Which Ring Doorbell Should You Buy?

Ring’s video doorbell models vary in a number of features. But the biggest differences are the power source, the video aspect ratio, and whether they can connect to a home’s existing doorbell chime.

Video doorbells can run off batteries or be hardwired to a home’s low-voltage doorbell wiring. About half of Americans have doorbell wiring, according to a nationally representative CR survey (PDF) of 2,070 U.S. adults conducted in November 2023. 

If you can use doorbell wiring, you have the most options. Ring offers four wired-only video doorbells, and with the exception of the Ring Peephole Cam, all of Ring’s battery-powered doorbells can also be hardwired. If you need a battery-powered doorbell, you can choose from Ring’s remaining four doorbells. All but one use removable, rechargeable battery packs. That means you can buy spares to charge up and quickly swap out when a battery dies.

Most Ring doorbells record video in a 16:9 aspect ratio. This makes it easier to see to the left and right of your door but can cut off the heads and feet of visitors, plus any packages sitting on the ground. To overcome these drawbacks, Ring has started using a square aspect ratio, called Head-to-Toe Video, in some of its products. This square video has a fish-eye lens to help you see directly above and below the doorbell and spot packages, but it doesn’t let you look as far to the left and right.

All but two Ring doorbells can make use of your home’s existing wired doorbell chime, as long as the doorbells are hardwired, too. The two exceptions are the Ring Video Doorbell Wired and Ring Peephole Cam. None of the Ring doorbells will work with another company’s wireless chime.

Ring makes two plug-in chimes that you can buy to use with any of its doorbells: Ring Chime, $35, and Ring Chime Pro, $60. The pricier model adds a built-in night light and a WiFi extender to improve the wireless connection for Ring doorbells and cameras. You can also use Amazon Echo smart speakers and displays as doorbell chimes.

The eight Ring models range in price from $50 to $350 and provide a wide range of features—and performance. We currently have five of the doorbells in our ratings, and we will have test results for the remaining three soon. All eight models are listed here in alphabetical order with their key features, and test results where they’re available.

The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is Ring’s newest video doorbell and builds on the feature set of the Battery Doorbell Plus. Like that model, this doorbell also offers square Head-to-Toe Video and 1536p HD+ Video.

This doorbell’s big differentiator is 3D Motion Detection, which uses a radar-based motion sensor to detect movement more accurately. This feature also enables two others: Bird’s Eye Zones, which allow you to block out areas on a satellite map that cause false alerts (say, a busy street), and Bird’s Eye View, which shows you a breadcrumb trail on a satellite map of where people walked on your property. The Battery Doorbell Pro also features Pre-Roll Video, which shows you 4 seconds of black-and-white footage from before the doorbell detected motion.

The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro can run off rechargeable battery packs or be hardwired for power, and it can ring wired doorbell chimes. With a Ring Protect subscription, this doorbell gains cloud video storage, person alerts, and package alerts.

Consumer Reports is preparing to test the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro and will share the results soon.

We haven’t tested the Ring Peephole Cam yet, but we have tested its predecessor, the Ring Door View Cam. That model was discontinued in 2021 and then resurrected two years later as the Peephole Cam. The two models seem almost identical, but we need to evaluate the new version to confirm.

The Ring Peephole Cam is unusual in that it replaces the existing peephole in apartment doors, essentially upgrading them with a doorbell button and a camera. It offers a claimed 1080p HD video resolution with a wide-screen 16:9 aspect ratio, as well as a knock detection feature to send you an alert if someone knocks on your door while you’re not home.

The Ring Peephole Cam can run only off its rechargeable battery pack, and it can’t ring wired doorbell chimes. With a Ring Protect subscription, this doorbell gains cloud video storage and person alerts, but not package alerts.

This model is designed for homes that use Power-over-Ethernet (POE) doorbells. That means it connects to the internet and receives power from an Ethernet cable rather than using WiFi and traditional doorbell wiring (though it can use WiFi, too). This doorbell has a claimed 1080p HD video resolution and wide-screen 16:9 aspect ratio, as well as Advanced Pre-Roll Video. This feature shows you 6 seconds of color footage from before the doorbell detected motion.

The Ring Video Doorbell Elite can be hardwired to ring existing doorbell chimes, but it can only receive power from a POE Ethernet cable. With a Ring Protect subscription, this doorbell gains cloud video storage and person alerts, but not package alerts.

We haven’t tested the Ring Video Doorbell Elite yet, but we plan to do so soon.

Based on our tests, the best Ring doorbell overall is the Ring Video Doorbell (2nd gen), which ekes out a victory over the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus thanks to its slightly better video quality. Because the Video Doorbell (2nd gen) runs off batteries and can be hardwired, it’s a great option for homes with or without doorbell wiring. 

But if you want a slimmer look without the chunky battery, your best bet is the Ring Video Doorbell Wired. It’s a little slower than its more expensive wired siblings, but its video quality can’t be beat.

Once we test the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro, Ring Peephole Cam, and Ring Video Doorbell Elite, we’ll update this article and see if there’s a new winner. We’re constantly testing new video doorbells year-round, so if you want to see the other models we’ve evaluated, head over to our complete video doorbell ratings.

Our test engineers put doorbell cameras through several tests to see not only how well they work but also whether they do a good job of securing your data. These tests include how quickly a video doorbell sends alerts to your smartphone when motion is detected, how long it takes to load a live video feed of a visitor, video quality during the day and at night, smart features (such as person detection and voice control via digital assistants), and over 70 factors that inform our data privacy and data security scores.

The Smart IQ score takes into account the various smart features offered by video doorbells, allowing you to see at a glance which models offer more smart features than others. Notably, this score doesn’t include features that require a subscription. This tends to depress the scores for Ring doorbells, which require a Protect Plan subscription to access most smart features, such as person and package alerts.

For more information on our doorbell camera testing process, see our home security camera buying guide.