Ring doorbell, or alternatives

[8bit]

Our old, basic wireless doorbell setup has just about dinged it's last dong. My wife suggested getting something like a Ring doorbell as she'll soon be moving into her new office in the garden room we're building at the moment. Our front door faces onto a reasonably busy street so there's a bit of passing car and pedestrian traffic so we'd want something that won't notify us to all of that.

Are Ring the best available or are there others we want to look at?

[Howard-]

I've had my Ring doorbell since 2018 and it's been perfect from day one. You can fine-tune the sensitivity so that it doesn't bombard you with motion notifications from the road, but only once someone sets foot on your boundary. You might get a few false positives on warm days but then you never know when that might come in useful.

[satans worm]

EUFY, does the same as Ring but you dont have to pay a subscription for it

[Howard-]

satans worm said:

EUFY, does the same as Ring but you dont have to pay a subscription for it

Their very widely-publicised security concerns would put me off.

[Turn7]

Just ordered the arlo and chime , don’t have to have the sub but needs a base station if not…..

[Simpo Two]

satans worm said:

EUFY, does the same as Ring but you dont have to pay a subscription for it

A subscription for a doorbell? Bloody hell, I've the same doorbell for 34 years, you push it and it goes ding dong. How much money have I saved?

[s p a c e m a n]

I've got a ring and don't bother with the subscription as I have another camera put the front, works perfectly well with our android phones and have managed to find tune the sensitivity so that someone half way down the drive sets off the motion alarm. Have to charge it every 4 months in the summer, 3 in the winter, or there's a neat solar backing plate you can buy for them.

[Puzzles]

satans worm said:

EUFY, does the same as Ring but you dont have to pay a subscription for it

I have a eufy and it's very unreliable, can't view clips, the quality of images could be better.

Not sure the alternatives are much better though.

[bodhi]

We went for the Nest Wireless Doorbell as we're already pretty invested in the Nest/Google Home stuff, absolutely sero complaints so far. We're also on a main road and did get a few notifications, but you can adjust the detection area fairly easily.

[Flooble]

Blink here - responds much quicker than Ring, so you can actually catch the delivery driver rather than finally getting connected after they've left.

[48k]

I have a Ring doorbell and three stick-up cams. They are OK but as above, the networking and lag can sometimes be a pain. Movement detection can be a bit hit and miss.

[SlimJim16v]

When I was looking I narrowed it down to Eufy, Ezviz and Aosu. All battery powered and local storage.

[Wings]

I have had a Ring doorbell on a holiday home for the past four years. Mine is not fixed to the door frame, but to the side facing the property's entrance and the main door entrance. As other posters have mentioned, the delay in Ring's notification does not always pick up those entering the property. In fact in the past four years although doorbell faces the post box, the door bell has never picked up the postman posting mail. Being a holiday home, I starting to question the purpose/use of having the Ring door bell, since being away from the property there is little I can do to question the person/s reasons for entering the property's grounds.

[somouk]

I've just replaced all my Ring stuff with Reolink and it has been excellent. Their POE doorbell was easy for me to use in my environment but they have Wifi ones too.

Nest have just brought out a doorbell too.

[C5_Steve]

Howard- said:

satans worm said:

EUFY, does the same as Ring but you dont have to pay a subscription for it

Their very widely-publicised security concerns would put me off.

I think that was mainly their cameras, not the doorbells though.

I bought one for my Mum who's in her 60s and wanted one for a bit more peace of mind living on her own. She is not at all technologically minded, in fact we had to upgrade her phone for the doorbell it was so old!

That aside, installation and set-up was a breeze and she navigates her way round the app perfectly well. Had no issues with it at all now and it's been installed over a year, picture quality is fine, clips can be recalled easily etc.

[8bit]

Thanks for all the input, much appreciated. Garden room is now complete so getting back on to this now.

I hadn't appreciated that these might need subscriptions - is that for the cloud storage of video or is that also required for you to be alerted of a caller at the door via the app when you're out and about? We'd really rather not be paying a subscription for a doorbell (a very fancy one granted) so I'm trying to understand what you get for that monthly outlay.

Basically we want app-based alerting and video (ideally even when not at home but that's not a total show-stopper) and two-way communications with the caller and no monthly subs. Video recording would be nice to have but not critical.

[UTH]

I've got a first generation Ring and it does exactly what I need it to do. No need for storing videos for me, so I can see who is at my door when the bell goes, speak to them, and access a live feed any time I want to see what's happening.

I imagine the newer ones are better than my first gen one, but I can't really fault it TBH.

[RizzoTheRat]

8bit said:

Thanks for all the input, much appreciated. Garden room is now complete so getting back on to this now.

I hadn't appreciated that these might need subscriptions - is that for the cloud storage of video or is that also required for you to be alerted of a caller at the door via the app when you're out and about? We'd really rather not be paying a subscription for a doorbell (a very fancy one granted) so I'm trying to understand what you get for that monthly outlay.

Basically we want app-based alerting and video (ideally even when not at home but that's not a total show-stopper) and two-way communications with the caller and no monthly subs. Video recording would be nice to have but not critical.

I have a Ring and don't pay the subscription, we get notifications to our phones (at home or away), can view the camera on our phones (again at home or away), and get notifications in the house via Alexa. The only thing we don't get is the cloud storage, but if you can be bothered (I can't) people have figured out a back door way to save videos to a drive on the local network. I also have mine taking to home assistant to turn on the outside light when it detects motion, but have the motion detection limited so it only spots people coming within a few feet of it.

Can't remember which model ours is but the battery lasts several months (they can be mains powered if you can get a wire to it), the only issue is it does need decent wifi signal and decent internet connection, otherwise it can be a couple of seconds from someone pushing the button to it ringing. Ours is the other side of the wall from the router so it's only only been a problem when we had an internet outage a while back.

[snotrag]

I have a full Reolink POE CCTV system round the house and recently added the doorbell but cautiously chose the Wifi version rtaher than POE as it would have been a very tricky ethernet run and the exisitng transfomer for the old door bell was ideal.


It works perfectly, qualifty is great, integrates seamlessly into the rest of the system (app, recorder etc) and requires no on going subscription, cloud services etc etc. Well pleased with all our Reolink stuff really.

[mikeiow]

Flooble said:

Blink here - responds much quicker than Ring, so you can actually catch the delivery driver rather than finally getting connected after they've left.

Interesting.
We have Blink at home and also at the now-passed MIL’s home.

Great for recording to playback later, but not often fast enough on notifications to catch a delivery driver…plus the audio is…average, I would say.
However, we got them a few years back, so whilst we pay no subscription, perhaps the newer ones are better?

I would always want to be able to view things later - for us, it is perhaps more for security than catching a driver when we are away….