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Where does a video doorbell keep its clips?
Updated
Three picks here can save clips with no monthly plan: the eufy Video Doorbell E340 on 8 GB inside the doorbell, the Tapo D225 on a microSD card you add, and the Blink through a Sync Module with its own storage. The Ring, Arlo and Nest listings tie recorded video or smart alerts to a subscription.
Each pick
| Doorbell | Where clips go |
|---|---|
| Ring Battery Doorbell 2K | Ring plan for recordings |
| Blink Video Doorbell (2nd Gen) | Blink plan, or Sync Module XR plus microSD |
| Tapo D225 | microSD up to 512 GB, or Tapo Care |
| Arlo Video Doorbell 2K (2nd Gen) | Arlo plan for video history |
| Ring Video Doorbell Wired | Ring plan for recordings |
| eufy Video Doorbell E340 | 8 GB built in, no plan needed |
| Google Nest Doorbell (Wired, 3rd Gen) | Google Home Premium plan for the advanced features |
The doorbell-only problem: it hangs by your front door
A doorbell is the one camera a stranger can reach. eufy's spec page lists the video storage location as "On Doorbell". If someone takes the doorbell, clips stored inside it go with it. That is our reasoning, not a maker statement. Blink works the other way. Its storage page says local storage uses a USB drive with a Sync Module 2 or a microSD card with a Sync Module XR, and the module sits indoors. The catch on the Blink listing: the Sync Module Core has no local backup, and no module is included.
What a plan adds
Cloud clips survive a stolen doorbell. Plans also unlock extras the listings name, such as person and package alerts on Ring, 60 day history on Arlo, and descriptive alerts on Nest. Our sister site covers camera plans in detail, so here we only note which doorbells record without one.
Lock the account down either way
The FTC's advice for home cameras, doorbell cameras included, is to pick a camera that encrypts your account information, livestreams and saved video, and to turn on two-factor authentication for the cloud account if it is offered. The Tapo listing says it uses AES 128-bit and TLS 1.2 encryption. That is a maker claim.
Run your own door through the wiring checker, or compare all seven picks on the roundup page.