Not quite ready to deck out your house with window, door, and motion sensors and hire an on-call monitoring service? Don’t fret! You can still keep your home secure without messing with your wiring. Setting up a camera or two is an affordable alternative.

Knowing you can check in when you’re away offers you peace of mind, but a lot of us have a love-hate relationship with these cameras. There’s an obvious security benefit, but you expose yourself to privacy risks. We break down what you should keep in mind when shopping for one, and we’ve rounded up our favorites after rigorous testing.

Be sure to check out our many other guides, including The Best Outdoor Security Cameras,  Best Pet Cameras, and Best Password Managers. And if you want more smart home products, we have guides on smart plugs and light bulbs, too.

Updated September 2022: We added a camera from Arlo. 

Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you’d like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks | Jillian York

The service has reversed its ban on sexual content, but valid –…

Letter written on Titanic by pastor who went down with the ship goes up for auction

A letter written aboard the Titanic by a pastor who went down…

Every Great Cyber Monday Deal on Google Devices

The Link Portable is the best Google Assistant-enabled speaker that you can…

Samsung Galaxy S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra now available to pre-order: Here’s how to get double the storage and up to $150 of Amazon credit

SHOPPING – Contains affiliated content. Products featured in this Shopping article are…