alt Hacker NewsI'll second the endorsement for the Reolink doorbells. Great quality and build.
I've never been able to get their general security cameras to work reliably. Between poor uptime, frequent need for power cycling, and inconsistent stream quality, I'd choose something else unless you already own them or their particular form factors suit your needs.
Reolink POE cameras and POE doorbells paired to the Reolink NVR are high quality and super reliable. Price wise it is a long break even if the goal is to just save money with no subscription, but you get a much more professional setup. NVR with basic camera bundle will be $450-$800, then another $200 or so for doorbells or some larger cameras with lights. Professional install is around $120 a camera.
If anyone goes this route save yourself a ton of trouble and ignore 95% of the articles and forum posts telling you to use Scrypted and HomeBridge. It is trash and won’t work well.
The best way to link the NVR to the Internet and other smart devices is with HomeAssistant. Everything else is trash.
It actually works, and HomeAssistant exposed motion detection alerts as their own sensors. The vehicle alerts, people alerts, animal alerts, and more generic motion alerts all pipe in as if they are their own device. You can easily combine this with some super cheap smart light switches and a speaker or two to make your own alarm system. The NVR has EXCELLENT person, animal, and vehicle detection and differentiation. Very few false positives, and I have never seen them miss something even under the worst conditions. We had a thunderstorm last night and they picked up vehicles on the road through heavy rain and flashes of lightning.
Do not bother connecting the Reolink mobile app to the the Internet. It is perfectly serviceable for when you are on the same network, it’s just anywhere else. Just pipe video out with HomeAssistant.