Buying Guides for Security Cameras

Ask any security professional what the most effective way to protect your home from burglars and trespassers is, and most will answer “security cameras and dogs” without hesitation.

Of course, there are a lot of dog breeds in the world. A chihuahua isn’t going to protect your home the way a doberman is. The same is true of security cameras. There are hundreds of manufacturers out there — thousands of camera models — and sifting through the bad to find the good can be daunting.

It’s not just how many different models there are to choose from, though. There are dozens of different features, options and price plans available depending on which company you look at. All of that can be overwhelming. Luckily, there are some useful tricks out there for cutting through all the noise. The first one? Trust us. Below, we reduce this ultra-competitive industry to its basics and offer some clarity on how to pick the right camera, the one that’s going to protect your home and your family.

Brands We Test

These days, many different home security cameras are popping up in the market. But you can’t trust your home protection to just any fly-by-night brand. With this in mind, see below for a roundup of some great security camera options that we’ve personally tested and vetted. You’ll recognize many of the names, but there should be some new brands to explore as well.

• Ring
• Google Nest
• Arlo
• Blink
• Swann
• Lorex
• Reolink
• Kuna
• Amcrest
• Ezviz
• Canary
• D-Link
• Night Owl
• Zmodo
• Samsung
• Yi
• Wyze

What to Know About Pricing

With so many choices in this market, we’ve found that we pay widely different prices for equipment and monthly monitoring depending on which camera or brand we choose. Here are a few pointers to help you demystify the somewhat confusing world of security camera prices:

Upfront Costs vs. Monthly

Don’t think it’s all about the bottom line. There are a dozen different ways to structure your purchase. Do you want to pay one price upfront for the equipment, or break it down into a monthly subscription for storage and usage? Do you want to pay a lot now and a little later, or a little now and a little more later, or nothing now and everything later?

In fact, it sometimes seems like every brand has its own model for pricing. And while choice can be a good thing, it makes comparing options more difficult. For instance, we like cameras with local storage, like micro SD cards. That way we can store footage and keep it as long as we want. We don’t have to pay a dime in cloud storage fees, but we need to factor in the cost of the micro SD cards. As a result, we’re fans of Lorex, a company that offers local storage cameras. Check out our hands-on Lorex camera review to learn more.

Reolink Argus 3 MicroSD Slot

A few brands out there have added pre-inserted cards to their cameras in recent years. Wyze is a good example. This brand of super-affordable, no-frills cams, included a Wyze-branded SD card as part of our purchase at no extra cost. Despite the branding, we discovered we could use those cards to store data from other devices, too.

Wyze SD Cards

Local storage is just one option. Some companies have started offering cloud storage as part of their monitoring packages. Canary factors the equipment price into its costs. That means you pay nothing up-front, and just $9.99 a month for everything you need – equipment, monitoring, and storage. Of course, whatever pricing structure you choose, there’s always a downside. With Canary that downside is a long-term contract. They need to make sure you pay for that equipment before they let you go afterall.

Canary Packaging

Then there’s the issue of how many cameras you need. This can play an important role in your final decision. Some companies, like Lorex, offer bundles of cameras for discounts. You can buy up to 32 Lorex cameras in one package to save. If you’re only looking for one or two cameras, though, you’re not going to want to pay for 32 cameras no matter how cheap they might be.

And thinking through your equipment purchases is just one part of the entire process. You’ve also got to consider what monitoring adds to your overall bill.

Do You Need Professional Monitoring?

Though we’ve seen professional monitoring (for cameras) offered less and less these days, it’s still a worthwhile consideration in your camera search. Here, the question comes down to whether you want to pay for a third-party monitoring service that will alert authorities to any relevant threats in your home, or you prefer to monitor your system yourself.

To many of us, cost is the determining factor here. But no matter what your budget is, the No. 1 factor we focus on in cameras with professional monitoring is whether the service actually works.

In a recent review, one of our team members put a Cove system of cameras, sensors, and an alarm to the test, and came away with one very important takeaway: The police do, actually, show up. If that isn’t a testament to the effectiveness of home security equipment, we’re not sure what is.

Police Officer checking up on us thanks to Cove Monitoring

For more on that interesting experience, head over to our hands-on Cove security system review. But in the meantime, we’ll say this: Cove happens to have one of the least expensive monthly monitoring fees in this biz. So if you are interested in professional monitoring, a Cove kit might be the way to go. Clearly, it does work! Other great options for whole home security include Ring Alarm, SimpliSafe, and Frontpoint.

Our Final Thoughts

Blink Outdoor Camera

We hope that in this ultimate guide to home security cameras we’ve given you a lot to think about when you’re considering surveillance for your home. Taking the time to assess the features and tech that sets these cameras apart, and using our hands-on experiences as a guide, should help you make a smarter, more economical decision about your home security needs.

We always look forward to exploring what new tech and features our favorite camera brands will release each year. Our team feels that the future of home security will be how well they integrate overall into a smart, connected home. People want more control, more integrations, more convenience, but above all else, more peace of mind.

Beyond our guidance here, we’ve published plenty of resources for even more help in the camera buying process. We suggest you start by checking out some of our best motion sensor cameras.