---
title: 'I Tried All The Best Doorbells'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=qgLaCZyKv_8'
video_id: 'qgLaCZyKv_8'
date: 2026-09-17
duration_sec: 1050
channel: 'Linus Tech Tips'
---

# I Tried All The Best Doorbells

> Source: [I Tried All The Best Doorbells](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qgLaCZyKv_8)

## Summary

This video is a comprehensive comparison of 13 video doorbells, ranging from budget to premium options. The reviewer mounted all of them on a comically wide doorbell frame and tested them over several days, capturing footage of cars, animals, and people. The goal is to help viewers choose the best doorbell based on features, image quality, and long-term value, while avoiding hidden subscription costs.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to the Search** [00:00] — The video begins with the host acknowledging that everyone has different reasons for wanting a doorbell camera, and the goal is to find the best one without falling for hidden costs.
- **The $2,000 Test** [00:26] — The host reveals that they spent over $2,000 on 13 different doorbells, from budget to premium, to test them all in real-world conditions.
- **Test Setup and Methodology** [00:43] — All 13 doorbells were mounted on a comically wide doorbell frame at the tech house, capturing comings and goings of cars, animals, and people throughout the day and night.
- **The Hidden Cost Trap** [01:10] — The host warns that some of the cheapest options end up being more expensive in the long term due to subscription fees, emphasizing the importance of total cost of ownership over five years.
- **Common Features and Differences** [01:28] — Most doorbells are battery-operated, except for Ubiquiti's offerings, which are wired or PoE (power over Ethernet). This is a key differentiator in terms of installation and power.
- **Ubiquiti G4 Doorbell Pro Review** [12:31] — The Ubiquiti G4 Doorbell Pro is highlighted as a premium option with no subscription, but it's expensive and requires additional hardware. It uses Wi-Fi at 5 GHz and is being phased out for a new model in Q4 2026.
- **Image Quality Comparison** [13:38] — The host compares image quality across brands, noting that Google's camera has poor resolution and dynamic range, while Ubiquiti's dynamic range is impressive. Overall, all cameras have some flaws.
- **Budget Category Winner** [14:18] — The Havion D1 is declared the clear winner in the budget category at $79, despite its unintuitive design and software quirks, because it has no subscription fees.
- **Mainstream Options** [14:31] — Wyze is recommended for its low 5G cost of ownership at $270, but it lacks an SD card. Ring, Yuki, and Tassel have similar costs, but all have had security scandals in the past.
- **Flagship Recommendations** [15:13] — Flagship models are hard to recommend because they don't offer much more than cheaper options. Ubiquiti is the exception, with a fully featured product and no subscription, but it's expensive.
- **Sponsor Segment: Boot.dev** [15:43] — The host promotes Boot.dev, a platform for learning to code in Python, Go, and more, with gamified features like XP, leveling up, and community boss fights.
- **Outro and Teaser** [16:15] — The host jokes about the dork squad and teases a future video about webcams, where they spent $2,000 testing the best options.

### Conclusion

The video concludes that while there are many doorbell options, the best value depends on long-term costs and data ownership. Ubiquiti stands out for its no-subscription model, but it's expensive. For most people, a budget option like the Havion D1 offers the best balance of price and functionality.

## Transcript

We've all got our own reasons for wanting a doorbell camera. Great, now none of us should watch TV. That's my thing, baby! But which one should you get?
Are you going to end up paying a bunch of money for the hardware, going through the hassle of mounting and installing your thing, and only then realize that the stupid thing turns into a pumpkin the moment your credit card types midnight?
Well, you could do that. Or you could let me pay over $2,000 on what we're calling the search for the perfect doorbell. Okay, not the catchiest movie title, but if the indescribable Spider-Man naming scheme connects to doing the pop, I think we can make this work.
We bought slash obtained 13 options from budget to buzzonkers, mounted them to this comically wide doorbell frame, and then let them rip on the driveway at the tech house, capturing the comings and goings of various cars, animals, and people throughout the day and night.
We've sorted them into budget buckets according to their upfront cost, and now we're going to rank them according to their features, image quality, and their value over a five-year ownership span.
And when they're in it, some of the cheapest options end up being a lot more expensive in the longer term. That's how they get you. And here's how I get you with this segment. Let's go.
We have a lot of video doorbells to get through, so let's quickly run through what they have
in common. They are mostly all battery operated, aside from Ubiquiti's offerings. One is wired, and the other is PoE, meaning it is powered over its network cable. And that's about it.
There's a shocking amount of diversity in features, even among our budget options, that start at just $10 for the Obitel M52. That is a very low price, which is why they require a subscription
if you want any more than a push notification for, well, pushes. If you want live video, though, that's going to cost you. You'll have to buy a cloud storage subscription. The image quality is okay, though,
and their subscription is reasonably affordable, which pushes it from, let's say, F all the way up to a high D tier. But let's say for a moment that you have the budget for four Orbitels,
the Argo Video Go Bell. unfortunately continues its same mandatory subscription trend, this time offering only live video until you fork out some dough. So, no push notifications.
Also, it doesn't even come with a wall plug so that you can hear the chime from a common area inside your home. But its AI detection was pretty solid, both recognizing our fabricator as a person and identifying our environment as a
workshop. For reference, our next Robo clocked that same situation as a pet at the front door. Interesting. I never saw Justin like that. Button feel is fine I guess and so is the image quality which had this cruising interweb scene until I saw the
five-year cost of ownership. Over $500? Have you gone mad Arlo? Low D for lower D. What are you guys doing? Next up we finally have our first non-subscription
bell. It also adds some features that we haven't seen yet like two cameras, one as well as a whole 32 gigs of onboard storage, paid recording, live view, and included chime, and two-way voice calls through the app with no subscription.
It's got a little screen to display canned messages, and even the image quality is decent. So, question for me, why did I give it only a B? As crazy as it sounds, it's partly because of the lack of a subscription.
Whoa, what are you talking about, man? I cannot buy cloud storage, meaning that my record of a home invasion, for instance, can be destroyed by said home invader with a simple hammer Also the UI was among the worst that we encountered Still though it gets our coveted Value King award for being the least expensive viable
product over 5 years of ownership. As for the Blink Doorbell 2K Plus, this one started off on a pretty rough note. Without the additional sync module, this thing is just a brick. It's sounding pretty dangerously close to F-tier product design.
But the module costs just $20 more and supports multiple-blade products, and the battery on the doorbell supposedly lasts up to two years. That sounds kinda perfect if you're looking for something with the same pedigree as Ring,
but more wallet-friendly, with a TJ voice and live video included. But there's a catch. Of course there is. The recordings are paywalled, and with image quality that's only slightly better than the Havion, let's go with... C-.
Now it's time to look at our mid-tier offerings. Starting with the original, as seen on Shark Tank, the Ring doorbell. When it comes to ease of setup, it is clearly the industry standard for a reason.
It was as easy as putting in a Wi-Fi password and everything else happened automatically. However, that's where the user-friendliness ended. Amazon acquired Ring back in 2018 and, come on guys, they gotta get their billion dollars back somehow.
So this doorbell app has ads around every corner and it even has a store. Also, that noise has got to be the most annoying noise in the world.
As for the image quality, man, I feel like everything's getting kinda good enough now that I'm going to need to see them side by side, so we'll take a look at that later. I'm going to give this a placeholder C tier for the $350 5-year ownership cost, but who
knows, maybe the image quality will bump it up. Up against the ring is the UCC31. We know them for their vacuums, and now we can evaluate them for their doorbells, which they advertise as probably the best for under $100.
I do take slight issue with that, because it was listed for exactly $100, not under $100. But there's been no subscription to for their core features ever since their debut back in 2019, which has helped them build a cult following.
If you want cloud backups, they do offer that at a pretty average price, meaning that if this button's any good, it's not bad. This might be our first... This might be our first A.
However, it's an A+. No, not a high A. An A+, some pretty sketchy baggage. A couple of years back, Yuki had a scandal around easy public access to unsecured cameras.
And instead of engaging in good faith, they deflected and obfuscated to the point where we actually put them in our sponsored doghouse until at least 2027. With that said, they claim to have cleaned up their act and have managed to stay out
of the headlines lately, so hopefully they'll be back soon enough. Zeta is another no-subscription bell that's priced right in line with Ring, and offering some TeeFee lending. The TACO 2K Plus, like you see, highlights their internal storage as a key feature, except
They draw the line at 512GB instead of just 128. That is a lot of clips of your courier delivering your durable true-spec cables from lttstore.com. Then a porch pirate taking your cables from lttstore.com.
Then your wonderful SO bringing over some replacements to help you peel better. Replacements from lttstore.com. Build quality for this one is a bit of a low-light though. So for the same price, it's hard to give this quite the same rating.
We're going to go with B-tier. There you go, Capo. Next, we have the doorbell light from Ubiquiti. Like the others in this price segment, it offers two-way audio, but it's a little different, as it's POE. So, you actually get much more reliable streaming over a wire.
And after the hassle of running said wire once, you never change your battery again. However, even though it's only $100, it requires a whole ecosystem of products to support it that we're going to talk about a little bit more later once we get to Bikini's flagship
offering. For now, I'm going to throw it in the B tier. There you go, Bikini. Our last fellow in this segment is another dual camera, this time from Wyze, and it's going to cost you more than the rest of the offerings Why Well I guess part of it could be the second camera but the more interesting feature for me is that this is the first we seen to support both 2 and 5GHz Wi
That means more consistent video streaming and lower likelihood of network dropouts from my personal experience. It doesn't come with any built-in storage, but it does support up to 256GB of microSD with no core features locked behind a paywall and the option for a reasonably priced cloud backup.
the button feels pretty nice. I'm putting this in the A-plus tier. Again though, I'm doing the same bit. A-plus some baggage. WISE has also made headlines for
undesirable reasons, and actually, that reminds me, we never even mentioned Ring's recent collaborations with law enforcement. I mean, is it possible that cameras on all the things for their launch products are just magnets for this kind of
controversy? No, it's the children who are wrong. Let's take a look at their image quality. Alright, Ring. Gotta give you credit. That looks really nice, but I think a lot of it
is just kind of like misleading. It's just the contrast. The Yuffie actually has better readability of the text down the driveway. Wow, the tap, oh, it's pretty rough. Ubiquity
is not as good as I thought. Wow, really? Yuffie pulling out the win with live in second place. Well, isn't that fascinating? Dynamic rings on the UC. It's pretty rough. I think that
could push Wyze into first place for me. Wow! Alright. Move you up a little bit. You too.
There. Alright. F*** you, ring. I'm happy with that. Let's move on to the flagships I'm talking doorbells that cost anywhere from $150 to $300.
Up first here is Eufy, again. For an extra 50 bucks with the last one, we're getting both 8GB of non-removable storage and a dual camera setup. However, this one doesn't have traditional expandable storage.
Instead, it integrates into Eufy's home-based ecosystem for up to 16TB of additional space. There are cases where additional controller hardware and network attached storage does
make sense, but I'll leave it up to you to decide if this is one of those cases. Either way, I've gotta give it a B-tier placement for retaining most of the key features on the friendly side of the paywall.
Boop boop! Next up, we've got Google's one and only doorbell. It has the most flat, modern design of the bunch, and it's gonna cost you 180 bucks, and that's before the $100 annual subscription fee.
It's not all bad news, though, since they don't pay while recording, live view, or two-way audio. So, uh, maybe B tier? Ooh, only three hours of recording history?
And a five-year subscription is going to cost me almost $700? Sorry, Google. Best I can do is a C+. That's just too expensive. Not to mention it has the lowest resolution in this price range.
Swinging back to the market leader, Ring. This time, it's their more premium Battery Doorbell Pro. It looks very similar, but the Pro badging comes with a $150 upcharge. The main difference? A quick-release battery.
Ring. Thanks. And a resolution bump from 1080p to 1536p HD+. Otherwise, the subscription and everything else remains the same. So, see ya at best. I mean, same ease of use, but also $500 for five years of ownership?
Yeah. Finally, we've got the, this was the one made for Linus option, which comes from, you guessed it, Ubiquiti. I hate batteries, and the G4 Doorbell Pro uses either the included
power kit slash transformer combo, or USB-C, or with a separate model, you can actually power it it with PoE, just like the doorbell light. This specific one though uses Wi-Fi for data,
but at 5 GHz, so at least it has that going for it. And UBITSY products are proudly subscription free With that said they are expensive and it kinda hard to justify the additional hardware that you will also need unless you were already planning to use their ecosystem for other aspects of your build
like wireless access points. The UI UX is getting pretty good, though, and constantly getting better, and so is the product line. Ubiquiti pointed out to us that this particular model is actually being phased out for something new that's being developed for Q4 2026.
So, I don't know. Asterisk tier, high quality product that costs the same 10 years later as it does up front, but it is really, really expensive.
Now let's look at image quality for these premium options and see if we're going to move anything around. How about Google? I mean, Google knows image quality, right? They got the Pixel. Google has a low-inch camera, you can kind of tell. Yeah, like, dude, you can barely even tell that this vent has vertical slats on some
of the panels. Let's look at this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's not a lot of resolution there. You know what, the range is honestly not much better. The Ufi though.
Oh, that dynamic range Ufi. Ufi, the dynamic range. They all just kind of suck. I think the takeaway here is that I would not pay the extra for a more premium GoBel camera
because all the cameras are just some flavor of suck. Recapping then, in our budget category, the Havion D1 is a clear winner. clear winner. It's 79 US dollars, all in, and yeah, it's got a slightly unintuitive
design and some software quirks, but for the price, and with no subscription, it's pretty hard to find fault here. Moving on to our mainstream options, Wyze looks like a wise way to go, at least from a financial standpoint, with our 5G cost of ownership running at the lowest, at 270 US
dollars. But with that said, it doesn't come with an SD card, so it's about on par with both Yuki and Tassel in that regard, with all three of them falling significantly behind Ring in terms of total cost of ownership. Given that all of these players have had a
security scandal in the past, at some point it feels a little bit picture-poison, and then Ubiquiti's in there just kind of uniquely being Ubiquiti, with an affordable upfront price for the doorbell, but of course all of the extra baggage that it carries.
Finally for the flagships, these are a tough to recommend, because they don't really do more than the cheaper options we've looked at, with the exception of Ubiquiti, who has a very fully featured product here with no subscriptions, as far as we can tell, ever.
And if I'm spending more, then I want it to be in order to own my data and not have it used without my permission by Big Brother or by anyone else. So ubiquity gets my coveted attaboy of product design, meaning that all that's left is to say attaboy to our sponsor.
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not check out the time that we spent two grand trying all the best webcams? There were a lot of them, surprisingly more even than this line up in front of me.