Eufy Indoor Cam 2K vs. Ring Indoor Cam: Which should you buy?

Eufy Indoor Cam 2K

Eufy built a rare security camera that isn't dependent on an expensive subscription to work properly. It can detect visual or audible abnormalities, categorize them using its built-in AI, and respond based on where it is in the house and what presets you've programmed into your app. You can also control it with your smart speaker or connect it to Apple HomeKit smart devices. One version of the cam can also pan in a full circle for a fuller view of your home.

Ring Indoor Cam

Ring's affordable Indoor Cameras give you live feeds with excellent diagonal FOV and quick alerts of any visible threats, but for cloud recordings of threats you'll need an annual Ring Protect subscription. The main benefit of these cameras is how it syncs into the Ring app to work with a variety of other smart devices and cameras for total protection. It's also easy to add privacy settings and 2FA that will protect your home feeds from others.

Ring makes some of the best indoor cameras on the market, and does an excellent job of integrating them into an ecosystem of smart devices. But Eufy's new indoor cameras have burst onto the scene with improved resolution, AI recognition, and a spinning, tilting base, making your home security choice even more difficult. When choosing between these two excellent cameras for your home, consider how much footage you'll want to save, what other devices and smart speakers you own, and whether or not you own any pets.

Eufy Indoor Cam 2K vs. Ring Indoor Cam Seeing and categorizing threats

Ring matches the industry standard with its 1080p resolution, while Eufy films at a crisp 2K resolution for slightly clearer footage. Both cams let you pinch in the app to zoom in on objects, but that extra resolution will ensure that the magnified footage isn't as blurry. Zoomed out, the Eufy cam captures 125 degrees of horizontal FOV, while Ring tracks 115 degrees horizontal and 60 degrees vertical for a total 140 degrees diagonal.

Here, we'll note that Eufy sells two versions of its indoor cam: a base model and a Pan & Tilt model that enables 360 degrees horizontal view and up to a 96-degree vertical view. This breakdown compares the features between the two Eufy Cams, but suffice to say that the slightly pricier Pan & Tilt model handily beats out the Ring Indoor Cam by guarding more of your home, while the Base model has a more limited range.

Clear footage is obviously important, but perhaps more critical is what your camera can do with the information it captures. Like most popular indoor cams, these two send an alert to your security app when it senses motion, even in low light thanks to their respective night vision. You can tap on the notification to access live footage remotely and see what's happening, then use two-way audio to speak to whoever is there, if necessary. You can also set "zones" for both cameras where motion won't trigger an alert, in case (for example) you know cars driving by a window will constantly trigger alerts.

Yet Eufy's camera is undeniably "smarter" thanks to sound detection and AI recognition. Even if something isn't visible on camera, you'll receive an alert if the mic registers a suspicious noise, letting you hop on; plus, Pan & Tilt owners can move their camera around using in-app controls to search for the source of a noise. Once something is on camera, Eufy tech can detect whether it is a human, pet or object. Then, with the Pan model, the camera will move to follow it around the room until it's out of sight, giving you more footage and preventing blind spots.

Pet owners can adjust their security settings to ignore pet motion, a boon to pet owners who don't want dozens of security alerts per day. Eufy also takes better advantage of its activity zones by letting you pre-record audio messages that play whenever someone enters that space — meaning you can tell off your pet or kids if they go somewhere they shouldn't.

Storage, subscription plans, and 24/7 filming

Technically, you can use your Ring Indoor Camera out of the box without a Ring subscription, but only if you don't plan on saving any security videos. It has no internal storage or free cloud storage, so if you spot a burglar on camera you can call the police but once they go off-camera you'll have no evidence of what they look like. You'll have to pay for Ring Protect to save motion-triggered clips from the past 60 days: $30 per year for one camera or $100 per year for all Ring devices.

Eufy also has no free cloud storage, but it does have a microSD slot that supports up to 128GB cards. You'll have to buy a reliable microSD card separately, but having physical storage enables the camera to film constantly rather than merely save clips whenever motion is triggered. You can also pay for a Eufy subscription that costs the same as Ring's — $30/year for one camera, or $100/year for 10 — but only saves the past 30 days of footage.

In his Ring Indoor Camera review, Jared DiPane noted that his main "annoyance" with the camera was the lack of a 24/7 filming option. He noted that "recordings only start when motion is detected" and "only lasts for up to a minute," but that "there are things that happened outside of the motion zone or after the motion stopped recording where I would have liked to see the footage."

Eufy owners that buy a microSD card and turn on 24/7 filming won't miss anything, and Pan & Tilt owners in particular are more likely to see footage outside of the default activity zone.

Connecting to smart devices and apps

Both Eufy and Ring have their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to incorporating them into your ecosystem of devices, depending on whether you care more about smart speakers or IFTTT smart home devices.

While both devices work with Alexa commands, Amazon owns Ring, which unsurprisingly means Ring devices are better incorporated with Amazon's tech. You'll be able to call up Ring surveillance footage on an Echo Show, for example, whereas you can control the Eufy Indoor Cam with Alexa commands but there's less synergy. On the other hand, Eufy also works with Google Assistant commands and Apple HomeKit, while Ring is stuck with Alexa alone.

With HomeKit connectivity, Eufy cams can control any device that Apple has incorporated into its platform. On the other hand, Ring also has its Works with Ring catalog of smart home devices that you can control with the Ring app. Even better, you can create your own custom IFTTT applets that respond to Ring camera alerts by triggering actions in your other devices.

Smart home connectivity turns either camera from a passive observer into an active protector of your home. You can use both cams to trigger Philips Hue lights to turn on if a camera registers movement, for example. Ring and HomeKit are both reliable smart home hubs, so you can't go wrong either way.

As for the apps themselves, both have in-depth customization that gets more useful as you buy more products. Ring lets you check your cams remotely, but also check your lighting, smart locks, thermostat, and other devices. Eufy lets you check its products with its Security app, or you can check your cams along with other HomeKit products in Apple's smart home app. Ring also has a Neighbors app, where you can check security alerts and footage from other Ring users in your region.

Eufy Indoor Cam 2K vs. Ring Indoor Cam: Which should you buy?

If you already own a Ring or Eufy product, you will undoubtedly want to stick with your brand of choice. This will consolidate the number of security apps you need to monitor. Owners of Amazon speakers may want to pick Ring for enhanced Alexa and Echo perks, while Google Assistant users will prefer Eufy. However, both devices have convenient apps that make voice commands a flashy but superfluous perk.

What makes Eufy the superior choice is its person-object recognition, which will prevent a boy-who-cried-wolf scenario where false alerts from pets or roombas cause you to not take threats seriously. It's also true that when it comes to video clips of alerts, most security companies (including Eufy and Ring) have arbitrary, unreliable systems for deciding how long to film a threat. That's why Eufy's option for non-stop filming with a microSD card is a useful security backup.

Add in sound detection, pre-recorded messages triggered by zone activity, and the option for pan and tilt controls, and Eufy has very few downsides. The one exception is its continued lack of two-factor authentication, an ongoing misstep that could expose your security feeds to hackers if your password is exposed. If that is a deal-breaker for you, Ring does have 2FA; unfortunately, Ring has its own security controversies to worry about.