The best floodlight camera to buy right now

When something goes bump in the night in your backyard, you probably want to know about it. While regular security cameras with night vision can show you what’s out there, a floodlight camera can show you and tell that rascal or raccoon to get off your lawn, scaring them away with some powerful lumens and possibly a blaring siren.

While there’s mixed research on whether outdoor lighting is a significant crime deterrent or just potentially annoying for your neighbors, there are plenty of benefits to lighting up your property from a safety and security perspective.

With smart floodlight cameras, you get the added value of better lighting plus a way to keep an eye on your home. Thanks to sensors, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, smart floodlight cameras can be set only to light up when there’s someone there instead of just when a gust of wind sends a plastic bag through your yard. 

A floodlight camera has a few benefits over a standard smart security camera. If you have existing hardwired lighting around your home, it’s an easy swap to add a camera and lighting in place of outdoor lights. This removes worries about recharging batteries, installing solar panels, or taking up an outdoor outlet. If you’re looking for advice on why you might want a floodlight camera or how to install it, I’ve got more details for you below, as well as tips on how to install a floodlight camera.

Here, I’ve rounded up the best outdoor floodlight security cameras based on extensive testing over two years at a single-family home in South Carolina.

The best outdoor floodlight camera overall

Video quality: 1080p HD, 8x digital zoom / Lumens: 2,000 / Smart alerts: Person ($) / Field of view: 140 degrees (270 motion) / Siren: Yes (110 decibels) Power options: Hardwired or plug in / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz and 5GHz / Storage: Cloud, local / Subscription fee: $4.99 a month / Works with: Alexa, SmartThings, Ring

Ring’s top-of-the-line wired floodlight camera has superb video quality, excellent motion detection, and an impressive 2,000 lumens of adjustable light. Its wide horizontal and deep vertical field of view gave a better vantage over my backyard than most of the competition. It’s my favorite of all the cameras I tested, and it’s also the best floodlight camera that works with Amazon Alexa.

While I didn’t find the Bird’s Eye View feature that useful, the radar-powered 3D motion detection was very good. Of all the cameras I tested, this was the most reliable at picking up motion anywhere in its range, even mounted on the eave of my second floor. A nice feature that no other camera I tested offers is offline alerts. It can tap into Amazon’s Sidewalk network to send notifications even when your Wi-Fi is out. I couldn’t view a video feed from the notification when my internet was down, but I did know something had happened and could go back to view the event once connectivity was restored.

The enhanced motion detection is the main reason to buy the Pro model over the Floodlight Cam Wired Plus, which is $50 cheaper. The other key differences are no HDR imaging on the Plus or the option of 5GHz Wi-Fi. Neither of these makes much difference on a floodlight camera — due to its likely location being up high and far away from your Wi-Fi router — but better motion detection is worth a lot on a security camera.

Ring’s digital zoom is also excellent, and the bumped-up siren is the loudest I tested (at 110dB, 105 on the Plus). You can’t trigger the siren on motion, but there is the option to add a verbal warning telling prowlers they’re on camera — less offensive to the neighbors than a motion-triggered siren. I also like the option of a version that runs off a standard wall outlet if you don’t have a junction box available, but I recommend hardwiring if you can.

You’ll need to pay for a Ring Protect Plus plan for recorded video, starting at $4 a month, and increasingly a bargain as every other smart home company raises its subscription prices (I’m looking at you, Arlo and Nest). This also adds person detection (no other smart alerts) — without it, it’s live stream only. However, the Pro does work with local storage using a Ring Alarm Pro.

The camera works with Ring’s app and its extensive security system, but the only other smart home platform it’s compatible with is Amazon Alexa and Samsung SmartThings (which lets you view a live stream on your Samsung TV). Alexa integration is useful; you can view a live feed in the Alexa app and on Alexa-enabled smart displays and have Echo smart speakers announce when people and / or motion is detected. But you can’t control the Ring’s floodlights through Alexa, either with voice or in routines; you have to use the Ring app for all light controls.

In the Ring app, you can adjust the three motion zones for the lights — which is handy for preventing them from turning on when my neighbor walks in his yard. The lights can also be set on a schedule, adjusted in brightness, and linked with Ring devices so that if a Ring camera on one side of the house detects motion, it can turn on the floodlights on the other.

If you add a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro to your setup and pay for the $20 monthly Ring Protect Pro plan, you also add the option of local storage, internet backup, and professional monitoring.

The best budget floodlight camera

Video quality: 1080p HD /  Lumens: 2,600 / Smart alerts: Person, package, vehicle, animal ($) / Field of view: 143 degrees / Siren: 105 decibels / Power options: Hardwired / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: Cloud and local (with $35 Sync Module) / Subscription fee: $3 monthly or $30 a year / Works with: Alexa

The Blink Wired Floodlight Camera ($99.99) is a good budget option with on-device processing of people alerts, so nothing has to go to the cloud (although you have to subscribe for this feature). It offers local storage and 1080p video and works with Amazon Alexa for smart home control.

It’s available in white or black and can fit under the eaves or be mounted on the side of a wall. The floodlight lights are easy to manually adjust and very bright (2,600 lumens). While you can adjust the brightness, the white isn’t tunable. You can set them to turn on automatically at dusk and off at dawn.

The video quality, day and night, is good for this price, but the motion detection is limited to about 20 feet. Also, if you don’t pay Blink’s monthly subscription ($3), you can only view a live stream for five minutes in the Blink app. Person detection is also locked behind the paywall even though it’s processed on the device.

You can store recorded video locally, but you need a $35 Sync Module and a USB stick. If you pay for cloud storage, you’re allowed up to 90 minutes of continuous livestreaming, with the option to record a live view. Person detection was largely accurate, although it often mistook my 80lb dog for a person (fair enough?). I like that you can set the camera to only record when it sees a person, which helps cut down on clip clutter.

Another issue is that the audio quality is very staticky (a problem with all Blink cameras I’ve tested), but the siren is clear and loud. Motion alerts came in instantly, but pulling up the live view could take a while. I liked that I could set an Echo speaker to announce when motion was detected and see a live view on an Echo Show smart display.

Compared to my previous budget pick, the Wyze Cam Floodlight V1, the Blink has a cleaner design and doesn’t force a five-minute cool-down period between recordings, which the Wyze does if you don’t pay for a subscription. The V1 has been replaced by the Wyze Cam Floodlight V2, which I have yet to test. This adds 2K HD video, a wider field of view, and 2,800 lumens of light for around $10 less than the Blink. The original V1 is currently on sale for $54, a real bargain. But overall, I prefer the Blink. See Other outdoor floodlight cameras I tested for more on Wyze.

The best floodlight camera without subscription fees

Video quality: 4K (2K each camera), 10x digital zoom /  Lumens: 2,400 / Smart alerts: People, vehicles, animals / Field of view: 180 degrees / Siren: Yes / Power options: POE or plug-in / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz and 5GHz / Storage: Local only / Subscription fee: none / Works with: Google Home, Home Assistant

The Reolink Duo Floodlight camera lacks a few bells and whistles — there are no rich notifications, HDR imaging, tunable white light, or fancy features like zoom and track. That said, it records all video locally, and there’s no cloud connection at all. This means no subscription fees. It has on-device processing for alerts for people, vehicles, and animals, and its huge 180-degree field of view easily covered my entire half-acre backyard.

This is thanks to its two lenses (hence “duo”), each with 2K video quality (4608 x 1728 p). While there’s a weird wobbly effect to the image, possibly due to how it stitches together the two images, the overall quality is excellent, and the lights are bright and responsive to motion.

I tested the Wi-Fi version, but if you’re set up for it there is the option of power over ethernet. The Wi-Fi version comes with a standard power brick and the option to connect it via ethernet for a more stable connection. This does means it can’t easily be wired in place of existing lighting, though, and you need an outlet nearby. It also only mounts horizontally to the side of a house, not vertically under the eaves.

With a microSD card installed or a connection to a Reolink NVR, the camera can record continuously and be set to do so on a schedule. Using the app, you can schedule times for specific motion detection, such as “only alert me to people at night.” It’s the only camera I tested with a timelapse feature that you can also schedule, and this was fun for capturing a sunset or catching my dog dashing around my yard.

However, the app is complicated and fiddly to set up, the siren is very quiet, and there are limited smart home integrations, but it can connect to Google Home and Home Assistant and has a desktop app.

The best wireless outdoor floodlight camera

Video quality: 2K, 12x zoom / Lumens: 2,000 (3,000 when plugged in) / Smart alerts: Person, package, vehicle, pet ($) / Field of view: 160 degrees (130 motion) / Siren: Yes (105 decibels) / Power options: Battery, solar panel, plug in / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: Cloud / Subscription fee: $7.99 monthly / Works with: Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home, Samsung SmartThings

If you don’t have access to hardwiring or a nearby power outlet, or you want a floodlight camera that works with all the major smart home platforms, the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Cam is the best option. This camera works with Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, Apple Home, and Alexa. It has better video quality than the Ring, a 12x digital zoom, an option to auto-track and zoom, a motion-activated siren, and more smart alerts.

But the Arlo is a battery-powered camera, and while this means you can mount it anywhere you need to, it lacks the best feature of hardwired floodlight cams: reliable, continuous power. Arlo has the option of continuous power, but you need a nearby outlet and an additional $50 power cord. It does not mount to a standard outdoor junction box and isn’t a great drop-in upgrade for an existing non-camera floodlight. I tested the Arlo for six months on battery power in a very busy location and had to charge it every two months. A $60 solar panel add-on would help, but then you’re paying over $300.

The camera’s software features are also expensive. You must subscribe to its Arlo Secure service ($7.99 monthly for a single camera or $13.99 for multiple) for zoom and track, rich notifications, and smart alerts for animals, vehicles, and packages. I couldn’t even snooze motion alerts without a subscription plan. There is the option of continuous 24/7 recording for an additional fee.

The Arlo is the least obtrusive-looking floodlight camera I tested. I won’t go so far as to say it looks nice — but it’s not as large or as prominent-looking as the rest (with the exception of the Eve Outdoor Cam).

Despite the camera’s smaller size, the light is very bright and more than enough to illuminate my entire back patio. It’s one of only two cameras I tested that has the option to pulse its light to scare off intruders, and you can set its 80dB siren to go off on motion. (Be careful with this feature if you don’t want your neighbors to come knocking.)

One issue I ran into was water getting into the floodlight after a heavy rainstorm. I was able to dry it out, and it’s been working fine since then, but I would recommend installing this — and any floodlight camera — under an eave or some covering where possible to extend its life.

I also find the Arlo app to be finicky. It logs me out frequently and takes ages to pull up a live view. In comparison, I didn’t have the same issues with the Ring app — despite the camera being installed further from my router than the Arlo (Amazon’s Sidewalk network is lending a helping hand here).

The Pro 3 Floodlight Cam doesn’t require an Arlo hub, but it can be used with one to help with range and extend battery life. If you want Apple Home compatibility, you need that hub, which costs $100. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have HomeKit Secure Video or local storage. There is no way around that Arlo subscription, which keeps getting more expensive.

A more budget-friendly option for a wireless outdoor floodlight camera is the $130 Blink Outdoor 4 Floodlight Camera. I’ve not tested it yet, but it has the same software features as the Blink Wired Floodlight Camera (including local storage and person detection) and the same 143-degree field of view. It promises up to two years of battery life on two AAs (the floodlights run on four D-cell batteries) but only delivers 700 lumens of light.

The best pan and tilt floodlight camera

Video quality: 2K /  Lumens: 3,000 / Smart alerts: Person, can add animal, vehicles, packages and facial recognition with a hub / Field of view: 360 degrees (270 motion) / Siren: 100 decibels / Power options: Hardwired / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: Local (on-device or hub), cloud / Subscription fee: $3 monthly — not required / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home

Eufy has gone for function over form with its beast of a floodlight camera that boasts a 360-degree field of view that pans and tilts to cover a vast area. This feature — plus its three adjustable, tunable lighting panels, individually addressable PIR motion sensors, and free local storage — makes the Eufy Floodlight Cam 2 Pro a great option if you have a large area to cover. 

Important note: In 2022 Eufy suffered some security vulnerabilities, which the company was not transparent about. We temporarily removed our recommendations while the company worked on a fix. While the security flaws appear to have been resolved, the company’s lack of transparency is something to consider before purchasing a Eufy camera. You can read more about the issues and Eufy’s solutions here.

The camera comes with smart alerts for people out of the box, but you can connect it to a Eufy HomeBase 3 ($150) for animals, vehicle, and package alerts, and facial recognition, all processed locally on the hub; this also adds more storage.

The 360-degree pan and tilt feature is well thought out, with subject lock and tracking that follows a person as they walk through your property. While you set the camera to a fixed point, it can detect motion outside its view (thanks to PIR motion sensors in each floodlight panel) and swivel the camera to catch it. 

I like that I could adjust the sensitivity of each motion sensor and set up activity zones to limit false alerts. Opt-in rich notifications preview the captured clip right in your phone’s notification tray, reducing how often I had to open the app to check in.

A helpful auto-cruise feature let me set four preset positions and have the camera auto-rotate through them on a set schedule or on demand. A Look Around button on the main page of the Eufy app sends the camera into a surveillance spin for a quick check over my property.

But it is ugly. And the outdated push-to-talk two-way audio (we’d love some full-duplex here), limited zoom, and no option for continuous video recording are all letdowns.

A neat feature is three lighting panels that deliver a blinding 3,000 lumens of light at up to 5,700 Kelvins, much higher than any competitor. At full brightness, it resembles the lighting of a prison yard, which is not great for most people. Thankfully, you can change the brightness and the color temperature from cool to warm. I set it to warm, and 20 percent brightness and it was more than bright enough without being harsh. 

The 2K video quality is good, although the digital zoom is lacking. The camera works over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, has a weather rating of IP65, and includes standard and color night vision. It doesn’t require a Eufy hub but can work with the Eufy HomeBase 3 for added features and storage, which adds AI-powered smart alerts — including animals and vehicles, plus facial recognition. I’ve not tested this feature yet, and the HomeBase costs $150 but will work with multiple Eufy cameras.

Without a HomeBase, there is 4GB of nonremovable onboard storage for around 14 days’ worth of recordings. You can also use a network-attached storage setup or Eufy’s cloud service for $3 a month per camera. There is no 24/7 continuous video recording, and it works with Google Home and Alexa to stream footage on smart displays and control the camera’s lights in the app.

Eufy has a newer pan and tilt floodlight camera — the E340 — that you can buy with a HomeBase for $370 ($220 without). This one mounts to a wall, not under an eave, and has one less light panel for a maximum of 2,000 lumens. It offers 5GHz Wi-Fi and works with a microSD card (the Pro 2 has fixed onboard storage) and the HomeBase, giving you a bit more flexibility. It also offers 24/7 recording, which the Pro 2 doesn’t. I’ve not tested this yet, but if those features are important to you, it could be a better option.

The best floodlight camera for Google Home

Video quality: 1080p HD, 6x digital zoom /  Lumens: 2,400 / Smart alerts: People, vehicles, animals, familiar faces ($), sound ($) / Field of view: 130 degrees (180 motion) / Siren: No / Power options: Hardwired, plug-in ($) / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz and 5GHz / Storage: Cloud and local / Subscription fee: $8 a month / Works with: Alexa, Google, Samsung SmartThings

There is a lot to like about the Google Nest Cam with floodlight. It has built-in battery backup for when the power goes out, free on-device recording (up to three hours), free smart alerts for people, animals, and vehicles, and the option of 24/7 recording (for a fee).

It’s also got facial recognition if you take the time to add known faces. It’s a lot nicer to get an alert that says, “Sarah the Gardener is in the backyard,” rather than the scarier “There’s a person in the backyard.” You need to pay for a Nest Secure subscription service for this, which starts at $8 a month. 

All of these features are part of the Google Nest Cam that magnetically attaches to the two floodlights. The lights have good control options, including adjustable arms to angle your lighting, app, and voice control in the Google Home app, ambient light activation, and the option to dim the beams. 

But there is no built-in siren, making it a poor choice for a dedicated security device. It offers 5GHz Wi-Fi, and the on-device machine learning makes for speedier notifications than most cameras I tested. Motion sensors in the floodlights provide a wide 180-degree sensing range, ensuring the lights turn on when anything gets nearby.

The camera works with the Google Home app (not the old Nest app) and can stream to both Google Nest and Amazon Echo smart displays. It doesn’t fit well for an under-the-eave installation (as you can see in my pictures), so only consider it if you can install it on the side of your house and up high. 

Read my full Google Nest Cam with floodlight review here.

The best floodlight camera for Apple Home

Video quality: 1080p HD, 6x digital zoom / Lumens: 2,400 / Smart alerts: People, vehicles, animals, familiar faces  / Field of view: 157 degrees / Siren: No / Power options: Hardwired / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: Cloud / Subscription fee: $1 a month (for iCloud+) / Works with: Apple Home

The Eve Outdoor Cam is the best Apple Home-compatible outdoor floodlight camera. It works with HomeKit Secure Video, which processes all video locally on an Apple TV or HomePod. But it’s only compatible with the Apple Home and Eve app, which doesn’t have an Android version yet, so only get this if you use an iPhone.

The Eve camera is compact, svelte, and the smallest camera I tested. It was so small it didn’t completely cover the electrical box for the light it was replacing. (It only mounts on a vertical wall, so you can’t put it under an eave or overhang.) It has a good solid feel and the housing is aluminum (all the other models in this guide are plastic), and it comes in white or black. The Eve Outdoor Cam also looks much less like a mall surveillance camera than many of its competitors.

Its video quality is very good, especially during the day. Images were bright, clear, and only a little pixelated when I zoomed in. With the light on, the image was a little muddy at night, but I could make out faces clearly. The regular night vision was slightly better.

Apple’s HomeKit video integration adds a slew of smart alerts, including people, packages, animals, and vehicles. You can also grant access to your Apple Photos library and get alerts when it recognizes people. Facial recognition and package alerts make this a good camera to set up by your front door. It’s also not super bright, as in it won’t blind visitors. But it will light up the scene well enough to see what’s happening. A brightness boost mode adds an extra bump for 30 seconds if you want a stronger floodlight. It’s nothing compared to the Eufy though, which is like walking down an airport runway.

There is no built-in siren or 24/7 recording, and you have to pay for an iCloud Plus plan (starting at 99 cents per month) to view any recorded video. But there is two-way audio, which is very good, and you can use the light and motion sensors separately to trigger automations in the Apple Home app.

Other outdoor floodlight cameras I tested

The Wyze Cam Floodlight Pro ($150) is an upgrade to my previous budget pick, the Wyze Cam Floodlight V1, and it’s better all around, with higher lumens, tunable light, higher resolution (2.5K), and a wider field of view (180 degrees). It’s also more expensive but uses AI-powered light control that can be set only to turn the lights on when a person or vehicle is detected. The video quality is impressive at this price, and its AI-detection accuracy has improved since I started testing it. But the Reolink camera offers the same field of view and higher video resolution and keeps all of its recordings completely local. Considering Wyze has had some security issues that might give you pause before purchasing one of its cameras, there are better options.

I was impressed with the Lorex 2K Wi-Fi Floodlight Security Camera ($249) with its clear 2K video, loud siren, and free smart alerts for animals, vehicles, and people. There’s no cloud component (it records locally to an included microSD card) and no monthly fees. It also has a handy track and zoom feature, adjustable light temperature, rich notifications, and a more user-friendly app than the Reolink (my pick for the Best floodlight camera without subscription fees).

However, until early 2023, Lorex was owned by Dahua, a company on the US government’s economic sanctions list (meaning the US government won’t allow these to be used in government projects or facilities). Lorex was recently sold to a Taiwanese company, but US lawmakers claim that Lorex devices still pose a potential risk to US consumers. It’s hard to tell how much of it is geopolitical games and how much is a legitimate concern. Lorex told us all its “products marketed in the U.S. are authorized by the FCC ... for consumers and private sector business customers” and pointed us to this statement about its supply chain.

The camera also has a narrow field of view (122 diagonal) compared to the Reolink (180), and its AI detection is spotty, frequently telling me my cat was a vehicle. (Smokey is smooth, but not that smooth.) While the Lorex has some better features and a better app, the Reolink has a wider field of view and higher video quality, which makes it easier to recommend for most people.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Update February 12th, 2024, 1PM ET: Added new picks, new details throughout, and updated features and prices.