The 6 Best Video Doorbell Cameras (2024): Smart, Battery, AI, Budget, and Subscription-Free

Honorable mentions

Photo: Simon Hill

We’ve tested many other video doorbells. These are the ones who missed out on a place above.

Doro Hema Doorbell for £150: A simplified smart doorbell for seniors is a solid idea, and Swedish manufacturer Doro has done a lot with Hemma. It’s a battery-powered doorbell that’s easy to install and use, offering a resolution of 1440 x 1440 pixels with a decent frame rate (30 fps), local recording via microSD card, and a chime connector that gets loud enough to be heard throughout the house. It worked reliably during testing, and the app is deliberately simplified, with a handy option to pass calls to a trusted friend or family member (they’ll need the app, too). Two-way audio works well, there’s a zoom function that’s useful when streaming live, and there’s a siren to scare people away. It’s streamlined, so there are no privacy zones or package alerts, and it may be too sensitive for busy front doors, though you can set it to only alert for the doorbell to ring. Battery life is good, although the battery is not removable, so you need to remove the doorbell to charge or use a portable charger. Unfortunately, it is only available in the UK and Europe.

SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro for $170: If you’re looking for a solid security system, SimpliSafe is probably on your radar, and for people with a SimpliSafe setup, the Video Doorbell Pro fits the bill. Medea Giordano, a former WIRED reviewer, found it sensitive at first, but after updating, she said it worked almost perfectly, sending quick alerts and providing a clear view of her porch. Captures max out at 1080p, but the camera supports HDR to banish glare and has a 162-degree field of view. They have to be wired, and you need a subscription starting at $5 per month to record videos, but SimpliSafe also offers a professional monitoring option (starting at $32 per month), which is rare for doorbells and might make sense if you have a full security system with them.

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro, $230: Amazon’s Ring brand battery-powered doorbell is close to getting a full recommendation. It delivers high-quality, clear video with HDR support and color night vision. Notifications were quick and accurate, and two-way audio was relatively high-quality. I appreciated the option to set multiple motion zones, including a potentially useful bird’s eye zone that lets you determine range. The pre-recording feature captures a few seconds before each clip (albeit at a lower resolution), which can be useful. Since there’s no local recording option, you have to subscribe to Ring Protect for $5 per month ($50 per year) for one camera, but this also gets you generous 180 days of video storage, rich notifications, and person and package detection. But all those bells and whistles come at a premium, and the battery life was disappointing (three weeks). You can mitigate this by purchasing a second battery to swap out, as it’s removable, or opting for the Wired Doorbell Pro instead (although we haven’t tested it yet).

TP-Link Tapo (D230S1) Battery-powered Smart Video Doorbell for $120: For people looking for a local storage option that doesn’t require a subscription, this Tapo doorbell is worth a look. Notifications come quickly and include a still image, video quality is excellent, even at night, and the internal hub takes a microSD card and acts as a ringer. On the downside, it’s clunky, and the onboard AI (which is supposed to recognize people, pets, vehicles, and packages) is unstable.

Difficult to recommend

Photo: Simon Hill

We didn’t like every video doorbell we tested. These are the ones we don’t recommend.

Reolink Video Doorbell (Battery) for $146: We loved Reolink’s wired doorbell, mentioned above, so I was excited to try out the first battery-powered model, but it was disappointing. It offers up to 2K footage with a 1:1 aspect ratio giving you a full view of the balcony, but it lacks HDR and has a relatively low frame rate (15fps). I like the opt-out option, but it means putting a microSD card in the doorbell itself, and this is a relatively easy doorbell to remove. Reolink suggests up to five months of battery life, but mine died after less than two months, and the rechargeable battery inside can’t be removed, so you have to remove the doorbell to recharge it. Factor in the slightly confusing app, relatively slow loading times, and connection glitches, and this is impossible to recommend.

Ezviz EP3x Pro for £133: This is a much better looking doorbell than previous Ezviz models, and it’s nice to see solar panels as an option for doorbells, although you’ll need a balcony capable of catching some rays. Video quality is good, and you can get a split view (like Eufy above) that includes packages or kittens waiting on your doorstep. Distortion correction works well, and there’s optional color night vision with a built-in light, though it only works at very close range. I appreciated the two-factor authentication (2FA), with fingerprint login, and the 32GB of internal storage (cloud storage is an optional extra). Unfortunately, if you are using a solar panel, you will not be able to connect to your wired chime. The lack of HDR is disappointing, human detection was a bit broken (it frequently tested on my cat), and I had issues with alerts failing to appear on some Android phones (even after following Ezviz’s instructions, they never worked reliably on My Xiaomi 14 Ultra). This model is not yet available in the United States.

Botslab Video Doorbell 2 Pro, $170: The sloppy setup procedure required several reboots, and the actual installation wasn’t any better, as the screws supplied were so cheap that one of the heads actually broke off. The camera has a fisheye effect, but you can correct it with different views. I liked the VR mode, which provides a 180-degree view of your front porch. It comes with an easy-to-use plugin, alerts seem reliable, there’s an HDR option, and you can record locally (32GB included) or in the cloud. You can also set the detection range, which can be useful for street-facing cameras. But the app is confusing, as it has an AI-powered tab that lists the many skills available for purchase. There’s a login history and a limit of two devices logged in at once, but no 2FA, making this impossible to recommend. They are versatile but also relatively expensive.

Wyze Video Doorbell Pro for $100: Wyze Pro Video Doorbell (7/10, Wired review) was our budget recommendation, but with some caveats. It alerted reliably, provided clear video, and had accurate AI for detecting people, but you needed a Cam Plus subscription (starting at $3 per month). This camera model was not one of those affected by the issue A security vulnerability that Wyze failed to fix Or reporting to customers for three years, but after repeated security breaches from Wyze, more recently Expose thousands of camera feeds to other clientsIt’s hard to recommend their cameras anymore.

Swann SwannBuddy video doorbell for $150: This doorbell comes with a battery-powered wireless chime and a local storage option, but the positives end there. The video quality is poor, the app is extremely slow to load and glitchy, and the doorbell often fails to register motion. I found the battery life disappointing. I also have to question the decision to provide local storage via a MicroSD card inserted into the doorbell (the ring would make more sense and be more secure).

Ezviz DB2 video doorbell for $180: An affordable video doorbell that comes with an additional chime device, the Ezviz DB2 works very well, but it’s very chunky and kind of ugly. Video footage is detailed, but I had problems with blown-out bright areas when the sun was shining. The app is powerful and loads quickly, pressing the doorbell places a call on your phone, and you can record locally by inserting a MicroSD card into the ringer. Unfortunately, it only offers a very limited option to define traffic zones – a big problem if you live on a busy street. I also found the battery life to be below average, and it’s difficult to remove.