Blue Iris

I would like to add some PIR movement sensors to my home. I don't want the PIR sensors to trigger a camera on movement, only to send me notifications on movement. Is that easily enough done through BI? Or should I just get one's that use a separate app? And any recommendations on economical sensors would be appreciated.

I don’t know it well, but I think you can send motion triggers out of blue iris, as well as remotely trigger cameras. I don’t think you can send in a notification only trigger.

Probably more than you want to take on, but with what I know, I would use Home Assistant as the go-between. I already have a 433 MHz antenna picking up various temperature and weather sensors into Home Assistant. I would just add a 433 MHz PIR sensor and handle notifications through it. Then I could also send a record trigger to BI based on the PIR or other sensors.

I use Homeseer HS4 here to do the same sort of thing. The only thing I can add is that battery powered PIR sensors may use up batteries quicker than you think unless you choose Zigbee sensors. By the time you've purchased Homeseer, Conbee, PIR etc you will be spending £££'s, so it does depend if you want other home automations.