As Ring is set to hike its subscription costs by 43%, we look at the best value-for-money smart doorbell options available to you.
Our homes are becoming increasingly smart.
Many of us think little of sorting out the heating through a mobile app, even when outside the home, for example, while one of the more popular smart devices are doorbells.
The appeal is obvious, meaning you have an idea of when people are outside your property, even if you aren’t home.
That’s useful not just for dealing with deliveries but from a home security perspective too.
Some of the big-name doorbell services can result in ongoing costs, beyond just the headline cost of the doorbell itself.
And perhaps the biggest name in the industry is set to hike costs in the weeks ahead.
Big price rise for Ring users
The best-known electronic doorbell comes from Ring, which is owned by Amazon.
However, users of its Protect subscriptions are going to have to dig a little deeper to keep up their subscriptions as a result of sharp price hikes kicking in from next month.
The firm’s ‘Basic Doorbell’ service is jumping in cost by 43% from 11 March.
If you pay for the service monthly, then that payment will increase by £1.50 to £4.99 each month.
If you pay for the service on an annual basis then your bill will jump by £15 to £49.99 a year.
The price of its premium subscription, Ring Plus, is not changing so will continue to cost either £8 a month or £80 a year.
The basic package covers just a single doorbell or camera in the home, with video stored for up to 180 days.
You can save and share videos, take snapshots, and even get ‘person alerts’ where you are notified when a person is spotted.
For the Plus package, you also get coverage for an unlimited number of devices across your home, as well as added services like messages to your emergency contacts in the event of a security issue being detected.
Both subscriptions are available on a 30-day free trial.
It’s important to bear in mind that you don’t actually have to subscribe to either service to make use of a Ring device.
You’ll still get real-time notifications whenever someone comes to the door, and can see, hear and speak to those visitors through your mobile device.
But without a subscription, you won’t be able to go over videos you missed in real time ‒ if you were in a meeting, for example ‒ save videos or share them through the app.
Of course, if you snap up a new annual subscription before the price increases take effect, then you can put off being impacted by them until next year.
But it’s worth bearing in mind that there are plenty of other options beyond Ring if you’re looking for a smart doorbell, which may be kinder on your bank balance.
Google Nest
The Nest service from Google is another big name when it comes to smart doorbells, with a couple of subscription offers to choose from.
Nest Aware costs £6 a month (or £60 a year) and allows you access to ‘event’ videos from the last 30 days, while Nest Aware Plus costs £12 a month (or £120 a year), provides 30-day access to ‘event’ videos as well as 24/7 video history covering the previous 10 days.
There’s a 30-day free trial available for Nest Aware, though again you can still use the Nest doorbells without a subscription, you just won’t have access to historic videos.
TP Link Tapo
The TP Link Tapo is a smart doorbell, but offers the chance to store videos without paying an ongoing fee.
Instead, videos can be saved onto a microSD chip, meaning you can check out who was at the door after the fact, at no additional cost.
Again, you are notified when necessary, and have the option of speaking with the person at the door through the app, or even pre-recording messages to be played on their arrival.
Blink Doorbell
Slightly bizarrely, Blink is also owned by Amazon, yet it can be a more budget-friendly option than Ring.
You don’t have to sign up for a subscription to have live access and notifications when people arrive at your doorstep, but you can also add a ‘sync module’ allowing you to save videos.