Best Budget Smart Doorbells 2022

Home security is important to everyone, and smart tech can help. Smart doorbells provide you the ability to be at your front door, even when you’re not home. A built-in camera lets you see who rings your doorbell, most even have motion detection to alert you even if someone doesn’t ring the bell. This can be an excellent way to ensure the security, not just of your home, but also of any packages left on your doorstep.

You might expect any sort of smart tech to cost an arm and a leg. Thankfully, however, you can get a decent smart doorbell without having to break the bank. To help you find the best cheap options, we’ve drawn up a list of the best budget smart doorbells in 2022.

The Amcrest 1080P Video Doorbell Camera Pro offers 1080p video that can be stored in three ways. There’s a microSD card slot on the doorbell itself for cards up to 128GB. You can also save videos to a network video server, though compatibility isn’t assured as it’s not ONVIF compliant. Finally, a cloud option is available but by no means required.

The device is wired, needing either a standard set of doorbell wires or a custom set, no battery-powered version is available. The IP55 rating gives it some weatherproofing. Two interchangeable faceplates are included, in silver and black, these also cover the microSD card slot. Annoyingly the documentation for compatibility with other tech is generally poor making it hard to set up.

The TOUCAN 1080P Wireless Video Doorbell With Wireless Chime is a battery-powered doorbell that comes with a battery-powered chime. The chime can be configured with one of six sounds. Video is recorded in 1080p and the battery can last up to 6 months. An excellent feature rarely seen in smart doorbells of any price bracket is 24 hours of free cloud storage of recorded videos. This means if an event happens overnight, it’s saved long enough for you to be able to view it the next day.

The IP56 rating means it’s weatherproof. Night vision and motion detection are useful features, though the quality isn’t the best. As with most smart devices, only 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks are supported, not 5GHz. A number of Amazon reviews, unfortunately, mention some quality control and app issues, however, these are not in the majority as overall experiences are positive.

The Wyze Video Doorbell with Chime is the smallest smart doorbell out there. It’s just 3.25 inches tall, despite this is has a large and clear button, so you don’t need to worry about visitors not seeing it. A chime is included to help alert you around your home, you can even purchase and pair more chimes if you want, or get the doorbell without one. The chime plugs directly into any power outlet, so it’s easy to place, it also offers a selection of 19 different tones.

An IP65 weatherproof rating means you don’t need to be worried about it outside your home in a storm. Four infrared LEDs are built in to provide night vision. Unfortunately, a monthly subscription is basically required. The free tier doesn’t offer enough to be useful as it restricts you to 12-second clips and can’t reactivate for five minutes, leaving windows when it’s useless.

The Kangaroo Doorbell Camera + Chime is the lowest cost smart doorbell on the market. It reaches the ultralow price point by stripping out a number of features you may expect. For instance, there is no speaker or microphone, you can’t talk with or to the person at the door. Images aren’t in HD and technically aren’t even videos. The camera takes a series of 480p stills and stitches them together. It does have motion detection, so it can still alert you to someone trying to steal a package. Realistically this is all you need for a barebones smart doorbell.

If a thief is successful, the subscription plans actually allow you to claim back the losses, though there are limits. Images are stored in the cloud for 24 hours for free, or up to 30 days with a subscription. Some subscription plans also feature professional monitoring services, which can make you eligible for home insurance discounts. It does have an IP54 rating for some protection against water ingress, however, this may not be effective enough in heavy rain.

That was our roundup of the best budget smart doorbells in 2022. Have you recently bought a budget smart doorbell? What sold you on it and what has your experience been with it so far? Let us know down below.