9 Best Indoor Security Cameras (2024): For Homes and Apartments

The C120 can stream and record video at up to 2K resolution, supports two-way audio (with a slight delay), and has a slot for up to 512-GB microSD cards to keep recordings local. This affordable security camera has a starlight sensor that offers impressive color night vision, smart detection (people, pets and vehicles) without a subscription and IP66 ratingwhich means you can also use it outdoors (provided you can route the power cord). The convenient base is easy to wall mount, can stand on a shelf and is magnetic. There’s no need to spend more than that to keep an eye on an entryway or a specific room in your home.

Motion detection is reliable and you can adjust the sensitivity and customize the notifications you receive. Video is crisp, but frame rates max out at 20fps, so fast-moving objects sometimes look blurry. You can set activity and privacy zones in the Tapo app, and there’s AI detection to recognize people, pets, vehicles and the sound of a baby crying. Unfortunately, rich notifications, including a snapshot, are bundled with the optional Tapo Care subscription, along with 30 days of cloud storage for clips, and it’s expensive at $3.50 per month for one camera or $12 per month for up to 10 cameras. There’s no HomeKit or IFTTT support, but it does work with Google Home and Amazon Alexa, although loading the stream on my Nest Hub was a bit slow. This camera also supports the open Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP).

If your budget is tight, It became C110 ($16) is even cheaper with only a few compromises (lower framerate, no pet or vehicle detection, microSD limited to 256GB).