2026 Ring Doorbell Comparison: Which One Should You Buy?

The Ring Video Doorbell Pro is the device for people who want the best video quality possible. After testing a lot of Ring doorbells over the years, the Battery Doorbell Pro 4K is the clearest, most detailed footage I've seen from any doorbell camera. The Retinal 4K video with up to 10x zoom and a 140° field of view in both directions means you're getting a full picture — head to toe, wide angle, minimal distortion. Colors are true to life, and the slight fishbowl effect at the top of the frame is minor enough that faces stay readable.

Night vision is where a lot of doorbell cameras fall apart, and the Pro holds up. Color footage stays natural as long as there's any ambient light, then the camera switches automatically to black-and-white when it gets fully dark. No guessing, no muddy frames.

The newly released Ring Doorbell Plus is the middle ground in Ring's video doorbell lineup. It has higher-quality video and better night vision than the Ring Doorbell. It also has dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), while the Ring Doorbell only works with 2.4 GHz.

The Plus lacks some features of higher-priced video doorbells, such as 4K video, 10x zoom, and 3D motion detection, though. 

Why would you choose this Ring doorbell camera over others? Well, if video quality is important to you, but you don't really care about PoE or 3-D motion detection, this model can save you hundreds of dollars.

The Ring Video Doorbell is what you would call the base model of the Ring lineup. It's the original, but the company has made quite a few updates to it over the years.

One big improvement in this new version is crisp 2K video quality and a more polished design. But it still doesn't have a removable battery, unlike the more pricy models. Charging the battery on this Ring is a bit of a hassle (since you have to pretty much take the whole doorbell off). But if you hardwire it to your old doorbell, you won’t have to worry about the battery dying.

It also lacks dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) and an interchangeable faceplate to better match your doorbell to your home.

But just because it’s budget-friendly doesn’t mean it’s without perks. The Ring Video Doorbell still has a bunch of the other bells and whistles we enjoy with pricier versions, including custom motion zones, motion-activated alerts, and a wide 140º field of view.

The Ring Video Doorbell Elite costs a whole lot more than most of the other Ring doorbells, and it's also a lot chunkier. There's a reason for that. It's chock-full of features.

Like the Pro, it has 4K video, 10x enhanced zoom, and 3D motion detection. But, it has a bunch more stuff added on.

The Native Power over Ethernet (PoE) is exclusive to the Elite. This means you can power and connect to the internet using your Ethernet cable. This gives you constant power (no battery charging!) and video that never buffers or stops because of unpredictable Wi-Fi problems.

The Elite also has remote gate access. That means if your home has a gated entry, you can use the Elite as your intercom system to control your gate from the Ring app.

Maybe best of all, the Elite has color night vision, something the others can't do.

As a Ring Doorbell user, I’ve probably spent hundreds of hours over the last few years using my Ring, and I’m a happy customer.

To compare Ring doorbells, I spent about hours combing the Ring website, researching each device, and trying them out in my own home.

I also watched about half a dozen installation videos and talked with a security pro to better understand the ins and outs of installing each.

Our full methodology gives more info on how we evaluate products.