An indoor security camera can range in price from $20 up to hundreds. But it may be worth the price if you want to know what’s going on around your house when you’re out.
Security cameras come with wildly varying features and capabilities. Like other home security options, such as video doorbells and outdoor cameras, you can opt for specialty features like facial recognition, motion detection, free cloud storage, two-way audio and person alerts. These can be wireless cameras, indoor cameras or wired cameras with rechargeable batteries, motion sensors, temperature sensors and color night vision.
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Whether you’re trying to deter burglars or just want to review footage of your cat to watch what happens while you’re out, there’s almost certainly an indoor home security camera that meets your needs. If you’re not sure where to start looking for the camera system to check your particular boxes, I’ve highlighted my top contenders for the best indoor security camera below to help guide your decision.
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Best overall
Wyze Cam v3 (2020)
Wyze
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In a sea of costly security cameras, the Wyze Cam v3 offers killer value. Couple that with its straightforward app, easy installation and solid performance, and this excellent home security camera is our favorite indoor camera (and it’s weatherproof so you can use it as an outside security camera too).
What sets this security camera apart even more are its free two-week cloud storage and built-in microSD card slot for local storage. You have to buy a microSD card separately, but that’s standard for most cameras with local storage. This smart camera supports Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands and has a motion detection zone feature.
Read our Wyze Cam review.
$36 at Amazon
$36 at Walmart
$36 at Best Buy
Best for HomeKit Secure Video
Netatmo Smart Indoor Camera
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
The $145 Netatmo Smart Indoor Camera, previously called the Netatmo Welcome, is one of the few indoor security camera options that works with HomeKit Secure Video. HomeKit Secure Video is a service that works with the iOS-only Home app. It offers 10 days of free event-based video history, stored in iCloud.
Few security camera companies offer free cloud storage anymore (ahem, Arlo) — and even fewer offer 10 full days of free cloud storage. Wyze is an exception with this indoor security camera’s two weeks of free storage, which is one reason why it’s my current favorite indoor cam.
The Smart Indoor Camera from Netatmo has 1080p HD livestreaming, a 130-degree field of view, night vision and local storage with an included microSD card. This security camera also has facial recognition capabilities when you create a database of friends and family members. In addition to working with HomeKit, the Smart Indoor Camera also supports Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands.
Read more from CNET.
$145 at Amazon
Best features
Google Nest Cam (Indoor, Wired)
Molly Price/CNET
Despite the terrible name, Google’s Nest Cam (Indoor, Wired) is a solid — and really nicely designed — indoor camera. No, it’s not the super-affordable $30 camera that you get from Wyze, but $100 isn’t bad for a device with this many features: free smart alerts that distinguish between people, animals and vehicles, three hours of event history, activity zones and Google Home app viewing and support. The camera also comes with the usual 2-way audio, 1080p resolution with HDR and night vision.
With the Nest Aware subscription, you’ll also get facial recognition, sound alerts (listening for smoke and CO alarms, for instance) and weeks of event storage. Finally, the Nest Cam works well with Google Assistant and Nest smart displays.
Read our review.
$80 at Walmart
$80 at Best Buy
$80 at Target
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