There are countless brands and models of smart doorbells in Australia at the moment: Ring, Arlo, Eufy, Nest, Ubiquiti, XTU, Amcrest, and Qihoo, to name just a few.

So which one of these is the best smart doorbell in Australia?

Quite frankly, none of them.

While they all have the common functionality of notifying you via smartphone when you have a visitor, allowing you to see who is there and talk to them, and also allowing you to see any calls you missed; this is only half of the functionality we feel are required to be considered the ‘best’.

So what are they missing? All of the benefits below. And what brand ticks all of the boxes? DoorBird!

ACCESS CONTROL

A truly smart doorbell should give you the option of letting your visitor in through your gate or door. And not just from 1 brand of smart lock that is only compatible with a small range of front doors.

Every DoorBird model across an extensive range can control virtually any door or gate. There’s an electronic way to lock/unlock every door or gate whether it is via electric strike, magnetic lock, sliding/swinging gate motor, or garage door gate motor. None of the brands/models mentioned at the top of this article can do this.

What’s the real benefit of this?

• Lets the delivery driver in to put the parcel inside the house rather than on the porch
• Lets the gardener or the house cleaner through the gate if you forgot he was coming and you’re away from home
• Lets your mum inside the house to start cooking dinner when you’re arriving late from work
• Lets the kids enter the house without them having to carry (and possibly, lose) the keys

DoorBird can work in the above scenarios. In fact, DoorBird can control as many entry points as you want, all from the same app. This could be the driveway gate, pedestrian gate, side and pool gate, multiple garage doors, front door, rear and side doors, and the shed door.

Let’s take it to another level: Let’s say you have the ability to do the above, what about access to your home for you, your family, close friends, or trusted service people? Yes, you can use the DoorBird app to let them in each time, but that won’t always be convenient. How about keyfobs you can provide for those trusted people, or keycodes you can create for each of them, or fingerprint access? DoorBird has models with all of these entry methods.

MULTI-DWELLING

You may have dual living at your home, or an office separate from your home, or a granny flat that you rent out. None of the mainstream brands above cater for this with intercoms with more than 1 call button. DoorBird has many options:

• Door stations with a single call button

• Door stations with 2 x call buttons

• Door stations with 3 - 6 call buttons

• Door stations with a keypad that allows 200 different and independent call recipients

• Door stations you can design yourself with any number of call buttons

• DoorBird is the only product in the smart doorbell category that caters for multi-dwelling

COLOUR/ FINISH/ MOUNTING 

Most of the brands listed at the top only have 1 or 2 colour options, and will all be ‘surface’ mounted which might not suit the look and style of your entry. Surface mounts are often easy to dislodge and steal.

DoorBird not only have models with different style fascias, they also have different colours and finishes, and nearly every model can be bought in surface mount or flush mount. They are also made from metals like Stainless Steel, and have fascias designed to handle the harsh environments of coastal properties.

These are only 3 of the many differences between DoorBird and other mainstream brands. Although Ring, Arlo, Eufy, Nest, Ubiquiti, XTU, Amcrest, and Qihoo can be considered good value; without the full functionality listed above, they cannot be labelled the ‘best’. The only brand worthy of recognition is DoorBird.