We heard this question a plenty of times from our customers: “I’m not good with all these surveillance systems area, all I want is to get some cheap entry-level cam to see what’s going on in my home when I’m away”. It could be either to watch out for the kids or just to feel more secure and control the situation, or various other reasons.
Here’s our list: TOP 5 home wifi cameras featuring an easy installation and a price tag mostly under 30-35 dollars per camera, with which we were working personally and would recommend to everyone. You will see mostly similar home wifi cameras featuring 1 or 2 megapixels, 720p, and/or 1080p resolution only for the most clean list demonstration and comparison.
Pivot Table:
Feature Zmodo 720p Mini Camera Wyze Cam Version 2 Foscam C1 YI 1080 Home Camera Ezviz C1C Alexa Support
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Zmodo 720p Mini Camera
The manufacturers can no longer surprise us with the Alexa and Google Assistant support, so yes, that is included. In simple terms, Zmodo Mini Cam features 1 megapixel 720p HD resolution with a 115 view angle. And that is quite enough to view the entire room if it is placed properly. They also say it’s very easy to install, and they are right, this is exactly what the cam of this level should be. In its functions set it also has a two-way audio to enable us to both hear and speak, a 20-foot length night vision, and a smart motion alert. And there is an optional cloud record-keeping. Also, watch out for the Zmodo Ezcam, it’s very similar.
Wyze Cam Version 2
Seattle’s Wyze Cam version 2 is priced at $20 on the official website. 1080p Full HD, two-way audio, Alexa and Google Assistant support, Night Vision and Motion Tagging technology that detects and highlights motion in both live stream and replay modes, and it can spot the sounds of smoke alarms. For 20 dollars! 3-axis design allows us to raise, tilt, and swivel the camera to point in any needed direction. You can plug in a microSD card to keep your records, and Wyze also offers a cloud save service with a 14-day free trial. And yeah, there is also a rotating Wyze Cam Pan that we recommend looking through, too.
Foscam C1
The Foscam C1 is not that fresh, absolutely. But it was here from the beginning, and many other manufacturers were taking it as an example. 720p 1 megapixel resolution here fits with a 115 ° view angle on a color CMOS sensor. The night vision here works well up to 26 feet.
That is more than the average indicator. For audio compression, the H.264 codec is responsible. So the regular for this type of cams 2 2-way audio spec is here too. The passive infrared sensor is here to detect actions and spot people, as well as sound recognition. And there are a few more little but very pleasant things.
YI 1080p Home Camera
YI 1080p Home Camera first gen. The thing that Chinese YI is famous for is their Action Cams, and that they split off from Xiaomi in 2016, although Xiaomi still owns a large stake in it. From the name, we know it's a 1080p Full HD resolution. But what else is there? A 112 wide view angle, 3D Noise Reduction, 4X digital zoom, LDC, Motion and Sound Detection, and it can real-time detect a crying baby.
That is adorable and very useful for the parents. Sure, it has a two-way audio, but only 32-gigabyte SD cards are supported to store your records. So, it has the infrared sensor, but YI made it imperceptible, a quote from the official website: “You can see if your baby is sleeping soundly at night, without any LED or infrared glare disturbing them”. Great feature. We think this is a must-buy for parents.
Ezviz C1C
And the Hikvision’s Ezviz C1C that comes in 2 versions with only 2 differences – 720p with 110 view angle and 1080p with 130 view angle, and we think the price distinctions would be about 10 dollars when a worldwide release happens. What Ezviz says, their top feature is that they are sharp-eyed, especially the night mode. Both 720p and 1080p versions feature an Infrared sensor with motion detection, Night Vision up to 12 meters distance, and Two-Way audio.
And we haven’t seen something similar in this class of cameras – the MicroSD Card supports up to 256 gigabytes. One more cool thing is a really strong magnet here in the basement, so the installation was made really easy here. The thing we really love about Ezviz is their service. We do, really. Get the free Ezviz app from the App Store or Google Play to see what we are talking about. And it manifests itself in the cloud storage, too. We have also made an Ezviz C1C dedicated video here, so go check it out to get details: https://youtu.be/SZfMbXXZdxI
Conclusion
To conclude, the cams that we have compared are the cheapest in terms of their features and brand name. We know you can find even cheaper cams, but still, they are Chinese no-name imitations that would probably cause a lot of errors, and some services could be unavailable or work terribly due to their extremely low price and a lack of optimization.