I test smart home tech for a living, and these are the top 3 Ring alternative video doorbells I recommend, with local storage for your videos
Ring is the biggest name in video doorbells, but it’s not the only one, and if you’re looking for an alternative to the Amazon-owned company, I’ve put together a list of three of the best video doorbells that you can buy right now from other brands, All of these doorbells have been tested and recommended by our home security team at TechRadar, and all come highly recommended for their ease of installation, simple operation, and lack of subscription fees.
All of these doorbells let you store your recordings at home on an SD card, so you don’t have to pay for cloud storage, and your videos are always in your control. Although some of the brands featured below do offer a cloud service, it’s totally optional, and you aren’t going to miss out on any key features by skipping it.
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1. Reolink Doorbell (Battery)
Reolink is well known for its home security cameras, and the company has brought that expertise to your front door with this fully wireless video doorbell. It’s well made and feels robust right from the start, and is rated IP65, giving it significantly better than average protection against harsh weather.
This doorbell, like the others in this guide, captures video at 2K resolution, which is more than adequate for most situations, with head-to-toe recording. Unlike the other doorbells here, there isn’t a second camera to capture packages left on your doorstep, which is worth bearing in mind if you receive a lot of deliveries.
The app is simple to use, with a choice of three recording modes depending on whether you want to prioritize picture quality or battery life, and although we didn’t manage to reach Reolink’s quoted maximum of five months on a single charge, longevity was still impressive.
Videos are stored on an internal MicroSD card, and although Reolink offers a cloud storage service, the company doesn’t push it on you, and makes it clear that it’s available as a backup option, ‘just in case’. The card alone is fine if you’d prefer to keep your recordings on your property,
It’s also compatible with both Google Home and Amazon Alexa, so you can control it through your smart speaker and integrate it with other devices, though it’s not Matter-certified and doesn’t offer support for Apple HomeKit.
Read our full Reolink Doorbell (Battery) review
2. Philips 7000 Series Video Doorbell
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The Philips 7000 Series currently holds the number one spot in my roundup of the best video doorbells, beating the competition thanks to its impressive video quality with great viewing angles, and generous 8GB onboard storage.
It boasts dual cameras to give a clear view of both visitors and any packages they may leave on your doorstep. Its 2K resolution will be ample for most homes, and during our tests, we were thoroughly impressed by its motion-sensing capabilities. In terms of responsiveness, it was up there with the best home security cameras. Night vision is crisp as well (the doorbell is equipped with infrared sensors).
We found installation refreshingly straightforward, with a choice of mounting plates so you can choose one to suit your home, and it can be used with existing doorbell wiring or a rechargeable battery.
This particular video doorbell isn’t currently available in the UK. If that’s where you are, take a look at the other two doorbells here, as well as the Doro Hemma, which was designed with senior homeowners in mind, but would also be a great choice for anyone who wants a no-frills video doorbell that’s especially easy to use.
The only other drawback for us was a slight lag we noticed during two-way talk with visitors. Otherwise, the 7000 Series is hard to beat.
Read our full Philips 7000 Series Video Doorbell review
3. EZVIZ EP3x Pro
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The EZVIZ EP3x Pro gives you 32GB internal storage with no subscription fee. You can get cloud storage if you really want it (EZVIZ offers a service called CloudPlay), but frankly, there’s plenty of space on the doorbell, and no other features are behind a paywall, so there’s no need.
Video doorbells are usually pretty straightforward to set up, but we found the EZVIZ app particularly intuitive, and had the EP3x Pro up and running in just a couple of minutes. It makes checking your video clips especially easy as well, showing you a handy list of callers who have visited over the last 30 days, so you can easily see if you missed a delivery and when.
Again, there are two cameras (one for faces and one for packages), and footage is recorded at 2K. Rather than an infrared camera, the EP3x Pro uses bright LEDs to help record visitors after dark. It’s not discreet, but it means you get full color recording at night, which makes identifying callers easier.
One of this doorbell’s standout features is its ability to run from a solar charger, which drastically increases its battery life compared with conventional wireless doorbells. You can basically set it and forget it, which we love, and if anyone tries to pry it off the wall, they’ll trigger the anti-tamper alarm.
We sometimes experienced a short delay between a visitor pressing the button and us receiving a notification on our phone, but that was the only setback. Once we were connected, two-way talk worked flawlessly without lag.
Read our full EZVIZ EP3x Pro Doorbell review
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