Ring vs Skybell vs Kuna vs?

The Dbell doorbell looks really good. https://youtu.be/f4KbJn-Kv_w I’m holding out a bit until I find out which one integrates best with the Echo Show.

Out of curiosity, what are you not convinced by with the Ring and Skybell?

The main thing, I don’t like cloud payment solutions and want to use my own NAS. I ask Dbell and there are plans in the next version for Zwave compatibility in Dbell. I think, I wait for next year. for a whole list:

Dbell versus Ring/Skybell, ring pro got more options now, but not all.
Cloud video recording Free Paid
Works without existing doorbell Yes No
Easy One-Touch setup Yes No
Standard ONVIF® Compatible Yes No
Works with IP security products Yes No
IP Camera Yes No
Audio Detection Alarm Yes No
30° Mount for install included Yes No
Visitors log with Date & Time Yes Yes
Video stream Dual Single
Access using PC Browsers Yes No
Ethernet Port for wired Yes No
Night vision: IR LED light Yes Yes
Works with NVR, NAS drive Yes No
Schedule recording Yes No
Indoor chime included Yes No
Works with Crestron® Yes No
Power adapter included Yes No

Holy crap, I just looked at that YouTube video and Dbell’s website…

  1. The product looks horrible.
  2. Their website is shady as hell, their “comparisons” are completely misleading
  3. That YouTube video is 100% paid for by Dbell.
  4. The resolution on the Dbell is awful.
  5. The reason why it comes with a ‘free’ indoor chime is because Dbell stops your original chime from working, whereas Ring (and SkyBell as far as I know) will work with your ORIGINAL indoor chime, ALONG WITH an additional plug in one if you so wish:

And that’s just the things I could quickly find. There are WAY too many things you can poke holes in, if you still want Dbell, all I’m going to say is, good luck with that!

I am building a new home. so I don’t have a orignal indoor chime. and yes Dbell is stil horribel to see, but Ring and Skybell don’t have the preferences I need. Maybe that’s why I asking for more reference, then the YouTube video paid by Dbell.

This thread is old, but since many people are still answering, I would share my opinion as well. We need to understand that Ring and SkyBell both started as amaeturish products when they were first released. However, the current versions of both products are pretty decent (Ring has Ring Pro ) and SkyBell has SkyBell HD. Both seem to be promising and should have rectified the connection issues that were prominent in earlier versions. I haven’t really heard about Kuna.

If you ask me still Ring or SkyBell, then I would go for Ring Pro for sure. If you are comparing old versions, may be below reference might be handy as well.

I personally consider Kuna a joke and a huge failure. The light fixture with the camera in it is a fair price but charging you $100 for a matching light fixture without a camera is an absolute joke. They should be priced at $40 to $60 which is still a bit much, especially if you search Home Depot for outside light fixtures and look at their reasonable prices.

For people that only have 2 light fixtures in the front or back that is probably acceptable, but where I am there are 2 light fixtures by the front door and 2 light fixtures by the garage so to provide a nice looking matching appearance I would need to replace all 4 costing upwards of over $400. How they are still in business is amazing to me.

Different things work for different people. :sunglasses: I only needed one Kuna, because I have a separate security system with its own cameras. The Kuna is just for a video doorbell because it has additional features that you didn’t mention, in particular two way audio and, of course, control of the light, including Alexa Control. The two way audio is really useful for a video doorbell, but I wouldn’t need one on my backyard security cameras, for example.

So I’ve had one Kuna installed for about a year, Use it all the time, like it very much, and often recommend it for consideration by someone who is looking for a combination video doorbell/light control. But I wouldn’t recommend it for someone who is just looking for a security camera.

So just depends on what you need, but I certainly don’t find it surprising that they’re still in business. They have a four star rating on Amazon with almost 900 reviews, so I’m obviously not the only one who likes it for a specific use case. :sunglasses:

But again, in a situation like yours where you are looking to put cameras all around the house, I agree that Kuna isn’t a good match.

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Hey @JDRoberts, not sure if you were responding to my post but what I meant was that I find the price of the light fixture + camera a fair affordable price but, for me, I would also have to replace the 3 other light fixtures in the front to make it look nice. :slight_smile:

Now I don’t want 4 camera light fixtures, just one is fine like you mentioned, so that leaves 3 remaining standard light fixtures that I need to buy to match the Kuna camera/light fixture which Kuna charges $100 for each matching standard light fixture (which they refer to as companion fixture). I already have cameras setup so I don’t need a new full camera system outside, was just interested in a nice looking front door one and that light fixture approach looked nice. :sunglasses:

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Just looked at the Kuna website and they have one that can be put into an existing light. Not as pretty but some might prefer that approach.

https://store.getkuna.com/collections/toucan

Well, I found a new doorbell it’s called Doorbird… Does anyone got experience with this thing? It got PoE and local storage instead of paid cloud…

@Simpel Where does it mention that is local storage?
I was looking through their FAQ and is strictly cloud base… I might be just missing it… :confused:

They have added a lot of 3rd party integration since last time I looked. You can record to their cloud but you can also record to your local NAS if you want.

“DoorBird Connect” is a free feature which is included in any DoorBird IP Video Door Station. With “DoorBird Connect” you have complete control of your smart home and Internet of Things (IoT). You can connect your DoorBird IP Video Door Station with your favourite components such as traditional door strikes, door chimes, smart locks, home servers, hubs, NAS and NVR’s for added convenience, monitoring and security.

doorbird connect

US $349? No thanks. And it’s butt-ugly to boot.

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Until we see more real world experiences of it, I’d hold off…

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I am new to smart things but bought it and a smartcode door lock. My house has neither a doorbell or a motion light out front and I would like to add both. I have a screened in porch so the motion light would be outside, the doorbell could be out there or on the porch but I’m not sure it would accurately record since you would need to open the screen door to activate it and my mail box is outside the screened porch anyway so packages are usually left out there. I would like a camera in either the light or doorbell. Which would you pick? Kuna as a light or one of the smart doorbells with a camera? Since I do not have a doorbell at all I would prefer a battery operated one I do not need to wire.

Hi Simpel! Just came across this post as i’m fairly new to ST.

I do have a doorbird, but it’s not for everyone. I was looking for a doorbell device that not only allows me to interact, but that had a relative open API and most importantly, it had compatibility in terms of ONVIF (gave me most flexibility with my choice of DVR), POE (so i don’t have to keep changing damn batteries) and that it was hardwired (wifi sucks in my farady cage like house) and it allowed my existing 2 wire doorbell to be connected to the doorbird and still work with my ELK M1 Gold security system. Wife factor was a big one, as many of you know. I already tried 2 (and returned them) before she ok’d one of the doorbirds. The SIP integration is also a nice bonus, but not needed for me.

Too many of these new digital doorbells out there skimp and tend to be closed in terms of integrations or lack true usefulness around home automation that will carry me into the future. Like many others (i think), i couldn’t afford going all in or wholesale rip and replace or constantly be updating every year or two just because manufacturers out there these days pump out MVP crap, then force you to buy the next version. In the long run the later meant i would ultimately spend more than i would have, investing into a quality product.

I’m also not a developer, nor do i have the time to be futzing around endlessly, which makes it even harder, as i rely on the home automation platform vendor or the good people in the community forums (most of the time, more of the good people of the community than the platform truth be told) to help me make this work. The open API and ONVIF made it way easier to integrate when an integration didn’t exist.

Now, all that said, it isn’t for everyone. It’s expensive (yes), but it also offers a lot of options that met my criteria. If you’re simply looking for a simple digital doorbell or one that can operate in your home on wifi, don’t need complex triggers to work with your choice of camera’s or legacy components, and you know that it only needs to interact with your smartthings or wink then this isn’t for you. You have lots of options these days from Nest, August, Ring, etc. (i bought mine almost 1.5+ years ago)

They have also been very good around support (that’s the one thing many new companies don’t realize, matters a lot to customers and value). I had an issue with the IR led’s - 3 of them went out - a simple email and a prepaid RMA was issued to me right away to be sent back. So that’s a plus in my books!

I hope that helps. I’m not advocating for one over another, but really determine what’s important to you and your automated world. Then choose based on that…the price is actually negligible if you’re spending endless amount of time always trying to troubleshoot, hack and slash and integrate or do work arounds. The point of automation is to be seamless, fade into the background and make our lives easier, not more complicated and not work.

Last thing…i ******* HATE bouncing around 100’s of different apps for each stupid thing…which the new home automation vendor world doesn’t seem to get. The flexibility of components like these are getting me closer to having just one app to do everything. Now if i can only figure a way around getting rid of IFTTT and Stringify (i’m only recently migrating from VeraEdge/Plus) i will be a happy camper.

Hope that helps and sorry for the essay. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions. Happy to help.

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Great information! Thank you!

I’ve googled my way to your post as the best analysis for my very similar path… I want something ONVIF to integrate with my Synology Surveillance Station based camera system. I also want something with at least one, but preferably two, relay triggers (one to open a gate buzzer, another to open a locked package-delivery box). I love that you brought up the fragmented UX world we’re trudging through for the current decade… apps are all trying to own the experience… screw that! Open up, use standards, and let aggregators or hubs provide the unified experience (e.g. the Smart Things app is my central place for all interaction from my phone). Don’t make me use your custom Ring app/etc!

My preference is the option PoE (the obvious first choice in the long run) or 24VAC (“doorbell standard power” which is useful in my current situation since I don’t have PoE handy and would gladly do a Wifi+24V temporary install until I’m out of my current rental unit).

Questions: did you try Ring, Ring Pro, Ring2, SkyBell? I’m curious about your thoughts, if you have any.

Also, what’s the “push a button to let someone in” experience like? That’s the critically winning feature in my book.

Hi Ikjsaendlkje,

I did try the Ring and the August, but these were the gen 1 versions. Because of my crappy wifi coverage, it was just too flaky to be reliable. I imagine, since you have good wifi, and the 24v it shouldn’t be a problem. However, i don’t believe any of the ones you listed above with the exception of the Ring Pro is POE compatible. The rest is a mix of wifi and/or 24v.

Ring, Skybell and August all didn’t have ONVIF at the time and none of them could play nice with Synology or Vera. I believe that’s changed now, as the community and Synology have finally released some of the direct drivers? I’d have to check again if that’s the case. I’m still trying to figure out what the Synology-ST integrated smartapp does…hoping it will focus around triggering, so i can do more automation.

ST is integrated with Ring, Skybell and kuna (i’m assuming), but not Doorbird or August. For August, i believe you have to go through wink hub and with Doorbird, i’m still trying to figure out what the trigger call (via virtual button and motion sensor) is in ST. The triggering and motion sensing API HTTP push/get calls are the same, just not sure how ST handles it vs what i’m used to with Vera. For the specifics arond the"push a button to let someone in" experience; as long as you’re going through ST or some hub, it is pretty seamless. I find that with a hub (vs a direct integration, you get a far better response/feedback on the state of things. I believe for multi-tenant dwellings, the Doorbird was better at integrating with those systems, as it supports the sip protocols. That might be relevant to you if you’re renting in a condo/apartment unit.

Ideally, if i were a building a house from ground up, i would actually plan to use a doorcloser to round out the whole experience. But that’s just me and my paranoia :slight_smile: But in the absence of that, i would certainly make sure you have a door sensor or a multi motion sensor to sense/trigger a relock the door.

As a note, i have a yale keyless lock as reference. These typically never have a seperate app.I believe Kevo and yale tend to be the friendliest of the bunch in terms of reliance with hubs like ST and vera, but i’m sure others can speak to other brands more intelligently than i can, as i haven’t had to change in a while.

Hope that helps. If you have any specific questions around the door lock experience, please feel free to ask/ping. Happy to answer.