Doorbells have evolved. Today, they watch us as we approach, let the people inside the home know we’re coming sooner than our finger can hit the button, and give them a good look at our faces before they open the door. They’re essentially security cameras with a chime function.
If you haven’t already installed one of these handy tools, there’s a huge array available. Choosing the best video doorbell can be a bewildering task, with various factors to consider, including how much of your doorstep you want to see or whether you’re prepared to pay for a subscription. To help make the decision a little bit easier, I tested eight popular video doorbells to find the best.
At a glance
Why you should trust me
I’ve been testing products, including everything from vacuum cleaners and robot lawnmowers to computers and games, for various publications for more than three decades. I’ve also owned a video doorbell for a couple of years, so I am well aware of their strengths and weaknesses. It gives me a good understanding of what I’m likely to be looking for in the next one I buy.
How I tested
The only way to test a doorbell is to stick it next to your front door and see how well it works. To achieve this, I mounted all eight on a board at doorbell height and lived with this rigged-up contraption on my doorstep for a fortnight. Delivery drivers were rightly suspicious of the number of buttons and cameras, and struggled to work out whether it was them or the doorbells that were being tested.
I’m not sure whether my neighbours noticed them all, or spotted the number of times I lapped my drive at various times of day and night to test the movement sensors. If they did, they were too polite to mention it.
I compared the doorbells by measuring how close I could get to the door before the motion detection was triggered, how much video was recorded and how useful that footage was. I timed how long it took for notifications to reach the doorbells’ apps on a smartphone and how long it took for the doorbell to send an alert or ring a chime (if included) when its button was pressed. I also tested the apps, examined the prices and considered the additional cost of subscriptions.
All doorbells that didn’t need to be returned to the brands are being donated to the British Heart Foundation.
The best video doorbells in 2025
Best video doorbell overall:
Google Nest Doorbell (battery)
Nest Doorbell (battery)
from £119.98
What we love
Good viewing angle and quick to send alerts to mobile devices and smart speakers
What we don’t love
Requires a £60 subscription to store footage and doesn’t come with a chime
The prices below reflect current Black Friday offers
Doorbells can be inundated with features, and their apps can be amazing. But if they don’t do a good job of letting you know when someone approaches your door and captures a video of them, there really isn’t much point. The Nest Doorbell (battery) performed these tasks the best.
Why we love it
In my tests, the Nest was a solid all-rounder. I found the viewing angle of its lens to be about perfect, not going so wide that people appear too small, but still capturing enough of the surrounding area to catch people skirting around its periphery. The video and audio were as consistently clear as those on any of the doorbells I tested, and they were decent both in daylight and at night.
The Nest sometimes detected people right at the end of my drive, but proved consistent at capturing movement from about 3m away. I found there was some delay between the button being pressed and notifications arriving on Nest devices and smartphones, but it averaged at a fairly reasonable five seconds. While not as fast as the doorbells that had dedicated local chimes, which tend to go off almost immediately, this was among the fastest for sending alerts to smartphones and smart speakers.
It’s a shame that … it doesn’t come with a chime. Instead, you need to buy a separate Nest Mini smart speaker, which costs £49 (or use an existing Nest or Amazon Echo speaker). You also have to sign up for the Nest Aware subscription at £60 a year – without it, motion events are stored for only three hours, which isn’t hugely useful.
Subscription: Google Home Premium (30-day storage, records only when movement triggered), £8/month or £80/year; Google Home Premium Advanced (60-day storage, records 24/7), £16/month or £160/year
Nest Doorbell (battery)
from £119.98
What we love
Good viewing angle and quick to send alerts to mobile devices and smart speakers
What we don’t love
Requires a £60 subscription to store footage and doesn’t come with a chime
Best budget video doorbell:
Blink smart video doorbell with Sync Module 2
Blink
Smart video doorbell with Sync Module 2
from £59.99
What we love
One of the most affordable doorbells; saves footage to local storage
What we don’t love
Poor microphone quality makes audio conversations with visitors difficult
The Blink is the only model I reviewed that costs less than £100. Amazon’s bargain basement doorbell costs as little as £49, and while you get what you pay for in terms of quality, it does the job.
Why we love it
Price is the key selling point here because it’s significantly more affordable than its nearest competitor. However, we reviewed the version that comes with Blink’s Sync Module 2, which costs only £10 more. This plugs into a wall socket and lets you connect USB storage (I used a USB flash memory drive). The device then locally backs up video that’s saved to the cloud, so you won’t lose any footage unless your local storage fills up. You still need a (relatively affordable) subscription for motion detection to work, though.
For a cheaper camera, I was impressed with the video footage. It has a wide-angle lens, so there’s a bit of a fish-eye effect around the edges, but it’s not so wide that people approaching the doorbell look tiny.
It’s a shame that … the two-way audio isn’t great. The microphone quality was the worst I tested, so it’s best suited to those not planning to have lengthy conversations with people on the doorstep.
Subscription: Basic Plan, £2.50/month or £24.99/year (30-day storage), single device; Plus Plan, £8/month or £80/year, multiple devices (30-day storage)
Blink
Smart video doorbell with Sync Module 2
from £59.99
What we love
One of the most affordable doorbells; saves footage to local storage
What we don’t love
Poor microphone quality makes audio conversations with visitors difficult
Best subscription-free video doorbell:
Eufy video doorbell E340
Eufy
Video doorbell E340
from £74.99
What we love
No subscription required as footage is saved to the doorbell’s own storage
What we don’t love
Unreliable motion detection sometimes misses fast-moving visitors
The prices below reflect current Black Friday offers
Most video doorbells provide limited features without additional costs, hiding all their best bits (such as storing video for any length of time) behind a paywall. The Eufy E340 is unusual because it ditches the paid-for subscription concept entirely.
Why we love it
The Eufy uses local rather than cloud storage, with 8GB built in to the device. How long that lasts before overwriting itself will depend on how busy your doorstep is. This built-in storage makes it one of the more expensive models, although that’s not its only trick. It uses two cameras, with an extra one pointed to the floor, so you can also keep an eye on parcels and packages (and analyse your visitors’ footwear).
It’s a shame that … while the stars have aligned over the Eufy’s video quality and lack of subscription costs, there were one or two occasions when movement didn’t trigger the camera early enough or at all. Ideally, I’d prefer something more reliable.
Subscription: none required
Eufy
Video doorbell E340
from £74.99
What we love
No subscription required as footage is saved to the doorbell’s own storage
What we don’t love
Unreliable motion detection sometimes misses fast-moving visitors
The best of the rest
Aqara G4
What we love
Replaceable batteries mean no down-time for charging
What we don’t love
The app for reviewing footage is cumbersome and overcomplicated
The prices below reflect current Black Friday offers
Best for: no charging time
The big problem with rechargeable doorbell batteries is that there’s a period when they have to be removed from the door and charged up, at which point any visiting friends will have to knock, and unwanted visitors won’t be recorded. This doorbell uses six AA batteries rather than a rechargeable, so its only downtime is while you’re replacing them.
This model also comes with the option of recording video to a microSD card, which slots into the supplied chime, sitting safely inside the house. However, it only provides access to the past seven days of video recordings through the app. To view further back, you have to remove the memory card and watch the files through a PC.
It didn’t make the final cut because … the app is nothing short of horrible. It has an AI chatbot. No, I don’t know why either. It was also one of the slowest to send notifications to a smartphone.
Subscription: not required if using a memory card. A free subscription option downgrades footage to 360p and keeps it available for only seven days, so it isn’t particularly useful. The paid-for tier stores at full 2K resolution and keeps it for 30 days, for $4.99/month (about £3.88) or $49.99/year (about £38.86)
What we love
Replaceable batteries mean no down-time for charging
What we don’t love
The app for reviewing footage is cumbersome and overcomplicated
Ring Battery video doorbell Pro
Ring
Battery video doorbell Pro
from £119
What we love
Captures footage continuously, so never misses any movement
What we don’t love
Slow to send alerts to mobile devices, which can leave visitors waiting
The prices below reflect current Black Friday offers
Best for: Alexa users
The big brother of the Blink doorbell, with a price to match. If you’ve already bought into Amazon’s Echo smart speakers, this integrates smoothly with them.
It has the widest-angle lens of all the cameras here, but that makes the footage look like you’re viewing through a peephole. Faces standing any distance away are too small to capture much detail. It has one really clever feature, though: it records video constantly and uses it to extend recorded movement events further back in time, so you can see what happens in the seconds before someone arrives on camera.
It didn’t make the final cut because … it had the longest delay in sending notifications during testing, which was disappointing.
Subscription: Basic, £4.99/month or £49.99/year (180-day storage); Standard, £7.99 per month or £79.99 per year (180-day storage)
Ring
Battery video doorbell Pro
from £119
What we love
Captures footage continuously, so never misses any movement
What we don’t love
Slow to send alerts to mobile devices, which can leave visitors waiting
Yale smart video doorbell
Yale
Smart video doorbell
from £74.99
What we love
Responsive to movement and provides a good viewing angle of your doorstep
What we don’t love
Poor quality sound and an unnatural colour tint to captured footage
Prices below include the chime and reflect current Black Friday offers
Best for: field of view
The Yale doorbell proved reasonably responsive when it came to detecting movement, triggering when I was about 2.5m away. It has a medium field of view compared with its rivals. That means people are still reasonably sized in the captured videos, but it gets a fish-eye effect around the edges, making it tricky to catch people hiding or sneaking up.
The app is simple to use. It has few frills, but that may suit someone who doesn’t want their doorbell to be too complicated. There’s also internal storage, but only enough for two to four days, so it’s worth the subscription if you often go away for the weekend.
It didn’t make the final cut because … sound quality was the worst of the group, and the video had an unnatural colour tint.
Subscription: from £3.50/month (30-day storage)
Yale
Smart video doorbell
from £74.99
What we love
Responsive to movement and provides a good viewing angle of your doorstep
What we don’t love
Poor quality sound and an unnatural colour tint to captured footage
Tapo D235 video doorbell camera
Tapo
D235 video doorbell camera
from £79.99
What we love
Comes with a chime and local storage for a reasonable price
What we don’t love
Wide angle lacks detail at a distance and range of motion detection is short
The prices below reflect current Black Friday offers
Best for: a good value camera with no subscription required
If our budget choice doesn’t appeal, then the Tapo D235 may suffice instead. It’s more expensive but sits comfortably in the middle of the price range of doorbells reviewed, and it can record video locally on a microSD card. However, there’s still a £2.99-a-month subscription available. That lets you save captured footage to the cloud as well as or instead of a memory card and sends camera snapshots with its text alert notifications.
For the price, I was impressed with the quality of the footage captured, but it uses colour night vision as it gets dark, which was a bit too grainy. It has a wide 180-degree viewing angle and comes with a chime that sounds inside when someone pushes the doorbell button.
It didn’t make the final cut because … motion detection started at about 1.5m in our tests, which meant some movement was missed. Also, its wide-angle lens makes distant visitors appear small.
Subscription: Not required if using a memory card. Otherwise: Basic 7-day video history, £2.49/month or £24.99/year; Premium 30-day video history, £2.99/month or £29.49/year
Tapo
D235 video doorbell camera
from £79.99
What we love
Comes with a chime and local storage for a reasonable price
What we don’t love
Wide angle lacks detail at a distance and range of motion detection is short
What you need to know
As you may expect, buying a video doorbell isn’t (just) about whether the colour matches the paint job on your front door. Smart doorbells are crammed with features designed to make you think they sound good, luring you into choosing one over another. However, you should also take into account how good they are at alerting you when people arrive at your door, and whether you’ll be able to tell who it is when you watch a video or live feed on your smartphone, as I did in my tests.
Battery vs wired video doorbells
If you have an existing wired doorbell, you can use its wiring to connect most video doorbells. There are two main benefits to a wired doorbell: there’s no battery, so it doesn’t need to be recharged; and it will ring the existing doorbell chime inside the house when the doorbell button is pressed. They’re a bit more complicated to install, though, so if you’re not a competent electrician, we’d suggest getting a professional to do it for you.
Battery doorbells are much easier to install, but charging them can be a faff. You usually have to remove the doorbell (or at least its battery) and charge it overnight. During that time, you have no doorbell or camera. You’ll probably have to do this every month or so, but it depends on the battery and how busy your doorstep is.
Some doorbells can use a spare battery or come with regular batteries that can simply be swapped, so you don’t need to be without a doorbell while it charges. Others can be topped up using a small solar panel, either out of the box or as an additional accessory.
Installing your video doorbell
Installing a new battery doorbell is simple. Most come with a mounting plate to attach wherever you want the doorbell to sit. Screwing into a wooden door frame is easy and convenient, if your doorway has one, but it can also be mounted on to a wall if you’re prepared to drill some holes and use a wall plug to hold the screws in place. Once the battery is charged, the doorbell attaches to the mounting plate.
If you’re replacing a wired doorbell, ensure you switch off the electricity first. This should be possible through your circuit breaker, and you should test it before you remove your old doorbell by ringing it – if it stops ringing, you’ve successfully shut off the power to it. The old wires should then attach to terminals on the new doorbell, but we’d strongly advise tackling this only if you know what you’re doing, or getting a professional to do it for you.
Subscriptions and storage
One of the hidden costs of a video doorbell is the price of a subscription, which usually costs a few pounds a month and includes some form of cloud storage. Without a subscription, most video doorbells are little more than a regular doorbell with the video equivalent of a peephole that allows you to see who is at the door right at that second. A storage subscription elevates it into an archive of visitors, with video footage of everyone who’s been on your doorstep in recent days, so you can go back and check.
Having said this, some doorbells (such as the Blink and Eufy doorbells reviewed here) have their own storage, can accept a memory card or connect to a wireless hub that’s kept inside the house. This kind of doorbell can be used without a subscription and still store footage locally, though many still offer a subscription alongside that can provide additional features, such as recognising the faces of your visitors.
Do video doorbells work with voice assistants?
Video doorbells integrate nicely with other smart home devices. The most useful add-on is a smart screen, such as Amazon’s Echo Show (available in various sizes from £89.99) or Google’s Nest Hub Max (£159). These screens can be set to alert you when your doorbell rings and immediately switch to a live video feed from the doorbell camera.
Smart speakers such as Amazon’s Echo Dot and Google’s Nest Mini can also be used in conjunction with a doorbell, though without a screen, they can’t display a live view. You can still set them to chime, which can be useful for hearing the doorbell all around your house.
Video doorbells can also be controlled using Amazon and Google’s smart assistants. You can use voice commands to perform doorbell tasks, such as showing the view from your doorbell on your phone or smart screen.
Your doorbell doesn’t have to come from the same company as your smart device or favoured voice assistant; Google’s Nest Doorbell is compatible with Amazon Alexa as well as Google Assistant devices, for example. However, you tend to get more functions with a directly compatible system – Amazon’s Echo devices, for example, with a Ring or Blink doorbell.
How long do video doorbells generally last?
Quoting the battery life of a video doorbell is problematic, even for the manufacturers. Amazon states only that the batteries in its Ring doorbells can last for “months”, while Google quotes the battery life of the Nest Doorbell (battery) as between one and six months. Both are too vague to be particularly useful.
However, it’s hard for the manufacturers to be more specific because there are huge differences between how people use their doorbells. If you live on a busy street, for example, and have motion detection switched on, your doorbell will be activated by every passerby. Video doorbells can also be activated by movement from cars, trees and animals.
There are other factors that can reduce the battery life, too. If you often use it to view a live picture of your doorstep even when there’s no one there (which can be very tempting, especially when the doorbell is new), then the battery will run down faster. Battery life is also reduced in cold weather, so those living in chillier parts of the country might find that their battery doesn’t last as long, particularly during winter months.
When it comes to the life of the doorbell itself, manufacturers tend to offer warranties of between one and two years. We’d expect that to be a minimum lifespan, as with few moving parts, there isn’t that much that can go wrong.
The first thing that’s likely to fail is the battery, because they tend to deteriorate over time. That puts doorbells with removable batteries at a slight advantage, because a failed battery in a sealed device may be impossible to replace. You can extend a battery’s life by treating it well: wait until its charge is below 20% before recharging and try not to let it run down completely. That way there’s no real reason why a video doorbell shouldn’t last for years.
In some cases it’s possible that a manufacturer’s support for a doorbell will run out before the hardware dies. For most doorbells, that’s about five years after the product was first launched. Support is usually withdrawn by stopping software updates, which can leave a product vulnerable to hacking, or by changing elements such as cloud storage services that can render advanced features unusable.
Andy Shaw is a consumer journalist and technology addict. Having reviewed tech products professionally for more than 30 years, his favoured working environment is a small desk surrounded by big boxes. His greatest weakness is that he never, ever remembers how things came out of their boxes, so they rarely fit back in again when it’s time to send them back
The article was originally published on 14 November 2024. Reviews published in the Filter may be periodically updated to reflect new products and at the editor’s discretion. The date of an article’s most recent update can be found in the timestamp at the top of the page. This article was last updated on 25 November 2025; more details were added on how long video doorbells last, and prices were updated throughout.
