Ubiquiti - Doorbell Lite (UVC-Doorbell-B)

Probably going Lite then Standard. The pro model with the screen is over 8 1/2" tall which is a little on the large side for a house. Although I usually tend to go for the better spec'd versions I may hold back on this one just because of the size. I also have another 4k camera that covers the entry way so the drop in quality shouldn't be a big deal really. Anything is better than the Nest Doorbell I had that I wouldn't count as HD at all.

I just got my order in! Woo hoo! Black and white showing in stock, at least for now.

Max power on the lite is 8w and the g6 entry is 16w with the pro at 18 They could have definitely made the 8w lite without any questions run on 16-24vac

Watch the base g6 entry be 299. But the lite is definitely a smart choice of 99$ but the need for Poe only on an 8w device is somewhat rough.

The wild thing is even their basic 99$ one is Poe only ... The target market for a lower to mid range doorbell is likely someone who doesn't have rj45 ram to their door in an older house.

Got the alert, I was in the doctor's office. Was afraid it would be sold out in 10 minutes. Still in stock when I got home, so I got mine!

I ran mine. It sucked ass but totally worth it in the end.

Obviously it hasn’t been an issue with the G4 Pro doorbell, so why would it now be a problem with the lite doorbell that removes a screen and package camera?

If you can run POE, Ubiquiti has a doorbell lite for $99. It looks like a big version of a standard doorbell. Also you would need a UDR 7 (all in one WiFi router too) or the like, but it’s $379 for both, and they handle all recordings, AI detections, everything on the UDR and doorbell itself.

Doorbell Lite is a no brainer to finally replace my Eufy. Only $99, but we have to pay extra for a chime, right?

Honestly hated the look of it, aesthetically a bit too futuristic for the outside of our house in such a prominent spot. Plus it’s a G4 and already outdated. The new one for $99? Slam dunk. I already have multiple outdoor cameras, I don’t need this to be that fancy.

Who buys just one UniFi camera? My front yard is plenty covered by turret cameras from near the roof. I just want the doorbell to be small and do it's one thing well.

I think the goal is to get a lot sharper image with less fisheye distortion. A greater field of view is good, but it means everything IN that field of view is less sharp because there are only so many pixels to go around on the sensor. On the G4 Pro, even though it has a 5MP sensor it only records video in 2MP (1600x1200) resolution at a 160 degree field of view. That means on the horizontal axis you've got about 10 pixels of resolution sharpness per degree of arc. On the Lite, it's got the same 5MP sensor but only a 96-degree field of view and actual recording at 5MP (1920x2560 because the sensor is portrait, not landscape like on the G4 Pro), which means that you get 20 pixels of resolution sharpness per degree of arc. It's going to have about 60% of the horizontal field of view, but what's actually IN that field of view will be twice as sharp. I think that's a fair compromise.

I think the idea is so that the Lite can have at least *some* package/porch viewing capabilities. The horizontal FOV is smaller on the Lite than on the G4 Pro, but the vertical FOV is actually larger (131.2 degrees versus 114 degrees on the Pro). I think this is to help compensate for not having a package camera but orienting the sensor's larger field of view vertically does mean they had to compromise on the horizontal.

If overheating is a concern, then first of all I'd get the white just to avoid the additional problem of the sun heating up black plastic. Second, the G4 used 12W of power and the G4 Pro used 10W. The Lite brings that further down to 8W, so less heat to dissipate plus a white option means overheating shouldn't be a huge issue.

Got one too, my only downside is the chime is so damn expensive.

Gonna have to do a cable drop for mine. Got drywall on the inside, so it will be a bit frustrating to patch, but not impossible to complete.

Just got the alert and rushed to get the order put in for a white one. Excited to get one!

This is the one that looks like a generic doorbell button. Shouldn’t be an issue for people to know what it is.

I plan to use homebridge to ring my HomePods and phones. If that works well enough, I’ll skip the expensive chime that everyone says is too quiet.

Fuck yessssssss. I got one!

I love that this has a better camera than my G4 pro doorbell. Things are only getting better. Might sound like a weird thing to be happy about but as a former Google smart home hostage it’s nice to hear.

I got a black one. Didn't get a chime though. I guess I'll see how running an Ethernet cable for PoE gies, then maybe get a chime. Or I might just rely on phone notifications if possible.

dang I would have preferred the smaller lite vs the g4 pro I got recently

Not to be a complainer but no wifi poe only even on the lite model worse IR range sucks

My wife picked this one too, I like the classic big button look but its still pretty solid

I bought it and will sell it if the G6 isn’t $500

I’ve still not had the in-stock email, but I’ve bought one.

Got one myself a white one.

Agree. I bought mine thinking it would be finger sized, but I am OK with it still

Completely agree. I have ordered mine for the house reno - can't wait!

Doorbell Lite is only 8W and is still POE only, even thought the previous 10W G4 Pro could do it.

Keep in mind even the doorbell lite appears to be POE only, so if you setup your G4 using the existing doorbell power you may still have preferred what you got.

Keep in mind it does not have a fingerprint scanner, sadly. It has facial recognition instead which, meh, but that may be your jam

It works but it's an acquired skill for sure, you have to be very consistent. Once you get the hang of it it's fine, same success rate as an underscreen reader for me I'd say

Got one in black in Canada!

I have a front door that is not used much, only by some delivery guys. Never wanted to spend >400 Euro on a doorbell just to fit my whole protect setup. This is perfect for me. And I think in many European countries there is conduit running to the doorbell anyway, so replacing the old cable for UTP is not a big job.

PoE only for both pro and lite. It seems like they're targeting either business customers or prosumers.

That looks like an apartment building, not a home doorbell. You are much better off with the Ubiquiti PoE doorbell bridged into HomeKit

Unifi poe doorbell. Two years and never had a problem. Works with home bridge plugin. Being in the Ubiquiti ecosystem helps.

Same, ripped out all the old doorbell wiring and chime and exclusively use Unifi PoE Doorbell and PoE Chimes

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.

When I moved into our current home I bought a Ubiquiti doorbell + a bunch of their cameras. There was no pre-existing wiring so I just drilled some holes and used thin gauge cat6 and now have a POE doorbell, pretty nice. I have the think hooked up to home assistant too which triggers a cheapo chime I just rigged with a £20 Shelly relay. Chime deactivates automatically overnight. Been running this way for going on 3 years, I love it. All my footage is stored in my garage, with a rotating encrypted copy sent to Backblaze. No fucker other than me seeing that footage.

Ubiquiti, locally hosted and you can hard wire it with POE so you don't have to worry about wifi interference.

Love mine, not battery operated like op wants, but poe man, poe is everything

UniFi/Ubiquity POE best, WiFi close behind

I like my Unifi equipment, but I already had their networking gear, so adding PoE cameras and a PoE smart doorbell was pretty easy. Installed them right before going on an overseas vacation, and was able to monitor my house via the app despite all the recordings being on local storage. I'll be expanding my setup going forward.

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.

Unifi Protect doorbell has been good for me.

i agree ... and their doorbells have a front camera and package camera

AI detection sends me a notification the a package has been delivered… otherwise, the front facing cameras on doorbells typically don’t have sufficient field of view

Unifi Protect is probably the most reliable/user friendly. I've used lots of surveillance platforms, and nothing I've seen even comes close. I haven't tried their smart plugs yet, but for cameras, doorbells & sensors, it's fantastic.

Unifi Protect with homebridge plugin works great for me

It used to be but the latest few homebridge unifi protect plugin updates are now on par . It’s also more intuitive to set up.

PoE is more secure and reliable. I’m 100% Ethernet all 11 cameras with doorbell. Buy a raspberry pi 5. Load the home bridge image on a microSD card. Put the card in and it will boot up and be ready to go. Homebridge is the most intuitive and has the least learning curve compared to other options. The latest plug-in is very mature and has the same performance as the others now like scrypted etc.

Yes as long as you setup a home bridge system and install the Unifi protect plugin. Or you can install home assistant and add the scrypted add on alternatively.

I guess you could start with that, but it’s a night and day performance difference when I upgraded from my Pi 4 to Pi 5 a few months ago. Video is instant now.

There are quite a number of Unifi doorbell users here. But since the Unifi doorbells are somewhere between 2 - 5x the price of the Reolink doorbell, it would have to be pretty damn special to consider....and it just isn't. It's just okay; perfectly functional, but nothing special and definitely nowhere near worth the ridiculous retail price.

I didn't get it to work with ringing the doorbell but I can say hey Google show me the front door and it streams the doorbell camera on my TV.

For some reason my Google Home display never loads the stream but the TV will

UniFi protect uses their cloud for authentication, but everything it records is self hosted. Very reliable as well.

I also moved from Ring to UniFi Protect and have their doorbell. I hardwired the doorbell through Ethernet. Using wifi for cameras is not ideal.

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.

That may be the excuse, but what you want exists. Synology for example is a totally local NVR, but it'll do an app push to a phone when motion is detected. No idea if that alert can work for a doorbell. Ubiquiti does that well. NVR is local, does an app push to the phone when someone rings the bell. I've never tried it with the NVR not connected to their cloud though.

The unifi doorbell seems to be out of stock everywhere. I’ve been looking this past week.

Thanks for the tip, checked regularly and I was able to purchase one from the Ubiquiti store. And thank you for your blog, I’m using your Ubiquiti post as a guide to install a system.

Really excited about this next-gen UniFi doorbell update, Protect and Access working together just makes sense! I've recently picked up some UniFi gear through MyITHub and honestly, it was a great decision. Smooth setup, solid support, and everything just works. Looking forward to what comes next from Ubiquiti!

10000% Agree. You are trying to make one camera do the work of at least two cameras here. Get a wired PoE doorbell cam to do doorbell cam duty. Then get either as u/Curious\_Party\_4683 suggested a 4mm or greater lens, or a cameras with PTZ (with actual optical Z) and auto tracking. Reolink and Unifi make good options for both of those.

Some do. Eufy and Unifi offer dual camera options that they typically call a "package cam" I think the bigger issue is angle and height. A camera will have a wider and further view when you can get ya boi Pythagoras in on the game and angle that camera down. So it's hard to have a doorbell which must by it's very nature be lower down to see people and let them press the button.

Absolutely! I have a UniFi doorbell and it’s great. I also have 3 CCTV cameras by UniFi and it all records 24/7 to UniFi NVR. Well worth the investment.

Budget? I have an Ubiquiti doorbell with scrypted. Even without scrypted it’s a great overall doorbell with the ability to save locally. Setup is expensive though

Unifi is the best. Not cheap though

I use a Unifi doorbell hooked up to a UPS. My WiFi is also on the UPS. This means the doorbell is powered during an outage, the local recording is powered during an outage and I can also remote view during a power outage. If really needed, you could add a 4g backup to Unifi network gear too. 

UniFi 💯, and the plugin is professional good

Just here to say unifi. That is all. Good luck everyone.

And it does not lag when you pull it up remotely !

I will be switching to a unifi doorbell. No fees and all local storage. Number of days storage is only limited by hard drive space. Add in AI features like searching for "red car" and all instances of where a red car came into view is shown, number plate and face recognition. For me, nothing better on the market.

Yeah and it comes with a wedge piece to angle it better.

I have this and it works great, but it will cost a bit to get everything.

UniFi. Video is stored locally on either a Cloud Key or NVR.

I believe UniFi has way more industry trust than Ring, Amazon, Google in terms of selling customer usage data.

I stand by what I said. And I believe UniFi to be a better solution than Ring.

Go with UniFi. All recording is internal to your home.

Logitech CircleView Doorbell meets those requirements. But, I’m not happy with the durability and am moving to Unifi’s doorbell.

As others have said, UniFi protect. But their apps have just sucked since the first version. They meet the “no monthly fee” part, but that’s about it. Haven’t tried anything else.

The unifi doorbell is great.

I started with Unifi then chose to marry HomeKit over Amazon or Google an ecosystem which then led me to lean into Aqara (over Nest, Ring and the rest). Unifi is a Superior Network and Security Camera solution because it is remote-manageable, has no subscription fees, allows local storage options and has iOS apps to manage it. Even though I have some Aqara cameras and a G4 Doorbell - I will replace these with the Unifi Doorbell and Cameras going forward. I still recommend Aqara as an excellent starting point - especially for Locks, Water Leak detectors, Shade controllers etc. I have U100/U300 locks, an M3 Hub, and a harem of door open, vibration and leak sensors. I have have an Aqara Temp Humidity Sensor up in my Attic Crawlspace so I can monitor summer temps. The Unifi solution requires some technical skills to manage and setup, but it's clearly an Enterprise Class solution and the price point is amazing for what you get compared to Cisco Meraki or Juniper. Unifi is so price competitive it is reasonable for a home.

Unifi doorbell -> Scrypted -> HKSV Works wonderfully.

Once I went with UniFi I’ve never looked back

the reolink POE doorbell is both the only reolink product I recommend and the only doorbell i recommend outside of the unifi one but youve gotta be deep in the ecosystem for that

Unifi is all local if you want it to be! Love unifi protect

Anytime anyone has an issue with the doorbell, it's always the fact they didn't upgrade their transformer (or upgraded to an underpowered one). Unfortunately, if you're has been stuck in a reboot cycle because of the constant underpowering, it may have permanently damaged it now.

I honestly have to look up the specs they recommend every time. I’d just make sure your transformer is at least that. But also factor in if it powers more than 1 chime and more than 1 doorbell. Then it has to be even more powerful. But yes, when the doorbells first came out there was a post every week of someone with this problem and it was always the transformer. I personally have had the same doorbell since its first release with zero issue, including in high heat, but I upgraded transformer before installing.

Another vote for the Unifi system.

This, the power options are great, PoE, existing doorbell wiring (might require transformer upgrade), or USB. Can be entirely local only, with local credentials, or relayed remote access through Unifi. However, does require Unifi Protect whichcan only run on some Unifi routers or Unifi NVR.

Whoa there. Love my Unifi doorbell cam. A bit of a hack to get it into HomeKit, but it’s the best I’ve used. Nest, Ring, and Arlo are trash.

Unifi’s is pretty awesome. Just requires a little extra technical work with scrypted

Gotta have the unifi backend to run it. At least would need 1 other piece of hardware capable of running unifi protect software to record to, assuming you don't have any unifi equipment to begin with. Also glad to see it as #2, recently switched from Wyze Doorbell Pro (not on list) and it has been a nice upgrade.

I have Level Bolt with matter over thread and an Apple TV as my HomeKit hub. Works great. Fast and reliable. I haven’t had good experiences with WiFi doorbell cams, so I can’t recommend any. I’m using a UniFi doorbell, but that’s requires its own Gateway or UNVR which is an added investment.

I have a unifi doorbell, without a chime. It doesn't notify during the night, or if the house is in do not disturb mode. I have my notifications through home assistant, so I can do all sorts of conditions and scenarios.

Unifi doorbell

And I can add on top of that, you can now open a door lock through the finger print leveraging HomeAssistant with this door bell so I you can it's the obvious better choice:) Edit: as mentionned below, only the g4 doorbell pro black had the fingerprint sensor

I use a Unifi doorbell cam piped in to HomeKit with Scrypted. Works with my mechanical chime (and HomePods!)

If you're in the Unifi ecosystem, or willing to invest into it, their doorbell is great! I got one wired over Ethernet and it also has almost zero latency. Meaning I can finally talk back when someone pressed the button!

It is actually factual. You have more ability to secure and locally manage with Unifi than Ring. Some of what you’ve said is correct on the security concern, but then you’ve gone into a hole of stupidity to defend it when it’s factually more capable - despite what you “believe”.

Holy shit you’re fucking dense. Someone - Unifi is a better solution. You - you can believe that, but I need proof?!?! Me - dude, there’s a lot more you can do with Unifi, it’s obviously a more capable system in all aspects, including security. You - proof!!! Proof!!! Proof!!! Unifi bad you wrong! Me - ok bud.

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.

Yep, plus one for UniFi doorbell. Ended up buying some cheap NFC cards which paired with the doorbell and can be given to family members who need access to our house. Package camera is also really nice.

Came here to suggest this. Unless you're setting up a very expensive (Enterprise level) UniFi setup, the video will be stored locally (on a device at your home). Depending on just how security conscious you want to be, you can completely segregate the system from the internet or allow yourself streaming access from anywhere.

I pulled wiring to replace my old front door intercom, and got the Unifi doorbell. Its expensive, and you have to already have a unifi system, but if you do, you can add chimes to other rooms very easily, via either PoE or wall outlet plug modules. I've got 4 of em scattered across the house, and it works quite well

I started with Ring but eventually upgraded to UniFi’s doorbell system after adding several UniFi cameras. I’ve done numerous installations of both Ring and UniFi, and I can’t emphasize enough how much better the UniFi system is. While it may cost more upfront, the quality, reliability, and control make it absolutely worth it. Unlike Ring, nothing is stored in the cloud, you retain full ownership of your footage. UniFi Protect has improved dramatically over the years, and you can even integrate third-party cameras (though not Ring) into the Protect ecosystem. The video quality is outstanding you can store full 4K footage until your storage fills up. I’ve also never liked Alexa’s ecosystem and often missed important footage with Ring. Since switching, those issues are gone. UniFi is just on another level. Not to mention the constant annoying alerts and promos with the Ring app. UniFi protect you just get a clean ad-free interface that just works. No upsells, no BS just reliable security over your system

Ubiquiti. You need a separate recording unit but you can still access it from anywhere using the app. No subscription and no cloud service.

I am wondering though: what do people use for automation(s) when somebody rings the bell? I currently have a Unifi Doorbell and they have Blueprints. But I never could find some generic blueprint that could do the same (like snapshot/thumbnail, actionable buttons etc)

The unify doorbell is great. The POE chime is useless though. I can barely hear it when I'm in the same room.

Unifi if you're in the ecosystem. Eufy otherwise. AliExpress (rip) if you like a project 

Basically this. It’s a reasonable choice if you’re sold on Unifi Protect, and certainly has some minor features like dedicated package camera, animations on the little screen and the fingerprint sensor (currently in beta). May able have NFC, but I don’t think there’s any support yet. Those aren’t likely to overcome the cost difference for most people.

Yeah +1 for Unifi. No subscription, no cloud unless you want it. Only problem is the relatively high cost of entry and it's not for people who don't like to tinker (though given the sub we're in, probably not a problem!).

Bad video quality, terrible notifications, detection that half work, and a high failure rate. All that in a $300+ proprietary package. It is embarrassing the amount of complaints about it on here.

The Ubiquiti fanboy way, blame the user for anything gone wrong. Which goes against the other Unifi fanboy line of how easy it is to setup and use. The UI doorbell is embarrassingly bad and it is typical human behavior to not believe that when they have spent over $300 on junk.

Both have both. Their doorbell cameras function pretty much the same as a Google nest or ring, but all footage is stored on a local NVR. Tbh, the NVR is the part that makes it a tough investment, but I like my Unifi doorbell so much more than I ever liked by Nest.

Yes, came here to say this. I went the Ubiquiti/Unifi route, and redid my network in the process (in hindsight it was due time!). Advantages I found against it being more costly: ease of maintenance, always works (make sure to use UTP cabling where ever possible), no subscription fees (!), all local storage and great integration with HA. And if HA fails (mine sometimes does) it keeps running.

Doorbell from Ubiquiti, no subscription but needs the Unifi ecosystem ( eg a recording device)

I have a whole Unifi setup with my Doorbell. As far as I understand third party ONVIF cameras are supported by Unifi, not the other way around ( doorbell supporting ONVIF)

So that’s why they made the image quality of the current generation so bad! To get us to upgrade? Will it worked, I am with unifi now and could not be happier, and no subscription fees!!

Unifi protect. You need some supporting equipment as well like a cloud key or DVR because everything is stored on your devices locally and viewable remotely. It's expensive yes but it's a one time thing.

I've had it for over 5 years and would not recommend it to anyone due to locking you into unifi protect. The minute you want to do anything more advanced you can't because they've taken away the ability to expose rtsp streams on their new cameras. Bad advice If he wants full HA integration this is not a solution and he needs a proper IP cam doorbell with rtsp streams

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

Typically there’s a transformer located on/near your mains panel. Then the transformer feeds to the inside chime, which then feeds out to the doorbell. I have no idea why an outside junction box would feed back to the inside chime. Either way, you’re gonna need to wire a transformer in there somewhere to feed your smart doorbell. I imagjne the easiest thing to do is add a transformer at the junction box, and get a new chime. Just to give you an idea of how things may lay out. I have a transformer on my main panel, which feeds to the inside chime. I can’t remember the voltages off the top of my head, but let’s say the chime works on 36v. My Unifi smart doorbell came with a step down adapter that goes in the chime box wired between the chime and doorbell. Chime still gets 36v but the feed out to my doorbell drops to 24v(again not the exact volts just for example). Doorbell gets the 24v it needs, chime gets the 36v it needs, and the adapter between the two allows for the chime to work as normal (or I can turn it off and use smart notifications only).

I’d go UniFi but you do need to buy into their ecosystem. Though it is very good.