Best Outdoor Security Cameras of 2023

These cameras keep watch over your property through rain, sleet, and snow

By Daniel Wroclawski

Updated January 1, 2023

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Arlo security camera — The best outdoor security cameras, according to Consumer Reports' testing, come from Arlo, Eufy, Google Nest, Lorex, Ring, and TP-Link.

Video doorbells are great for keeping an eye on the entrance to your home, but what about your backyard? Or your driveway? For those, you need outdoor security cameras.

They’re weatherproof, and most run on rechargeable batteries, allowing you to mount them almost anywhere, even to a tree (provided it’s still in range of your home’s WiFi). If you have floodlights in these areas, you could even take advantage of their steady stream of power and install specialized floodlight security cameras.

Most cameras save footage to the cloud, but some let you save it locally on an SD card or a USB drive. Either way, the cameras use rolling storage, where the oldest footage is deleted to make room for new footage when there is no free space.

The smart features you’ll find on any given camera vary, but many of them send you smartphone alerts when they “see” things of interest, such as people, cars, animals, and packages. Other common features include voice control via digital assistants, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home; two-way audio, for speaking to visitors via your smartphone or digital assistant; and the ability to silence motion alerts at certain times of day—say, during the day while you work from home.

In our tests, we assess the smart features in each outdoor security camera, plus the video quality (including how well night vision works) and how quickly you get an alert when the camera detects motion. And though privacy outside your home might not be as big a concern as what goes on inside your home, we still score models on how well they protect your data.

“Even outdoor cameras pose privacy and security concerns,” says Justin Brookman, CR’s director of technology policy. “Depending on where the cameras are positioned, they can reveal a lot about you, such as when you tend to leave and come home, and with whom. A hacker could potentially use that information to determine when would be a good time to break into a home, or at least snatch some packages.”

Below you’ll find details on the eight best outdoor security cameras from our tests, listed in alphabetical order. They’re made by Arlo, Eufy, Google Nest, Lorex, Ring, and TP-Link. All feature two-way audio and voice control via Amazon Alexa. Here are other features you’ll find in some of these models.

Monitoring zones: This feature allows you to highlight areas of the camera’s field of view, such as a driveway, to monitor for movement—or ignore when there is movement, such as a busy street.
Person, package, vehicle, and/or animal detection: The camera can detect their presence in its field of view and record footage.
Geofencing: This feature uses your phone’s location so that the camera will record and/or send alerts only when you’re away from home.
e911: You’ll find e911 in the camera’s smartphone app. With it, you can call your home’s local 911 dispatcher directly if there is an emergency. That could save valuable time if you’re away from home, because usually you’d be connected to the 911 dispatcher closest to where you’re calling from. In that case, you’d need to be put through to your local police department so that you can ask them to check on your property.

For more on outdoor cameras, see our complete wireless security camera ratings and guide to the best floodlight security cameras. Interested in indoor security cameras or video doorbells, too? Check out CR’s free home security camera buying guide.

8 Best Outdoor Security Cameras

Arlo Essential Wireless Security Camera VMC2030-100NAS

Free video storage: None
Optional subscription costs: Through an Arlo Secure plan, you can get 30 days of cloud video storage for $3 per month for one camera or $10 per month for unlimited cameras, 30-day storage with in-app emergency response buttons costs $15 per month for unlimited cameras, or you can get all those features plus the Arlo Safe personal safety app and professional monitoring for the Arlo security system for $20 per month.

CR’s take: The Arlo Essential Wireless Security Camera is a fantastic security camera, receiving strong ratings in our tests for video quality and data security. It performs quite well in our response-time test, but its data privacy could be better. This model gives you a built-in spotlight that allows for color night vision, a rechargeable battery, a siren, and voice control (via Amazon Alexa, Apple Home/Siri, and Google Home/Assistant), and it connects directly to WiFi (unlike its sibling below, which uses a base station).

With an Arlo Secure subscription, you can get 30 days of cloud video storage for motion-triggered video clips, as well as monitoring zones; person, package, vehicle, and animal detection; and emergency response buttons in the Arlo app, which allow you to request police, fire, or medical services with just a tap. The company offers subscriptions for 24/7 continuous video recording, too. If you don’t want to pay a monthly fee for video storage, you can use an Arlo Smart Hub, $100 (sold separately), to save footage on a USB drive instead. The hub is also required for Apple Home/Siri to work.

Arlo Pro 3 VMC4040P

Free video storage: Yes, via a USB drive
Optional subscription costs: Through an Arlo Secure plan, you can get 30 days of cloud video storage for $3 per month for one camera or $10 per month for unlimited cameras, 30-day storage with in-app emergency response buttons costs $15 per month for unlimited cameras, or you can get all those features plus the Arlo Safe personal safety app and professional monitoring for the Arlo security system for $20 per month.

CR’s take: The Arlo Pro 3 is a terrific camera that excels in our performance tests for video quality and device response time—plus for how useful its smart functions are, and how secure your data is kept. Where it falls behind is data privacy, a measure of how your data is shared. The Arlo Pro 3 performs similarly to its predecessor, the Arlo Pro 2, but adds a built-in spotlight that allows for color night vision, a siren in the camera itself (not the base station), a wider 160-degree field of view, and higher-resolution 2K HDR video.

An Arlo Secure subscription gets you 30 days of cloud video storage for motion-triggered video clips, as well as monitoring zones; person, package, vehicle, and animal detection; and emergency response buttons in the Arlo app. The company offers subscriptions for 24/7 continuous video recording, too. If you don’t want to pay a monthly fee for video storage, you can connect a USB drive to the base station and store footage there instead.

Eufy Cam 2C Pro T8861 (Two-Camera Kit)

Free video storage: Yes, using 16 gigabytes of built-in memory
Optional storage subscription: Through a Eufy cloud storage plan, you can get 30 days of cloud storage for one camera for $3 per month or 30 days of storage for up to 10 cameras for $10 per month.

CR’s take: The Eufy Cam 2C Pro is a bit unusual in that Eufy at minimum makes you buy a two-camera kit, making it better suited to shoppers looking for a multicamera system. In our tests, it performs well across the board, especially with its array of smart features. Its only flaw is its middling data privacy, but that’s a common issue for the majority of cameras in our ratings. The Eufy Cam 2C Pro packs a ton of features, including person detection, facial recognition, a built-in spotlight, monitoring zones, a siren, two-way audio, 16 gigabytes of memory for local video storage (there’s no SD card slot for expandable storage), and voice and app control via Amazon Alexa, Apple Home/Siri, and Google Home/Assistant

A word about Eufy’s digital privacy and security: In November 2022, Eufy had a security issue that allowed camera feeds to be accessed with a media player. The company claims to have fixed it, but our test engineers are looking into the issue. We’ll update this story if we learn more. This follows a May 2021 security problem where Eufy users were accidentally able to access cameras owned by other users. The company said at the time that it was working to put additional safeguards in place to prevent such issues from happening again.

Eufy Solo Cam S40

Free video storage: Yes, using 8 gigabytes of built-in memory
Optional subscription costs: Through a Eufy cloud storage plan, you can get 30 days of cloud storage for one camera for $3 per month or 30 days of storage for up to 10 cameras for $10 per month.

CR’s take: The Eufy Solo Cam S40 is the first security camera CR has tested with a built-in solar panel to recharge its battery. In our tests, it offers superb video quality and data security, and it receives a very good rating for its response time. The camera doesn’t offer great data privacy, though, which is common among these devices. It features monitoring zones; person alerts; voice control via Amazon Alexa and Google Home/Assistant; a built-in siren; color night vision, thanks to its built-in spotlight; and 8GB of memory to store footage locally.

Google Nest Cam (Battery)

Free video storage: 3 hours of free video clips
Optional subscription costs: Through a Nest Aware plan, you get 30 days of storage for video clips for $6 per month (or $60 per year), or 60 days of storage for video clips and a rolling 10 days of storage for 24/7 video recordings for $12 per month (or $120 per year).

CR’s take: The Google Nest Cam (Battery) is a strong performer in our tests, offering terrific video quality, data security, and response time. It’s also one of few security cameras to give you monitoring zones, object recognition (of people, packages, animals, and vehicles), and 3 free hours of cloud video storage without a monthly subscription. The camera also works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home/Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings for voice and app control. Cloud video storage and additional features (such as facial recognition) require a Google Nest Aware subscription.

Lorex Smart Indoor/Outdoor WiFi W282CAD-E

Free video storage: Yes, using the included 32-gigabyte microSD card
Optional storage subscription: No

CR’s take: The Lorex Smart Indoor/Outdoor WiFi W282CAD-E is an all-around great performer in our lab tests. It receives high marks for video quality and data security, as well as a very good response time. It offers middling data privacy in our tests, but that’s common for this product category. This camera comes with a 32-gigabyte microSD card for local video storage and features two-way audio, monitoring zones, person detection, vehicle detection, a siren to scare off intruders, and voice and app control via Amazon Alexa and Google Home/Assistant. But be aware, unlike most other cameras in this category, the Lorex doesn’t have the option to use rechargeable batteries, and has to be wired in for power

Ring Stick Up Cam (Battery) 3rd Generation

Free video storage: None
Optional subscription costs: Through a Ring Protect plan, you get 180 days of cloud video storage for one camera for $4 per month (or $40 per year) or 180 days for unlimited cameras for $10 per month (or $100 per year).

CR’s take: For a more affordable camera compared with the models above, consider the third-generation Ring Stick Up Cam (Battery). At $100, this camera works both indoors and outdoors, and gives you monitoring zones and voice control via Amazon Alexa. In our tests, this Ring camera receives strong scores for video quality and response time (how long it takes the camera to send alerts when motion is detected). We also found that Ring does a good job of keeping your data secure, but its data privacy is lacking, in part because Ring doesn’t clearly state how long it retains your data and when it deletes the data. If you subscribe to a Ring Protect video storage plan, you’ll get photo snapshots between recordings in the Ring app as well as person detection.

TP-Link Kasa Cam Outdoor KC420WS

Free video storage: Yes, with up to a 256-gigabyte microSD card (not included)
Optional subscription costs: Through a Kasa Care plan, you get 30 days of cloud storage for one camera for $3 per month (or $30 per year) or 30 days of storage for up to 10 cameras for $10 per month (or $100 per year).

CR’s take: The TP-Link Kasa Cam Outdoor KC420WS offers impeccable video quality, speedy response time, and strong data security in our tests, though it receives an unfavorable rating for data privacy. Its many features include voice and app control via Amazon Alexa and Google Home/Assistant, monitoring zones, person alerts, a built-in siren, color night vision, and local video storage when you insert a microSD card (not included). If you’d like to store your footage in the cloud instead, you can sign up for a Kasa Care plan for a rolling 30 days of cloud video storage.

Daniel Wroclawski

I'm obsessed with smart home tech and channel my obsession into new stories for Consumer Reports. When I'm not writing about products, I spend time either outside hiking and skiing or up in the air in small airplanes. For my latest obsessions, follow me on Facebook and Twitter (@danwroc).