The Best Subscription-Free Home Security Cameras I’ve Tried

Local center: Manufacturers like Eufy and TP-Link offer smart hubs that connect wirelessly to their security cameras and offer expandable storage. Sometimes these local hubs allow for more local AI processing (Eufy’s hub allows for facial recognition). They can also sometimes extend the wireless signal and stability of cameras. These hubs often need to be plugged directly into your router via an Ethernet cable.

MicroSD card: Plugging a microSD card into a camera is a quick and easy way to record locally, but if an intruder steals the camera, your footage disappears with it. Sometimes camera manufacturers offer interior hubs expandable via a MicroSD card.

Network Attached Storage (NAS): If you have a NAS server, you can probably configure it to store video from your security camera. These devices contain hard drives and are expandable, providing a potentially enormous amount of storage.

The best USB drives and external hard drives can be used to expand or download images of some of the above.

Cloud or local

I have a guide on cloud security camera footage vs local security cameras that covers the basic pros and cons in more depth, but to summarize briefly:

Cloud storage means your video is saved online, so an intruder can’t access it, it’s usually faster to access or stream it when you’re away from home, and it doesn’t require any additional storage hardware. On the other hand, you pay a monthly fee, the video doesn’t download if your Wi-Fi network goes down or is jammed, and you trust the service provider, who may share it or use it in ways you’d prefer they didn’t (data breaches are also common).

Local storage is a one-time cost, it doesn’t rely on Wi-Fi, and it’s much harder for anyone other than you to access the images. But there is a risk that someone will steal the physical hardware your footage is stored on, or that the hardware will fail, and accessing and streaming video may be slower when you’re away from home.

For maximum security, even with a local system, you may want to consider a cloud backup. You can reduce the risk of your footage being exposed by choosing an end-to-end encrypted cloud service, such as Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video.

Protect your privacy

Access to your security camera feeds and recorded videos should be end-to-end encrypted, and you should always use two-factor authentication to protect account access. With end-to-end encryption, only your authorized devices can decrypt your videos. With 2FA, you’ll receive a password to a trusted number, email address, or device when you try to sign in on a new device, so your login and password alone aren’t enough to gain access. Unfortunately, these features are not always enabled by default.

• Eufy cameras offer end-to-end encryption, but you need to enable it by tapping the menu at the top left of the app and choosing Settings, Security, Video encryption, Advanced encryption. You can make sure 2FA is enabled by tapping your name at the top of the menu and Two-factor authentication.
• TP-Link Tapo cameras do not have end-to-end encryption, but you can set up 2FA for your account by pressing the button Me tongue, View account, Connection security. To encrypt images on microSD cards, go to your device settings and choose Storage and recording, Local storageand press SD card encryption.
• Aqara offers end-to-end encryption on your locally stored video by default. For 2FA, tap Profile bottom right, Settings, Accounts and securityand make sure Two-factor authentication is activated.