A video doorbell can let you see who's at the door and find out what they want — even if you're not home. After we tested several video doorbells, we think the best video doorbell is the Nest Hello Smart Wi-Fi Video Doorbell. It has the highest video quality, can recognize individual faces—and can announce them to you, too.
The best value video doorbell under is the Ring Video Doorbell. Although its resolution is just 720p—lower than the other video doorbells—the video was clear enough to see who was at the door, and Ring's app has a lot of excellent features. Be sure to enable two-factor identification, though.
Ring has made a number of improvements to its app. For starters, the company now requires two-factor authentication for all users. Additionally, the Ring Control Center now makes it easier to access all of your privacy and security settings.
Nest's doorbell cam produced the best-looking video we've yet seen from one of these devices, and its microphone and speaker were excellent, too. It can also recognize people's faces, and announce them when they come to your door. While it needs a hardwired connection, it continuously records video, so you'll never miss an event.
You can also set up specific zones, so you'll only be notified when a person or object appears in that area of the frame. While you'll need to subscribe to the Nest Aware service to get all of its features, they're worth it.
Because it can run entirely on battery power, the Ring Video Doorbell 2 can go anywhere, and with an optional Ring Chime device you can hear the doorbell inside the house. This 1080p doorbell camera offers good customization for motion alerts, although it's not as robust as the Ring Pro's. However, you still get the same ability to share videos with neighbors, as well as Ring's affordable video-storage fees.
Ring's original Video Doorbell has a max resolution of 720p, but otherwise, it's just as capable as Ring's more-expensive models. We like that you can use it either wired or on battery power alone, you can create custom motion zones, and also see what's going on in your neighborhood. Plus, Ring offers very affordable video storage plans.
August's video doorbell has a clever HindSense feature that includes a couple of seconds of video before the motion is detected, which means the device is more likely to capture a usable image. While August's doorbell doesn't have the highest resolution among the cameras we tested, the footage was clear enough that we could see people's faces, and we liked that its spotlight helped illuminate whoever was coming to the door at night.
Because August's product looks the least like a traditional doorbell, visitors sometimes didn't know to press the device; they just knocked on our door instead. Still, it integrates tightly with August's excellent Smart Locks, which itself is compatible with Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant, among other smart home systems — the most of any of the doorbells we tested.
Can't install a traditional video doorbell? The Ring Peephole Cam replaces a traditional peephole, giving you an electronic means of seeing who's at the door. (Don't worry; it has a peephole built in). Because it screws into place, you don't have to drill any new holes into a door, so your landlord won't get annoyed.
Because the Peephole Cam is battery-operated, you'll have to recharge it once every month or so, depending on how often you use it. And while it works with Alexa—you can view a feed from the camera on an Echo Show, for example—it doesn't work with Google Assistant.
Ring's smallest and best-looking doorbell has the most customizable motion zones of any doorbell we tested, letting you specify exactly which areas in the camera's field of vision should trigger an alert. It also has crisp, 1080p resolution and a wide, 160-degree field of view — tops among the cameras we tested — and the most-competitive storage costs.
Ring's app also lets you share videos with neighbors, so you can keep everyone informed if there's someone trying to break into multiple houses or steal packages. Installation is a little tricky, however; we had to install not just the doorbell, but also a separate device inside our existing doorbell's chime box.
The Eufy 2K Video doorbell records good-quality video over a 150-degree field of view. While you can sign up for cloud storage the Eufy 2K also has a microSD card slot, so you can save footage locally, too. However, it has a few drawbacks: It's a wired-only device, only supports one user (so you can't share it with family members), and has limited smart-home interoperability. But for the price, it's not a bad deal.
