The Best Smart Doorbells
A video doorbell lets you see who is at your front door and talk to them remotely. Some have fancy features such as facial recognition and parcel detection.
The Ring Pro 2 offers a head-to-toe view and color night vision. It also works with Echo smart displays and can share its feed to a TV when someone is at the door.
1. Ring Video Doorbell 3
Whether you’re curled up on the couch or sunning on the beach, smart doorbells let you know who’s there without you having to open the door. These devices work with your existing chime and connect to your smartphone or tablet. They can tell you if it’s a person, package or possum (well, animal). Some have two-way audio and facial recognition. And most have motion detection.
CR’s take: If you’re looking to upgrade your home security for under $200, there’s no better value than the Ring Video Doorbell 3. This wired model boosts your entryway’s surveillance with HD video, provides noise-cancellation technology to make voices stand out above outdoor background noise, and has free activity zones so you can cut down on unwanted notifications.
It’s also a breeze to install, works seamlessly with Alexa, best smart doorbell and lets you view a crisp 1080p video feed from anywhere. However, it doesn’t offer dual-band Wi-Fi support or extended color pre-roll video previews of motion events. Plus, it requires a Ring Protect subscription with no local storage option, which isn’t ideal for those who’d prefer to save money.
2. Eufy Wi-Fi Doorbell
This wired doorbell from a company that focuses on smart home gadgets earns our best buy rating. It is one of the cheapest models in our ratings but still delivers performance on par with some doorbell cameras that cost significantly more. It scores well for data security and thwarting porch pirates, with strong features like monitoring zones, person detection and HDR video. It also offers two-way audio, which means you can talk to a visitor without opening your door and a light that pulses when motion or the doorbell button is pressed.
It also has premium secondary features, including 2K resolution, a swivel-able camera that can be aimed down at your doorstep to keep an eye on packages and porch pirates (a feature most other doorbell cameras lack) and facial recognition. But the biggest draw is that it doesn’t require a subscription like Ring, Nest and Google’s Nest Aware to enable recording and other features. Instead, you get 16GB of free local storage and can use your existing Alexa or Google Assistant devices as chimes.
3. Wyze Pro
A great option for those on a budget. This battery-powered doorbell works as a traditional buzzer too and lasts for two years on a pair of AA batteries. It’s got a simple interface and all the basic features you need: alerts, live view, 1080p video, night vision, motion zones, two-way audio, and more. It also supports a wide variety of smart home platforms and offers cloud and local storage.
Like the Ring, it has a few drawbacks such as a 5-minute “cool-down” period between recordings and lacks pre-roll, but otherwise it’s very solid. This model is a little bit cheaper than the Ring 3 and has some unique features such as the ability to turn the camera around and face it toward the street for better night vision, or to look at packages left at foot level for potential theft.
The Byron doorbell uses your existing wired chime to work and requires a little more effort to install than battery-powered options, but it’s still doable for most DIYers. It’s also a lot more affordable than the other models in this article and has a good number of premium features including face recognition, package detection, pet detection, and vehicle detection. It also has a square aspect ratio and a 180-degree field of view that gets the whole porch.
4. Ring Pro 2
This hard-wired doorbell isn’t cheap but its incredibly crisp, wide-angle video and advanced features make it well worth the price. You get package and people alerts, a wider field of view to see where deliveries are dropped off and an industry-first Bird’s Eye View that overlays movement on a satellite image of your home. Plus, unlike battery bells that require a separate indoor chime (though many can be connected to smart speakers from Amazon and Google to act as an internal chime), Ring’s onboard machine learning, PiR and radar-based motion detection ensure no false alerts.
It also has a microSD card slot to store footage locally and integrates pretty seamlessly into the Ring ecosystem. However, it does require a monthly subscription to use the camera and access other features — a cost that most competitors don’t charge for. For those who aren’t invested in Ring’s ecosystem, you should check out Blink’s Wi-Fi doorbell (wired) instead. It works with almost all major smart home platforms and integrates directly with Alexa. Then there’s Google’s Nest Doorbell (wired), which is similarly priced but better at detecting people and identifying family members in its videos. It’s also our top choice for a wired video doorbell.
5. Wemo
Belkin’s latest entry into the smart doorbell space works exclusively with Apple HomeKit. Everything from initial setup to alerts that a package has arrived on best smart doorbell your porch can be managed and viewed through the Home app on iPhone, iPad or Mac. It also supports HomeKit Secure Video so recordings are kept securely in iCloud (you’ll need an iCloud subscription for that, though).
Like our other top picks, this one has two cameras—one to see who is at the door, and one to watch what’s happening outside. It has standard features like two-way talk and live streaming, as well as a variety of advanced ones: monitoring zones; three-second video previews (to see what was going on before the camera detected motion); infrared enhanced night vision; facial recognition; person and vehicle detection; and package detection.
Unlike Ring and Nest, it doesn’t require a monthly subscription for access to video footage and uses a built-in microSD card instead. It also comes with an indoor kit that acts as a range extender to help you overcome weak Wi-Fi signals and get clear, fast alerts.
