While keeping your family safe is the top-most priority, you can’t predict the unpredictable. But what you can do is add an extra layer of safety with an indoor home security camera. The fancy security systems are no longer a thing just for rich blokes. Finding quality cameras and setups is easier and more convenient than ever. DIY security camera systems can be had at really affordable prices too.
There are lots of options for monitoring the outside of your house, but for total protection, you’ll wanna keep an eye on the interior as well. That’s why we’ve tested and rounded up some of the best indoor camera options on the market right now. Best overall indoor security camera
Wyze Cam Pan v2
Few indoor cameras will offer as much bang for your buck as the Wyze Cam Pan v2. It comes with the features you’d expect: 1080p resolution, night vision, pan, tilt and zoom, and two-way audio, for a budget-friendly price of just $50.
The Wyze Cam Pan can also identify a person and follow them as they walk across the room, send you a real-time notification of the event and store a record of it for up to 14 days.
What sets this security camera apart even more is the free two-week cloud storage and built-in microSD card slot for local storage. If you’d like to continue cloud storage past the trial period, a monthly subscription will run you as low as a buck and a quarter.
Best indoor security camera features
Google Nest Cam (Indoor, Wired) Like the Netatmo camera, the Google Nest Cam isn’t the cheapest on our list, but the $100 list price is worth the robust features, not to mention the device’s contemporary design. The camera comes with the usual two-way audio, 1080p resolution with HDR and night vision, plus smart alerts that distinguish between people, animals and vehicles, three hours of event history, activity zones and Google Home app viewing and support.
With the Nest Aware subscription (starting at $6 per month or $60 for a year subscription), you’ll also get facial recognition, sound alerts that listen for things like smoke and CO alarms and weeks of event storage. Finally, the Nest Cam works well with Google Assistant and Nest smart displays.
Best for door, entryway monitoring
The GE Cync Smart Indoor comes with a mounting bracket and installation hardware (three drywall anchors and screws) that enable you to set the device up pretty much anywhere, but I see the most value in positioning it to watch the main entryways to your house.
While the camera comes with many standard features 1080p resolution, real-time notifications, two-way audio and Google Home/Alexa compatibility it doesn’t pan or tilt, though you can manually adjust the camera angle. As such, the indoor camera displays a fixed view that may be best suited to monitor doorways for when the kids get home or for unwanted guests like possible intruders.
That said, when I placed the camera in the corner of my lounge room, the wide view did display much of the room and sent me alerts when someone or something (like a cat or my smart vacuum) passed through the field of view. You can adjust the alert sensitivity from low/medium/high to avoid getting notifications from things like pets and other random movements in your house.
Best for 360-degree monitoring
We like a lot of TP-Link devices here, including its routers and smart plugs, so I was eager to try out the Kasa KC410S indoor security camera. It did not disappoint with a sleek, snowball-like design, high-quality video resolution, Alexa and Google compatibility and ample local storage, up to 256GB on a not-included microSD card.
Like the GE Cync Indoor Camera, the Kasa KC410S came with a mounting bracket and hardware, but unlike the former, the Kasa does feature pan and tilt functionality, perhaps better than any other indoor camera. Whereas other cameras often come with 130- or 160-degree panning, the Kasa KC410S features a full 360-degree range. Best of all, how you pan and tilt using a joystick-like button control with up, down, left and right, as opposed to swiping (and swiping and swiping) the video feed like you have to do with most indoor cameras makes it quick and easy to navigate about the room.
Considering the mounting bracket and full 360-degree panning, it’s tempting to mount this camera to the ceiling in the middle of a busy room, but the power cord may limit where you can reasonably put the device. Still, placing it on a central fixture in any room will give you full view of what’s going on. (Note the Best Buy link below is the step-up KC411S, which has a higher resolution camera.)
