Which video doorbell???

[LookItsMeAgain]

I'm so confused when it comes to video doorbells.

We're thinking of getting a video doorbell for our home but I haven't the first foggiest clue which brand is best.
I work from home about 80% of my time but I'm not in the house so I don't hear the bell that rings in the house so this is one of the reasons why we're thinking of getting a video doorbell.

I realise that Ring were the first to come to the market but are they the best? Are there other brands out there that are just as good?

If you have a video doorbell, would you recommend your brand? Please help me make my decision. I'm really stumped here!

Thanking you in advance 😄

We have a ring doorbell with battery, bought it, had it up and running straight away had no issues with it and it’s good to be able to talk to someone through it if I need to.

Did you pick a particular version of the doorbell?

There appears to be many different versions available both with and without a ringer...too confusing for me at this point 😊

Following!

I'm completely overwhelmed with the choices.

If you get Ring you need to factor in the price of the subscription which is £34.99 a year for each camera or doorbell

Watching too!

I had a look at hundreds on Amazon, read loads of reviews & still couldn't make a decision! 🙄

I think ours was a Ring 3 with chime plug in.

you can pay the fee (I thought we only paid £24.99 but not 100%) but the doorbell is usable without paying the fee, it just means it doesn’t save the recordings.

We have a Ring battery doorbell which I got free with BT internet, I bought a wireless ringer that just plugs in anywhere in the house as one that comes on doorbell is a bit quiet. You can set zones so everyone that walks past the house don't set it off. They are quite big so make sure it will fit where you want it to go and to make full use of it you will need the £34.99 subscription.

It was £24.99, they put it up in the summer, added a couple of features, which I can't remember what they are and whacked up the price.

Bastards 🙄

We have a ring too. Very easy to install and use. We got the recording for free for a certain time. We havent paid and we can see live footage, but like pp said, it doesnt record.

The ringer I bought was the Chime plug in which comes with some of the Ring doorbells as pp says with Ring 3,

For the wired ones If you have a modern electric doorbell I think you just have to check that the transformer is compatible then it is probably quite easy to just exchange and wire in but if it isn't compatible then you need the transformer as well which will likely need an electrician. Our transformer is out of the ark so definitely wasn't compatible so could only really have a battery one without a lot of additional expense

Ring pro
Plugged in to mains
Need a socket near your door
No recharging batteries

I think it's probably best to not get a recording one. That was you don't leave yourself open to potential GDPR issues. Chances of anyone sueing you is slim to none, but you can't just keep record images of the public without something in place. And for the love of God don't put the images on social media! I've seen way too many "look at this drunken idiot" type posts, madness, just asking for trouble!

We have a Ring doorbell, but when it dies I'm going to buy a Eufy one. We have Eufy security cameras and they are brilliant and no subscription fee.

I also find Ring a bit slow but Eufy is much faster to connect and less of a lag on speech.

We have the Eufy system in our house. I chose this as it has no monthly subscription as it uses a hard drive (called homebase) that sits by your internet router and stores all footage locally (not up in the cloud). Started with the standard doorbell kit and then added a few cameras (add ons) for extra security, but you could do it the other way and buy a camera kit and add the doorbell. All simple installation with battery power and WiFi and app is good. Been happy with this for a number of years now. They’re offering a new upgraded homebase now with fancier tech and upgradable storage but ours is still good. Some discount links if interested.

link to the doorbell kit I bought (think it has £40)
https://share-eu.eufylife.com/v1/shopping/s/g/o8eov-lk0

£40 off £200 spend
https://share-eu.eufylife.com/v1/shopping/s/g/BV3XlvrCT

£70 off a 2 camera security kit
https://share-eu.eufylife.com/v1/shopping/s/g/fuoeQRzfG

£100 off a pro kit
https://share-eu.eufylife.com/v1/shopping/s/g/ykdd6Dxai

£50 off hew 3rd gen system
https://share-eu.eufylife.com/v1/shopping/s/g/OJz7FZ9p1