Best video doorbells in 2023

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We updated this roundup in November 2023 to guarantee that our best video doorbell picks are in stock and reflect up-to-date prices.

It’s hard to ignore video doorbells in 2023. Your neighbour probably has one – and there’s a good reason for that. The best video doorbells are excellent tools for the smart home, acting as a virtual guard, receptionist and video recorder all in one.

From watching out for cars parked on the drive, welcoming visitors and wrangling couriers and deliveries, to deterring "porch pirates" and protecting your neighbourhood, the video doorbell is a helping hand and a worthwhile investment.

Here are our picks for the best video doorbells to buy in 2023:

Trust us, you need a video doorbell. This is one of the few smart home devices that can suit everyone – everyone who has a front door, that is. The benefits are numerous, and they include being able to see a video of who is at the door (invaluable for avoiding nuisance callers) and being able to welcome valued guests when you’re not near the door.

It’s fantastic for couriers and posties, and having one means you’ll never miss a parcel again. Not only can you see the delivery in progress, but many of the best video doorbells allow you to speak to the courier, so you can tell them to leave a parcel in a safe place or with a neighbour, for example. Most video doorbells work hand-in-hand with other smart home gadgets, such as wifi security cameras, smart alarms and smart speakers. In short, once you’ve got one, you’ll wonder how you got by without it.

Our expert testers evaluated the best video doorbells available in 2023 to find the exact right one for you. We set them up and used them just like you would, looking at the ease of setup, the quality of the video feed and how intuitive it is to use the accompanying app. We checked whether visitors and couriers could hear us (in ideal conditions), and vice-versa.

We tested battery life, and also took into account any additional features, such as weatherproofing, alert settings, and any hidden extras such as cloud video storage charges. Our top picks here are from a wide range of UK-specific manufacturers and vendors.

We've included the familiar brands you already know, along with some surprisingly capable challengers. Read on for the very best video doorbells you can buy.

If you want a Ring doorbell and don’t mind sacrificing a few of the features found in our top pick, go for the 2nd-generation model. This is the entry-level device in the series, but it’s still a step up from the more basic (but even more affordable) Blink doorbell above.

While you lose support for dual-band wifi and extended colour video previews of motion events that you get in the Ring 4, this is easy to install, works seamlessly with Alexa and lets you view a crisp 1080p HD video feed from your smartphone or smart display.

We’ve used the doorbell to get instant alerts about deliveries, with the chime ringing out to multiple Echo Dot speakers around our home and the video feed showing on an Echo Show 15 that’s attached to our kitchen wall. Using the night vision, we have checked on what’s happening out the front of our property before going to bed, and it’s great to know that it has two-way talk so we can remotely chat with visitors at any time.

It always depends on how much it’s used, but Ring says the battery lasts for months at a time, however, if you don’t want to ever have to worry about it running out of juice it can be hardwired to an existing mechanical or electronic doorbell, too.

The 2nd-gen Ring doorbell is easy to install and comes with all of the screws and plugs you’ll need. Although there is drilling involved, we reckon most people will have no issues setting it up. After charging the device and pairing it to the Alexa app and our other smart home devices, we installed it onto a brick wall in under five minutes.

The software support is strong, with Ring’s app showing a live feed but also letting you change loads of settings – including turning down motion sensitivity to reduce any unwanted alerts if you live on a busier road, changing the volume of the chimes when the button is pressed, seeing how much battery is left and checking event logs. Note that if you want to keep or share these recordings of events you’ll need to pay for a Protect Plan membership (from £3.49/month) but we liked getting a 30-day free trial bundled with the device. In one full month of testing, the battery went from full to 63%.

Google’s packaging for the Nest Doorbell is a study in minimalism – it comes with just the bell unit, a metal mounting plate, an angled wedge mount, a USB-C cable and a removal tool. The clever decision Google has made here is that the whole unit is rechargeable, and pops off the mount to be plugged in indoors, reducing hassle.

The provided key slots in the top to unclip the unit, not dissimilarly to Arlo’s model, and a small screwdriver would probably do the job too. Google tackles this potential security flaw by stating: "if someone removes your doorbell without permission, we’ll replace it free of charge". When it comes to battery life, Google says you’ll get between one month and six months of life, depending on how hectic your front door is.

The Nest doorbell will automatically store up to one hour of recorded "events" in its local memory, but to store much more you’ll be into subscription territory. Google offers two packages, Nest Aware (£5 per month) and Nest Aware Plus (£10 per month), which offer varying abilities to go back through older footage - which may or may not be essential for you. You can choose not to subscribe during the setup process.

The Google Nest Doorbell can be paired with a Nest Hub to allow you to speak to visitors if you don’t have a smartphone handy, and this would be a useful addition for most people - the chime fitted to the doorbell is fine for visitors to hear, but people in the home probably won’t hear it without a connected chime or speaker.

Overall, the Google Nest Doorbell is a slick package (the Google Home app is great, and we found the quick replies useful), but is best used as part of a wider Google Home system rather than as a standalone doorbell. With a separate chime, it would be excellent though.

The big brother to the Eufy 1080p Video Doorbell, the Eufy 2K looks at first glance very similar to its smaller sibling, and only a back-to-back comparison shows up that the 2K is slightly larger. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of similarities with the cheaper model, including the attachment options, the separate chime, the MicroSD card in the chime to record footage, and the reliable build quality.

The app is also the same, and unfortunately, the higher-resolution video (which is a noticeable improvement) doesn’t speed the app up when. On test, we found that notifications can still lag, and the activity zones are not always entirely reliable, although tinkering with them does get results in the end.

Both Eufy models can connect to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, but only to view the stream, not set alerts, which is a shame. The Eufy 2K has an extended 180-day battery life over its little brother, but overall this model has a very similar experience to offer for a third more cash, which makes it a hard sell unless that far better video quality is top of your priority list.

This Netatmo doorbell is one of the best-designed smart doorbells on the market. The minimalist, rectangular box is evenly split into three zones - one for the button, one for the speaker, and one for the camera. It’s stylish and fitting for a French company making chic smart tech.

Our test model came with a rather handy mains adaptor, but you also need to wire a chime box into your existing chime - assuming your existing chime is running 8-24V or 230V (the latter being standard UK mains electricity, the former being a transformer voltage).

Installing the outside unit is simplified with two backing plates (one angled) and a cardboard guide for drilling. The adaptor cable is helpfully long but relatively chunky, so hiding it neatly may be a challenge.

A big selling point here is that there are no additional fees or subscriptions. Video is saved to an onboard microSD card, and can also be stored on Dropbox or a server. It includes alert zones that work well (especially important in busy areas), and two-way audio and video in-app do exactly the job they’re supposed to.

Overall, while the design is top-notch, the installation is a bit convoluted (thanks to the wiring), but the finished result is good - no extra charges, and no battery charging. You can control it with all the main voice assistants, including Siri via Apple HomeKit, which is a major benefit for Apple fans.

The Eufy 1080p Video Doorbell is a sealed-unit-style doorbell, so it charges directly from a micro-USB charger - a move you’ll be carrying out every 120 days on average. In the box, you get the bell unit, brackets and a chime unit combined with a wifi extender that plugs into a standard socket.

Once charged up via the cable, the bell unit can be synced with the chime unit, and the latter can be equipped with a MicroSD so that you can store videos securely with no monthly fee. The bell unit - just like the Arlo - is retained by a little pin that can leave the unit open to theft. At least the video footage itself is safely stored on the internal plug.

A 4:3 aspect ratio on the HD-quality camera feed gets you a decent wide-angle view, and activity zones combined with smart detection cut down false alerts. The app is relatively easy to use but can be laggy at times, and although the video quality isn’t brilliant, it’s good enough to see who is at the door.

Overall, this is a solid doorbell at an affordable price, although it is one that’s easily beaten by its bigger sibling, as well as others on the market. We think the low cost, the lack of subscription, the complete package and decent build quality will win it fans.

One of the latest entrants to the UK smart doorbell market, we think this Blink model is likely to be highly popular. That’s not only because it’s designed to be a companion to Alexa and other Amazon products and services, but also because it’s the cheapest here by some margin.

Amazon has gone with standard AA batteries to power the Blink, making switching them out when flat (Amazon claims an impressive 2-year life) no harder than operating a remote control. Installation involves screwing the backplate to a suitable location, synching the Blink doorbell with the Blink app, and connecting the Sync Module.

This module allows you to save video clips from the doorbell to the app, or store them locally on a USB flash drive. It’s a system that could be more seamless, and if you want to save videos to the cloud you’ll need the Blink Subscription Plan (£2.50 a month per device). For more ecosystem connectivity, you can use a Blink Mini camera (one of our favourite indoor wifi security cameras) as an additional indoor chime, and also can install the Blink SmartHome skill on an Amazon Echo device to enable Doorbell announcements.

The Blink doorbell itself works well, with the obvious button and surrounding light making it easy for visitors to use it, even at night. The app is decent, but it is slightly laggy when the button is pressed, and the audio quality is tolerable rather than premium. Two-way audio works reasonably well, though, and the video quality is solid too.

We like the Sync Module as an alternative to a subscription, and being able to connect to other Alexa devices will be a major draw for many, as is the low price point. For an even lower upfront cost, you can buy the doorbell without the Sync Module for under £50 – just bear in mind you’ll need the subscription plan for video storage.

There are a lot of the common elements on show here (two-way talk, night vision, weather resistance, video in-app), but there are a couple of details worth noting. The first is that this Arlo model has an unusually wide field of view at a full 180 degrees, making it the best option for monitoring open approaches. We also like that alerts can be delivered via SIP calls - basically like a normal phone call. This speeds up answering the door as there’s no need for an app to wake up and alert you.

The Arlo takes an interestingly varied approach to smart doorbell security. While the app setup process is more thorough than some banks we could name, the doorbell battery is changed (or removed) by poking a pin into the top of the unit. The upside of this is that physical installation is a breeze.

You just charge the battery via USB, clip it into the body, and screw the backing plate to the door. A companion mains-powered chime unit is handy to have, and while it is possible to add wired power to the bell, that requires a chime with a voltage between 8-24V AC and (obviously) the actual wiring.

There’s a siren built-in which you can trigger remotely, which is potentially useful too. The downside is of course the battery will eventually need recharging (Arlo claims six months of battery), and unless you have a separate Arlo Hub the cloud video storage requires Arlo’s Advanced Security Monitoring, which costs £2.79 per month after the 90-day trial expires.

A video doorbell will normally set you back around £150, and that’s a price well worth paying for a good quality one with a decent app. The Blink model is the exception with its £49.99 price tag, making it unusually affordable compared to rivals.

Some brands charge ongoing fees to store video footage, which can be a hidden cost (more on that below), and it’s well worth checking carefully before buying.

Installation is a mixed bag - in order to install a battery-powered doorbell, you simply stick or screw it to the outside door, door frame or porch area, which can be an easy DIY install. For wired doorbells, though, we think a professional might be a better choice, especially where more complicated wiring is required.

There are a couple of key factors to consider when weighing up the differences between the best video doorbells on the market and we’ve explained them below:

The first question to decide on when buying a video doorbell is whether you want a wired or battery-powered system, and (crucially) if your existing system is wired or not.

Many models will slot right into a mains or transformer-powered existing system, and using wiring that’s already in place is a no-brainer.

The next key decision is whether you’d like it to be compatible with a smart home platform like Google Home or Amazon Alexa. You may already have it set up, and it can make a big difference if you want to ask your voice assistant to show you who’s at the front door on your Echo Show or Google Home Hub.

Now it’s time to get into the details, most importantly video resolution and field of view, the former so you can make out increased detail at distance, the latter so you can see the full picture of who is at the door.

When it comes to resolution, we’d recommend going for one that records in Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) at least. 2K cameras (2560 x 1440 pixels) will be even sharper. With the field of view, if you go up to 180 degrees, you can get a bit of a "fisheye" effect, so many options on our list have a wide angle somewhere between 180 and 135 degrees.

A key consideration is video storage, as some systems store video locally on a memory card or USB stick, while others prefer you to use proprietary cloud systems, which inevitably come at a monthly cost, ramping up the overall expense of a video doorbell.

While most video or smart doorbells have features such as object or person detection, and in some cases, parcel recognition, the real feature to watch out for is "smart zoning", where areas can be included or excluded from the movement alerts.

Without this, your neighbour’s tree/cat/passing cars will trigger motion alerts continually, forcing you to turn them off.

The choice of wired or non-wired sounds like a simple one, but can get complicated fast. Not all smart doorbells offer a wired version, so sometimes the decision is made for you. Some American brands used to not offer UK-voltage versions of their products, which made wiring them very challenging indeed. Although battery-powered is as simple as you can get from an installation perspective, the problem is recharging the battery when it goes flat. Of course, the doorbell is out of action while it’s recharging, which is something of a faff.

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