Ring Video Doorbell Camera Cost and Pricing

• Ring doorbells are affordable. Prices start at $64.99.
• Wired or wireless, Ring doorbells are a breeze to install.
• The Ring Video Doorbell Pro is one of Ring’s highest rated doorbells. Read our Ring Video Doorbell Pro review to see why.

When Ring first appeared on Shark Tank in 2013, they were a fledgling company called Doorbot with a product most people thought was a novelty. Fast forward five years and Amazon purchased them for over a billion dollars.1 Now, they’re practically a household name.

Ring’s original doorbell, the Ring Video Doorbell, has been spun, improved, and released as a new product several times over the years. Today, Ring has a line of eight different video doorbells, ranging from the simple and affordable Ring Video Doorbell Wired to the flush-mounted and pro-installed Ring Elite.

On this page, we’ll save you the trouble of browsing Ring’s extensive list of products by covering everything there is to know about Ring’s video doorbells — from features we enjoyed to how they compare to industry standards and more.

A Worthy Opponent

The market for video doorbells is expected to reach 4.6 billion by 2031,3 which means there’s going to be a lot of stiff competition in this space. Brands like Nest, Arlo and Skybell are all on the rise, and they all have their strong points. To learn more about that, check out my review of the Nest Video Doorbell — it’s one of the most technologically advanced available, but it’s also going to cost you a pretty penny.

The most obvious difference between Ring and Nest is that the former offers far more options than the latter. With eight models to choose from, Ring makes these pieces of equipment available to homeowners on just about any budget, which makes them our top choice for the best video doorbell cameras in the industry today. Sorry, Nest.

How Much Do Ring’s Subscriptions Cost?

Ring Home Basic costs $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year, Standard costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 a year, and Premium costs $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year.

So, what do you get for those prices? Well, the Ring Home Basic plan gives you cloud storage for one camera, which is great if you’re only getting one video doorbell. It also unlocks Ring’s advanced alerts so you’ll get notifications telling you if there’s a package, person, or vehicle in your camera’s view. The Standard plan adds cloud storage for unlimited cameras and adds a few more advanced features like a daily event summary. Ring’s Home Premium plan gives you 24/7 recording for up to 14 days on unlimited cameras as well as their more experimental features like Wi-Fi backup which allows your Ring cameras to record to the cloud even if your Wi-Fi goes down (requires additional hardware).

When we looked at Nest’s second-generation subscription plans, they were a little more expensive — Nest Aware costs $8 per month and Nest Aware Plus costs $15 per month. For all three of Ring’s plans, 180-day video history is included while the Nest Aware plan includes 30 days and the Nest Aware Plus plan includes 60 days. We’d be paying $10 extra for less video history as Ring’s basic plan if we went with Nest Aware Plus.

We should note that Nest’s second-generation subscription plans now cover all cameras while Ring’s basic plan only covers one device. Still, if you’re like us, we prefer accessing our video history for up to 180 days. So while we signed up for the Ring Home Standard, we feel more inclined to recommend Ring Home Basic if you only have one Ring Video Doorbell and value the 180-day video history.

How Much Is Ring’s Equipment?

The most affordable Ring Video Doorbell, the Video Doorbell Wired, costs $49.99 while the most expensive is the Elite at $349.99. Considering all the video doorbells in between, we felt that the price points were fair. The chart below provides a snapshot of the equipment pricing, as well as monthly payments through Affirm,4 for all Ring Video Doorbells:

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the prices and features across all Ring Video Doorbells:

Ring Doorbell Comparison

Looking for more information on how well each video doorbell works? Check out our reviews of the individual doorbells. We’ve yet to get our hands on the newest models, but we tested all of their predecessors, specifically the Ring Peephole Cam, Ring Video Doorbell 2, the Ring Video Doorbell 3, the Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus.

And if you’re budget-minded, check out our guide to Ring’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. If you’re shopping around these retail holidays, you can save a bundle.

What Are Ring’s Monitoring and Storage Options?

As we mentioned previously, Ring Home offers three plans: Basic, Standard, and Premium. We opted for the Standard plan because it covered all of our Ring Video Doorbells, of which we have three; one for our front door, one for our back door, and one for our garage door.

If you also have the Ring Alarm security system we reviewed or the Ring Alarm Pro, the Ring Home Standard and Premium plans allow you to add 24/7 professional monitoring for an extra $10 per month. We think that’s a good deal as most companies charge at least $20 per month for just professional monitoring. For instance, when we tested SimpliSafe, we paid $22 per month for professional monitoring without cloud storage.

The Basic plan, on the other hand, provides cloud storage for one camera only. If you’re new to Ring, we recommend it as an affordable option. But, if you decide to buy more Ring cameras, we suggest at least upgrading to the Standard plan so you can record with every camera.

Ring Monitoring Plans

Ring Home Basic

Like we mentioned, the Ring Home Basic plan includes cloud storage for one camera that enables recording for up to 180 days of video events. That means anytime your video doorbell detects motion, it records a clip of the event and stores that clip for 180 days. It also unlocks some useful tech in your Ring video doorbell and on the Ring app. We find person, package, and vehicle detection essential for our video doorbell otherwise we get overwhelmed with alerts and stop checking them. This way, we can filter our notifications as needed.

Ring Home Standard

The big benefit of Ring Home Standard is the support for unlimited cameras instead of just one. If you’re only looking to cover one video doorbell, we recommend the Basic plan, but the extra $5 is well worth the price to expand your cloud storage to unlimited cameras if you have more than just a video doorbell. Feature-wise, the Home Standard plan also adds some app functionality like picture-in-picture for your live video and a live view of multiple cameras.

This plan unlocks the ability to add professional monitoring or a Virtual Security Guard to your subscription as well. Note that both of those require a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro system.

Ring Home Premium

You’re probably wondering what else Ring could add to their cloud storage plans beyond support for unlimited cameras. Most of the money for this plan goes toward their 24/7 video recording feature with 14 days of playback. That means your video doorbell will always be recording with video events still being stored for 180 days. It comes with some unique features too like backup internet which allows your cameras to store video to the cloud with a cellular network connection. This backup, however, requires the Ring Alarm Pro hub that works double duty as a security system hub and Wi-Fi router.

Favorite Features

With so many Ring Video Doorbells to choose from, we pinpointed the features that we loved across the board:

• Video doorbells for everyone: One glance at Ring’s video doorbells was all it took for us to feel overwhelmed — at first. After familiarizing ourselves with each video doorbell, we were able to pick out features and price points that suited different types of homeowners. Sure, the broad range of options is intimidating, but earlier generations of the video doorbells would appeal to those on a budget while the tech-obsessed would enjoy the Ring Video Doorbell Pro and Elite devices.
• Hardwired or wireless options with battery packs: While we’re Team Wireless all the way, we know that there are plenty of Team Hardwired folks out there who prefer the secure connection. Ring gave us the option to choose either or, and while not every video doorbell could go wireless, we were happy with the options regardless. This made our setup process run faster than if we had to hardwire every single Ring video doorbell.

• Artificial intelligence with Ring Video Doorbell Pro and Elite: Like human life, technology evolves and becomes more intelligent as time goes on thanks to Ring’s hard-working engineers. With smart home security systems, we take a shine to products that implement artificial intelligence, which was the case for the Ring Video Doorbell Pro and Elite devices. We liked that they identified people from moving objects like cars or animals, which prevented false notifications.
• Affordable monthly subscriptions: Compared to other home security brands, we found that Ring’s monthly subscription costs are pretty tame. Unlike their product list that has many options, Ring offers only three plans: Basic, Standard, and Premium, and they cost $4.99, $9.99, and $19.99 per month, respectively.
• Smart home integrations aplenty: Amazon owns Ring, so it goes without saying that we were able to control our Ring Video Doorbells by issuing commands to Alexa on our Echo Show 8 without lifting a finger. For example, we said, “Alexa, answer the side door,” and a live stream of our side door appeared on our Echo Show in seconds. We were also pleasantly surprised to find that Ring pairs with Google Assistant, as well as a handful of third-party devices.

Pairing Ring With Smart Home Integrations

It’s hard to imagine how our life was before smart home automation. Almost every nook and cranny in our apartment has some type of smart home device, and with our Ring video doorbells, we wasted no time integrating them. Shocking no one, we spoke commands to Alexa to control our Ring video doorbells. We also tested out controlling our Ring video doorbells using Google Assistant and connecting them to a few third-party brands such as Dome and Schlage, but let’s get to the voice assistants first:

Alexa

When our hands were full, we relied on Alexa to either help us answer the front and side doors of our apartment or show us a live stream on our Echo Show. Examples of commands we issued were “Alexa, stop the front door camera” or “Alexa, show me the most recent activity from the side door.”Admittedly, there were times when we were too lazy to reach for our phones and access the Ring mobile app, so Alexa was super helpful in this regard. There was even an instance when one of us was stuck in bed with the flu, and when someone appeared at our front door, we simply told Alexa to answer before we stepped in to communicate with the visitor through Ring Video Doorbells’ two-way audio feature.In short, there was little to no effort on our part, and that’s just how we like it!

Google Assistant

We noticed that there were fewer capabilities with Google Assistant, but it still got the job done. We said things like, “Hey Google, talk to Ring about starting a new recording” and “Ok Google, talk to Ring about the health of my devices.” Like Alexa and our Echo Show, we were able to view the live stream on our Nest Hub, even though Chromecast compatibility would’ve been our preferred choice so we could view the footage from our TV.

Other Third Party Integrations

As for other third-party smart home devices that we integrated with our Ring video doorbells, we had a Schlage Encode Smart WiFi Deadbolt installed on our side door and a Dome Siren in our apartment. When a friend came to visit, we accessed the Ring mobile app and unlocked the Schlage Deadbolt without appearing at the door all from the Ring app, like a magic trick. Our friend knows about our smart home obsession, so they weren’t stunned or amazed by the door unlocking itself.

As for the Dome Siren, our grandparents stayed over for one week and both are hard of hearing. Whenever the Ring Video Doorbell Elite detected someone at the door, the siren would go off, letting them know that there was a visitor (or an intruder but thankfully, that was not the case).

Other third-party brands that are compatible with Ring include:

• Z-Wave
• Yale Locks
• Kwikset
• GE
• Leviton
• Ecolink
• Philips Hue
• IFTTT
• Brilliant

In Sum

At last, we come to the end. With seven Ring Video Doorbells and a peephole cam, we were able to try out different features without feeling bored over the course of testing. Most of the video doorbells could be powered by batteries instead of hardwiring them into our existing doorbell set up, so our installation process ran a lot faster and without any migraines. Also, Ring Home plans offer some of the lowest monthly rates that we have seen from security brands — with a whole lot of goodies packed into them.

Throughout our testing, we saw how Ring offers solid value across the board. They still give you premium options that cost a pretty penny, but the value’s still there with the features those premium options add. You can still opt for an affordable video doorbell with all the basics you need to keep your front door safe, though.

With every camera and subscription plan we bought, what we paid for was what we got. In conclusion? There’s something for everyone with Ring’s affordable, flexible, and easy to install doorbell cameras, especially if you get a Ring Prime Day deal or a Ring Black Friday deal.