The Best Smart Doorbells

Smart doorbells are an affordable and easy way to keep an eye on your home. They can prevent porch pirates and package thieves, and they let you answer your door from anywhere.

The best smart doorbells come with a range of features, including live video and two-way audio. However, many of them require you to pay a subscription for more advanced features like cloud storage and notifications.

1. Ring Video Doorbell

The Ring Video Doorbell is one of the best smart doorbells out there, offering a range of useful features including night vision, adjustable motion tracking, 1080p HD video conferencing and smartphone notifications. Its app-integrated system is easy to use and makes it ideal for monitoring your home.

The device is available as a battery-powered or wired model. The battery-powered model can be fitted to an existing wired doorbell and requires a Wi-Fi connection, whereas the wired model can be installed as a stand-alone unit, using a rechargeable battery.

For most people, the battery-powered option is more practical as it’s easy to install and can be positioned in a way that gives you a clear view of your front door. However, the wired doorbell needs to be connected to your home’s electrical supply, so it’s important to check this before installing.

As with most Ring devices, the installation is straightforward and it’s recommended to follow the instructions in the app. It’s also a good idea to check that the Wi-Fi signal is strong at the location you plan to mount the device.

Other key features of the Ring Video Doorbell include a built-in camera for recording visitors, night vision and adjustable motion tracking. It can also be used to monitor and interact with a range of other devices, including your smart locks, garage door openers, CCTV cameras, security sensors and more. Its Bird’s Eye View feature uses satellite mapping data to track a person or animal’s path as they approach your door, giving you an overview of what’s happening at your property in real time.

2. SimpliSafe Doorbell Pro SS3

If you have a SimpliSafe system, you can connect your Video Doorbell Pro to it so that when one of your sensors picks up on activity, the camera will automatically start recording. That’s a big plus for anyone who wants to make sure their home is secure while away on vacation or out of town.

The Video Doorbell Pro has a wide 162deg field of view and crisp 1080p HD resolution, but it lacks a little bit of detail when people are more than six feet away from it. It also doesn’t handle bright lights well at night, so you may want to consider another video doorbell if you need good night vision.

It also has two-way audio, but the walkie-talkie-style sound often lags behind the person on the other end. For most users, that’s fine, but it can be a pain when someone is on the other side of your front door and you want to have a conversation.

In addition to video verification, the SimpliSafe Doorbell Pro SS3 will alert you via push notifications best smart doorbell when motion is sensed or someone rings the doorbell. These push notifications will say “Camera Name” followed by the date and time.

The SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro SS3 has an excellent setup process, allowing you to customize settings for all your sensors and locks. You can set each lock to behave differently when in different modes, and each sensor has its own unique identifier that lets you know which lock it’s connected to.

3. Eufy Video Doorbell 2K Dual (Wired)

The Eufy Video Doorbell 2K Dual (Wired) records high-quality footage both during the day and at night. The main camera offers a 160-degree field of view in 2K resolution, while the secondary camera records in 1080p HD.

Like most smart doorbells, the Video Doorbell Dual also has a variety of features designed to make your life easier. For example, it includes a loitering detection feature that alerts you to someone who is still outside your house for a certain amount of time. You can also record custom quick messages for people to listen to when they arrive at the door.

One of the best features of this model is the pre-buffer that constantly saves a small amount of video. This means that you’ll always have a record of what happened before and after a motion event. This is similar to Ring’s video pre-roll feature, but it doesn’t require a subscription.

The Eufy Video Doorbell 2K comes in both battery-powered and wired versions, allowing you to decide which suits your needs. The wired version is more convenient if you’re in a remote area that doesn’t have a Wi-Fi connection, and the battery version is useful for those who want to extend the doorbell’s battery life by connecting existing doorbell wiring.

4. Arlo Essential Wireless Video Doorbell

Arlo is a trusted name in home security, and their Essential Wireless Video Doorbell delivers smart features in a device that’s affordable and reliable. The device is easy to set up, and can be wired or battery-powered.

It has a wide-angle lens, which means you can see the entire entrance to your house from one perspective. It also has a high-quality camera that captures clear and detailed images, even in low light conditions.

This makes it easy to identify people at your door, even from a distance. The app also has motion-detection and person-detection capabilities, which should help you keep an eye on your property.

The best part, however, is that it can be used without a base station and connects to your Wi-Fi network directly. This saves you a lot of money and makes installation simple.

In fact, I was able to install the device and activate it in less than 10 minutes. That’s a pretty good time to get the hang of setting up your first smart home product.

Despite that, it’s worth keeping in mind that the device requires a paid subscription to be used as a full-featured security camera. Its person and package detection features aren’t available without the service, as is its animated preview.

The app is also a little confusing at times. The interface is clean and simple, but it’s not always grouped together in the way we would expect. This can be a deal-breaker for some users, especially when trying to find certain features.

5. Nest Hello

Nest Hello is a good option for those who are looking for a smart doorbell that offers great features and easy installation. It is available in the UK, Europe and the US and it’s a similar design to the Ring Doorbell (wired).

The Nest Hello is an excellent, full-featured security tool that offers round-the-clock monitoring. It alerts you when someone presses the doorbell or if it detects people, motion and sound. It also offers 24/7 video streaming and a three-hour snapshot history so you can check up on what’s happening.

Unlike most other doorbells, the Nest Hello streams extremely clear images with minimal lag, which makes it easy to keep track of activity outside your home. It also has a 160-degree field of view, which is useful for seeing the entire area around your home.

It also has face detection technology that’s very accurate. The camera can recognize frequent visitors even if they cut their hair or shave their beards.

One of the best things about the Nest Hello is its two-way talk feature. This allows you to speak to the person at your front door if you can’t come out and greet them personally.

You can also set up prerecorded responses to alert you when a visitor rings your doorbell or when they’re in the house. This is very convenient for salesmen, FedEx drivers, and other unwanted visitors. The device also works well with Google Assistant.

6. Google Home Doorbell

Google Home Doorbell is an excellent smart doorbell that’s easy to install and works well with best smart doorbell both Nest devices and other Google Home devices. Its battery-powered design means it doesn’t require hard-wired installation and offers a stylish look with a rounded top and bottom and camera lens at the top.

Its design also incorporates an LED light around the button which dances around as people approach, which is a nice touch. It can work with an electronic chime and is compatible with Visitor Announcements in the Google Home app so that a smart speaker such as the Nest mini, Audio, Hub or Max will alert you when someone is at your door.

The device offers free person, package, and vehicle detection along with three hours of local storage. Its AI can also recognize familiar faces so you’ll never miss a visitor.

There are plenty of other features too, including the ability to mute notifications and doorbell chimes through the Google Home app so that you can get on with your day without being interrupted. It even has Quiet Time, which will mute your indoor chime and visitor announcements for a set amount of time if you’re taking a nap or want to be quiet at home.

Its only downside is that it doesn’t offer pre-event video capture like Ring and Arlo, which continually record a four-second loop of footage and append it to the front of every motion event. However, it still offers a crisp, wide-screen image and includes person, package, and vehicle detection for free.