Reolink - Wired Video Doorbell (WiFi)

I have had two Aqara G4s fail partially. One just wouldn’t stay connected when mounted next to the door. The other one stopped sounding its chime. I moved one to the attic to watch for mice and moved the other one to a door no one ever uses. Replaced with a Reolink which I’m pulling into HomeKit with Scrypted.

that's where it falls apart. I can use Home Assistant to send the image (webrtc) to the Google Home hub, have live notifications (with live view when someone rings the doorbell) on my phone, have AI face detection (using llmvision and memory), ai person detection is like 99.9% accurate here and notifications arrive after like 1 second but I really canot get 2 way audio working outside the reolink app. Tried everything, frigate, scrypted, webrtc card and go2rtc. Not possible here.

I recommend the WiFi without battery. The battery cameras are very limited with many features missing. The size of the frame should be secondary.

If you have an existing doorbell, the Reolink WiFi doorbell cam works perfect with HA and scrypted. Works over the existing 24v doorbell wiring.

I like Reolink. If there is currently a doorbell there you can get power from it and not need batteries.

Don’t get the battery one. I bought it and returned it. It doesn’t have ONVIF, RTSP, or any of the things that would make integrate with HA or Scrypted, and the battery constantly goes dead even though I had it connected to my transformer. Just sucked all around for this purpose. I replaced it with the hardwired wi-fi version and it’s 100x better. I use it mostly with Scrypted and Homekit, but it is added to my HA instance as well. The difference in image quality is negligible to my eyes although the battery version did have a wider FOV.

Reolink but not the battery version.

I’m using the WiFi (but hardwired) version and it works great. I use Scypted but I’d imagine Frigate would work as well since it uses ONVIF.

With 230v running through the chime and button (which sounds crazy to me) you could probably get away with using a Zigbee dry contact sensor like a Shelly for chime events. Anything else is going to require a transformer to step down to a “normal” level of 12-24 volts. The Reolink WiFi will work fine with this but won’t drive a mechanical chime. You have to use the one it came with. It also comes with a transformer, at least the US version does, (a small power brick) that you might be able to use the existing wiring in your wall for after it’s disconnected from the mains. That’s exactly what I did. My existing doorbell transformer wasn’t adequate so I just used the one that came with it instead. It came with a wireless chime that I use inside the house. The WiFi + battery version can drive a mechanical chime typical in USA applications but it sucks and doesn’t even work with HA anyway.

Reolink makes a couple of Wifi door bells that can be powered by the existing wiring. One can use the existing chime if you want to keep that. No subscriptions.

I would not go with ring! They are raising prices at taking features! I recently dropped my ring and went with Reolink Wifi doorbell. I tried talking to ring about my issue with the prices changing and the loss of features and they just said I could cancel so that's what I did and am happy I did.

Home Assistant + Frigate & my Reolink Doorbell do this perfectly.

Home Assistant is a smart home platform which handles the UI of all that stuff. Frigate is the NVR software that the camera connects to. I get doorbell press events, 2 way audio etc. All while the Reolink doorbell only has LAN access and is connected via HTTP FLV and RTSP/ONVIF.

Reolink should work well, you can buy a MicroSD card to put inside it or get their Home Hub to store the footage inside your house.

The Wired Doorbell to the chime won't ring it. It comes with a plug in chime or can use smart speakers / smart home devices to play a chime. I have the doorbell wiring wired version.

Reolink would be the best option. Eufy is ok but they don't integrate well with third party smart home systems.

For me, reolink is the obvious choice. You can pick up the WiFi doorbell version for around your budget, although you'll have to add the cost of an SD card on top of that. It's completely locally controlled and the quality is great. No subscriptions, and a lot of configuration options. The box comes with a plug in chime and power supply, but if you have a hard wired doorbell already you will likely be able to power it from that.

I cannot recommend reolink enough. Their wifi doorbell (and the rest of their wifi lineup) has a micro SD slot for local recording. Or you can purchase their hub that will stream recordings to the hub. There is zero cloud subscription if you do not want it so the data and recordings are yours. I've used a few of their cameras for years and they have been rock solid.

I just setup a Reolink wifi white version. I have been pretty happy with it. I chose this over Ubiquiti due to the lower cost of entry and had more features.

I agree, bought it a month ago and integrated it with Blue Iris and HA, it’s been wonderful so far transitioning from something like Blink. I have the wired/WiFi version and haven’t had any issues

Reolink video doorbell good here - finally! The biggest issue I had was multiple connections just screwing up the camera and overloading it, leading to all kinds of dropouts, failures and even the doorbell button not responding. I have Frigate NVR and the feed is shown on five Android based devices around the house (Lenovo ThinkSmart View). I finally fixed it by using scrypted as the only connection to the camera. Frigate, HA, HomeKit and the ThinkSmarts all now connect to the restream and it works perfectly. No more endless errors and retries in Frigate too. So yes, they can be good and sometimes the only option if you can’t run Ethernet to the door.

WiFi reolink still has wired POE option. for the price, it’s good. Just don’t have multiple connections to the WiFi version it as it can fall over or respond in weird ways (from experience)

I have the Tapo model that's wired & works with our existing doorbell chime that we really like the sound of - so no need to charge or plug in the little chime that comes with. I also don't pay the subscription, just popped a decent SD card in. Recommend it to everyone now who's just looking for a doorbell cam, it's fab. Reolink is another one that I looked at, and will probably go for that brand when updating our other external wired cameras around the house. Found it much easier to navigate building a system vs the likes of Ubiquiti. So u/Logical-Device-5709, if you're planning a larger overhaul I'd recommend a Reolink doorbell cam if you like having everything match.

Ah, I think the hub is for wireless. The option I'll likely be going for is a NVR for a wired camera setup so not sure about the hub pricing. Afaik, the Reolink doorbell cam on its own doesn't require a hub though.

A Reolink doorbell will give you false alerts that someone is standing in front of your door and there is no way to turn that feature off. It's really good at that.

I'm not 14 years old. I am a very, well educated man in my sixth decade. If you are assuming that I just started flicking sliders around, without waiting and observing, you would be wrong. Yes, I did change something. I changed the ring tone. That was all. It was a week of false alarms at all times of the day and night before I started making slight changes. I have had this doorbell camera running flawlessly for almost 3 years. It turned to sh!t when I changed one setting. If I'm the only one in the thousands of people who have deployed these cameras, we'll then I guess that's on me. Logically, in my mind, changing a ringtone shouldn't change other sensitivity settings.

Reolink. Cheap, supports sd and the app is easy to use. The AI for detection is good

Yes, I'm pretty positive that you can wire the Reolink Wi-Fi version to an existing doorbell wiring. Although, of course, the PoE version will always be superior. Wi-Fi/Wireless is not reliable.

Reolink Wi-Fi doorbell. Negative reviews are 99% from user error. People think it is a PoE camera. It is Wi-Fi, and as with any Wi-Fi camera regardless of the brand you will have issues. Still, within doorbell cameras that are Wi-Fi, Reolink Wi-Fi is the best for the residential use... And that's because many reasons, but the one of the most important things is that it can work with Wi-Fi 5. You also have to manually update the firmware for it to work properly. If you don't want issues at all then get the Reolink PoE doorbell instead. That with the manually updated firmware is flawless. So I will say that is the best residential doorbell at the moment. EDIT: Just saw that Ubiquiti released the G6 doorbell, so reolink PoE doorbell might no longer be the best for home use.

See lifehackster channel, he reviews tapo, reolink and eufy doorbells. Reolink Wi-Fi Doorbell will be more stable because you can connect it to wi-fi 5. But the only cons I can think of using that it's that it doesn't have perimeter protection unlike that tapo doorbell, but you can sort of achieve something similar with the painting over zones (again you need to manually update the firmware with reolink to avoid any issues). White version has package detection but more narrow field of view. Also I think the Reolink won't have as much as a wide field of view as the tapo one. Yes, the G6 pro looks nice (although I don't think it is for sale yet - I think it will be very very expensive as well looking at the features and specs) and you would be correct saying it is a bit less user friendly than the other brands (but not by much). Ubiquiti lite doorbell I think it will be as good as Reolink PoE doorbell or better, looking at the price and specs and knowing what Ubiquiti is capable of software wise I will say better... Still there aren't reviews or videos to confirm that though.

The battery doorbell cannot do 24/7 recording. The wired doorbells can. Both have the same AI detectors as far as I know. (But the wired black doorbell (landscape view) don't do packages detection the the white wired ones (portrait view) due to the different camera views. If you want 24/7 recording get the wired doorbells (wifi or poe), and if you want package detection get the wired white doorbell. If you don't care about 24/7 recording the battery should be fine

I have a Reolink WiFi doorbell so that I’m subscription free and have access to my recordings locally. It’s powered by my old doorbell and is easy for people to distinguish where the button is. Some other brands cameras look like buttons and they get damaged!

Yeah i got reolink after i had stupid ass blink and they pulled the crap where they forced you in to subscription. Costs more but way better product.

One down side of the Wi-Fi version is that I doesn't work with regular chime. I will use my Google speakers around the house. This will give me more options in setting volumes etc. baby off etc

It seems I did the total opposite by ordering the battery one but I'm not really satisfied it's really bulky and after checking the specifications it seems that the Wi-Fi one has a better camera. Besides that it's a bit smaller and initially the idea was to hang it on a place really depending on the battery but now I made a decision to wire it so the battery is not adding that much anymore. The Wi-Fi one has continuous recordings what the battery one doesn't have or at least I couldn't find it the Wi-Fi one has 5 megapixels where the battery has 4

I regret ordering the battery one hopefully the wifi one will arrive tomorrow so i return the battery one. I saw the wifi one works out of the box with home assistant. Cant wait!

Does your doorbell have existing wiring? Not Ethernet, but the two lines coming out of the house to power the standard doorbell? If so, there are several brands that can work with that for power (my Reolink Wi-Fi does) and I've had no issues. You usually just put a tiny adapter in with where the bell portion of the doorbell is, completely removable.

Not sure if it’s worth mentioning that if you add your Reolink doorbell camera to the nvr you lose the doorbell features.

reolink. super easy as seen here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck) can connect to a NVR for 24/7 recordings

reolink. super easy as seen here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck) can connect to a NVR for 24/7 recordings

reolink. super easy as seen here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck) can connect to a NVR for 24/7 recordings. use existing doorbell wiring.

reolink. super easy as seen here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck) can connect to a NVR for 24/7 recordings

reolink. super easy as seen here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck) can connect to a NVR for 24/7 recordings

reolink. super easy as seen here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck) can connect to a NVR for 24/7 recordings

reolink. super easy as seen here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck) can connect to a NVR for 24/7 recordings

reolink. super easy as seen here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck) can connect to a NVR for 24/7 recordings

reolink. super easy as seen here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck) can connect to a NVR for 24/7 recordings

reolink. super easy as seen here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLFyVCi4ck) can connect to a NVR for 24/7 recordings too

The Aqara G4 may fit the bill although I’ve no personal experience with it but it sounds like it meets all the requirements. I use a wired Reolink doorbell which is fantastic but it requires existing AC or DC wiring, there is a PoE version if you can get an Ethernet cable to it.

I replaced my Ring with Reolink about 6 months ago and it’s great. Doesn’t miss a thing. No false activations. App is great and inside chime is great. If there is one complaint with Reolink it’s that on iPhone a doorbell activation comes in like a regular call and I’m unable to set a custom ringtone for the Reolink app. It’s probably just me since I was able to set the custom notification on my Android phone. Overall, very pleased with Reolink and I have recommended to friends.

For the Reolink I just have to door bell camera. It is soooo much better than Ring. I can’t speak on the low light performance cause my porch light is dusk till dawn. What like most is no false triggers, recording is several seconds before the trigger which is marked in the playback, no subscription, separate chime tones for motion vs doorbell ring.

Another +1 here. Just installed the PoE version this past weekend. It does the thing completely locally without any fuss. My wife likes the app so I haven't blocked it off on the firewall but I could and wouldn't lose much.

Nice.

Have had great results across the board with Reolink cameras and Home Assistant, with the exception of my Reolink Video Doorbell, which would go offline multiple times per day. Finally decided to do some testing and discovered that the issue was related to power. Had originally used the existing doorbell wiring and transformer. Pulled the doorbell and powered it with the included wall wart for a couple of days and it was rock solid. Took some effort to run the power cable cleanly, but it’s working great now. So if you’re facing reliability issues like I was, and you’re wired to the old doorbell power, may want to test whether the doorbell is getting sufficient power.

Yeah...I probably should've realized much earlier that it was a power issue, as I also seemed to have more reliability issues at night when the IR LEDs turned on. I disabled them, since we get enough light that color mode worked fine at night, but that only helped a little. Guessing maybe the transformer was deteriorating, since the connection at the chimes was solid when I checked it.

I've had mine for a couple of months and they've been great. Paired with the hub it integrates really well with home assistant if that's your jam too.

Reolink wifi doorbell, 4x Duo 2s, and 2x Lumus Pros

Can attest to Reolink as well, WiFi though and it's been great

> RTSP one available still but the RTSP is still unstable and for the most part if you don't want frame skips you still need to use the flv stream for recording.

>Could you explain this more please The RTSP feed (at least with current firmware) loses / skips frames it isn't smooth. https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/camera_specific#reolink-cameras I record off the primary stream using the FLV stream, and only use the RTSP for TWO WAY audio support. streams: doorbell: #Reolink Doorbell - ffmpeg:http://192.168.103.6/flv?port=1935&app=bcs&stream=channel0_main.bcs&user=admin&password={FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD}#video=copy#audio=copy#audio=opus doorbell_sub: #Reolink Doorbell - rtsp://admin:{FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD}@192.168.103.6:554/Preview_01_sub - ffmpeg:doorbell_sub#audio=opus # transcodes audio to opus for webrtc compatibility

As a warning **there are currently 3 DIFFERENT Doorbells**, only the POE and WiFi ones can be used DIRECTLY with Home assistant. - Reolink Video Doorbell PoE - Reolink Video Doorbell WiFi - Reolink Video Doorbell (Battery) The Reolink Video Doorbell (Battery) can't DIRECTLY be used with home assistant. It does NOT have direct RTSP support. The other two can.

I have been upgrading my cameras and they are all Reolink now and the only one that regularly disappoints is the Doorbell camera.. While technically better than most other doorbell cameras it performs very poorly vs other recent Reolink cameras. 1. The image quality just isn't good. There is often a porch light on or high contrast with the sun during the day and the shaded areas. The HDR update helped a little but not really. Give us a 4K color night sensor! 2. I have the regular black WiFi Doorbell. The FOV is good for seen people but nearly always packages are completely out of view.. We need a better FOV or a second lens to let us see the ground / package clearly. 3. A have a few of the new WiFi6 cameras, they are SOLID and support WPA3.. The doorbell is the last WPA2/WiFi5 camera I have. (POE is not an option in this location).

I am aware the white one has a better FOV but not sure about its HDR / low light performance. It is still 4 megapixels so the same pixels stretched over more area.

I just got the wifi doorbell even though I have a mostly poe system because of better notifications from the wifi model including phone calls when someone pushes the button. Note the Wi-Fi doorbell does have an ethernet jack, so you can hardwire it, but you have to supply power separate from ethernet.  (I assume you could run POE and then do a splitter to split out the power and ethernet and then run power and ethernet separately to the Wi-Fi doorbell, but depending upon your available in-wall space by the doorbell that may or may not be a very clean aesthetically.) Also note that while it’s free, the ability for it to do some things like ring your phone does depend on Reolink Cloud, so if you’re someone who is not willing to use Reolink cloud at all, even just for the P2P capabilities to easily access video when you’re not at home, then you would not get some of these features. You might need to do a deeper dive as to exactly what the differences are, but generally, the Wi-Fi model offers a little more capability.  As previously pointed out, you can integrate these with things like Home Assistant, which I have also done. I don’t know if you’d be able to do the rich notifications you want or not with Home Assistant. I use Home Assistant primarily for geofencing and convenience of switching between home and away modes for notification management, which to my great surprise Reolink cameras in general don’t really do.  If you wanna be able to easily or automatically change how you get notified when you’re home and not home then you will want something like Home Assistant to make this possible.  I had no plans to purchase or use Home Assistant with my new Reolink camera system, but then I found out about the lack of geofencing and the lack of even a convenient way to shift what notifications are off and on, so I ended up having to get Home Assistant to help do this. I don’t know why Reolink does not support more features in this regard. I would think most people would want geofencing or at least a one button press home and away concept, but apparently Reolink does not think so. (BTW, I relied a lot on AI to help tell me how to set this up in Home Assistant but overall it’s actually fairly easy as Home Assistant as well structured to help with this, but you would have at least $100 cost to buy something like Home Assistant Green - which has worked well for me for this purpose.). 

I have a very new setup with RLN36 NVR. My wifi doorbell is connected to my normal home wifi, which is on the same network as my nvr (at least for now). The NVR does not care how any camera is connected to it, so long as it is reachable somewhere on the network that is fine. You don't have to have a Wifi NVR. If you want dedicated Wifi, you can connect a wifi router directly to the NVR - essentially converting it to a wifi+ NVR. For my needs I wanted the RLN36 because I planned on buying a larger disk anyway, and I also preferred a separate POE switch rather than needing to have all the PoE camera ethernet cables go directly into the NVR (as is intended with the other Reolink NVRs). (Where I live electricity is very expensive, and each drive, no matter what its capacity, costs about $30/yr in power, so I did not want to just add a drive, I wanted only one very large drive (14TB).) With a RLN36 and a separate PoE switch, my NVR can be anywhere on the network (assuming a good GB hardwired connection), and, if the PoE switch is also connected to my home network I can also connect to the same camera both as a camera attached to the NVR as well as directly to the camera as a standalone camera - which you cannot do if only connected directly to the NVR - which can have some benefits - such as more direct access to some camera features that are not available via the NVR. (The Reolink PoE switch - with two non-PoE uplink ports is well designed for this type of configuration while still having 8 PoE ports that you can dedicate to cameras.) The RLN36 NVR has four 1gb ethernet ports intended for connection to up to four PoE switches - whereas the ethernet ports on the other NVRs are slower because they expect you to only connect one camera to each. The RLN36 also has relays and siren outputs on the back, which the other NVRs do not, and home automation can use those relay to trigger detection notations (alarms), similar to "person", or "vehicle" alerts on your recordings for your cameras. To be honest, I have trouble understanding why anyone would want any NVR other than the RLN36 - unless perhaps they knew they were only ever going to have wifi cameras and they trust that the wifi from the wifi NVR would reach all corners of their property. (I think I would be more likely to trust a mesh wifi for this - preferably with a hardwired backhaul if I had many wifi cameras.) One downside, the RLN36 does not at the moment yet support export and import of a backup of its configuration (unlike some other Reolink NVRs) - so that is concerning. I don't know what features the UK version of the wifi doorbell has. I do know that when someone presses the doorbell button I get a notification with a video clip in it - for my camera instance that is connected to the NVR. If I recall, it will also call me like a real phone call and let me talk to whoever is at the door when someone presses the button, but I have not played much with that. I had expected to need to hardwire ethernet to it as I had read that its wifi connectivity was unreliable - but for me it has been perfect so far for about 2 weeks. If I later find that I need to hardwire it I will. We did find that, for our porch, the wifi doorbell did not capture some of the corners nearest the door to see packages as perfectly as we wanted. We did not want to miss an inch. So we added an additional camera up high above the door pointing down to get 100% of the area and not miss seeing a package. On a side note, I bought mostly all CX810 cameras for the exterior. Even the dimmest light gives these cameras enough light to look like daylight. They are amazing. Better than I expected. A touch of partial moonlight, or a street light down the street, or city lights reflected off of cloud cover is enough. Or of course your own low powered 2-4 actual watt LED lights are ok also. But, unlike IR cameras with IR LEDs, if it is truly totally dark you won't see anything. They do have build in white lights you can choose to keep on, but I am not clear yet how well those would work for my situation, and I don't know how long their life would be if used all night every night. They might be ok, but you need to make sure that you not getting reflected light from eaves a few inches away, and of course they use more power, and draw more attention to the cameras.

Yeah I also had this experience. God awful connection quality, but I did buy it super early. I also wonder if the PoE one is better.

I have REOLINK stuffs, what do you use for NVR?

Yeah I’m not a big fan of the Reolink detection, especially if there are bugs/fog. I have a minisforum ms-01 running proxmox, and a NAS with 16TB - planning to add more. I have Frigate as an open tab in my browser, I know it works with HA but it’s a little more work if I do it via proxmox. Frigate prefers bare metal.

I did some research and it seems like POE, power on Ethernet, means you do have to run the cable. That’s not an option for me, but Reo does have a WiFi version that can power off existing wiring. Just got it last night and am going to install later today and see how it is.

Reolink. Just swapped out Ring and not looking back. Great night vision with some moonlight and entry lights off

I went with WiFi because wiring was there from current button and running cable super difficult. Black model wi-fi. If you can run Ethernet, go with PoE as first choice. Love the clarity, night vision and tracking.

I use this for my home and at our business. Remote viewing, and zero issues setting up.

If you can support wired, just get the first one. If you can use PoE, get that one instead.

Reolink due to it making the raw video feed available so I didn't need the app

just throw a wifi repeater near the doorbell. easy and cheap. fixed all my doorbell wifi issues with Eufy and now Reolink.

Running the wifi / mains power version on a U.K. house (brick walls not the best for wifi signal). It’s a solid performer and has been significantly better than the ring it replaced, integrated into HA and frigate

When the tech i had run ethernet for me for cameras (he does that commercially), I saw the setup and then planned to switch from Ring to Riolink, I think that says something about the company. I have internet blocked on the cameras, only needed it for initial setup of wireless, before getting an NVR.

I just replaced my Ring last weekend with the Wifi version. Install was pretty easy and it integrates with HA/Frigate/Blueiris just fine.. I had to enable RTSP in the phone app. Since I had Frigate already setup, I just added it as another camera. I have HA as well, but haven't done anything more than add a card for a camera. My complaints are that the audio is not great, especially if I am not on the home wifi, but I could live with that. The other one is a design flaw. The only thing secureing the doorbell to the frame is a little clasp that you can release with any small screwdriver. Not even a security screw like the Ring. It needs a redisign where the doorbell itself screws to the frame an then has a cover.

This- their cameras are excellent!

I replaced my Nest doorbell cam with an Reolink Doorbell cam. I already has my own Synology NAS so the storage is free. It didn't use my physical door bell chime, but it came with a plug in one. And my Google Nest Stations announce there is someone at the door.

Yea, it doesn't show who is at the door though on the Nest Google assistant. Says "Visitor is at the front door"

I already had power to the original doorbell, so it uses wired power and connects with wifi. They sell the PoE version - in fact I think my wired version also does PoE.[Reolink Doorbell Cam](https://a.co/d/1VCtTzb)

I have been running the WiFi doorbell (powered through old doorbell transformer) for a couple of weeks. I have two way audio working in HA through Frigate but it was a bit of a nightmare to get working. The developer of the HA Reolink integration says they’re planning to make two-way audio work natively through the integration at some point in the future.

You can do rich notifications in home assistant for it really, it's a workaround but not a wild one and it means it's not on their cloud servers waiting to be viewed. I have it set to send me a photo with notification when pressed. Been one of the best smart purchase I've made, so much better than the eufy I had before.

Reolink is great! They can do rtsp feeds also,I send that to blue iris.

Got my Reolink WiFi doorbell integrated with HA. As others have commented, a lot depends on the signal. At first, I had a lot of dropouts until I relocated the router, and the signal drops decreased significantly.

Among the options currently available, Reolink paired with the Home Hub (NVR) is a standout choice. Ideally, Power over Ethernet (PoE) is the preferred solution, as it provides both a reliable power source and protection against WiFi jamming. That said, the WiFi model performs decently as well. Personally, I powered my setup by repurposing the wiring from a traditional door lock button, making a few adjustments with the transformer to ensure everything operates smoothly

I've been using two of these doorbells with an NVR. They work great. They don't have quite the same notification functionality as a ring doorbell, though if you're savvy enough you can use Home Assistant to create a rich notification with a snapshot.

Another +1, even better if you can get POE to power it...

I really like my reolink Wifi Doorbell. Every setting in the app is available in home assistant. RTSP streams can be accessed without using the app. Video quality is pretty good too.

Very quick! I got rid of my Arlo doorbell cam for Reolink and haven’t regretted it

I have the Reolink WiFi doorbell. Never gotten 2-way audio working no matter how much I tinker (even on previous firmware versions). I’m fine with only having that access in the Reolink app - I find the lag for the audio unbearable anyways… If 2-way audio is a must have in Homeassistant, I’d suggest looking elsewhere. Everything else about this doorbell has been great though!

LOVE my reolink Wi-Fi hard wired doorbell. I did have to set it up with home assistant but it’s bulletproof now.

Unifi is great but bring your wallet. I went with a reolink wifi hard wired for a fraction of the price and its been super super reliable with home assistant poping it into homekit went from aquara, belkin and ring. Reolink is the best for me.

You can monitor live, watch recordings of triggered events and get push notifications of events via the phone app with no subscription. All you have to do is install and register it. I have 2, a battery and a doorbell wiring powered one. Love them both. The view from the doorbell powered one is better but the other is not bad. Top is battery powered. https://preview.redd.it/h5xajerkafwe1.jpeg?width=1063&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=78ca628a28be088f966d3d4334f465f46604084b

Reolink POE is best but Wi-Fi hardwired is still great. I have the latter and it's much better video quality, detection, integration, Wi-Fi range, app experience than the Eufy one I had before. Cheaper too.

Totally agree, but for anyone who wants to use Blueiris NVR, Reolink often integrates poorly into it, from personal experience.

\> Does anybody have experience with the wifi model and integration with HA? Yes, has HA integration, local access \> Is it stable? No issues on my side \> Are the notifications coming in fast(HA app), or does it also take up 30 seconds? Instant \> Do i need the Reolink Hub for integration in HA? No, HA connect locally with the bell \> Reolink is not cloud based, but how do you receive notifications if you are gone? You need to install the HA app on your mobile so notifications are received from the HA app. Of course the app should have access to your HA server even if you're not at home. \> Can I stream the live feed to a google home hub? Don't know, not using. \> Do you use the reolink app or HA to send notifications and view the stream? HA. I only use Reolink app for configuration, live stream or 2 way audio \> Do you use the 2-way audio with HA, does it work? I believe you can make it work, you'll need web2rtc but I haven't bothered. Currently I am triggering playing a recording on the bell from HA (when the door is open). I also do this: \- when the doorbell button is pressed, take a screenshot, use doubletake/deepstack (running in a docker) to face recognize people, send mqtt message if they are recognised. Then HA can take action like opening the door.

Yep, Reolink is great!

>We just got a Reolink WiFi model that supports PoE... Not to be nitpicky, but while the WiFi model does have an ethernet jack on it, it does not support PoE... Just clarification for others that might not know.

The WiFi model needs the jumper to bypass the solenoid in the chime, otherwise it may either not get enough power and/or the chime may inadvertantly trigger or buzz loudly. You can get your existing chime to work though... I was able to get mine working with a Zigbee relay and Home Assistant... Here's a previous comment of mine on a different post describing what I did: [https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/comments/1ms2a8r/comment/nazwrzw/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/comments/1ms2a8r/comment/nazwrzw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

Practically instantaneous as far as I can tell.

The Reolink WiFi doorbell camera has no built in functionality to short the contacts to trigger the chime, as far as I am aware. Add on top of that the need to install a jumper so you are getting full power from the transformer and I am comfortable saying that it will not work. I have modified my chime to make it work with a low voltage Zigbee relay. I linked a comment describing what I did and how it is hooked up in a different comment, but I'll link it here as well in case you're interested... [https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/comments/1ms2a8r/comment/nazwrzw/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/comments/1ms2a8r/comment/nazwrzw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

HA integration is a pain though, no? I have three Reolink devices and battery/solar powered cameras either need some tinkering, which I think leads to poor battery life, or an expensive Home Hub to integrate with HA? I’m happy with my Reolink doorbell, but I got the wired one.

1 uovote here. Just grabbed one a few months ago and linked it to HA. Each event is sent to my gmail so all of my videos are saved there and then I have a script to delete the videos every 30 days so it wont clog up storage.

Every time someome walks by, it records a 30 second clip and I have it sent to my gmail. Then I wrote a script to run daily and delete a specific subject line from my gmail for anything over 30 days so I dont run out of space.

I just picked up 2 of the Black Wifi versions for $45 a piece at a liquidation store. The wedge is only 15-degree angle. One of my mesh nodes is pretty close so i get a good wifi connection so my notifications are pretty good as far as I can tell. It's only been a day though. The FOV to me could be better and there is no package detection which I did love from my ring doorbell pro 2. My DUO 2 got the FOV covered. I just wanted a better integration with the rest of my Reolink cameras. I'll be looking on ebay to see if I can get better wedges.

The [Reolink Doorbell](https://reolink.com/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/) includes all of that. I do have it, and I love it; it also has one of the best integrations with Home Assistant.

Point of clarification: Are you looking for a doorbell camera (local alternative to Ring) or a camera to mount above/near the front door just for the video? Reolink has both types and I have had good luck with 2 variations of their cameras. I had a problem with one of them and got a few-questions-asked quick replacement. So plus for good support/service. The ones I got: [https://www.amazon.com/REOLINK-Detection-Weatherproof-Recording-RLC-820A/dp/B08135WDZW](https://www.amazon.com/REOLINK-Detection-Weatherproof-Recording-RLC-820A/dp/B08135WDZW) [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K74GWX5?ie=UTF8](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K74GWX5?ie=UTF8) Doorbell camera: [https://www.amazon.com/REOLINK-Doorbell-Detection-Storage-Assistant/dp/B0B7S3JSG7](https://www.amazon.com/REOLINK-Doorbell-Detection-Storage-Assistant/dp/B0B7S3JSG7)

I use a Reolink WiFi doorbell and send the feed through Scrypted. It’s been a way better experience than the Logitech Circle I tried before that. The Circle would constantly disconnect, maybe overheating, or just other hardware problems.

It does show up as a doorbell. When someone presses the button, it sends a notification like a native HomeKit doorbell. The face recognition also works, because that's handle by the HomeKit and is post-processed after the video feed leaves Scrypted. I'd rather have a native HomeKit doorbell that works without something in the middle to translate it, but this has worked well enough I haven't gone back to looking at native ones.

Depends on what you value. I've used both and I chose the battery version for 2 reasons. The fact that it has a larger vertical field of view and can therefore see the foot of the door better for packages (although I still wish it could see more). Second is the fact that it can ring my old mechanical chime. I'm a huge proponent of 24/7 recording and would normally say that that's the most important thing, but I already have a POE cam watching the front of my house and recording 24/7. If I didn't have that then 24/7 would be the most important thing and I would use one of the powered doorbells instead. If you don't have any 24/7 cameras watching that area, then that should be your #1 priority.

Had the battery version installed - the experience was awful. Ripped it out and installed the Wi-Fi version.

Can get a Reolink wifi doorbell for around $100 US, and a home hub for recording inside the house for a similar price.

[https://reolink.com/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/](https://reolink.com/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/) This is the wifi doorbell camera (requires power...there's another option that is battery-operated). There's a white one that has a tall field of a view (good for seeing packages on the ground), and a black one that has a wide field of view. You can insert a micro sd card into the doorbell cam itself to take recordings, or you can get a separate device and record to that. [https://reolink.com/us/product/reolink-home-hub/](https://reolink.com/us/product/reolink-home-hub/) The \^home hub is Reolink's cheapest option for recording video from your cameras to a separate device. There are many more options, or you can set up your own (outside of my expertise).

As I understand it, the wired, wifi doorbell that I described can use your existing doorbell transformer for power, but it cannot trigger your existing doorbell’s chime. Officially that’s the case, but people have found ways to make it work: https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/s/KHp3Gf33Vl On the other hand, the battery-operated doorbell cam _can_ be wired to your existing chime. Of course, there are drawbacks to using the battery-operated one (needing to charge the battery, and it’s not good for continuous recording if you want that).

Reolink, the only negative is they're not all compatible with mechanical chimes, the workaround is to set up a cheap esp32 with the chime connected to the gpio so you can use an automation to trigger the chime indirectly. They offer sd card recording on the device and can be either poe / battery / or powered from the doorbell transformer, depending on the model you go with. There's no subscription fees needed unless you want to and they integrate great with HomeAssistant. ETA I honestly prefer the reolink chimes, it's capable of doing different chime tones for different events.

Which doorbell version do you have, iirc of the currently available versions only 1 version (battery maybe?) actually works with mechanical chimes. I know my black wifi version doesn't but it came with it's own chime. The esp32 workaround would work if I wanted to use my mechanical chime though.

Just FYI in case you weren't aware: #2 also can be powered from the doorbell transformer, that's how I have mine set up. I also have it hardwired with a cat5e. (I added the cat5e after I installed it so the PoE wouldn't have worked when I bought it.) #1 based on the pics appears to also support power from the doorbell transformer instead of or in addition to PoE. Not sure why you would want to when you have PoE though but the screw terminals appear to be there in the pics.

There is no doorbell camera that shares video via Bluetooth. So you will have to have an internet connection. It can be wired or wireless WiFi the top two without monthly fees are the Reolink or Ubiquity UniFi. The Reolink is the simplest I personally have the UniFi as the system offers so much more but it’s not as simple and plug and play as the Reolink.

Get Reolink stuff. a bit more pricier than the popular ones that are subsidised by subscription fees but you won’t be stuck with then. Reolink has the ability to save everything locally but also has the flexibility of being configured such that you can access it while not at home.

Really loving my Reolink 2k WiFi doorbell (the one that comes with the chime). While it will not power my mechanical doorbell, the chime is just fine. Awesome setup and comes with all three connection types, so can be hardwired via the transformer, POE or has a wall wart that is used for the initial setup and has a nice long extension cable. Was just like [$80 on Amazon](https://a.co/d/1RIjprj).

Poe cameras, I used Annke fcd600. It has a large FOV. Also DS-2CD2387G2-LSU hikvison, use when you don’t need large FOV Both cameras are 4k and Poe. They are quick to respond, detect, and working 2 way audio inside of HomeKit. Also color night or IR which ever you prefer. For a doorbell I use Reolink WiFi bc I couldn’t get Ethernet ran there. It’s okay. I tried Logitech, Amcrest, ring. I think Reolink is the best out of all I have tested. Amcrest was nice but I had a one die and one with bad IR glare. You can tap into the 4K streams, ex I use frigate along side scrypted. This adds more detection and automation options inside of home assistant. HomeKit is mainly for my wife. I have the NVR 24/7 record for a couple months with 4k so if something happens I have 4k footage.

yes same here, even my wife likes it!

Yeah my Reolink has no subscription and is just as clear

Reolink Cameras are POE or WiFi, and you can choose to connect them to the internet or not. All data is stored locally on the device itself with an SD card. You can also get a NVR if you want multiple and want to store footage for longer periods of time. Check out r/reolinkcam or take a look at their doorbell offerings on their site here: [https://reolink.com/us/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/](https://reolink.com/us/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/) Good on you for not buying a ring camera, if you didn't know, police can get access to those without even notifying you, which is pretty creepy/big brother esque. \-not affiliated with them or anything, I just like their products and use them in my home.

People seem to be happy with Aqara. I decided to go with a Reolink (despite it not supporting HomeKit). Got a deal that I simply couldn’t pass on. Would’ve been great to have everything within the home app, but I’m able to tolerate having one extra app to deal with. It’s also a wired one that uses the same wiring as the regular doorbell, so I don’t have to deal with replacing batteries.

Just installed mine a couple weeks ago and couldn't be happier about it.

Same. My Reolink wifi has been soldi since day 1.

End of story. Reolink. If poor, then wyze. But get reolink.

Reolink. Works on a no internet network. And has an integration with home assistant. Have a poe port.

I like the reolink wifi doorbell. It has an SD card so you can record data without a subscription, can use doorbell power, and the camera is good quality.

If you have an existing doorbell, this Reolink WiFi works well with HA. https://amzn.to/4idmysH It uses the existing old school doorbell wiring to power itself. I've used the WiFi version but recently upgraded to the PoE version (https://amzn.to/41sNL4Z) and it's awesome. Almost instant video feed locally. Running Ethernet to the doorbell was a pain but worth it. Both have package detection so you can set automations from packages being delivered. Mine notifies me and turns my front door light green. Reolink also has one that is battery and wifi, https://amzn.to/3QCaaqu Never tried this one but it seems like the one you're looking for.

White PoE for the win! I've tried the black wifi, white wifi and nest. The Reolink white with PoE is the best one out of all of them. The only black one I tried was wifi and it didn't have package detection, not sure if all the black ones are like that. I use it with home assistant and it loads almost instantly.

White PoE for the win! I've tried the black wifi, white wifi and nest. The Reolink white with PoE is the best one out of all of them. The only black one I tried was wifi and it didn't have package detection, not sure if all the black ones are like that. I use it with home assistant and it loads almost instantly.

I just replaced my mechanical chime with a Reolink wifi doorbell, very happy with it. Integrated nicely with Frigate as well and works completely offline.

I can answer some of this. I use the white wifi model (wired to existing doorbell wiring so no batteries) the white has a more vertical orientation of view (at least here in UK) I originally used the reolink app for notifications etc but the integration into home assistant is great and stable. It exposes doorbell press / motion / package / person / pet and vehicle detections as well as a host of the settings for the doorbell, it also exposes the chime. Notifications are generally quick, in my experience 1 or 2 seconds max. I also came from Google home doorbell which was awful and had similar delays in notifications. You don’t need the reolink hub to integrate with HA. However, if you want to record footage you’ll either need SD cards in the camera, or use the reolink NVR (not sure if it works with WiFi cameras) or an alternative like frigate or scrypted (which I use) Hope that helps.

My Reolink has been solid so far. Right near the router on 5Ghz. I have my bands split on 2 SSIDs. Wish you could setup a fallback Wifi connection. It wasn't practical for me to try and fish Ethernet there. RTSP stream seems to work fine but I haven't checked up on the audio yet.

It's not natively supported like that through Reolink's implementation. Mine has a separate chime, and app which notifies. I would assume, and there's alot of knowledge in this frigate community on this, you could re-engineer that same effect through HA or other adjuncts.

Another vote for Reolink. Have switched all of my home cameras over to them as they don't require any sort of subscription and play well w/ most ecosystems.

Reolink WiFi doorbell, but i have it wired for power

Tapo D130. Works well but is not PoE (and needs approx 18V AC--can use old doorbell power line). The camera is super wide though and so things even moderately far away, like at the sidewalk in front of the house in a normal city neighborhood, are now small in the camera view. Reolink doorbell camera. Works well and one model does do PoE. BUT if you are keen on home security and want to record the Reolink's camera feed via RTSP/ONVIF, it's currently not possible despite its claim to be able to run RTSP/ONVIF. RTSP/ONVIF works but cannot be used at the same time as the camera app, which is silly (and confirmed by tech support). I went with the Tapo because of my need to record the camera feed to my NVR.

Also look at Reolink. I have three of them.

Have one of these. It's been great and integrates with HA fairly flawlessly. Cloud optional but not required which is a +1

Reolink WiFi version. Ethernet port in case you want to hard wire it (no Poe though).  Takes a micro SD card for local recordings or connect it to their NVR.  App is pretty good, somewhat regular updates too.  Records 24/7 locally. 

Reolink.  WiFi and Poe versions.  Local storage to a micro SD card and no subscriptions. 

Yes but don't get a cloud based video doorbell. Something like Reolink stored the footage locally.

I have a Reolink Wifi doorbell at the moment which I'll be replacing with one from Unifi. Do I get this or hold out for the G6 Entry?

Reolink for sure. Local storage, intergrates very well into HA

I second the Reolink, but also second the Wifi version. Cinder block external walls are ass to snake Ethernet cord through for POE. My only sadnesses are that it doesn’t have a “package camera” or integrate natively with my Ubiquity stack but it was also orders of magnitude cheaper than the Ubiquiti Doorbell cam.

I’m using the reolink doorbell (wifi) through scrypted in HA with good results, so not native…but it works

I use reolink with scrypted, works great.

They asked for affordable, Unifi products may be great, but $270 for a doorbell camera is not affordable. Reolink may not be perfect but their products are affordable and better quality cameras than Ring or Nest.

Reolink is a terrific value. Their WiFi doorbell cam does have an Ethernet port on the back. I have 4 of their cameras, the doorbell, and an NVR and it cost me around $700 all in to install all of it.

Do you have an existing doorbell? If so, you can power a Reolink WiFi doorbell with the existing doorbell transformer without running more wire or needing to recharge the camera.

Reolink. The easiest way with no existing wiring is to run network cable and use POE to power it.

Reolink is probably the main one. No subscription, full RTSP support so you can just pull the raw video feed if you want.

How do you quantify garbage? For me, it works fine. I rarely use the app as I have it going in to Frigate and Home Assistant. The app is used for setup and initial configuration, which it does well. Once it is online I can use the built in web server to do a lot of the work. I don't really think anyone can answer that question, because what would seem garbage for you and your needs will be fine for someone else.

Reolink WiFi runs off the doorbell wiring, not sure on Home kit support though.

The answer is the same as all the other times this has been asked . Reolink. Either POE or WiFi.

Reolink is probably the best option at the moment. The doorbells work well, whether the POE or WiFi version. PoE is best as wired is always preferable. For regular cameras, take your choice of the cameras. Most of them support RTSP which is what Frigate wants. Wired is always best if you can.

I've had a reolink WiFi doorbell and it's running smoother than creamed butter! A lot of people's issues I think are their WiFi.

I have the Reolink wifi doorbell, and Reolink E1 Outdoor on wifi. Both work great, and both show RTSP streams in HA. I would stay away from the Reolink solar powered one, though, no RTSP stream. So, you'll just need to plug in the E1

I have two Reolinks (WiFi). The front door won't go longer than 1 day without drop outs but the back door has been perfect. I'm thinking I just need another AP and that the radios on these devices are just really poor.

This. I recently installed a white Wi-Fi doorbell for a relative. It works quite well. It will probably need some tweaking out of the box to get videos to report as desired. Also, if you want to have sole admin access to the device, go into the settings and create a user account you can then share with them when setting up the device. That confused me on my first exposure to the Reolink system. I still need to visit the device and check on fine tuning it even now. Some of the settings aren't very intuitive to me. I should search out a YT video on the Reolink settings and better educate myself.

I'm still pretty new to Reolink. I just downloaded the Windows client and tried to establish remote contact with the doorbell I recently installed for a relative. I have the uid but can't sign into the service for some reason. Doesn't recognize my credentials. I can see the video feed on my phone via the app, but haven't been able to figure out the feed to the PC. Probably should direct the question to support. 🤷‍♂️

I’ve been through this and was desperate to get the Aqara (or any native HomeKit doorbell) to work. I bought the G410 and to be fair I think I got a faulty device as it stopped working after an hour and wouldn’t connect to a network or show a video feed at all. I tried everything and ended up returning it. In the short time it was working, it wasn’t a particularly hot day but it was overheating a lot (common issue reported by others), notifications weren’t reliable (another common issue reported by others). I’m a big fan of Aqara and have almost all their sensors, but I ended up getting the Reolink WiFi doorbell hard-wired and it’s night and day difference. Much better quality, instant notifications. And the PoE should be even better than that. I use home assistant to expose the video feed of it into HomeKit, so I don’t have access to Apple home notifications but I prefer the reolink app for that anyway as the native app will deliver them faster

Remove and throw the Telus one in the garbage. Replace with a Reolink doorbell camera which has no subscription and a really nice phone app.

I actually lucked out and had what was a basically useless light switch on the other side of camera, a few inches off to the side. Swapped the switch for an outlet and the Reolink has run like a Swiss watch for me. Would be willing to bet there’s others out there that have a similar set up or could modify their existing setup to accommodate the cord. Well worth it for me and was an easy project

I really like my reolink, though I have the wired one. Super nice to never have fees, and it has all the features you could want.

Your other option is Riolink. Was personally the better option for me going with Frigate. If you're sticking in the Ubiquiti ecosystem, then their doorbell is the obvious choice.

My Reolink is powered by normal doorbell wires. Run perfectly fine, and is likely your best bet. You will likely need to drill two screws, unless you use some strong adhesives. If not, I've seen some cameras that can be powered by a light bulb socket. Worth a look into

I use the doorbell with frigate. Just works.

I just bought a Reolink Wifi doorbell, and a couple Reolink wifi camera's. No subscription.

Reolink POE (or Wi-Fi) - either one will work flawlessly with Home Assistant

I've avoided any of the cameras that need a subscription and went with Reolink. They're quite decent and mine has worked well for about 2 years now. This is the one I have [https://reolink.com/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/](https://reolink.com/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/) There's also the r/reolink and r/reolinkcam subs for more information

Reolink, hands down. No subscription fee, well supported and comes in POE, WiFi (powered) or WiFi (battery) versions. Also, has platinum home assistant integration if you're a nerd. I love mine. Have had it 2 years. Video quality is also brilliant. Had a Eufy battery WiFi doorbell before that and I found it awful. The wired versions of the doorbell (WiFi and POE) have pre-record so will show you footage before an event acually happens. No battery doorbells have this feature as it would kill the battery

Reolink WiFi video doorbell running on Frigate for NVR. Been at it for over a year and I have zero complaints. Wiring with POE gives you more reliable signal, but that’s not always possible or practical.

Reolink Doorbell Camera. Except battery power, does everything you need and will work fully offline.

Yes

Same. I use it with frigate and absolutely love the setup

Reolink, records to an SD card and can upload to an NVR of your choosing, which you should do. Never have only local security footage.

About half a second of searching would have told you Reolink is the only smart way to go. No subscription fees aren't worth it, good thing Reolink doesn't require them.

Mines on WiFi and have had zero issues, mine also supports LAN, but never had a reason to start punching holes all over the place to use it. Not sure Ive ever seen anybody with a bad review minus people wanting a feature in the official app that's not there. But I also rarely ever use it's real app either.

Benefit of Reolink as far as the doorbells is you can rack up your SD cards worth and get at it all which is usually a couple days worth, no subscriptions unless you want to. I’m going to wind up running it into Frigate I think since you can pull the feed anyways which it did itself in HA when I installed the Reolink integration. So far so good 👍🏼

That would be Reolink....and Reolink! Or, any good camera that supports open protocols. >I'd like, non Chinese models that keep calling home. Have a more realistic safetynet. Chinese doesn't equal bad, bad Chinese equals bad. There's some very high quality Chinese cameras out there and since you're here, you're past the point where you don't grasp that you can simply block and control anything you like. I'd go with Reolink 100% of the time on the doorbell, and their normal cams are great as well, you can also get pro grade Axis cameras (used) many times at a really good rate, usually eBay.

Reolink doorbell camera works great with home assistant. The only downside is having to use a different transformer than your house doorbell. It also will take your mechanical doorbell chime out of the loop. They give you a wireless chime. I used a zigbee relay and used the door visitor to trigger the chime. It also transmits a rtsp feed which I record to blue iris. The camera itself has an SD card and has person detection as a record trigger, which is usually all you need.

The hardwired black 2 4:3 wide is what I use with this view. This having pre recording where the battery one does not is a big game changer as well. This is honestly my fav cam even over my altas ultra https://preview.redd.it/p7w2tr2m6e1f1.jpeg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c48eec13dacf686bae79f416e7a9e3c8b8405b2d

Just check the reolink model or search in the Amazon reviews before purchasing. Not all of the camera models support the self hosting options. I use the doorbell and some of the cheaper E1 models and integrate them into my Synology and home assistant.

I'm on the Wired doorbell (wifi) not battery. Notifications are extremely quick. The AI detection is as well. The non battery does not need the Hub. Notifications you would handle through HA. I keep the reolink app installed, but I use HA for notifications, personally. I've had it for a few weeks. https://preview.redd.it/52c86212zqwe1.png?width=282&format=png&auto=webp&s=b406abdabba966821b72abe9b5afa7e68aae664f This is the sensors you can access, there's additional configuration as well. Fluent is the live stream, Motion is the motion in the view of the areas you have visible on the reolink app for motion triggering. The rest are AI besides Visitor, which is the doorbell being pressed.

The person detection works pretty well, usually by the time I walk up to the doorbell it's detected. I haven't really tested the other ones. I tend to use motion instead of person detection at night as I noticed it's a bit more iffy at night. But the doorbell is extremely fast as well, I use home assistant instead of the chime. Cool device, very happy so far.

The Reolink WiFi one is garbage. Nothing I could do to make it stable. Got the Unifi one and it has been great. Maybe the Reolink PoE one is ok, but the WiFi one couldn’t get through 10 minutes of recording without losing connection

Another +1 for the Reolink. It’s ONVIF compliant so works with most NVR software. I use Synology Surveillance Station with mine and have the DS Cam app on my phone which supports push notifications for when the doorbell is pressed.

I like Reolink due to the Windows app - none of the others have an app you can run on your PC (pretty sure) - they're all phone based.

I have a relink rln-410 ver n2mb02 with 8 Poe cameras. I just bought a white reolink doorbell camera I added the doorbell as a separate device so now the app shows the nvr with 8 cameras and the doorbell connected by WiFi. I was able to add the doorbell to my nvr but to do this I had to replace one of the Poe cameras. Once I did that I could not get the doorbell to store any footage on the nvr. I read that the app alerts/features won't be as good anyway. My goal is to the most features/alerts and 24/7 recording for about a week. Can I do this with my setup? I assume the biggest compatible sd card will not do this? Would the home hub do what I need?

Thank you. As I mentioned I did add the doorbell camera thia way but I had no open channels so I essentially lose one of my hardwired POE camera's from the nvr. I did read up on this and from what I read my nvr is supposed to be capable of 8 Poe cams and at least wifi cams. Dvr won't record once I replace the camera either. Another issue is I can see the doorbell on the nvr in grid mode but if I select full screen I get a black screen. All wired cameras show full screen without issue When u click on the settings it seems like the main steam and sub stream resolution are not compatible? Main steam only option is D1 and no option for sub stream or any of the other settings on that screen. Wired cameras have plenty of choices here.

Thank you for your quick replies. It's not battery powered. I ended up getting the plug in type. Based on what you stated below I guess it will not work. What are my options if I want 24/7 recording? I have not yet installed a microSD card. But from what I read that will only record when motion/people are detected?

I would love to add it to my nvr but as you said my doorbell must take one of the 8 channels so I would lose a channel. I was thinking of adding the home hub separately for just the doorbell now (and any future wifi cameras) and keeping the nvr for my existing 8 Poe cameras.

So just to confirm, I can buy the 2k wifi version, this can be wired in with my existing wiring that I’m using for the nest hello and then use the SD card for storage?

Perfect thanks We’re getting there So, I’m going to pull the trigger just now on the reolink 2k wifi doorbell. I’ll sort out a 256gb card for it Cameras wise, I could see from my post the other day that there was some negativity towards using a bundled kit. I’ve been hovering around a Costco bundle which is currently a hundred quid off and uses the P334 cameras which (according to Costco) are legit cameras AND have the SD card slots! SO Would I still be able to run the config you’ve suggested with the PoE switch? Is there any limitations cos I’m using Costco reolink bundle? Still not entirely sure if I can rotate the image 90 degrees if I mount those cams on a vertical wall to look down the side of the house. Some say you can, others claim you can’t. Some even say it’s not required, as the whole camera lens itself can turn to point the right way. Never thought this would be so tasking but have to get it right I guess.

FWIW I just made the move from a Gen 1 Nest Hello to the 2K wifi Reolink yesterday. Everything works as it should. I have it linked to my Google Home for notifications via my minis and my hub. I also have it hooked up to Blue Iris recording 24/7 locally in addition to whatever the SD is recording. My 24 hour review of the WiFi doorbell is that it is excellent and presents tremendous value. The internal battery on my Nest was failing after 5 years and the cost of the Reolink was about the same as a 1 year subscription to Nest but I get way more functionality from the Reolink.

Yes. Make sure the one you get comes with the wireless chime, although I think they all do at this point. I didn't have to remove my Nest chime wiring either. I just installed the Reolink and plugged the wireless chime into the wall and it worked.

The clips are indeed 5 mins long, so a bit different than the Nest setup. However you do still get 24/7 recording albeit in the 5 min chunks. You can sort by notification (person, car, button press) to help narrow down which specific clip you are looking for. I don't find the 5 min clips to be a deal breaker at all. I have the doorbell recording 24/7 to my non Reolink NVR so I can go through that if I feel the need to. As long as the notifications work reliably and the video works then I'm more than happy. I've got 3 other cameras near the front door, all with much better resolution than the doorbell.

I would recommend the Reolink doorbell (not battery). There is also the Amcrest AD410, but most have jumped onto the Reolink once it was released. Reason being is it isn't locked down, you can add it other NVRs, software (i.e. Blue Iris), or your own NVR stack (Scrypted NVR - AI face recognition etc). All your own storage. Not that expensive to do imo- mini PC $180 + NAS/external storage $250.

Yes I am. The battery one only records motion, and only works with the Reolink app. It doesn't do proper 24/7 recording. You will end up locked in. You can put an sd card into either, and access the recordings through the Reolink app. The way I suggested, you would build your own Network Video Recorder. Buy your own storage. But with that you get a lot more freedom. Hope that makes sense.

Just to make sure. The battery one is what I advised against. The Non battery just uses the power from your regular doorbell- not hard to install. Apologies- throughout this thing I didn't read your last sentence. If you don't have the connections, then yeah... Only other thing I could recommend is running Ethernet to the doorbell, but that required running the wire :P

Sorry, I'm in the US but, Reolink and amcrest is what I use. Amcrest for all my wired security cameras, and reolink for my doorbell. If you care about the app, and direct HA integration, Reolink is probably your best choice in the inexpensive fully local market. Amcrest doesn't have a direct integration into HA, but they're nearly all rebranded Dahua so you can sometimes use the Dahua integration or in some cases need to find a way to load the original Dahua firmware onto the cameras. The second part seems to be getting more difficult with the more recent amcrest cameras. > 5mp+ is better Not sure where you saw this, but it's not always the case. The higher the resolution, the smaller the pixels to pick up light. Some cameras do make up for this with larger sensors, but not always. Generally, I feel like 5MP is more than enough for most situations. If you need to get clear images of people's faces or license plates, put the camera lower to the ground and get one with a longer focal length. If you want something more like the apple ecosystem, where things just work, and there's interoperability with multiple other systems from the same manufatcurer check out Ubiquiti. You get a ton of cool, enterprise grade features, but the cost is way higher, especially if you don't already have unifi hardware.

One disadvantage of this is that you're relying heavily on your smart home for your doorbell That can be fine but can also mean you do sometimes miss a caller I'd personally still install a physical doorbell - I use mine on WiFI (one WiFi camera does no harm, although I wouldn't want 20), but I believe with the Reolink you can use both Ethernet and doorbell wiring, so running both gets you the best of both worlds (and both options in future when changing doorbell) If you're installing one you may as well install the other IMO, adding both won't be much more expensive than just installing one

They *can* come with a chime, but don't always Certainly getting it with a chime is better, but that then limits you to always buying a doorbell that comes with a chime (or relying on your smart home) I just think that for something like a doorbell, there's something to be said for a wired connection to an old school chime - my smart chimes occasionally throw a wobbly, my OH chime works every time I'm not saying everyone HAS to have one, just that if I'm paying someone to pull wires anyway, I'd probably pay them to pull both - most of the cost is just to have the electrician there and drilling holes, fishing for tape etc... the cost to have them pull two wires at that point rather than one is usually gonna be pretty negligible

Yeah our new home did come with one and I really appreciate it - I like a smart doorbell but having it wired AND with ethernet just seems like the best of both worlds. Mine triggers my wired chime by my front door, while also triggering a couple of other chimes around my house where the front door one isn't visible, and then you still get the video etc and power either way A bunch of family members have battery doorbells and honestly they just seem like a PITA. Obviously that's not the comparison here as PoE would still be powered, but I still think I'd rather have both

Same. Works great natively, or if you want to flow it through frigate. Make sure to give it a static IP address on your router. I had a problem with it hopping around.

I have one and love it. I ran the power cord up the inside of the front door frame, drilled though to the outside, then mounted the Reolink. It works great on Wi-Fi but there is a RJ-45 Jack for wired.

I just bought a Reolink 5MP Video Doorbell last week for £76 at More Computers. Reolink do offer subscription services but can also work without subscription with local servers, using popular protocols.

This Reolink video doorbell is a complete waste of time and money. The installation process is a nightmare thanks to the abysmal instructions. I spent hours trying to get it to work, only to find out it's a glorified wired doorbell. It connected fine via ethernet, but the whole point was to use Wi-Fi, which it flat-out refused to do. Don't even bother with customer support. You'll be trapped in an endless loop with a useless chatbot before they eventually respond to your emails a few days later with a generic, unhelpful message. It's clear they don't want to help you. And if you dare try to return this defective brick, be prepared for yet another frustrating, convoluted process. Save yourself the headache and buy a different brand.

The poe and plug-in wifi models come with a chime whilst the battery model does not. Part of the reason for that is the battery model is likely to be used with an existing chime mechanism, however you can purchase a chime if required.

Vehicle detection was added to the black/white plug-in wifi or poe doorbell models in a firmware update in November 2024 and animal detection in March 2025. So that crosses out one of your differences. The lack of chime with battery model is on the assumption you will be re-using an existing mechanical chime & wiring when trickle charging. Otherwise you can add a Reolink chime. You will also notice a significant difference in costs between the plug-in and battery doorbells once you add the chime to the battery model. Note the battery model has a better field of view [https://reolink.com/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/#compare](https://reolink.com/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/#compare) If the doorbell is your only camera in the door area, the ability to do 24x7 recording is a massive advantage. You don't need to go poe for continuous recording, the plug-in wifi model also does that. So if you can get power to the door area and don't mind losing an existing chime then I'd recommend a powered doorbell over the battery model. Any of the doorbell models are compatible with a Home Hub or nvr, but of course only the plug-in/poe models support continuous recording to either sdcard and/or hub/nvr.

Did a full switch to Reolink and it's amazing. Fantastic with home assistant, you can "arm" the alarm when needed

Reolink is awesome. Been using them for years. Home assistant has good coverage of features. Then add frigate with a google coral and with a little tweaking you’ll be set.

I went with the Reolink Video Doorbell. HomeKit Secure Video works great.

We just got a Reolink WiFi model that supports PoE but it also powers off the existing chime. I had to put a small jumper of sorts inside the existing doorbell and it’s run flawlessly for 6 months since then. Note it does not ring your existing chime. Only the one that comes bundled in – as well as your phone and whatever else you want to automate with HA.

Agreed. Reolink bell comes with a wedge so it can point slightly to left and right for optimal positioning.

Replink video doorbell and scrypted. Unless you’re already in the now overpriced Ubiquity ecosystem. Another alternative depending on how you have access to your house a camera and a button combined in scrypted to make a HomeKit doorbell.

I have a Reolink doorbell which can both be battery and hard wired: STAY AWAY from that, you need the hub and as soon as you have it displayed on a card or anything, even if it is not on the active dashboard it drains like crazy. For me it's nothing more than a glorified doorbell. Only use case now is when the doorbell is rang the camera on the front porch shows up so i can see the back of the person ringing. That bell has been an utter waste of money and the only way Reolink can respond is "what firmware".

I have the version which can operate on both, i actually have it hardwired and it's utter s..t. So please go for the "normal" wired one, i really regret it, paid the price for wanting to be flexible

Reolink app is ass. If you don't get the NVR and you record 24x7 it's a pain to track down triggered events.

Eufy or tap. Reolink isn't as good as everyone claims. Ubiquiti but buy in is high

Tapo d130, reolink doorbell (not battery). Eufy c31. If you can't get power to it though you're screwed as battery doesn't do 24x7

If you aren't getting a NVR or hub then I wouldn't get reolink. The app isn't great as a standalone camera.

Don't get Roku. They're rebranded wyze and lack firmware updates and the better app. Tapo. Eufy. Reolink are the 3 good ones for basic consumers.

While it doesn't work with the existing chime, Reolink has slowly become the doorbell to beat. * Powered off existing wiring and transformer * No subscriptions * 2 way audio * Can work with just a SD card * Compatible with 3rd party network video recorders using standard protocols * Operates just fine when blocking it from the internet(good for privacy and when it no longer receives security patches someday) This also plays well with hubs like Home Assistant. I have mine setup to cast a MP3 as a custom doorbell sound.

Yep. I’ve started ditching all my WiFi devices for Reolink with NVR. WiFi devices are spotty at best and I’m tired of paying subscriptions.

Audio is fine, video is fine. Only hiccup is if I get an alert, I expect to see the video referencing the alert when I tap the notification. Sometimes it just opens the live feed. But maybe that's because its still recording the event? It hasn't been a deal breaker. Motion detection still works pretty consistently. Night recording still works well enough to identify people.

I say Reolink but 24/7 gonna be tough on 256g SD. Some say 512g works..

Definitely +1 for Reolink

We been using reolink for couple of years now and its been great so far!

My simple reolink doorbell works with two way audio. The doorbell is connected to Frigate, and frigate is integrated in home assistant. As an added bonus, you also get an NVR with cool object recognition, and you can trigger automations based on that

Reolink unless you already have a unifi protect console. I swapped from amcrest to unifi, it wasn't really needed but I wanted the finger print reader.

Reolink was already recommended but I’m here to second it. You can do local storage on your own wifi or store video in an sd card in the camera. Got it because I didn’t want a subscription and wanted exclusive access to the video, not stored on someone else’s servers

In the middle of ditching nest for Reolink as well. Done with nest after their last price increase to Aware. Reolinks are recoding to the SD card, as well as a QNAP NAS in the house. And using scrypted to pipe things to Apple HomeKit to have events still recorded in the cloud (you know, in case the bad guys steal the camera and the NAS). Google Nest can kick rocks.

All Google Assistant doorbells do this. Open Google Home app, go to live view for the doorbell, ‘…’ icon top right, Settings, then turn on Voice Announcements. It explains exactly what what this option does on that page, which is produce visitor announcements on GA speakers which of course includes the Google Home Mini. Not really sure what the point of “proving” this is but here are some screenshots of this setting for the Reolink doorbell. It works exactly as OP wants, ie chime on a Google Home Mini when the doorbell button is pressed. https://preview.redd.it/ljjk8i5ddp8e1.jpeg?width=2358&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7adfd732599ad20e40fb70566a177af3b821aac0 I also have Arlo and Aosu doorbells on other properties which work in exactly the same way, also chiming to one or more Google Home Minis. This has worked for many years.

Same. I made my Reolink doorbell HKSV compatible via Scrypted, but the Reolink randomly croaked this week. Decided to try the G410 cause of native HKSV, but now the G400 seems like a more reliable option, even though it's a lower model? Who the heck makes a doorbell that's not fully weather resistant? I want an HKSV doorbell that works with my existing doorbell wiring that is reliable. That's it. Maybe Apple will make one eventually.

We have REOLINK. The cameras constantly record and the file is saved to a computer in our home for two weeks. (We can change it to whatever, but that seemed like the best compromise for space requirements.). We initially had a Ring, but it was frustrating that it would start recording as someone walked away from the door.

Feels like I'm the lone warrior here recommending Tapo 😅 I have the D235, and it's great. It does cover head to toe, but you need to be strategic with placing it to ensure it covers the toe area you need. I like the ring-to-call feature — instead of just a notification, I get an actual phone call. A doorbell press is important, so I think a call demands immediate attention, unlike a pop-up that you might miss. The lag is mimimal - it was the fastest among the ones i compared (Eufy e340 and Reolink). I did a similar test like you've done - i bought all three and returned the Eufy and Reolink. Reolink seems to have a lot of fans but it performed so poorly compared to the Tapo. It was significantly laggy and the app was bad. Tapo's app is so much more refined and polished. A few reasons I didn't go with Eufy are 1. No 24x7 recording (You'll need it sometimes if you don’t have a dedicated camera in the front) 2. No RTSP support and 3. Eufy has a history of lying about it's encryption. You can read about it online

If you're buying a Reolink doorbell, here is a tip that isn't immediately obvious. The camera sensor orientation is different based on the color of the doorbell you select. If you get a white doorbell, the sensor is in a portrait orientation and can do package detection. If it is a black doorbell, the sensor is in landscape orientation and it doesn't do package detection.

Spot on. I switched from Nest. Best move I made. Excellent HA integration and very fast. I get 4.5 days of continuous on the SD card in the camera and 6 on the NVR.

I have no problem with the reolink app. It works and is pretty straightforward. It usesy Synology as an NVR which is great. I haven't done much with it inside HA so far.

This is why I bought reolink for our doorbell. It works really good and the chime is pretty loud

Sure. I'd recommend get Reolink doorbell, and then connecting it to their first party NVR solution or something like Frigate or BlueIris.

*I'm looking for a doorbell that is connected to an electrical outlet/electricity and that also has battery as a backup in case there is a power outage.* *This doorbell should be connected to wifi and should also have 4g/5g as a backup in case the wifi stops working due to, for example, a power outage.* These are problems to solve on your infrastructure side. My Reolink can do all of those because it's PoE, on a UPS and my router has WAN failover to 5G.

I mean it's be silly to have my switch on UPS but not the router and modem, yes the whole rack is battery backed. *Can the reolink units be accessed directly via ip* Yes they also work well with the HA plugin.

I'm just using a third party NVR with my Reolink doorbell and it's working fine. I installed it the other day, I haven't yet found out how to make the notification of the doorbell more prominent on my Android phone.

I am not sure about the Google compatible part ... But all my IP cameras have worked without issue in extreme cold temperatures. -55 F is probably the coldest I've seen where I reside. But over the last 15 years really no issues. Current doorbell is a Reolink but I have used other brands in the past. So what I am saying is just get what's best for your situation... I'm pretty sure it will work.

Reolink has been great. Never tried Ubiquiti. Would love to know what makes Ubiquiti worth the cost difference. I can still return my Reolink.

Another vote +1 for Reolink and Scrypted. Been rock solid for years. This combo gives you two way audio, phone alerts, Picture in Picture on the ATV, doorbell notifications on HomePods, etc.

I have the Aqara G410 and it integrates super easily with HomeKit. I used to have a Reolink doorbell and had to mess around with Home Assistant to get it working with HomeKit, but the G410 just works out of the box. One nice bonus is that the G410 also acts as a hub if you ever want to add more Aqara gear later. Since you already have an Apple TV, that will serve as your Thread border router, so you can still access and control everything in the Home app even when you are away from home.

Hardwire to my existing doorbell, work perfect with home assistant, only complain I have is that when paired with home assistant I don’t get the sensors in home assistant for person detection, doorbell press, etc. my replink was really good with that.

Most compatible with HA replink for sure, most compatible with HomeKit, aqara g410, I switched my replink to aqara for my doorbell because I never got the 2 way audio to work, I moved the reolink doorbell to the garage, as a camera or perfect but for the rest of the family and notification and HomeKit, I prefer aqara. Is not perfect but is better

Pretty much the only realistic option is the reolink doorbell, but for this kind of functionality don't go with battery. None will support the exact same 'call' style notification through home assistant that you'd get with their own apps. The home assistant app doesn't have call functionality built in. You can however enable 2 way audio, on mine I setup an actionable notification on doorbell press that takes me to the doorbell dashboard page with the mic already loaded to reduce connection times

Definitely loving my reolink doorbells, can't recommend them enough. For the mechanical chime I'd suggest using an esp32 with esphome and an automation to ring it on doorbell press

Reolink cameras do not need a subscription. The function beautifully without it and in fact if you add their NVR or home hub it even makes less sense to get a subscription. The cameras can also record directly to FTP for example if you have an Nas setup pretty much anywhere in the world. Very versatile cameras with great performance. I've had the doorbell for about a year and a half now and it's been excellent. The beautiful thing about it as well is it has Wi-Fi and Poe options built into the same device. Presently using it with Wi-Fi but this summer I'm going to use its Poe capabilities.

Reolink is fantastic

Reolink (or literally any other smart doorbell) and Home Assistant. Mine announce (over my Google Homes) which doorbell has been pressed and even a quick summary of who is at the door too ;-)

.. Because the sods started to charge the earth for using it. Bye nest hello reolink.

No worries shame as nest was good at one point but swapping to reolink paid for itself in no time given there's no need for a subscription

> Reolink, the only negative is they're not all compatible with mechanical chimes, the workaround is to set up a cheap esp32 with the chime connected to the gpio so you can use an automation to trigger the chime indirectly. That’s what I’ve done, though there’s a delay of a second or so. and I also get it to send a grab of the camera to my phone and watch at the same time.

I’ve just got the Reolink (swapped from a gen 1 Nest), it’s hard wired and I have it recording to a SD card 24/7. The notifications are spot on, it sends a picture and the person is always in it (so far!). It doesn’t do the face recognition like the Nest though

Also transferred from Ring. Generally it's an acceptable replacement for the cost. I'm fine with the change. Here are the downsides I experienced I couldn't get it to work with my existing doorbell chime and had to use the supplied chime. My ring worked with the existing doorbell fine. The sensitivity had to be cranked way down to stop getting false positive notifications. I cant seem to get the detection zone to ignore cars driving down my street well. It's not that intuitive a thing to tune There's no way to snooze notifications in the app like the ring app has when like someone is mowing the lawn and continually triggering alerts

For what it’s worth, the problem is not scrypted. The problem is ring due to its cloud based stream. HomeKit native will obviously be much better but something like Reolink or Amcrest doorbell will work much better with scrypted as they both support ONVIF and RTSP which are local feeds.

Reolink can be stored locally. If you set up your netwerk correctly it’s also safe

Reolink is basically plug and play with an NVR, but if you’re worried about privacy, you need more knowledge to set up VLANs

The only thing that might be needed additionally would be a home hub IF you want to be notified in the home without carrying your phone with you. The home hub functions as a "chime". It also acts as another sd-card expansion.

Interesting. Mine didn't come with a chime.

I went from Logi Circle View to the Unifi POE doorbell and it’s been a game changer. Took some work to get the wiring right, but it’s incredibly reliable. I’m done with WiFi cameras, so my vote is Reolink.

This isn't directly helpful but I refuse to have any Ring products in my home. The whole using my doorbell to give the police my own footage without my permission really turned me off from ever using ring, despite them ending it at some point.  I use Reolink based on a ton of recommendations and I'm incredibly happy that I went with Reolink. 

This isn't directly helpful but I refuse to have any Ring products in my home. The whole using my doorbell to give the police my own footage without my permission really turned me off from ever using ring, despite them ending it at some point.  I use Reolink based on a ton of recommendations and I'm incredibly happy that I went with Reolink. 

Reolink. Hands down.

Doorbell works perfectly fine with Frigate. I've had mine going for 2+ years. There were some reolink issues historically (and I've had some issues with my Duo 2) but the doorbell is not an issue in Frigate or BI.

Eufy is not intergrated by default, you need to install the eufy addon for intergration. I had a battery doorbell and it can trigger automations (has binairy sensors). The doorbell i had was a bit slow on updating the sensors in HA, and the live stream was not working (p2p). The doorbell i had was supported by the addon. Not all eufy devices are supported by the addon. Look into the addon if your doorbell is supported: https://github.com/fuatakgun/eufy_security. For great intergration with homeassistant i advice to buy reolinks doorbell, got that recently and it has a platinum intergration on HA, and it all works great :-). Good luck on the doorbell journey Edit: I dont recall having any settings for the chime with eufy. Again Here, Reolink can do this in HA intergration.

The only real reason to go with Amcrest over Reolink is that Amcrest can integrate with an existing doorbell chime. It sounds like that isn't a requirement for you so Reolink would be the way to go.

This! Love all my Reolink gear

Same here. Zero complaints. I also block it from internet access and have no issues at all.

I've got reolink poe cameras and very happy with them. Whenever my ring doorbell breaks I'm getting the reolink doorbell.

I just replaced my dead Nest doorbell with a Reolink doorbell. The video quality isn't quite as good, and I don't get the names of the people at the door, but the doorbell was under $100 and no $80 annual subscription. And honestly, I overall like it better. Announces Announces vehicle motion detection on all my Google Home devices. I can view it on my phone or Chromecast or Nest hub. No complaints!

Doorbell cameras have, generally, been shown to not really have any impact on package thefts because, by and large, that kind of property crime isn't generally investigated by overworked and underfunded police departments. IMO, Reolink is probably the best/easiest/most affordable combination for HA, and can work 100% local if it's not battery-powered. But odds are it won't really make much of a difference.

With Reolink? When did they add Apple compatibility? I have mine hacked together through scrypted to work on the Apple TV but is it native now?

Nothing but issues with mine (WiFi + battery) with and without the home hub.

Reolink all day every day. Works great with HA and doesn't require a subscription, and doesn't save to their cloud by default. I don't think I even set up a Reolink account at any point.

I have two Reolink doorbells and I’m completely happy with them. They’re not HK compatible out of the box but they integrate perfectly well through HA.

Reolink only reliably manages one steam at a time which means if you have it popping up on more than one device when the bell rings it can be hard to open it to answer, meaning you have to go to the door. I use a Reolink doorbell but operated under a policy of it only gets connected via my phone

I'm connected to ch.52 (DFS) on my reolink doorbell.

I have a Reo-link camera above the door and it detects motion and notifies me with Home Assistant Server. I can get to the door before the delivery guy can set down the package. If you have the speaker version you can talk to them and tell the sales people to go away.

That’s what I’m using, too. Zero issues.

I have gone through 3 Logitech circle cameras. Not doorbell. They all broke and they weren’t cheap. My doorbell is a Reolink 2K that has a much better image than the Logitech ones. I run Scrypted to get it in HomeKit for automations.

I just switched from Nest doorbell (slow, cloud based, contains a non-replaceable battery that fails after a few years, and worst yet is the disaster of Google software…) to Reolink. I think it meets all your requirements … had it for a few weeks and really liking it.

\+1 It has an SD Card slot and can also stream on the popular protocols to a local server/NAS Edit: Oh one thing you may not expect is that it comes with a wireless chime you plug in to an outlet. This is because the low voltage line doesn't have enough power to run the reolink and the traditional bell on your wall. It has a dozen or so "ring tones" to pick from though so that's kinda cool and adjustable volume.

I have the white doorbell and can see packages in live view and playback, but my camera has not identified one package. I switched from a standalone (Vivint doorbell camera with 180-degree FOV). It had no problem picking up packages, and images were clearer. Everything else is better with the Reolink doorbell camera.

It’s not good, especially in low light.

Reolink products are solid, I currently use there wifi products

Watch Youtube LifeHackster reviews of Reolinnk cams including their doorbell cam models, POE, wired wifi and battery. The wired versions cannot use existing chimes, they use a plug in one that comes with the cam. Also Reolink does not have pics with notifications, just text, but you can buy an app the adds that if you want called Pushover for $5. You can recod to card in the camera, no subscription. For advanced recordings you could buy the Home Hub or an NVR.

My doorbell cam does not have very many false alerts. In top post "welcome to the official..." there's a section how to reduce false alerts, helps a lot to turn off "others" in recording and notification schedules.

I use reolink and like them. I probably would have gone with Unifi if I had known about them when I dis my setup.

Reolink doorbell is solid, been working reliably for about a year no issues. Regularly updated firmware (they just added hdr for example). But I've not tried any others to compare it to.

>I was set on the G4 Pro but seems like Reolink is heavily preferred here. Not only is the Reolink doorbell less than 1/3rd of the price of the G4 Pro, but in side-by-side comparison the Reolink also has better picture quality in every scenario. The only sensible reason for choosing the Unifi doorbell is if you already have a bunch of Unifi cameras.

Reolink is the best one in my opinion. No subscription no account.

Is your router on ups too? Pretty sure my reolink unit has battery built in and connected via a doorbell transformer. So that covers the power loss. WiFi connection? tick. 4g/5g? Not sure if I need that. Can the reolink units be accessed directly via ip? That way as long as you are local you should be fine.

Same. Reolink is sharper and higher nitrate, but the HDR on the Nest was better. Still perfectly functional though, and now I don't have to pay any subscription fees or worry about Google killing it off some day.

My Reolink has been great. Finally got some smart switches and it was simple to set up an automation to turn on the porch lights if my doorbell detects a person. No fiddling even for a super novice. 

The reolink doorbells come with a chime. It's wireless but not hooked into the smart home world per se so i wouldn't say you're relying on your smart home any more than any other non smart wireless doorbell

I agree having an old school chime is the most reliable. I think a lot of new homes don't even come with that wiring, and a lot of old homes have lost it over the years (my 100-year old home had the transformer but everything downstream of that was gone).

And even the reolinks that come with the chime, if you have a front and back door bell, they can't share the chimes, so you have to have two of them. Stupid design imo.

This is why I went with Reolink after everyone else started charging a subscription fee

Id like to say this isnt the case for other manufacturers, but it has become so. My friend and i both got doorbells around the same time, he went with eufy, i went with reolink. Both started out great with native notifications. Both of us, at different unrelated times, noticed a delay in notifications. It got better, then worse, then better, then worse. I think its just Eufy/Reolink/whatever manufacturer you use balancing their AWS subscription. They obviously dont want to pay for more than what they need, so as more users jump on board they have to incrementally upgrade resources to cope. I solved the issue on my end by using homeassistant to provide the notifications instead when someone presses the doorbell, so now the server sending push notifications is my own, and only handles my notifications. I also have it push a live feed to every home assistant tablet in the house so you dont have to get your phone out if you are home. My friend is waiting for Eufy to expose visitor detection/doorbell press with homeassistant, but they seem to have abandoned the homeassistant integration. I hope they revive it oneday and add support for triggers like that. Then to add insult to injury, Google updated android, AND apple updated IOS, (about 6 months ago?) to prevent "network broadcasts" for apps that dont have the permission granted. But, no app had the permission granted, because the permission didn't exist before.. The long and short of that is, when you are at home on your wifi (or connected via a VPN), the feed gets routed via AWS servers anyway instead of connecting directly. A bunch of us found that the fix for ios and android is to just remove and reinstall the app, and grant everything. Now everyones load times after they hit the notification have gone from 15+ seconds to about 3 seconds. It effected Eufy and Reolink, probably others. I think ring routes the feed via AWS regardless. Sorry for the long comment lol

Reolink

Nope I bought a 4 pack of their new e330s had to return all 4 , switched to reolink way better

Yes I have my reo link doorbell in frigate. No voice response yet though I just haven’t really worked on it

Do yourself a huge favor and buy a Reolink.

I have a Reolink one, swapped from Ring about a year ago and never looked back. Like you I refused to pay the subscription and it wouldn't let me hook it up to a nas drive so I binned it. Compared to the Ring camera Reolink is far better response time meaning I can actually answer remotely when someone presses the bell. The app is a little basic compared to the features in ring, but still functional. You can add an SD card to give you playback rather than paying for their cloud, or you can point it at a nas drive locally if you're a bit more tech inclined

Reolink, I also added it to annke nvr to record. Flawless

Aside from asking for features that don't exist such as your preference in battery (that wouldn't even fit in the device). I like my Reolink. It's available in battery wireless and POE.

I switched from Ring to Reolink. I have all video saved locally and I can pass it through Frigate for really good AI detection. It also integrates perfectly with Home Assistant. You can get their NVR to make this simple. My switch started because I had a package stolen and the Ring camera didn’t show it for some reason.

Powered wifi cams for doorbells plus POE. This is Reolink. For Ring my doorbells were battery powered plus a bunch of wifi cams.

Well for my folks I actually went Reolink. They get some criticism but I didn’t need a top of the line system, just something that worked with no extra monthly costs. It’s working perfectly and pulling up feeds on the app is super snappy. No rich notifications for free but I use an app called Pushover for snapshot notifications. Have doorbells and a set of outdoor cams. I especially like the CX line of cams that do full color at night as long as there’s just a little bit of ambient light. Also got a Reolink doorbell for my neighbor. Since that’s all he has no nvr was needed, just a micro sd card that records about a week of footage. So for me, I’m leaning Reolink. I’m just dreading the upfront costs again after spending so much buying into nest. So, for now I’m using my starling home hub and Scrypted to give me something in the meantime that’lo give me notifications and is free.

My Logitech circle view doorbell just died on me after 2 years. I decided not to purchase another one, I instead got a Reolink doorbell and hooked it up to HomeKit through scrypted. It was free and easy enough for me to do, but I understand not wanting to have to do that! If you’re in direct sunlight like I am, expect your Logitech to overheat and go offline often! Mine also delaminated pretty quickly. Good luck in your search!

Honestly - I ended up doing everything through Reolinks app - I popped in an SD card and called it a day. Scrypted was great but my HomeKit kept going offline and I would go in and fix it and it would work for like 4 days and then go back to being offline. If it helps I really like the Reolink doorbell and app🤷🏽‍♀️

100% agreed. Have a situation where I don’t have regular internet and using a hotspot with limited data but still want cameras. Reolink was pretty much only good option where it only needed the internet when it sensed movement.

It depends on the doorbell and how it is added to Scrypted. Reolink are one of the brands that work really well in Scrypted with everything ported over as you’d expect, and motion detection is done on the doorbell so you won’t have to process all motion locally on your Scryted hardware.

+1 for reolink!

Reolink had a great door bell camera, local, no subscription.

You don’t need a home hub - the Reolink doorbell comes with a wireless chime unit that you plug into any power outlet. If you have a larger home, you can buy additional chime units.

The Reolink doorbell is a great option, just know if you plan on using it with Frigate it'll be a crazy ride. The basics are about normal but if you want two way audio learn from me and just use NGINX to force https. WebRTC which is required for two way needs https in order to capture your mic. I fussed around for hours until I found that bit of info and the corresponding fix. Or you can get the reolink hub and all you're problems will be much simpler but I wanted to save $80.

I have got my 3rd Reolink doorbell, after the first two fogged up within one year. No reolink doorbell anymore for me, next will be a ubiquity. All other reolink camera’s I own work well.

POE will always be best if you can run a cable. I’ve never come across a wireless camera that wasn’t just OK at best. And I do believe the reolink doorbell is the best RTSP one available still. Ubiquiti’s doorbell also seems to be great, but I don’t know if it can work with frigate or just their system or not.

The Reolink doorbell will do everything you want. Integrates well with HA. No subscription. Either push notifications thru app or HA. I run everything locally so I setup a HA automation for the notifications to phone & computers. Plus the chime will alert you also when a person is detected (or vehicle or any motion or pet if you want). You can record locally on the micro SD card (or remote NVR) and choose to record continuously or only events. A larger SD card should get you a 2 or 3 days of continuous recording from what I've read. I have all my Reolink cameras and doorbells setup on one of my dashboards for quick viewing. These are my first video doorbells and so far have been very happy with them. Only issue is the chime became unpaired after a power outage. Had to remove it from the app, restart the doorbell and repair the chime. [@starkillerOG](https://github.com/starkillerOG) has done a hell of a job with the integration. [https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/reolink/#automation-ideas](https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/reolink/#automation-ideas)

Been rocking the Reolink doorbell using Home Assistant to make it Homekit compatible for 2 years now flawlessly. Even chimes my homepods

FWIW I had a Unifi G4 doorbell since they released it. It died a couple of weeks back. I didn’t feel like I got my money’s worth. It worked fine for a while but eventually I was always fighting signal issues and dropping out. Eventually it stopped being able to activate the chime, so I just bypassed the chime box. It lasted 4 or 5 years, but I felt it should have lasted longer. One day I noticed that it was offline. I tried other transformers and power supplies, it was toast. So, I replaced it with a Reolink and brought it into HomeKit with Scrypted. So far so good. And it was on sale for $80 on Amazon for pre-BF sale. Works every bit was well with motion detection, and seems to perform a lot better in low light vs my old Unifi G4 doorbell. 

Reolink gives you the most flexibility of "plug it in and scan qr code" or "I want to send RSTP via port 3743 instead of the standard and put it on a VLAN with no internet access." Neither option requires a subscription, and the hardware is built really well.

It is very unusual to have mains for your doorbell, hence you having a hard time finding a doorbell. You'll probably have to put a transformer in the box to power the doorbell. I have my Reolink doorbell control my existing chime via HA automation by putting a Zigbee relay in the box that the wiring from the button is routed to. That may be a better option for you.

It can be an AC-AC transformer. Most doorbells (at least in the US) run on 24 or 30VAC, so that's what Reolink expects. It'll be hard finding one that fits inside your box outside, though. You may need to find somewhere accessible but hidden that you can mount it upstream. Then you'd have another device, this one much smaller, to control the chime.

Unfortunately that's going to be a deal breaker for a huge number of home users, including myself. Ah well. At least the reolink doorbell and other options work great still, and supposedly can be added to unifi protect.

This is true for cameras but less so for doorbells. An awful lot (almost all) of doorbells are 'smart home' products, that don't just have a basic web interface but rather force you to use some shitty app. Take the amcrest one- it'll work locally with a NVR, but you still have to configure it with an app, and if you cut off its internet connection to Amcrest cloud the LED blinks differently. Cameras there's plenty of options that are happy to work locally. Doorbells, not so much. Ubiquiti UniFi is one, I think Dahua also has one. Reolink too although you may need an app to set it up.

Good point. I actually helped someone set up the POE NVR version with their reolink NVR. Worked great.

I have the wifi wired one as well. No issues here.

I really like my Reolink. I have notifications for package, presence and doorbell ring. Activation is fast, and so far, accurate notifications are broadcast on home speakers as well as sent to devices. Highly recommend the Reolink.

I like mine. Sure is prettier than the Ring it replaced. That being said, my Reolink doorbell is also in my Protect.

yeah i'm waiting for the white one to come back in stock, it also has a more vertical lens format which works better for our entryway

i have the nvr so *shrug* most apps are ass, ring sucks, myq too, wyze is barely better

Reolink. Professional stuff , but decently easy to use by an average person. Stores to SD ( or NAS if you're more techy, so you can remove the risk of the burglar stealing the SD card

+1 Got one last week. Better resolution than the nest. Important note, the white doorbell has additional features the black doorbell does not have. Hopefully this helps someone out there. I didn't know that when I ordered mine. *Package notifications

Reolink is my first option. I had a google nest doorbell and replaced it with a Reolink. The nest was slow at warning me when someone was at the door and pressed the bell. I would get a notification 30 seconds to 3 minutes late and could not interact with the person at the door. I’m in Europe and I feel the google/nest servers are lagging enormously. With Reolink and its HA integration things are local (no laggy google server) and it works great.

I’m not OP but there’s a Reolink integration for Home Assistant that you can use in combination with an Apple TV to achieve the chime PiP. I used [this tutorial](https://www.speaktothegeek.co.uk/2025/01/apple-homekit-and-reolink-doorbells-cameras/) to help guide me.

Came from the nest doorbell. Compared to that it's pretty bad. Video is a little less good, i can live with that. Audio is pretty awful. I can't ever have a proper conversation, like it was perfectly well possible with the Nest, there is always a second delay to the doorbell and back from the doorbell as well so always 2 seconds delay and sometimes more. Doesn't matter if I'm on my own network or from 4/5G. I sent a mail to reolink support bit no answer. This thing will be replaced soon.

Reolink, very decent.

No. I moved to reolink and never looked back sincs

I second this, because Reolink's have RTSP streaming if you want use Frigate. But make sure you get the one what supports RTSP if thats what you want

Reolink all the way. Poe to DVR for overkill

Dang, that would have been good to know! I got the black one and then I installed an overhead camera to see the packages.

Reolink like everyone already says Only good option

Sell it and buy a reolink Sold mine for 55,- and bought a reolink for 75,- brand new

I’d recommend against it personally. I’ve got mine setup with a Reolink doorbell cam and I either lose connection regularly (closing home app seems to get it back for some reason) or lose the ability to scrub recordings and that’ll just randomly reappear. I’m seriously considering swapping to a native doorbell setup.

Cannot stress the affordability and flexibility and reliability of reolink enough

I had a eufy doorbell and the wifi stopped working after about a year. When i googled it, tons of people had the exact same problem after the same amount of time. Eufy was also in the news for a security flaw in their devices. I switched to Reolink after that and haven't had any issues. Just had to set up email notifications with human detection pics, since there's no OOTB push notification with pics.