We have arlo cameras at our family’s place at the river. I think they are dying. Been having a lot of trouble with them this year. I’m not a fan of the battery thing anyway. Wiring cameras is not an option. Everything is outside. I can get power at a few locations though. Is ring or nest the better option? Or is there something else I can use?

Hate if you're gonna hate, but I installed 3 Ring cameras with batteries and solar chargers for a lady recently. And the battery doorbell 3 plus. They are connected to an Eero Pro system (all are hardwired). I was impressed with how well they work. The solar keeps the cameras charged so no need to take batteries out to charge them. Image quality is dang good. Notifications are quick and accurate. For the $, they get the job done and then some.

It sucks that these seem like a better solution than the "pro" systems we are used to installing. I'm on the hunt for a good value for money camera/recorder solution. Synology seems to be pretty dang good on the hardware/UI side. And pretty camera agnostic. Might have to give it another go. I did a customer solid solution with 2 cameras on a Synology NAS and or was pretty good. They have made a lot of improvements in the software/app since then.

The most irritating part when comparing these IOT products to the “pro” stuff is the app. The ring and google apps are so much easier for the end user to use.

On the battery version, do you know how the motion detection works? Is it standard pixel change or is it PIR?

Sometimes it makes sense to match the cameras to the thermostat, that is if you are using a Nest thermostat, get the Nest Hello doorbell, and Nest cameras, and that way one app covers them all.

I had a Ring doorbell, that “only needed to be charged every six months”, but before too very long it needed charging all the time. I couldn’t get it over to a wired location. If you must do the battery option on any of these things, make sure you have exchangeable, rechargeable batteries. Anything that you have to take down to charge, you will be hating yourself.

I got a Nest thermostat in the meantime, so I decided to try a Nest Hello. I actually like it quite a bit better. And I do like having the one app instead of two.

That being said, my impression that the video and the notifications might be better, might just be anecdotal and either one might be just fine. I did have one client switch from Ring to Nest, and she thought the video was better. Maybe just a newer model perhaps.

All the Nest cameras I have seen at clients homes have looked very good. The only Ring cameras I have seen are on the floodlight, and I saw great video there also.

If I wasted too much of your time with doorbells, I apologize.

I’m putting cameras on a river lot with campers. No thermostat or doorbells needed.

I, personally, like the Nest app and Outdoor IQ camera much better if you can get HV power. Even in ideal Wifi environments I've seen Ring cameras struggle and get hungup when trying to access live footage. Ring cameras are great when replacing an outdoor motion light or if you like the motion and light feature which Nest does not offer. I also like the Nest UI more than the Ring. It always seems to come down to individual application and like another poster said if there's need to integrate with other components.

My concern with nest is I’ve seen them drop offline even with strong WiFi. We have had a lot of issues with them staying online when customers insisted on using nest.

Try Eero for test.

I had Nest cameras and a Ring doorbell for quite a while.

Ring battery stopped holding a charge and the housing was falling apart. I want to say it is about 5 years old and was in a full weather environment (a post by my driveway gate).

Replaced it with a Nest Hello. Yes, it was a PITA to get a wire out there but I made it happen.

Image quality is better, it seems slightly faster to alert, video comes up faster. All in all I am happy with it. Curious to see what long term durability is like.

Standard PIR with some Software verification like People Only detection on battery versions

You say wiring is not an option, but I really enjoy running cables over configuring.

When you figure out how to run wires through a concrete slab and wire a steel framed picnic shelter without any permanent structure around to house equipment, let me know. Until then, I’m going with the Ring cameras.

Well, many professionals know how to do that. Maybe you could call one?

Check out the "Rapid Ring" app. It gives you instant access to your ring cameras. The hang up in the "Ring Always Home" app is all the bloat in the app itself. Also the Ring X products are the way to go if you are installing Ring.

Lol. I mean in the end aren’t all these off the shelf solutions still cloud based recording which is useless in the event network is down or too slow? Also many times you have to extend WiFi with wires for it anyway if it’s a large structure. Also is continuous recording an option or only motion? Also still have to pay monthly (you don’t own the data?). Not flaming just thinking out loud. I have done plenty of Nest and Ring etc. make no mistake.