Today’s AWS outage is making me hate Amazon and my Ring doorbell even more than I did before. It underscores the need for locally controlled devices. What is your favorite locally controlled video doorbell?
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I don’t have their doorbell… (yet), but the Reolink cameras I have are wonderful. I plan on buying their doorbell once my Nest Doorbell’s battery dies.
+1 for Reolink, I have the Reolink video doorbell wifi (I had no PoE available when I bought it), more than happy with it.
I have two Reolink POE doorbells: the original black one and the newer white one. Both work great. The only difference I’m aware of is the aspect ratio of the cameras. The white one is vertical and the black one is horizontal. Both are running through Frigate and have 2-way talk enabled, although there is a lag.
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It sounds like Reolink is pretty popular! I guess I should have mentioned I would like native HomeKit compatibility. I’m running Scrypted for Ring, and I would love to ditch that. The Aqara G410 looks pretty nice. And I keep reading that Apple is working on a video doorbell.
I’ve got an Aqara G410 and it’s pretty good. I do think I’ll likely switch to Reolink in the future though.
My biggest issue with all of the video cameras out there is that the builder of the development that I’m in put Ring Pro into all of the houses. The device fits into a standard US gang box. So, when replacing it you’ve gotta find a way to cleanly cover the box, and still get access to the wiring. None of the other doorbell cameras out there fit in the boxes 
I got a standard box cover that I modified a little bit to be able to mount the camera, but it’s not a great solution. I really would like Reolink in particular to make a POE model that fits the gang box so that it would look nicer!
As an alternative
At my old home I added my doorbell as binary sensor in HA
Separately I had camera covering door. Many cameras have 2 way audio.
I would also consider an esp diy device. A doorbell does not work for my current use.
Hey, at least you have POE wired there already! That can be a difficult place to run ethernet to. At least, in my house it is.
PoE IP camera + custom ESPHome RGB Doorbell + Scripted NVR with Dummy Keys plugin.
Only downside is no two way audio.
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This is what I have also. I just need to sort out the 2-way audio which my front door camera does have.
In my case the doorbell button is simply a Xiaomi wireless button and the chime is done on an original Xiaomi hub thing which has been relegated to chime device only. I also have a TTS announcement throughout the house when the button is pressed.
2way audio for a front door was always unnecessary
I know everyone that comes to my door.
If I don’t know you it’s generally FedEx or someone selling solar(basically someone I don’t want or don’t need to talk to). Even in Ring commercials they only use 2way to scream “get off my grass “ to a porch pirate
Very true. Generally by the time I look at a front door notification on my phone, the person has left anyway.
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This is why I have my doorbell automation turn on the monitor on my rack since I have my NVR feed fullscreen at all times.
The snapshot on the phone notification is more of a timestamp for easier review should I need to check the recorded event.
Agree with @tom_l.
I love my Reolink cameras. But my front door does not do well with them. It is a small hallway like area to the front porch. the camera offset to one side or the other was horrible.
So I put my old doorbell button back there and used a ceiling mounted POE camera mounted in the center. I have one of the cameras that has corridor mode. So you turn it 90 degrees and turn corridor mode on. Works great.
What do we think about the Unifi doorbell cameras…? Those are local, right?
Eufy would have local storage so no cloud subscription. What about local control and/or integration with HA?
Unifi = lockin
I use a lot of their WiFi gear but they are creeping towards en—-ification
If you need to use a companies server, software or cloud for setup or normal operation you should avoid them if possible.
Unifi cameras only work with the Unifi NVR system as they aren’t ONVIF compatible. While you can run the NVR locally, it’s still a major lockin.
You can however (as far as I am aware) use non-Unifi cameras with the Unifi NVR / Dream Machine.
Since I have a Unifi network I’d be interested in getting their doorbell, but from what I can tell it doesn’t give 2-way audio in HA. Having said that, like I previously said, it’s rare I get to my phone before a door knocker leaves anyway.