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.

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 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

We test dozens of different home security cameras, including all of the ones listed below. You’ll find plenty of established companies in the industry here. We keep abreast of changes in the industry as well, so you’ll also find a few new companies too. While there’s something to be said for cameras with long-standing reputations for quality, newcomers sometimes offer the best deals since they’re looking to disrupt the industry.

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

What to Know About Pricing

You can’t put a price on security. Except, you can. We’re not all made of money and the bottom line matters. The thing is, it’s not easy to make sense of the bottom line when it comes to security cameras. It’s not just that there are different companies to sort through. Purchasing a camera can involve several different costs, and making sense of them sometimes requires a compass and a slide rule. Luckily we have both, and we’re happy to offer a few pointers to help you demystify it all.

Upfront Costs vs. Monthly

There are a dozen different ways to structure your security camera 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, but without having to pay a dime in cloud storage fees. As a result, we’re fans of Lorex, a company that offers multiple different local storage cameras. You can find out more by checking out our hands-on Lorex camera review. Of course, if you go the Lorex route, you have to factor in other costs, like micro SD cards.

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, includes a Wyze-branded SD card as part of our purchase at no extra cost. Of course, an SD card is just one option. Lorex, for instance, also offers DVR and NVR devices that can store footage locally.

Wyze SD Cards

And you don’t have to go with local storage. Most companies now offer cloud storage, and many include this as part of their monitoring packages.

In fact, several companies offer multiple services for a single price. Canary, for example, figures equipment prices into its monthly monitoring fees. 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. After all, the company needs to make sure you pay for that equipment before they let you go.

Canary Packaging

Of course, one of the simplest factors when it comes to pricing is deciding how many cameras you need. Generally speaking, the more cameras, the more money. However, some companies, like Lorex, offer bundles of cameras at discounts. You can buy up to 32 Lorex cameras in one package and save. In this case, the downside is obvious. If you’re only looking for one or two cameras, you’re not going to want to pay for 32 cameras no matter how cheap they might be.

Here’s the thing. Purchasing equipment is one component in a larger process. You’ve also got to consider what monitoring adds to your bill. Let’s turn to that next.

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.