Honorable mentions
Photo: Simon Hill
We have tested several other video doorbells. They are the ones who narrowly missed out on a place above.
Doro Hemma doorbell for £150: A simplified smart doorbell for seniors is a solid idea, and the Swedish manufacturer Doro gets it very right with Hemma. It’s a battery-powered doorbell that’s easy to install and use, offering a 1,440 x 1,440 pixel resolution with a decent frame rate (30 fps), local recording via microSD card, and a plug-in ringtone that gets loud enough to be heard throughout the home. It worked reliably during testing, and the app is deliberately simplified with a handy option to forward calls to a trusted friend or family member (they also need to use the app). The two-way audio works well, there’s a handy zoom feature when you’re live streaming, and there’s a siren to scare people away. It’s simplistic, so there are no privacy zones or package alerts, and it can be too sensitive to busy front doors, although you can set it to only alert when the doorbell rings. Battery life is decent, although the battery is not removable, so you have to take off the doorbell to charge or use a portable charger. Unfortunately, it’s 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 in nicely. Former WIRED reviewer Medea Giordano found it sensitive at first, but after an update, she says it worked almost perfectly, sending quick alerts and providing a good view of her porch. Footage maxes out at 1080p, but the camera supports HDR to eliminate glare and has a 162-degree field of view. It has to be cable and you need a subscription starting at $5 per per month to record videos, but SimpliSafe also offers the option of professional monitoring (starting at $32 per month), which is rare for doorbells and can make sense if you have a full security system with them.
Call Battery Video Doorbell Pro for $230: The best battery doorbell from Amazon’s Ring was close to getting a full recommendation. It offers sharp, high-quality video with HDR support and color night vision. Notifications were quick and accurate, and two-way audio was of relatively high quality. I appreciated the ability to set multiple movement zones, including a potentially handy bird’s-eye view zone that lets you define range. The preroll feature captures a few seconds before each clip (albeit at a lower resolution), which can be useful. Because there’s no local recording option, you have to subscribe to Ring Protect for $5/month ($50/year) for a single camera, but it also gives you a generous 180 days of video storage, extensive notifications, and person and package tracking. But all these bells and whistles come at a premium, and battery life was disappointing (three weeks). You can mitigate this by buying an extra battery to swap in because it’s removable, or opting for the Wired Doorbell Pro instead (although we haven’t tested it yet).
TP-Link Tapo (D230S1) Smart Battery 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 through quickly and include a still image, video quality is excellent even at night, and the indoor hub takes a microSD card and doubles as a bell. On the downside, it’s thick and the built-in AI (which is supposed to recognize people, pets, vehicles and packages) is flaky.
Hard 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 liked Reolink’s wired doorbell listed above, so I was excited to try its first battery-powered model, but it was a disappointment. It offers up to 2K footage with a 1:1 aspect ratio that gives you a full view of the porch, but it lacks HDR and has a relatively slow frame rate (15 fps). I like the option of going subscription-free, but it means putting a microSD card in the doorbell itself, and it’s a relatively easy doorbell to remove. Reolink suggests up to five months of battery life, but mine died after less than two, and the rechargeable battery inside can’t be removed, so you have to take the doorbell off to recharge it. Factor in the slightly confusing app, relatively slow load times and connection errors and it’s impossible to recommend.
Ezviz EP3x Pro at £133: This is a much nicer doorbell than Ezviz’s previous models, and it’s nice to see solar panels as an option for doorbells, even if you need a porch capable of catching some rays. The video quality is good and you get a split view (like Eufy above) that includes packages or waiting cats on your doorstep. The distortion correction works well, and there is optional color night vision with a built-in light, although it only works at very close range. I appreciate 2FA, with fingerprint login and 32GB of built-in storage (cloud storage is an optional extra). Unfortunately, if you are using the solar panel, you cannot connect to your wired bell. The lack of HDR is disappointing, human detection was a bit off (it pinged often for my cat), and I had issues with alerts not coming through 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 for $170: The wonky setup procedure required a few reboots, and the physical installation was no better, as the included screws 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 gives a 180-degree view of your front porch. It comes with a handy plug-in clock, alerts seem reliable, there’s an HDR option, and you can record locally (32GB included) or in the cloud. You can also set a detection area, which can be handy for street-facing cameras. But the app is confusing with an AI tab showing different skills that can be purchased. There is a login history and a limit of two devices logged in at once, but no 2FA, making this impossible to recommend. It is versatile, but also relatively expensive.
Wyze Video Doorbell Pro for $100: The Wyze Video Doorbell Pro (7/10, WIRED review) was our budget recommendation, but with caveats. It alerted reliably, offered clear video, and had accurate AI for person detection, but you need the Cam Plus subscription (starting at $3/month). This camera model was not one of those affected by the security flaw, which Wyze failed to fix or report to customers for three years, but after repeated security breaches by Wyze, which most recently disclosed thousands of camera feeds to other customers, it is hard to recommend it. cameras longer.
Swann SwannBuddy video doorbell for $150: This doorbell comes with a wireless battery operated chime and local storage option, but the positives end there. The video quality is poor, the app is painfully slow to load and crashes, and the doorbell often fails to detect 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 bell would make more sense and be more secure).
Ezviz DB2 Video Doorbell for $180: An affordable video doorbell that comes with a plug-in bell, the Ezviz DB2 works quite well, but it’s very thick and a bit ugly. Video footage is detailed, but I had issues with blown out highlights when the sun was shining. The app is solid and quick to load, pressing the doorbell triggers a call to your phone, and you can record locally by inserting a MicroSD card into the chime. Unfortunately, it only offers a very limited ability to define movement zones – a big problem if you live on a busy street. I also found the battery life to be below average and it is difficult to remove.