The best video doorbell cameras - The Verge

Oct 31, 2024

By Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, a smart home reporter who’s been testing connected gadgets since 2013. Previously a contributor to Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, and US News.

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With a smart video doorbell, your front door’s communication skills go from 1980s landline to a modern smartphone. Combining a motion-activated camera with a microphone, speaker, and buzzer, a doorbell camera sends alerts to your phone to show you who’s at the door without you having to open it or even be at home. Whether you’re curled up on the couch, hard at work in your office, or sunning on a beach in the Bahamas, a video doorbell keeps you in touch with what’s happening on your doorstep.

This is on your front door, and it needs to look good and / or blend in.

All video doorbells should offer a live feed from the camera, but so you can see visitors you missed a cloud or local storage option for video recordings is also important. Some companies offer free local storage or some free cloud storage, but most require a monthly fee.

Fast and accurate motion detection so you know when someone is at the door, plus smart alerts for people, animal, and vehicles to cut down on nuisance notification. The option to add custom motion zones helps with this, too. Some offer package detection, which is an important feature if porch pirates are an issue for you.

At least 1080p HD video with the option of HDR to help see faces clearer if your doorway is backlit. Color night vision is a bonus but not that important if you have a porch light.

If you’re concerned about keeping an eye on packages, a head-to-toe view will let you see the space in front of your door from top to bottom. Other aspect ratios have uses, though. Read my FAQ for more on this.

Compatibility with the major smart home platforms adds features like having lights turn on on your porch when motion is detected or unlocking your front door while viewing a live feed from your doorbell. Compatibility with smart displays like an Echo Show or Google Nest and smart TVs like an Apple TV or Fire TV turns them into a video intercom for your doorbell.

It’s important to have some way of alerting you to the doorbell ringing inside your house (not just through your smartphone), either through being compatible with your existing doorbell chime or through a smart speaker or separate plug-in chime.

I always recommend using existing doorbell wires if you have them; you’ll never have to worry about charging your doorbell (see my FAQ for more on this). Battery-powered options will do if there’s no way to wire; removable or replaceable batteries are important here — taking your entire doorbell down to charge it up every three months is a pain.

I’ve tested more than 35 video doorbells, and while there’s no one-size-fits-all — like a smartphone, it’s a personal choice — I have thoughts on which are the best of the best and which work well for specific use cases.

If you have existing doorbell wires, use them

My best advice is that if you have existing doorbell wires, use them. Wired doorbells are generally cheaper, work better, and are more compact, so they tend to look nicer.

If you don’t have wires and don’t want to pay for an electrician to run them, try using an AC power adapter (Ring and Google Nest sell their own; you can also find generic ones). But if all else fails, I’ve got recommendations for good battery-powered buzzers. Just plan to pick up an extra battery when you purchase, or factor in removing it from your door every few months to charge it for a few hours.

With 24/7 recording, facial recognition, reliable smart alerts, and some free video recording, Google’s wired doorbell is the best option for most people.

Video quality: 960 x 1280p, 6x zoom, HDR / Smart alerts: Person, package, animal, vehicle, and facial recognition ($) Aspect ratio: 3:4 / Field of view: 145 degrees diagonal / Power options: Wired / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz and 5GHz / Storage: Cloud and local / Subscription fee: $8 a month / Works with: Alexa, Google, SmartThings

The Nest Doorbell Wired (2nd-gen) is one of only two video doorbells in this list that can record 24/7. Scrolling through a continuous timeline view of everything that’s happened at your front door is super helpful and means you won’t miss anything. This, along with a good price, great video quality, the ability to tell you what and who is at your door, and some free recorded video, make it the best doorbell for most people.

The Nest Wired is also the best video doorbell that works with Google Home, and the best for protecting your packages. Its proactive package watch feature tells you when a package arrives and sends another alert when it’s gone. In my testing, it worked very well.

Unlike many competitors — such as Ring and Arlo — Google doesn’t charge for smart notifications. The Nest Wired will tell you if it’s a person, package, animal, or vehicle at your door for free. You also get free activity zones to cut down on unwanted notifications, and three free hours of event-based recordings, thanks to local storage and local processing.

You can, in theory, use this doorbell without paying a subscription

But three hours isn’t enough to be particularly useful, and to get recorded video, you need a Nest Aware plan (starting at $8 per month, $80 per year). This does cover all your Google Nest cameras, though, and it adds Nest’s excellent Familiar Faces feature, which tells you who is at your door.

If you want 24/7 recording, you need Nest Aware Plus ($15 per month, $150 a year), but again, this subscription applies to all Google Nest cameras you have.

On paper, the Nest doesn’t have the best specs; the Ring Pro 2 is technically better. But it does deliver a 960 x 1280 pixel resolution with a 6x digital zoom, and video quality is very good, thanks to some digital trickery. Its 3:4 portrait aspect ratio and 145-degree field of view are very good and let me see my porch from top to bottom and a fair amount from side to side.

On-device AI makes the Nest speedy with notifications, and it delivers rich alerts to both your phone and watch. These are interactive, allowing you to press and hold the video to see a clip and activate one of the three preset quick responses. It’s also quick to call up live video.

Nest’s doorbells and cameras work with Nest and Amazon Alexa smart displays for viewing a live feed. Google also now lets you have a live stream pull up automatically on your Google TV when someone rings the doorbell — a super handy feature.

There are a few quirks. There’s no reliable way to snooze notifications from the doorbell, and if you use multiple Nest speakers or displays, they’ll all announce your visitors. Not great if you have a Nest Mini in your kid’s nursery.

Google recently announced that it’s bringing a new search and description feature to its cameras, including the doorbell, in 2025. This will send an alert describing exactly what’s happening in a clip, giving you more context before opening the app. You’ll also be able to search through footage for specific events — like kids on bikes. This will require a subscription.

This is a great battery-powered buzzer with excellent video quality, a good head-to-toe view, and very speedy response times for a battery doorbell. It integrates well with Amazon Alexa and can record locally to a Ring Alarm Pro, but the battery only lasts about two months unless you turn on battery-saving features.

Video quality: 1536 x 1536p, HDR, color night vision / Smart Alerts: Person, package ($) Aspect ratio: 1:1 / Field of view: 150 degrees horizontal, 150 degrees vertical / Power options: Battery, wired trickle charge, solar / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: Cloud and local (with Ring Alarm Pro) / Subscription fee: $4.99 a month / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings

If you really want a battery-powered buzzer, the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is the way to go. At $149.99, it’s cheaper than the Ring Battery Pro while still offering a head-to-toe view and high-quality video resolution to give you a clear picture of what’s going on at your door.

Unlike the $100 Ring Battery Doorbell, the Plus uses removable, rechargeable batteries, making it easier to keep your doorbell charged. Just have a second on hand charged and ready to swap in when you get low. Most other doorbells require you to take them down to recharge.

The Plus also has color night vision and was more responsive than any other non-Ring battery doorbell I’ve tested. It pulled up a live view in under four seconds, compared with upwards of 10 seconds for most others.

As with other battery-powered doorbells, there’s no preroll. If catching people as they approach your door — not just at your door — is crucial, consider the Battery Doorbell Pro ($229.99). This adds preroll and improved motion detection using radar, which significantly cuts down on nuisance alerts.

It’s only really worth spending the extra $80 if you have lots of trees or passing cars in front of your door and/or you want to make sure you see the whole event when someone approaches your door. The Pro is also compatible with 5GHz Wi-Fi, which could mean faster responses if your front door is close enough to your router. The Plus is 2.4GHz only.

Battery life isn’t great on either doorbell. They last around two months with all the features turned on except for extra-long recordings (the default is 30 seconds, but it can go up to 120). You can tweak settings to reduce power consumption, but then you have to give up features like HDR (which makes it easier to see faces) and snapshot capture, which takes a picture every five minutes to give you a better idea of what’s been happening at your door.

As with all Ring doorbells, there are no animal or vehicle alerts, only people and packages. These require a Ring Home plan starting at $4.99 a month, which also includes 180 days of recorded video.

A new AI-powered search feature lets you search recorded footage for things like animals, vehicles, and even the color of the coat you wore when you left the house. It’s handy for understanding what’s been going on around your home, but you still can’t get an alert when your cat is sitting on your porch.

Other free features include pre-recorded quick replies, the option to set a motion alert schedule, live view, and two-way audio. The Plus can announce visitors on Echo speakers and automatically initiate a two-way audio/video call on an Echo Show. It won’t work with your existing chime unless you wire it (which also trickle-charges the battery), but Ring sells a plug-in chime.

The Plus also works with Ring Edge, a local storage and processing option that requires a Ring Alarm Pro smart hub and a Ring Home Premium subscription ($20 a month). This adds cellular backup through its built-in Eero Wifi system, so it can keep your doorbell online if both the power and internet go out.

Note: Ring is changing its subscription plans from Ring Protect to Ring Home. The changes go into effect on November 5th, 2024. See more details here.

Blink’s buzzer is the best if you’re looking for a budget-friendly option with motion-activated recording and alerts, night vision, two-way audio, and up to two years of battery life.

Video quality: 1080p / Smart alerts: None / Aspect ratio: 16:9 / Field of view: 135 degrees horizontal, 80 degrees vertical / Power options: Wired or battery / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: Cloud or local with a Sync Module / Subscription fee: $3 a month / Works with: Amazon Alexa

The Blink Video Doorbell is the best cheap doorbell with a no-subscription option. And while it works as a wired doorbell, it’s also a good option for a battery-powered buzzer, as it can go up to two years on two AAs. I don’t love this doorbell, as video and audio quality are not great, but it’s cheap, it gets the job done, and that battery life is phenomenal.

The Blink doesn’t have smart alerts or quick replies, and it only records 1080p video at a standard 16:9 aspect ratio). But the basics are here: motion-activated recording (with a max of 30 seconds), alerts, live view (with caveats), night vision, motion zones, and two-way audio.

If you want to pay $50 (often less) to have a camera at your door and be done with it, get the Blink. Cloud storage is also a bargain at $3 a month ($30 a year), or you can do local storage with the Sync Module 2 and a USB stick. You need the Sync Module to initiate a live view through the camera in the app (or you have to pay for the subscription). Without it, you can only see video if there’s a motion event or someone rings the doorbell.

The Sync Module is sold with the doorbell as a “doorbell system” for $70, and should pay for itself compared to a monthly subscription.

Uniquely for a battery-powered doorbell, the Blink can also be a true hardwired doorbell

The biggest selling point for Blink is the feature that makes its similarly inexpensive security cameras so attractive: up to two years of battery life on two AA lithium batteries. The company has developed a super energy-efficient chip that will power its cameras longer than any other doorbell I’ve tested. (I managed almost a year with very heavy use).

Uniquely for a battery-powered doorbell, the Blink can also be a true hardwired doorbell. When wired, it will activate an existing chime (something neither the sub-$100 Ring nor Wyze doorbells can do) and provide constant power — not just trickle charge. This means it can wake up faster than a battery-powered buzzer and catch your visitor as they arrive. Wiring also adds on-demand two-way audio and live view (otherwise, you can only see the stream if there’s a motion event at the doorbell or someone presses the buzzer.)

The Blink comes in white or black and, because it uses just two AA batteries, isn’t as huge as most battery-powered doorbells, making it a more discreet option. However, it is a giant pain in the neck to install; make sure to follow the video instructions Blink provides closely to save a lot of frustration.

The biggest drawbacks are lower video quality and poor audio quality (it can be staticky, and it’s push-to-talk — not full duplex), short recording length, and no smart alerts. The app is also a bit tricky to navigate. It doesn’t work with Google Home, but it works great with Alexa, and you can see a live view on Echo Show devices and use any Echo speaker as an indoor chime.

At under $100, this feature-packed, subscription-free doorbell offers a lot of value, including free local recording, 24/7 recording, and smart alerts, plus a robust smart home ecosystem. It’s big, you need a microSD card for recording, and there’s no HDR, but it’s a solid choice.

Video quality: 2K HD (no HDR) / Smart alerts: People, packages, pets, vehicles (free) Aspect ratio: 4:3 / Field of view: 180 degrees horizontal / Power options: Battery, wired trickle charge / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: microSD card or cloud / Subscription fee: $2.79 a month / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home

You can use any doorbell on this list without a subscription, but you may sacrifice features like smart alerts, recorded video, and 24/7 continuous recording. If you want these but don’t want to pay a monthly fee, TP-Link’s Tapo D225 is an excellent choice.

A wired and battery-powered doorbell, the D225 offers free smart alerts for people, packages, pets, and vehicles and can record locally to a microSD (purchased separately) without paying a subscription. There is an optional cloud service if you want to store your video offsite that also adds rich notifications (where a clip or image shows in the notification), but no other features are locked behind a paywall.

It is a chunky doorbell and may not meet the spousal approval factor

To get the free recording of motion-activated events, you just need to insert a microSD card (up to 512GB) into the doorbell. While it can run on its built-in 10,000mAh battery, you will need to wire it up for continuous 24/7 recording. This will also trickle charge the battery, and the doorbell will still work and record video, even if your power and Wi-Fi go out.

There are a few hoops to jump through to get 24/7 recording working, which can be a bit confusing in the slightly cluttered Tapo app. However, once set up, it will capture everything that happens. This is a great option, considering Nest charges $15 a month for 24/7 recording.

The D225 also provides good video quality, a decent zoom, and a nice 4:3 aspect ratio that clearly shows your entire porch from top to bottom and a good view from side to side. There is no HDR imaging, though, so if your porch is covered, it can be hard to make out faces in some lights.

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The doorbell can work with your existing chime (although, oddly, not if you enable 24/7 recording) but also comes with a plug-in chime. If you don’t wire it, you’ll have to remove it to charge, but the large battery can last up to eight months. The downside is that it is a huge, chunky doorbell, which may not meet the spousal approval factor for a good-looking doorbell.

Another neat feature of the Tapo is doorbell calling. When someone rings your doorbell, the alert comes in like a phone call, making it less likely that you’ll miss it. This is something first offered on Arlo buzzers, and Ring says it’s bringing it to its line.

As Tapo also offers a wide range of smart home products — including security cameras, smart lights, and robot vacuum cleaners — you can tie your doorbell into smart home routines.

If you have lots of devices, the Tapo app can get a bit cluttered. But it’s easy enough to use and packed with features, including quick replies, a privacy mode that turns the camera off, and the ability to schedule notifications, set detection zones, and specify the type of alert you want to get from each one (e.g., only notify me if you see people in this zone and packages in this zone).

The Reolink is sleeker than the Tapo, with very good video quality and HDR support but no 24/7 recording. It can record local video on a microSD card, Reolink Hub, or FTP server and connect to a platform like Home Assistant. But its battery doesn’t last as long as Tapo’s, the app can be confusing, and the smart alerts are spotty. It works with Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

The flagship Ring doorbell has the best video quality, good connectivity, and excellent motion detection. It works smoothly with Amazon Alexa but is expensive, requires a subscription for most features, and doesn’t offer 24/7 recording.

Video quality: 1536 x 1536p, HDR / Smart alerts: Person, package ($) Aspect ratio: 1:1 / Field of view: 150 degrees horizontal, 150 degrees vertical / Power options: Wired / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz and 5GHz / Storage: Cloud and local (with Ring Alarm Pro) / Subscription fee: $4.99 a month / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings

The Ring Pro 2 — previously my top pick — is the best-wired doorbell camera that works with Amazon Alexa and integrates with Ring Alarm and other Ring cameras. It’s more expensive than the Nest Wired — which also works with Alexa — but its video is higher quality and much brighter.

It has an ideal square aspect ratio for a full front porch view, speedy notifications, and impressively accurate motion detection using three separate sensors — radar, video analysis, and passive infrared. It also has a nice slim design and multiple faceplate options to fit your decor.

But there’s no free video recording, no option for 24/7 recording (yet), and the smart alerts are limited to people and packages. However, you can now search for things like vehicles and animals after the fact with Ring’s new Smart Video Search feature. This makes tracking down my cat or checking which delivery driver came by a little easier.

The Ring Pro 2 also works with Samsung SmartThings, and while it doesn’t support Apple Home, it can be integrated with extra hardware. There’s no support for Google Home.

A true wired doorbell, while the Ring Pro 2 is one of the most responsive doorbells I’ve tested, delivering notifications immediately. It also has the best range and connectivity, and built-in, full-color preroll helps ensure you don’t miss any crucial action.

The Pro 2 has good color night vision, dual-band Wi-Fi, and smart responses (which let your doorbell talk to your visitor for you). The Ring app is best in class, and there are pages of settings you can tinker with. Plus, the timeline view for scrolling through your recordings is very good.

The Pro 2 will work with your existing doorbell chime, plus Ring sells a plug-in Chime and Chime Wi-Fi extender that can help boost connectivity while providing a selection of fun doorbell tones.

As with most doorbell cameras, the Pro 2 can use Echo smart speakers to announce when someone is at the door. As a Ring doorbell, it can also automatically pull up a live feed of your front door on an Echo Show or Fire TV-enabled television when someone presses the doorbell.

The downside is that the Pro 2 is expensive. Its subscription fee starts at $4.99 a month (or $49.99 a year). This adds recorded footage, smart alerts, and an extra six seconds of preroll video, which, in lieu of 24/7 recording, provides plenty of time around motion events to catch all the action.

The Pro works with Ring Edge for local storage and video processing, plus the option of cellular backup. But you need a Ring Alarm Pro and Ring Home Premium subscription for this, which costs $20 a month and no longer includes professional monitoring of your alarm (that’s now a $10 add-on).

Ring recently announced it is finally bringing 24/7 recording to its wired cameras, and that feature will be included in the $20-a-month plan. While this isn’t coming to the wired doorbells at launch, Ring has said the feature will expand to more devices soon.

Note: Ring announced it is changing its subscription plans from Ring Protect to Ring Home, The changes go into effect November 5th. See more details here.

If you like the sound of the Pro 2 but don’t have wires, the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro has almost all of the same features — including head-to-toe view, excellent video, dual-band Wi-Fi, color preroll, color night vision, and noise-canceling audio — in a battery package. It also features radar motion detection, which cuts down on nuisance notifications, and is a great alternative to the Pro 2.

This is the only video doorbell that can use an Ecobee thermostat as a video intercom, making it a no-brainer for Ecobee households, as long as you can hook it to your doorbell wiring.

Video quality: 1080p, 8x zoom, color and IR night vision / Smart Alerts: Person, package Aspect ratio: 3:4 portrait / Field of view: 187 degrees diagonal / Power options: Wired / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz, 5GHz / Storage: Cloud / Subscription fee: $5 a month or $50 a year / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Apple Home

The Ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera is a great wired doorbell camera and the only one that can use an Ecobee thermostat as a video intercom — a neat feature. It sends fast, accurate alerts for people and packages, and thanks to radar detection and computer vision motion detection, it never once sent me a false alert.

The Ecobee has a comprehensive 187-degree diagonal field of view that lets you see top to bottom and side to side and offers decent 1080p HD video. A subscription is required for viewing recorded video, $5 a month / $50 a year, but alerts for people and packages are free. A new feature is the ability to control your Yale or August Wi-Fi-enabled door lock directly from the Ecobee app, so you can more easily unlock the door for someone from afar.

One quirk is that while the Ecobee records all motion (if you subscribe), it only alerts you if it sees people or packages. This does cut down on the number of alerts you get, but I’d like the option to turn motion alerts on, mainly so I can know when my dog has gotten out and is sitting at my front door (especially because there are no animal or vehicle alerts). The doorbell does record all motion events for up to two minutes, so you can go back and view them, but you won’t get notified.

The Ecobee works with Apple Home and can ring a HomePod as a chime (as well as your existing chime), plus pull up a live view on your Apple TV. But it doesn’t support HomeKit Secure Video, so you have to pay Ecobee’s subscription fee if you want recorded videos. It also works with Amazon Alexa, but there’s no Google Home integration. If you have an Ecobee thermostat in a convenient location, this is an excellent option.

The Belkin Wemo doorbell works with HomeKit Secure Video and detects people, packages, animals, and vehicles. It’s fast and reliable but there is no 24/7 recording, and you need an Apple Home hub and iCloud plan for recorded video.

Video quality: 1080p, HDR, 5x zoom / Smart Alerts: Person, packages, facial recognition Aspect ratio: 3:4 / Field of view: 178 degrees vertical, 140 degrees horizontal / Power options: Wired / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz and 5GHz / Storage: Cloud / Subscription fee: 99 cents a month, iCloud / Works with: Apple Home

The new Wemo Video Doorbell is the best doorbell that works with HomeKit Secure Video, an Apple Home feature that stores recorded video in your personal iCloud account, so you don’t have to pay any additional subscription fee. You do need an iCloud Plus plan (starting at 99 cents per month) and an Apple Home Hub in order to view any captured clips.

The Wemo doorbell is fast and secure. It has decent HD video quality (Apple Home doesn’t support anything higher than 1080p), HDR, and a circular view that shows the whole porch (although with a rather discombobulating fish-eye effect). But it’s better than the other wired HomeKit option, the Logitech Circle View.

The Wemo is easier to install than the Logitech. Both share the same simple software setup. (The Wemo relies entirely on the Apple Home app, so there’s no compatibility with the Wemo app or any other smart home platform). Thanks to HKSV, the doorbell recognizes multiple motion events (people, packages, animals, and vehicles) and can also identify faces and announce who is at the door on a connected HomePod or HomePod Mini. However, there’s no option for 24/7 recording.

While daytime footage was good, night vision wasn’t, and I had some issues with it missing motion events and sending false alerts for people due to its reliance on pixel-based motion detection (others use PIR and radar detection). However, the Wemo was very, very quick, with the speed from a button push to a notification to pulling up the live video being under five seconds. It’s even quicker if you use the interactive notification on your device (through which you can talk to the visitor). And that speed makes up for some of its failings.

All things considered, it’s the best choice for a wired doorbell that’s compatible with HomeKit Secure Video. However Ecobee’s video doorbell is a better wired Apple Home option overall, if you don’t mind paying a subscription fee.

The Aqara G4 is an inexpensive HomeKit Secure Video doorbell that also works with Alexa and Google Home. It’s powered by batteries, wires or both, and offers 24/7 local recording. But a 16:9 aspect ratio and poorer video quality let it down.

Video quality: 1080p / Smart Alerts: Person, facial recognition and person, facial recognition, packages with HSV, / Aspect ratio: 16:9 / Field of view: 162 degrees horizontal / Power options: Wired or battery / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: Cloud and local / Subscription fee: Seven days of free cloud storage or 99 cents a month with iCloud / Works with: Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home

If you don’t have the option of wiring and/or you really want 24/7 video recording, then Aqara’s G4 is a good option for Apple Home users. It’s the only battery-powered doorbell that’s compatible with Apple Home, and it works with HomeKit Secure Video.

It runs on six standard AA batteries and can be hardwired to support 24/7 video recording (through Aqara’s app, though, not in Apple Home). It’s jam-packed with features, but it’s probably best suited for those who live in apartments as its landscape aspect ratio means it can’t really see packages at the doorstep, and it’s not very weather-resistant.

At $120, it’s the least expensive HomeKit option and pairs with the Aqara U100 smart lock (which also works with Apple Home and Home Key) for a nice, fully Apple Home-compatible setup on your front door. As a bonus, you can easily unlock the door from the same screen as viewing your doorbell footage.

Downsides include a 16:9 aspect ratio (a problem if you want to see packages on your porch), no HDR imaging, which delivers pretty bad video quality, and a finicky chime box that has to be plugged in inside and near the doorbell. That chime also houses a microSD card, which is required for 24/7 recording. Unfortunately, the G4 can’t ring an existing electronic chime, but the chime box is plenty loud, and you can customize the heck out of the sounds.

The G4 shares all the same HKSV features as the Wemo, including smart alerts for people, packages, animals, and vehicles, facial recognition, and the option to announce who is at the door on a connected HomePod or HomePod Mini (you need an Apple Home hub to use this in HomeKit).

It responded just as fast as the Wemo to doorbell rings and motion alerts, but I had some connectivity issues. Plus, occasionally, I got an overheating warning while testing in May 2024 — and that was before the heatwave we experienced in South Carolina this summer.

A benefit over Wemo and the other HomeKit Secure Video options is that Aqara has its own app, which has a ton of innovative features, including custom ringtones for different people, a voice changer, and the option to have your smart home devices react depending on who is at the front door.

The Aqara app adds access to 24/7 video, a nice feature to have, especially for free. But the implementation is spotty, and video quality is not great, but it will do in a pinch.

The Aqara doorbell works with Google Home and Amazon Alexa, unlike the Wemo, which can only be set up through the Apple Home app.

A subscription generally covers cloud storage, processing, and smart notifications and is essentially a convenience fee. It’s arguably the easiest way to ensure you can see videos of your visitors and get alerts for specific things like people, packages, and pets.

If you don’t want to pay monthly but do want to see recorded video, you’ll likely need to buy additional hardware (like a hub or microSD card) and/or spend some time setting up your own local storage solution. Local storage is also a good option if you don’t like the idea of a company storing your video for you. In most cases, you’ll lose some features, such as rich notifications, but you’ll keep full control over your footage.

If you choose a subscription, your videos will be stored in the company’s cloud. All the companies whose products we recommend here say they protect your footage by encrypting it “in transit and at rest.” They then process it in the cloud to provide features like smart alerts. Some — such as Ring — offer the more secure option of end-to-end encryption, where there is no processing as the company has no access to your footage at all.

The simplest and cheapest solution is to just use a video doorbell for a live view and not record any footage or audio. While you can’t check back to see a visitor, you can still monitor your front door through alerts. All our picks allow you to do that without a subscription, and some offer smart alerts for free.

Wired video doorbells use existing doorbell wiring attached to a doorbell transformer and chime box to provide continuous power, so they don’t need to be recharged. Most won’t work when the power goes out, but some have small batteries to keep them going for a few minutes in the event of a power outage. If you don’t have existing wiring, you can use an AC power adapter (Ring and Nest sell their own; you can also find generic ones).

Battery-powered doorbells, also known as wireless doorbells, are powered by a rechargeable battery. Because they don’t have continuous power, they have to wake up first when they detect motion before starting to record. This often results in a clip only catching the back of the person’s head as they walk away, which is not super helpful if you’re concerned about porch pirates. True wired doorbells don’t have this problem, and most will reliably catch all the action.

Many doorbells that advertise themselves as wireless and run on a battery can also be hard-wired to your existing doorbell wiring. But these are not “true” wired doorbells. Your home’s electrical power isn’t powering them. Instead, in almost all cases (Blink being the only exception), the battery is being “trickle charged” by the power from the doorbell wiring. This means that without any extra features, they simply don’t react as quickly as true wired doorbells. It’s science, people.

Aspect ratio is arguably more important than video resolution when it comes to video doorbells. This spec tells you what shape of video you will get, whether it’s top-to-bottom or side-to-side, whether you’ll see your doorstep and the whole of the visitor or just a head-and-shoulders shot. Common aspect ratios include 4:3, 3:4, 16:9, and 1:1.

Aspect ratios are always written with the horizontal number first. If the first number is smaller than the second number, then the image will be taller than it is wide, or “portrait orientation.” If the first number is larger than the second (as in 16:9), then the image will be wider than it is tall, or “landscape orientation.” If both numbers are the same, as in 1:1, it will be a square view.

My recommendation is to go for a square view when possible, but if you have a wide porch area — and would like to see people approaching from the left or right, as well as straight on — a 4:3 or 16:9 might suit you better.

Battery-powered doorbells are easy to install and generally just require screwing the mounting bracket to the area around your door. Some come with the option of tape strips, so you don’t even need to get out the screwdriver.

Wired doorbells require a bit more effort. And while you can choose to pay around $100 for a professional to install it, if you have existing doorbell wiring, it’s a simple job.

I’ve written a step-by-step guide to installing Ring video doorbells, but, in general, the steps for any wired doorbell involve the following:Turn off the power to your doorbell wiring. Locate your indoor chime and connect the chime power connector that came with the doorbell (this helps to facilitate power to the new doorbell). Remove your old doorbell. Attach the mount for your new doorbell using screws or double-sided tape (some have the option of an angled wedge to get a better view of the person in front of the door). Attach the doorbell wires to the connector screws on the doorbell. Attach the doorbell to the mount, either with screws or by snapping it on. Turn the power back on.

Pro tip: Before installing any doorbell, download the manufacturer’s app and check the instructions — some cameras need to be paired to the app before mounting.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Update, October 28th: Added new picks from Tapo, Reolink, and Ring. Updated write-ups throughout and added new models from Arlo, Tapo, Ring, and Kasa to the “other video doorbells I’ve tested” and “doorbell cameras I’m currently testing” sections.

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