Ring alternative?

[boxst]

I'm looking to get a video door bell and everything seems to point to Ring. However, I resent paying a monthly fee to store videos in the cloud that I don't really need 99% of the time.

Is it that good? Any alternatives?

Thanks.

[mikeiow]

boxst said:

I'm looking to get a video door bell and everything seems to point to Ring. However, I resent paying a monthly fee to store videos in the cloud that I don't really need 99% of the time.

Is it that good? Any alternatives?

Thanks.

We have ancient v1 Blink cameras (no subscription). Okay, but a lag in notification and also if we talk: work for our purposes, but not great to speak with a delivery person, for example.

However, I did note the new ones can use a local storage model to avoid the subscription model. Maybe someone else can comment on how well they work?

[Nemophilist]

I have original blink with sync module for local storage

I refuse to sign up to subscription based services

It’s fine .
Not amazing.
A bit laggy - but when I’ve compared with friends who have the ring doorbell theirs doesn’t seem much better.

It does the job

[shed driver]

We have a Eufy security light and camera. Local storage.

SD.

[motco]

boxst said:

I'm looking to get a video door bell and everything seems to point to Ring. However, I resent paying a monthly fee to store videos in the cloud that I don't really need 99% of the time.

Is it that good? Any alternatives?

Thanks.

Annke Whiffle I have one of these and it is free for a basic set up but with a memory card it has a good memory cover.

[durbster]

Giving a company like Amazon a live video feed of my house seems like a horrible idea to me, so paying them for it is a hard no.

Very happy with my Reolink cameras and NVR.

[fat80b]

durbster said:

Giving a company like Amazon a live video feed of my house seems like a horrible idea to me, so paying them for it is a hard no.

Very happy with my Reolink cameras and NVR.

Reolink here as well.

The doorbell camera is better than the security cameras imho. But the local storage / SD card for footage and no cloud makes it a cheap win for me.

PoE as well which I prefer

[ian in lancs]

We have eufy doorbell camera. Perfect performance wise with local storage. Subscription free.

[ooo000ooo]

Binned the Ring for an aqara G4, no subscription and can add an SD card. Can be a bit slow at times, the batteries it gets shipped with are made from some rare kind of unobtainium so last for a couple of weeks, any subsequent batteries last hours so it has to be mains powered. Great while it works, cheaper than most of the alternatives but would be reluctant to recommend it unless you can power it permanently.

[Brainpox]

We have the Tapo battery doorbell. Pretty happy with it, notifications arrive quickly, local storage via microSD. Our front door doesn’t face the road so it has been up since February and still on 50% battery. When it gets low it’s USB rechargeable.

[8bit]

Definitely not Arlo. Bought one in September last year, it just about half worked for a couple of months then hasn't worked since. Customer support is among the worst I've ever experienced. The whole thing just feels like a disaster.

[clockworks]

Currently using a Ring doorbell. Great when it works, but it sometimes suffers from horrendous lag of up to 15 seconds - chime doesn't go off, Alexa (Echo Show) doesn't announce activity, Apple phone/watch doesn't trigger.

I've gone as far as creating a wifi network (access point) just for the doorbell, to no avail.

The new Tapo D230S1 doorbell popped up on Facebook earlier, and I'm wondering if this would be more reliable? I've got some Tapo motion sensors, and they are much faster at turning on lights than the others that I have tried. Local hub, rather than cloud, seems to speed things up.

I've read loads of reviews, but I can't find out how well the Tapo doorbell integrates with an iPhone and Apple watch. This is something that Ring does well - as long as it actually triggers in the first place!

[bobthemonkey]

boxst said:

I'm looking to get a video door bell and everything seems to point to Ring. However, I resent paying a monthly fee to store videos in the cloud that I don't really need 99% of the time.

Is it that good? Any alternatives?

Thanks.

I used my hatred of having to pay a subscription for Amazon to keep video of the house as part of my man-maths to do a ubiquiti setup for networking and video.