Affordable, easy-to-use, and easy-to-install security cameras enable you to keep an eye on your home–inside and out–from wherever you have internet access. They record video in response to motion, so you can review anything you didn’t catch when it happened, and some can distinguish between people, pets, and even cars. Night vision is ubiquitous, enabling these cameras to see in total darkness. Some of these cameras incorporate floodlights that can illuminate your yard, and some can be tied into equally affordable DIY home security systems.
These close cousins of webcams require minimal installation and offer flexible setups and a range of security features. Indeed, the offerings vary widely by camera, and deciding what to buy gets more daunting as this category grows ever more crowded. But whether you’re looking for an easy way to check on your kids and pets, or a full-service sentinel to monitor for intruders, we’ll help find the right product for your needs.
Updated May 5, 2023 to add a link to our Defender Guard Pro 2K Wi-Fi review.
Best home security cameras for every purpose and every budget
Arlo Pro 4 — Best home security camera overall
Pros
- Records video in 2K resolution with HDR
- Integrated spotlight enables color night vision
- Automatically tracks people moving within its field of view
- Optional wireless hub for local storage and HomeKit compatibility
Cons
- Arlo Secure subscription required to unlock full feature set ($2.99/mo minimum for one camera, $9.99/mo for unlimited cameras, $14.99/mo for unlimited number of cameras on Arlo Secure Plus)
- Some of the optional accessories (e.g., solar panel for constant battery charging) are very expensive
The Arlo Pro 4 offers only half the resolution of the company’s flagship, the Arlo Ultra, but the Pro is much more reasonably priced. This new model frees you from the requirement to buy the $100 Arlo base station, although you can use it with that storage device if you already own one. Adding the base station also gives you both local storage and Apple HomeKit compatibility. You’ll need to purchase an Arlo Secure subscription ($2.99/mo for one Arlo camera; $9.99/mo for unlimited cameras) to unlock this camera’s 2K video resolution and its ability to record video to the cloud, along with a number of other features copious cloud storage. Apart from that limitation, it’s an excellent value overall, and you can deploy the battery-powered camera indoors or out.
Nest Cam (battery, 2021) — Best security camera for Google Nest smart homes
Pros
- Arguably the easiest setup in the industry
- Attractive industrial design
- Can be installed indoors or out
- Can operate on either AC or battery power (or AC power with battery backup)
Cons
- Anemic night vision
- Proprietary and too-short power cable
- Subscription required to get full value ($6/mo minimum)
Nest has long offered some of our favorite security cameras, and the new-for-2021 Nest Cam (battery) is a versatile offering packed with great features. The camera is supremely easy to set up, and it delivers fabulous performance under any lighting condition. Also, it can be deployed indoors or out. We do wish it came with a longer cable, especially for outdoor deployments, but you’ll appreciate having three hours of event history stored on the device since you won’t have to pay for a subscription unless you want more history.
Ring Spotlight Cam Plug-In — Best outdoor home security camera for Ring/Alexa smart homes
Pros
- Available in plug-in, wired, battery-, and solar-powered configurations
- Ties tightly into Ring’s and Amazon’s ever-expanding smart home ecosystems
- Radar-based motion detection
- IFTTT support opens lots of integration possibilities
Cons
- You can use Ring’s Pre-Roll feature or Bird’s Eye View, but not both
- Spotlights produce only 576 lumens (less for the batter-powered models)
- Not fully compatible with Google Nest or Apple HomeKit ecosystems
The Ring Spotlight Cam blends a 1080p security camera with a 576-lumen spotlight that casts a pool of light around a door or a stairway. Its Bird’s Eye View is oversold, but the Pre-Roll view it competes (you can’t enable both features at the same time) with is more valuable anyway. Beyond that, this home security offers plenty of features and performance to earn our strong recommendation—unless you’re a Google Home or Apple HomeKit afficionado. Be aware, however, that you’ll need one of Ring’s subscription plans to get full value from this camera.
Wyze Cam Pan v2 — Best value in indoor pan/tilt security cameras
Pros
- Outstanding value
- Interface remains easy to master
- AI-powered object detection is effective and worth the subscription
Cons
- No major upgrades outside of color night vision
- Still no 5GHz Wi-Fi support
The new Cam Pan v2 doesn’t rewrite the script, but its minor upgrades are worthwhile and it’s still the biggest bargain in motorized home security cameras. It’s just the ticket when you need to keep an eye on a large interior space.
Wyze Cam v3 Pro — Best budget-priced security camera
Pros
- Very, very affordable
- Bright spotlight for color night vision
- Video resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels
- Affordable optional service plan
Cons
- Nearly useless without the ostensibly optional service plan
- No option to run on battery power
It’s hard to beat Wyze Labs when it comes to affordable home security devices. The latest version of its highly affordable outdoor security camera offers a significant bump in video resolution and impressively effective smart detection features–provided you spring for a subscription. Fortunately, that service is equally affordable: $2 per month/$20 per year for one camera, or $10 per month/$100 per year for an unlimited number of Wyze cameras.
Blink Mini — Best budget-priced security camera, runner-up
Pros
- Compact size
- Accurate, customizable motion detection
Cons
- Requires AC power (no battery option)
- Can be used indoors only
- No local storage (unless you purchase the Blink Sync Module 2)
- Blink Subscription Plan needed for storage ($3/mo for one Blink camera; $10/mo for unlimited Blink cameras)
Amazon’s Blink division gives Wyze Labs a run for its money with this low-priced security camera. Unlike the Wyze Cam v3, however, this camera can only be deployed indoors. Like its competitor, there is no battery-power option–the Blink Mini must be plugged into AC power to operate, and you’ll need to pay for a subscription plan for cloud storage. You can get local storage for multiple Blink cameras with the purchase of a Blink Sync Module 2.
Eufy Floodlight Cam 2 Pro — Best security cam/floodlight combo
Pros
- Three beefy light panels are the most powerful on the market, and they’re tunable
- Zillions of configurability options
- Straightforward interface for live and recorded viewing
Cons
- Awkward appearance and quite heavy
- There’s a learning curve
- We had issues downloading video clips
The Eufy Floodlight Cam 2 Pro arrives on the scene with a wide range of features and settings, all while upping the ante by putting three floods instead of just two on the unit, good for a combined 3,000 lumens of tunable brightness. While its overall appearance is a bit awkward and its sticker price is loftier than the competition’s, the Eufy Floodlight Cam 2 Pro doesn’t require a subscription plan, making it the better bargain in the long run.
Ring Floodlight Cam Pro — Best security cam/floodlight combo, runner-up
Pros
- Unbeatable playback interface
- Birds-eye view of motion detection is unparalleled
- Affordable subscription plan
- Ring has one of the most complete home-security ecosystems on the market
Cons
- No local storage; subscription required to get full use of the device ($3/mo for one camera; $10/mo for unlimited cameras)
- Must be electrically hardwired; there is no battery option
- Not as aesthetically pleasing as Netatmo’s Smart Security Camera
It doesn’t take much time using the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro to realize how incredibly powerful it is, starting with some of its impressive motion-detection features. The 3D Motion Detection with Bird’s Eye View feature is a game-changer. In addition to a great security camera, you also get dual floodlights that can illuminate your outdoor space with 2,000 lumens of brightness. Anyone deep into the Ring home security or Ring smart lighting ecosystems should give this device serious consideration.
Blink Wired Floodlight Camera — Best budget-priced security camera/floodlight combo
Pros
- Ultra-powerful spotlight
- Easy hardware installation
- Super affordable
Cons
- Subscription required to view a live feed for more than 5 minutes, record and store video, and enable person detection
- Limited flexibility when it comes to aiming its camera and floodlights
- Industrial design trails Nest and Ring
Blink’s floodlight cam offers run-of-the-mill video resolution, but extremely bright outdoor lighting and an amazingly affordable price tag. You’ll need a subscription to record video to get the most value from it, but those plans are affordable.
What you should consider when shopping for a home security camera
Most home security cameras perform the same basic functions—they detect an event, record the event, and send you an alert—but they don’t all perform them the same way. And some cameras have special features that go beyond those basics. Here are some common features you’ll encounter while shopping and why they’re important (we’ve listed them in alphabetical order). In each of the reviews that follow this buyers’ guide, we’ll discuss how each camera delivers on these features.
Alerts: Home security cameras push notifications to your smartphone when they detect events. Without watching the live feed all day, this is the only way to keep tabs on your home in relative real time. Depending on the camera, it may send text alerts when it detects motion, sound, a face (known or unrecognized), or all three. Some can send alerts to multiple people, usually anyone else in the household using that product’s app; others will send emails in addition to text messages as a failsafe in the event you can’t access your mobile device.
Battery backup: Power outages happen, and clever burglars cut electricity before breaking into your home. When that happens, your camera goes dark and, if there’s a crime taking place, you lose all forensic evidence. For this reason, some cameras can also run for a short time on battery power. It’s a feature worth looking for. There are also some models that run on battery power full time (you can either swap batteries as they’re depleted, or plug the camera into an AC outlet and recharge its battery that way.
Cloud recording: Many manufacturers offer cloud storage plans with their cameras. With one of these, your recorded video is sent to a remote server and stored for a predetermined time— usually anywhere from 24 hours to a week—and then deleted to make space for new videos. Though sometimes free, these cloud plans usually require a monthly subscription, but are worth it both for their convenience and if you want a surveillance record during a vacation or other extended time away from home. (See the section on HomeKit Secure Video, below, for a different approach.)
Environmental monitoring: This is the feature that sets all-in-one home monitors apart from strictly security cameras. Though the home “vitals” that these units track vary by model—we’ve seen everything from motion to luminosity included in home health profiles—three tend to be ubiquitous:
- Temperature monitors for spikes and dips in indoor temperature and alerts when it falls outside a range you define.
- Humidity tracks relative humidity inside your home. Humidity outside optimal levels—usually defined as between 30 and 50 percent—can contribute to problems such as static electricity, sinus irritation, and mold growth.
- Air quality tracks pollutants ranging from cooking odors to carbon monoxide. However, most monitors don’t identify the pollutant in their alerts, merely warning that the air quality is “abnormal.” Because of that, this feature should not be considered a substitute for potentially life-saving devices like smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Facial recognition: A few newer cameras are experimenting with facial recognition. This feature could more accurately be called “facial identification,” as in practice it’s much better at distinguishing a face from, say, a lamp, than it is at actually distinguishing between one person’s face and another’s. If you opt for a camera with this feature, know that it typically learns faces through increasing exposure to them, so be prepared to spend a lot of time in front of the lens.
HomeKit Secure Video support: This is a subset of Apple’s smart-home initiative, and while you don’t necessarily need to be an avowed Apple user to benefit from HomeKit Secure Video’s privacy-enhancing features, you will need to sign up for an Apple iCloud account and have at least one of these Apple products in your home to use it: an iPad tablet, a HomePod smart speaker, or an Apple TV.
Where other types of security cameras send video to the cloud (often unencrypted), security cameras that support HomeKit Secure Video send thier video streams to one of those devices on your local network first. That device will process the video, performing tasks such as facial recognition and what have you, and then encrypting it before uploading it to your iCloud account. You can read more about HomeKit Secure Video on our sister site, Macworld.
Integrated spotlight: Like all cameras, home security cameras need adequate ambient light to capture clear images. While that is easy to come by during daylight hours, it’s in shorter supply as the sun goes down, often making it necessary to supplement with artificial ambient light. This can easily be accomplished with light fixtures inside your home and floodlights outdoors, but many cameras include an integrated spotlight that offers a few advantages. Because the spotlight is built into the camera, it directly lights the scene the camera is viewing, enabling the clearest possible image capture. And integrated spotlights can be configured to be triggered by motion detection, so they only switch on when a possible intruder is in view, eliminating the need to keep your home or yard lit up all night. As a bonus, being suddenly caught in the white hot glare of a spotlight is often enough to scare an intruder away.
Local storage: Some cameras include memory-card slots in lieu of, or in addition to, cloud storage, so you can store video right on the device. It’s an attractive feature as it can eliminate the cost of monthly storage fees. The downside (if there isn’t a cloud backup) is that if crooks steal your camera, they take your forensic evidence with it.
Mobile app: Most of today’s home security camera’s are accessed primarily through a smartphone/tablet app. In addition to offering you a reliable way to view the camera’s live feed, it should offer plenty of options for customizing the way the camera performs. The ability to customize notifications, adjust motion and sound detection sensitivity, and set detection areas are some of the key features to look for. The app should also be intuitive and easy to master.
Motion detection: Assuming you’re monitoring your home when it’s empty, motion detection is one of the most desirable features in a security camera. Built-in sensors pick up movement within the camera’s field of view and trigger video recording.
You’ll find an in-depth explanation of how motion detection works in this article.
Because these sensors can be sensitive to any movement—even a shift in lighting or leaves blowing outside a window—it’s important the camera system also offer the ability to narrow the range of detection, adjust the sensor’s sensitivity, or otherwise customize this feature to cut down on false alerts.
Night vision: Most break-ins occur after dark, so this feature is nearly as important as motion detection. Technically, most home security cameras support infrared LED illumination, versus true night vision based on image intensification or thermal vision. Be that as it may, most camera’s will switch to night vision automatically in low-light conditions, while others allow you to customize when and how it should be activated. Increasingly, cameras are equipped with full-color night vision, which enables video footage to capture important information that IR night vision can’t such as the color of an intruder’s clothing or vehicle. These cameras use hypersensitive light sensors, such as Starlight image sensors, which can reproduce color images in dimly lit environments, some as low as 0.0005 Lux (for reference, 0 Lux indicates no ambient lighting). To increase battery efficiency, some models include both black-and-white and color night vision, defaulting to black-and-white in low light and switching to color only when motion is detected.
Pan/Tilt/Swivel: Most security cameras can be manually tilted and swiveled to focus on a certain viewing area, but this is a purely set-it-and-forget it feature. A true pan/tilt camera is equipped with a motor so that you can move its lens—or even follow a moving object if you’re watching a live feed—using its app or browser-based app. Some cameras can even track a person moving within their field of view.
Resolution: No amount of security video will help you if it’s blurry, jittery, or otherwise distorted. Look for a camera that offers the highest possible resolution. There was a time when 720p (often referred to as “high definition” or HD) resolution was the standard, but most newer cameras now support 1080p (often referred to as “full HD”). Some models provide even higher resoution (2K or 4K), but keep in mind that higher-res cameras use more internet and Wi-Fi bandwidth as well as battery life (where applicable). Many cameras also offer a software zoom feature (which is not the same thing as having a physical zoom lens).
Scheduling: Scheduling features allow you to tell the camera to turn on and off, detect motion, and/or send alerts at specified times. This is useful when you, say, only want to be notified when your kids get home from school or just want to monitor your home when you’re away. It also reduces the amount of false alerts. Cameras that support geofencing can do this based on the location of your smartphone, activating themselves when you leave home and turning themselves off to enhance privacy while you’re home.
Security: There have been plenty of headlines about hackers compromising home cameras, baby monitors, and other Wi-Fi devices to spy on people, so be sure to check what steps has each manufacturer taken to eliminate this problem. Look for a camera that supports up-to-date wireless security protocols, such as WPA2, and make sure it encrypts internet transmission of your user name, your password, and the live feeds. Never install a security camera (or a router or any other device on your home network) without changing its default user ID and password.
Smart device integration: If you have a home full of smart devices, consider looking for a security camera or an all-in-one home monitor that includes a Z-Wave, ZigBee, or—eventually a Thread—radio that can connect them. Support for an automation service like IFTTT is also useful. This allows the camera or monitor to react to various scenarios, such as taking a picture when your Nest Protect detects smoke, or telling your Philips Hue smart bulb to turn on when unexpected sounds are detected.
Two-way audio: While the idea of a security camera implies eyes-on monitoring, the ability to also hear what’s going on gives you a more complete picture of what’s happening on the home front when you’re away. It can also alert you to something occurring out of the camera’s field of vision. This feature can also allow you to speak through the camera, a great tool for remotely commanding an unruly pet or startling an intruder in the act. On some very low-end models, you might need to plug in a powered speaker for this feature to work.
Viewing angle: The camera’s field of view determines how much it can see. As you’re probably monitoring a single room, you want a wide viewing angle. Most current cameras fall in the 130-degree range. These wide angles can sometimes cause image distortion at the edges in the form of a fisheye effect, particularly when used in smaller rooms, but it’s not like you’re going to use a security to capture snapshots for your photo album.
Web client: Many cameras can be accessed through a web portal as well. This is useful for times when you don’t have access to your mobile device or a wireless connection. The web app should closely mirror its mobile counterpart, so you don’t need to learn a whole new set of controls.
Wireless range: One of the benefits wireless cameras offer is the ability to move them around your home. Ideally, your home security camera should be able to maintain a Wi-Fi connection no matter how far you move it from your router, even in a large home. Some cameras come with an ethernet port as well, so you have the option of hardwiring it to your local network. A camera that supports power-over-ethernet (PoE) eliminates the need for an AC adapter and relies on just one cable (but your router or switch will also need to support PoE. Another alternative would be to use a PoE injector.) If you’re deploying a security camera beyond the range of your Wi-Fi network, models that connect instead to the same LTE network that your smartphone relies on are a good option, but they’re generally more expensive and you’ll need to pay your cellular provider for a data plan.
Author: Michael Ansaldo, Freelance contributor
Michael Ansaldo is veteran consumer and small-business technology journalist. He contributes regularly to TechHive and PCWorld.