powered analytics, real-time dashboards, remote live viewing, Sidekick AI for ad-hoc queries, and integrations across your technology stack. This is the detection engine — it sees everything, flags anomalies, and gives you the tools to investigate when you have time.
- DohShield provides the execution layer. Trained human reviewers cross-reference your POS data with video footage every single day. They verify every exception. They separate the false positives from the real theft. They package confirmed incidents with timestamped video, POS receipt data, and documented narratives. This is the verification engine — it turns raw alerts into actionable evidence.
Here's what the combined workflow looks like in practice:
Solink's AI detects 300 alerts at your store on Tuesday. DohShield's reviewers go through every one of them alongside the POS data. By Wednesday morning, you receive one email with 3 confirmed incidents — a cashier who voided two transactions after customers left (estimated loss: $87), a no-sale pattern on the overnight shift suggesting till tapping (6 drawer opens with no associated transaction), and a vendor delivery discrepancy where the invoice shows 12 cases but video shows 10. Each incident includes the video clip, the POS data, and a written summary. You spend 10 minutes reviewing the email and decide how to act.
Compare that to the alternative: you log into Solink's dashboard, see 300 alerts, get through 15 of them before a vendor arrives, and never return to the remaining 285.
The Economics
The combined cost of Solink plus DohShield Silver ($299/mo) for a typical convenience store with 8 to 12 cameras lands under $1,000 per month. Compare that to the only real alternative for comprehensive daily loss prevention: hiring a dedicated LP analyst at $55,000 to $75,000 per year ($5,800 to $8,300 per month including benefits and overhead). The Solink + DohShield combination delivers AI-powered detection and daily human verification at roughly one-sixth the cost of a single LP hire.
For multi-location operators, the math is even more compelling. An LP analyst can realistically cover 5 to 8 locations. DohShield covers every location in your portfolio with daily audits, regardless of count. Add Solink's centralized dashboards for real-time oversight, and you have an enterprise-grade loss prevention operation without the enterprise-grade headcount.
Pricing Context
DohShield publishes transparent pricing. Solink uses a per-camera pricing model that requires a demo for exact figures. Here's the general context:
Where DohShield Excels
- Hands-off daily theft verification. DohShield reviewers do the work. You receive the findings. There's no dashboard to log into, no alerts to triage, no video to scrub through. The daily audit happens whether you're at the store, on vacation, or managing a crisis at another location.
- Investigation-ready evidence packages. When DohShield identifies theft, you receive a complete evidence package: synchronized video clip, POS receipt data, employee identification, and a documented timeline. These are designed for termination conversations, HR documentation, and — when necessary — law enforcement referrals. No assembly required.
- No contracts. Month-to-month with no cancellation penalties. If the service doesn't deliver ROI in the first 30 days, cancel. See full pricing details.
- Catches what AI misses. Experienced human reviewers identify nuanced theft patterns that rule-based algorithms miss: cashiers who time voids to avoid automated thresholds, sweethearting where items pass without being scanned (invisible to POS-based alerts), and slow-bleed till tapping that stays under variance limits. Context, intent, and behavioral subtlety are human strengths.
- Ecosystem integration. DohShield connects to DohAssist (back-office reconciliation) and DohOps (workforce management), creating a unified operational picture. Loss prevention data ties directly to cash variance, inventory, and staffing — a level of integration standalone LP tools can't replicate.
Where Solink Excels
- AI-powered video analytics. Solink's computer vision and machine learning capabilities — person detection, vehicle detection, behavior analysis, line-crossing detection — represent genuinely advanced technology. For operators who want to understand store traffic patterns, customer behavior, and operational efficiency beyond just loss prevention, Solink's analytics are a significant differentiator.
- Sidekick AI. Solink's generative AI assistant lets operators query video feeds using natural language. This is a powerful capability for ad-hoc investigations, incident review, and operational questions that go beyond pre-configured alert rules.
- Remote live viewing. Full mobile and desktop live view across all locations is a core Solink strength. For operators who want real-time visual check-ins throughout the day — verifying store cleanliness, staffing levels, or customer experience — Solink's remote viewing is excellent.
- 300+ integrations. Solink connects to POS systems, access control, alarms, IoT sensors, and a wide range of operational technology. This makes Solink a natural hub for operators who want to centralize multiple data streams into a single platform.
- Cloud video storage and management. Full cloud storage, search, bookmarking, and sharing capabilities. Solink replaces the need for on-premise NVRs and provides a modern, cloud-first video management experience.
- Enterprise scalability. Solink serves tens of thousands of locations and is built for multi-unit operators who need centralized dashboards, cross-location analytics, and scalable video infrastructure.
Who Should Choose What
Choose DohShield if:
- You want daily loss prevention auditing without spending your time on it
- You don't have dedicated LP staff to review alerts and investigate exceptions
- You need investigation-ready evidence packages delivered to your inbox
- You want month-to-month flexibility with no contracts
- You want loss prevention integrated with back-office reconciliation and workforce management
- You're tired of paying for software dashboards that nobody has time to use
Choose Solink if:
- You want a full AI-powered video analytics platform with advanced detection capabilities
- You have dedicated LP staff who will actively review alerts and investigate exceptions daily
- Remote live viewing is a core operational requirement
- You want generative AI capabilities (Sidekick) for ad-hoc video queries
- You need 300+ integrations across POS, access control, alarms, and IoT
- You want a centralized video management platform beyond just loss prevention
Use Both if:
- You want the best of both worlds — Solink's AI infrastructure plus DohShield's daily human verification
- You've experienced alert fatigue and want every alert actually reviewed and verified
- You want AI-powered detection combined with investigation-ready evidence delivery
- You want comprehensive coverage at a fraction of the cost of dedicated LP headcount
- You recognize that technology generates data and humans generate outcomes — and you want both
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes — and this is actually the recommended approach for operators who want both AI-powered video analytics and daily human review. Solink provides the infrastructure layer: cloud video, AI alerts, dashboards, remote live viewing. DohShield provides the execution layer: trained human reviewers who cross-reference your POS data with video footage every day and deliver investigation-ready evidence packages. The two services complement each other. Solink generates the alerts; DohShield verifies them and builds the case.
A typical convenience store generates between 100 and 300+ exception alerts per day across voids, no-sales, refunds, behavioral anomalies, and other flagged events. High-volume locations with multiple registers and extended operating hours can generate significantly more. The volume of alerts is not the problem — the problem is that store owners and managers do not have time to review, verify, and act on every one of them.
Industry data suggests that less than 15% of exception alerts in self-serve loss prevention platforms are actually reviewed and acted upon by store operators. The remaining 85%+ go unreviewed — meaning confirmed theft patterns, void abuse, and sweethearting events sit in a dashboard that nobody has time to open. This is the core problem DohShield solves: every alert is reviewed by a trained human, every day, with no exceptions.
They serve different needs for multi-location operators. Solink excels at providing centralized remote monitoring, AI-powered dashboards, and real-time visibility across dozens or hundreds of locations. DohShield excels at providing daily audit execution — ensuring that every location receives human-reviewed POS and video analysis every single day without requiring the operator to log in. For multi-location operators, using both together is ideal: Solink for the real-time oversight and analytics layer, DohShield for the daily verification and evidence layer.
No. DohShield and Solink serve different functions. Solink is infrastructure — cloud video management, AI analytics, remote viewing, dashboards, and integrations. DohShield is execution — daily human review of POS data cross-referenced with video footage, evidence packaging, and incident reporting. Replacing Solink with DohShield would mean losing your AI analytics and remote viewing capabilities. The strongest loss prevention posture uses Solink for detection and DohShield for verification.
AI-powered alerts are excellent at detecting rule-based anomalies — voids exceeding a dollar threshold, no-sale frequency spikes, after-hours access events. What they miss are the nuanced, context-dependent behaviors that experienced human reviewers catch: a cashier who voids a transaction 30 seconds after the customer walks out, employees who deliberately adjust their timing to avoid AI triggers, systematic under-ringing patterns that stay below automated thresholds, and sweethearting where items are passed without scanning (invisible to POS-based alerts because the item was never entered). Human reviewers understand intent and context in ways that algorithms cannot.
Solink's per-camera pricing varies based on your configuration (contact Solink for a quote), but industry estimates suggest $30 to $75 per camera per month. DohShield Silver starts at $299 per month for up to 100 transactions per day. For a typical convenience store with 8 to 12 cameras, the combined cost of Solink plus DohShield Silver is under $1,000 per month — compared to hiring a dedicated loss prevention analyst at $55,000 to $75,000 per year ($5,800 to $8,300 per month including benefits). The combined approach delivers AI infrastructure plus daily human verification at a fraction of the cost of a single LP hire. Book a strategy call for specific pricing guidance.
Related Resources
- DohShield Overview — Full details on the managed daily audit service
- Convenience Store Loss Prevention — How DohShield protects c-stores from shrinkage
- DohShield vs. DTiQ — Managed audit vs. technology platform comparison
- DohShield vs. Envysion — How DohShield compares to Envysion's LP solution
- DohShield Pricing — Transparent pricing for all tiers
- Book a Strategy Call — Discuss the best loss prevention configuration for your operation