Video doorbell for house on busy street

[HumbleWarrior]

Our front door opens straight onto quite a busy street in the middle of town, so people pass by on the pavement frequently. We'd like to get a video doorbell for a number of reasons but obviously anything which is triggered by movement won't be practical. Can anyone recommend a doorbell which will enable us to see who is on the doorstep and possibly allow two way speaking? I'd rather avoid subscription services if possible and have been looking at Blink, but getting a bit overwhelmed with info about stuff I have zero understanding of!

Ring doorbells can have movement disabled so that it’s only activated when the bell is used. However the vast majority of delivery drivers here won’t use the bell so we do need to rely on movements near it.

we have a Eufy doorbell and you can make the monitored area smaller ie close to your front door area only.

https://www.eufy.com/uk/products/bundle-t8223311-1-t8023321-1?fliter_category=video-doorbell&variant=48748329107649

the chime is useful

Thanks for this - very helpful to know that sensors can be turned off or made more specific. A shop in town sells Link2Home and there‘s a positive to shopping local but Amazon reviews aren’t great. Ring or Eufy would probably be a safer bet!

Reolink, uses local storage, and can be connected with Wi-fi or Power over ethernet.

App is responsive, and doesn't require a subscription.

blink can have the motion turned off too as far as i know.

Thanks so much for the suggestions, I’ll check them all out over the weekend. I hadn’t heard of Reolink but the reviews look good! Really appreciate the info.

Not that you'll probably want to use it, but Reolink cameras adhere to a standard called "ONVIF", which make it easy to integrate with other systems, unlike most other makes that are proprietary.

They also have apps for windows and Mac OS, which might be handy, especially when review clips etc.

ooh, good to know, thank you! The one we were looking at in the shop required the Wi-Fi being switched to a different setting or something, which sounded like it might be a bit of a pain, though I’m not sure if that’s a standard thing. (Your post made me remember this - I’d kind of glossed over it in my head when he told us but I’m now thinking it might be problematic!)

With ring i was able to adjust the trigger zone and notifications easily. I only get notifications if someone presses the bell. But I can look back at movements if needed this is a paid service though, £5 a month ish. You can do it for free without the history.

Most doorbells that use wi-fi, only use the 2.4GHz band, and may suggest disabling the 5GHz band on your router whilst performing the setup, I usually don't bother unless I run into problems connecting.

Wi-Fi can be jammed (rarely), so I prefer to use Power over Ethernet (PoE), if it's easy to run a cable between the doorbell and the router (or switch).

Do you, or anyone else reading, know why they won’t use the bell - or is it only the ring type door bell ? . All the various delivery drivers to us press the bell, leave whatever in the open porch and then go, unless they need an open door proof/ signature. SW London

None of them do anywhere around here, they seem to have a dislike of doorbells. They dump and run.