Ring Video Doorbell 3 vs. August View Doorbell Cam: Which should you buy?

Ring Video Doorbell 3

The Video Doorbell 3 is Ring's latest video doorbell. Its integration with Amazon devices and services is top-notch, and its hardware and apps are great as well. Ring has been repairing its relationship with users after several privacy scandals, but the memory of these might still be a deterrent.

August View Doorbell Camera

The August View is the company's first foray into wireless doorbells. It's a simple video doorbell with simple, quick installation, high-resolution video, and low cost of ownership over time.

August and Ring both offer wireless video doorbells, and while there are positives and negatives to both products, the end result shows a clear winner.

The August View is the company's first wireless video doorbell. August previously made two generations of the square Doorbell Cam, which needed to be hardwired into your home's electrical system. Ring, on the other hand, has been offering wireless video doorbells since its first product release, and even provides a way for all of its battery-powered video doorbells to be hardwired, if desired. That means Ring's option, right off the bat, is already more full-featured since it gives users more freedom of choice.

August View Doorbell Camera: See it clearer, see it longer

Despite how it's only powered by a battery and not a dedicated electrical wire, the August View Doorbell Camera sports higher resolution video than the average video doorbell, including Ring Video Doorbell 3. That means you'll be able to see everything on your front porch in incredible detail and, more importantly, get a clearer picture of an intruder than other video doorbells can offer.

August also provides users with free access to the last 24 hours of recordings. In the August View's case, any motion detection or button press will be recorded for a few seconds and then saved to your August cloud account, which is instantly accessible within the August app. Compare that to Ring, which only allows you to view the live feed for free, and you'll understand the value that free access can add. Ring requires users to subscribe to the Ring premium plan in order to view any recordings, even ones that are only seconds old.

If you need longer-term storage, August does offer Premium and Premium Plus subscription plans from $3 and $4 per month, respectively, for those who need more storage. These plans come in a little cheaper than Ring's plans, but they don't offer as much recording time as the Ring plans do.

The August View Doorbell Camera pairs nicely with the best August smart locks, and it also works well with either Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. If you prefer to use Google/Nest devices, or if you want the flexibility to change smart assistants, then this is the doorbell for you.

The August View is powered by a removable, rechargeable battery pack that's fairly easy to slide out and plug into a USB cable. You can also purchase additional battery packs from August for $30, which will ensure that your video doorbell never has any long downtime.

Ring Video Doorbell 3: A nice Ring to it

From a hardware perspective, the Ring Video Doorbell 3 features a full 1080p camera with infrared lighting to help you better see in poor lighting conditions. It can be used wirelessly, thanks to the removable and rechargeable battery pack, or hooked in through existing doorbell wiring for less hassle over time. Ring also sells a handy solar charger that fits around the housing of the doorbell, keeping it powered forever.

With the Video Doorbell 3, Ring added a big new feature called the Near Zone to help cut down on erroneous motion detections. The Near Zone is a way for the doorbell to only detect motion between 5-15 feet away from the camera. That helps negate false positives when a car drives by the house, for example, or when a bug flies right in front of the camera.

Ring also has additional major benefits over August when concerning motion detection. While the August View Doorbell Camera motion detection sensitivity can be adjusted via a simple slider, Ring allows users to customize specific areas of the video where the doorbell should detect motion. That makes it easy to exclude things like a flag that always sets off motion alerts. On top of that, Ring allows users to block off entire sections of the video from recording, keeping private areas like bedroom windows safe from cameras.

The Ring Protect subscription plans are some of the most affordable plans available among any provider and they offer tons of value, as well. This helps take some of the sting out of needing to subscribe to Ring's service to access your recordings. That's particularly important since Ring only allows users to view the live feed for free. Any historical video, even if it's only seconds old, can only be accessed with a subscription plan.

Since Ring is an Amazon-owned company, it's no surprise that its products work well with Alexa-enabled devices like Echo smart speakers. Still, because of increasing competition and compartmentalization between Amazon and Google, Google Assistant support is basic, at best. You won't be able ot cast the doorbell's video to your TV or smart displays with Google Assistant like you can with Alexa, for instance. If that's a sticking point for you, you'll want to skip this device.

Ring Video Doorbell 3 vs. August View Doorbell Camera Which button to press

Both August and Ring make quality smart home security devices at comparable prices, but the decision to choose the August View Doorbell Camera will most likely boil down to scant few questions. The most important factor to consider is August's low cost-of-ownership. August gives users 24 hours of free video storage, so it's easy to see what happened at your home over the past day without having to pay for a subscription fee. The higher-resolution video offered is also a plus, however, it probably doesn't make as big of a difference as you might expect.

The Ring Video Doorbell 3 offers more customizability than the August View Doorbell Camera does, and it offers quite a few important features that make it one of the best products Ring has ever made. First off, it can be completely run via a rechargeable battery pack or via hardwired power, while the August View Doorbell Camera can only be run on battery power. Secondly, Ring provides the ability to customize where the doorbell detects motion, and it can even be told to block out parts of the video entirely for privacy reasons. It's also more reliable than the August View when it comes to actually viewing the video, which is the entire purpose of getting a video doorbell in the first place.

Basically, this comes down to a value proposition. Do you care more about quality-of-life features and better capabilities? In most cases, the Ring Video Doorbell 3 will be the best buy for folks simply because of this fact. If you're looking for a simple video doorbell that won't cost you extra to use all of the features, then the August View makes more sense.