LTT I'm looking for a video doorbell, preferably one that doesn't need a subscription, any suggestions?

[Gork]

Hi I'd like to get a video doorbell, I'd like to avoid a subscription for storage though.

Hit me with recommendations!

[Artemis Kazuto]

I opted for Blink.  Its cheap and doesn't technically require a sub for live viewing, or at least didn't when i bought it.  I ended up using the subscription because its cheap.  Leave a little to be desired but i got the doorbell for $30.  Does the job.

 

I think you will be hard pressed to find anything with cloud storage that doesn't require a sub.  That server space has overhead.     

[Birblover12]

41 minutes ago, Artemis Kazuto said:

That server space has overhead.     

Yea for storage, you either have to pay for a subscription or get a product that allows local storage, at which point you're looking at setting up your own server which is its own entire thing. No way around it really

[OhioYJ]

Ubiquity has doorbells for their ecosystem that store everything locally. They aren't cheap though. 

 

Personally I'm in the Wyze ecosystem. I liked that they that it used the existing wiring and rings the chime on the wall too. Wyze has a free tier, but last time I had looked at it, you basically needed the subscription (in my opinion). I don't pay a lot for "unlimited" cameras per year.  They do have local recording, but it uses SD cards, and everything I read says it chews through SD cards because it records 24/7. Never tried it. 

[Needfuldoer]

Amcrest makes a video doorbell that records locally to an SD card (and can stream RTSP to a local security DVR platform like Frigate or ZoneMinder), but you still need their cloud service in order to get push notifications and take calls from it when you're not home. A VPN tunnel back home through a platform like Tailscale might solve that.

[Ottoman420]

Eufy has no subscriptions

[wanderingfool2]

Lorex has doorbell cameras, their product is okay (it's not anything to write home about but good enough that I recommend it to people on a budget or not wanting all the bells and whistles that comes with subscription).  It stores locally on an SD card as well, but that does have the downside that someone could steal the camera and you wouldn't be able to access clips...but that's the tradeoff from having it all local (although I think it's probably compatible with their NVR stuff so maybe potentially able to save locally onto a harddrive as well).  It still works though without subscription.

 

Unifi (Ubiquity) has the G4 Doorbell camera.  It's like the Apple of camera systems though, you pay a bunch of essentially luxury tax on purchasing the product, is almost eco-system locked...but boy the interface and usability is so nice.  Would I pay that much for a doorbell camera...unlikely but if price isn't too much of an option and you have Unifi stuff it just works so nicely together.

 

Both of those have a "no subscription" kind of thing...but Lorex does have cloud storage if you decide to eventually go with it as well

 

10 hours ago, Ottoman420 said:

Eufy has no subscriptions

The issue I have with Eufy is that they broke my trust with the whole E2EE that wasn't, and then multiple times now iirc that they accidently misconfigured their server and had other peoples cameras show on other people's accounts (and just their hand waving as if it wasn't a big deal).  I can't personally trust Eufy

 

16 hours ago, Artemis Kazuto said:

I think you will be hard pressed to find anything with cloud storage that doesn't require a sub.  That server space has overhead.   

Honestly, I understand that server space has overhead etc...and that they can't realistically make too much off just selling cameras...but I suspect they do make the majority of money on effectively enticing people to subscribe to their cloud stuff.  Not necessarily faulting them for that, as I'd rather a cheap product that I can do stuff locally, than an expensive product that lets me do the same (but not subsidized by people subscribing to the other services)

[ewitte]

Mine (Ring) doesn't technically "require" a subscription but what I get for $5.40/mo isn't bad.   I have a cheap camera ($30 including solar panel for charging it) in the back yard that just records to SD.  I've just been trying to use it to figure out how the Racoon keeps getting on the roof even after putting spikes at all access points.