Not quite ready to deck out your house in 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 do 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 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 2021: We’ve added the Cync Indoor Camera as our new top pick and Wyze’s updated Cam Pan V2. We also added more information on new cameras and why we don’t recommend Ring. 

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