Which Security Camera Should I Buy
As professional installers of home security tech, customers often ask us: Which Security Camera should I buy?
There is a LOT of choice, so to simplify things we’ll tell you what each company’s cameras are best at and our top overall picks.
Whether you want the best or the cheapest indoor camera, outdoor camera, or camera with lights, we’ve got you covered.
The Best Security Cameras
Updated November 2025 with the latest releases
All of these security cameras record and notify you about movement, and you can view live video and 2-way talk with your phone. We’ll tell you the key features, as well as any drawbacks to be aware of.
These are our picks for the best in each category, so they're from a range of brands. We'd recommend choosing one brand and sticking with them for all of your cameras and doorbells, as it's simpler and more convenient to see everything in one app, and if there's a subscription it's cheaper. Check out our guide to Which Smart Doorbell Should I Buy if you're considering a doorbell too!
Best Indoor Security Camera:
- Eufy Indoor Cam S350 - £129.00 - Buy from Eufy
Best Outdoor Security Cameras:
- Wired: Ring Plug In Cam Pro (4k) - £179.99 - Buy from Ring
- Battery & solar powered: Eufy S3 Pro - Buy from Eufy - £499 for 2 including HomeBase 3 storage unit / £229 for 1 if you already have a HomeBase 3 (subscription-free)
Best Outdoor Security Cameras With Lights:
- Hardwired: Ring Floodlight Cam Pro (4k) - £249.99 - Buy from Ring
- Battery & solar powered: EufyCam S4 - £249.00 - buy from Eufy (subscription-free)
Cheapest Indoor Security Camera:
- Tapo C201 - £24.99 - buy from Tapo (subscription-free)
Cheapest Outdoor Security Cameras:
- Tapo C113 Indoor/Outdoor 2K - £29.99 - buy from Tapo
- Blink Outdoor 4 Camera - £69.99 - buy from Amazon
Best Nest Security Cameras:
- Nest Cam Indoor (2k) - £89.99 - buy from Google
- Nest Cam Outdoor Wired (2k) - £119.99 - buy from Google
Best Indoor Security Camera
Eufy S350 - £129.00
“Which security camera should I buy?”for indoors – this one! Excellent 4k resolution, a secondary zoom camera, and 360° movement tracking. This is the best indoor camera you can buy right now.
We love:
- Top of the range 4k resolution wide-angle camera
- Plus a 2k camera that can zoom in
- The camera can move 360° to follow pets and people
- Noise detection as well as movement detection
- No subscription required and all video stored locally on a microSD card (you can still view it in the Eufy app from anywhere)
Video quality
The wide angle 4k camera gives excellent video quality. The second camera has 3x optical zoom, which means it can zoom in without losing image quality. The camera will follow movement as it can rotate 360° and tilt up and down, and you can change the camera angle easily in the app. We think you’ll love the footage you get from this camera!
Other features
The noise detection feature can notify you of certain noises like a baby crying. The camera can be set up to patrol certain points of interest, and it even has a “privacy mode” to face the camera away from you and disable the microphone.
As with all Eufy cameras you do not need a subscription to save video, the camera comes with a microSD slot that can store up to 128GB of video, and you can connect it to a Eufy HomeBase 3 (their in-home secure storage unit) for a huge amount of video storage. We LOVE this feature as it saves our customers money in the long run.
Notifications, video clips, live video, 2-way talk, and camera control are all in the Eufy app. The app isn’t quite as easy to use as Ring’s app, but if you're booking an install service, your Technologist will show you everything you need to know to use it confidently.
Things to bear in mind
- The Eufy app takes a little getting used to
- Plug socket powered so needs to be close to a power source
- If you want notifications to include an image of what your camera saw, then you need to sign up to the Eufy Cloud Storage – this isn’t necessary but it is an option
Best Outdoor Security Cameras
Wired: Ring Plug In Cam Pro (4k) - £179.99
We love:
- Ring's new 4k resolution camera quality
- Ring’s fast and easy to use app
- Radar birds eye view with motion zones and notification settings
- Combines brilliantly with Alexa Echo Displays and Fire TV e.g. you can see live video with a simple voice command
Video quality
The wide angle 4k camera gives strong video quality, Ring have finally caught up with competitors!
Other features
The radar feature improves detection accuracy and gives you a birds eye view in the app showing where movement has happened.
Notifications, video clips, live video, 2-way talk, and camera control are all in the Ring app. The Ring app is the easiest to use, compared to that from other companies. It’s fairly quick and reliable. Navigating around past events, changing settings, and snoozing alerts are all easy.
Things to bear in mind
- You need a subscription to look back at any past videos recorded – without this you can only view the camera live. The subscription gives 180 days storage, and is expensive if you have just 1 camera at £5 / month, but their £7.99 / month subscription covers as many cameras or doorbells as you own, which is much better value. See the Ring website for full info.
Battery & solar powered: Eufy S3 Pro - £499 for with a HomeBase
We love:
- 4k resolution wide-angle camera with colour video even in ultra-low light
- Huge built-in battery and solar panel, requires just 1 hour of sunlight per day on average to keep battery charged
- Built in motion-activated LED spotlights that adapt brightness to improve night vision
- Can be installed places that wired cameras can’t (though still needs WiFi signal)
- Facial recognition differentiates between family and strangers
- Radar detection capability improves notification accuracy
- Subscription-free
Video quality
The wide angle 4k camera gives excellent video quality. It also has the best colour video quality at night that you can find on any camera, it’s genuinely very impressive!
Other features
The motion-activated LED serves as a great deterrent at night. If you have 2 or more S3 Pros then cross-camera tracking will follow someone moving across the view of the cameras and link it into one event in the app for you. With a huge battery and built-in solar panel you may never need to re-charge this camera once installed.
As with all Eufy cameras you do not need a subscription to save video, the camera requires a HomeBase 3 to work, and these come with 16GB of storage that can be expanded up to 4 Terabytes which is a HUGE amount of video storage! We LOVE this feature as it saves our customers money in the long run.
Notifications, video clips, live video, 2-way talk, and camera control are all in the Eufy app. The app isn’t quite as easy to use as Ring’s app, but if you're booking an install service, your Technologist will show you everything you need to know to use it confidently.
Things to bear in mind
- Requires Homebase 3
- Does need some sunlight to top up the battery
- The Eufy app takes a little getting used to
- If you want notifications to include an image of what your camera saw, then you need to sign up to the Eufy Cloud Storage – this isn’t necessary but it is an option
Best Outdoor Security Camera with Lights
Hardwired: Ring Floodlight Cam Pro (4k) - £249.99
We love:
- 2 very bright motion activated floodlights
- Ring's new 4k resolution camera quality
- Ring’s fast and easy to use app
- Radar birds eye view with motion zones and notification settings
- Combines brilliantly with Alexa Echo Displays and Fire TV e.g. you can see live video with a simple voice command
Video quality
The wide angle 4k camera gives strong video quality, Ring have finally caught up with competitors!
Other features
The floodlights are bright, with 2000 lumens they can illuminate a large area.
Notifications, video clips, live video, 2-way talk, and camera control are all in the Ring app. The Ring app is the easiest to use, compared to that from other companies. It’s fairly quick and reliable. Navigating around past events, changing settings, and snoozing alerts are all easy.
Things to bear in mind
- You need a subscription to look back at any past videos recorded – without this you can only view the camera live. The subscription gives 180 days storage, and is expensive if you have just 1 camera at £5 / month, but their £7.99 / month subscription covers as many cameras or doorbells as you own, which is much better value. See the Ring website for full info.
Battery & solar powered: EufyCam S4 - £249.00
Buy from Eufy (subscription-free)
We love:
- Combination of a fixed 4k wide angle camera and 2k 360 motion tracking camera give amazing coverage
- Large solar panel and quick-swap battery (though Eufy haven't started selling the battery on its own yet)
- Subscription-free with 32GB built in storage and expandable to 256GB with a microSD card
- Decent app with all the necessary functionality, which only gets better if you have a Eufy HomeBase for AI detection and more storage
Video quality
The wide angle 4k camera gives strong video quality, whilst the second 2k camera will zoom in on and follow movement, so you see both in the app. Very clever!
Other features
Built in siren, red and blue warning lights, and optional 24/7 recording if provided with continuous power from a cable.
Things to bear in mind
- Does need some sunlight to top up the battery
- The Eufy app takes a little getting used to
- If you want notifications to include an image of what your camera saw, then you need to sign up to the Eufy Cloud Storage – this isn’t necessary but it is an option
We love:
- The price, this is super cheap!
- The camera turns to follow movement
- Does all the usual stuff - night vision, 2 way talk, notifications, privacy mode - great value for the price
Video quality
It's just 1080p, which means 1920x1080 pixels, so the video quality is a lot lower than a 4k camera (which has 3840x2160 pixels), but you'll still be able to see what's going on clearly unless you're zooming in.
Other features
Can detect crying as well as motion. Connects to Echo Show devices on command if you want to see your camera video on the screen.
Things to bear in mind
- You need a microSD card to store video (it doesn't come with one) unless you want to pay the Tapo subscription option - these are cheap, though you do need to buy the right type, we recommend this 128gb one (£16 at time of writing), Tapo have more info and a full list here
Cheapest Outdoor Security Cameras:
Tapo C113 Indoor/Outdoor 2K - £29.99
- If you want value for an outdoor camera, look no further
- 2k video quality, weatherproof, motion activated LEDs, and all the usual features
- Does require a microSD card (it doesn't come with one) we recommend this 128gb one (£16 at time of writing), Tapo have more info and a full list here
- Plug powered and only a 2m cable, so limited on install location
Blink Outdoor 4 Camera - £69.99
- Blink are Amazon's budget range (compared to Ring)
- Only 1080p video quality but long battery life - advertised as up to 2 year, it'll be less in practice but should be at least a few months
- Connects to Echo show devices on command if you want to see your camera video on screen
- Requires a subscription unless you already have the older Blink Sync module with built-in storage
Best Nest Security Cameras:
These Nest cameras don't make it onto the "best of" list but are worth a mention. As Google's home security brand they are well designed and have smart AI features (if you pay). You get 6 hours of video history (10 second clips) for free, or pay the Nest Premium subscription for storage and extra functionality. They also finally upgraded the cameras to 2k after many years, though still not the best video quality.
- Nest Cam Indoor (2k) - £89.99 - buy from Google
- Nest Cam Outdoor Wired (2k) - £119.99 - buy from Google
