# Ring doorbell

14 Hacker News commenters recommended Ring doorbell and 44 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 5 years (3 owners).

**Verdict:** People recommend it for remote visitor alerts and package checks, but many criticize its surveillance reach, data sharing with police, and subscription requirements.

## Why people recommend it

- Remote visitor and package awareness (2 comments): "the doorbells provide a lot of value to the user (know who is at the door remotely!)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47226147)) "I use mine for basic convenience, like seeing that a package was delivered" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47433676))

## What people warn about

- Captures public space and passersby (2 comments): "It does however typically capture some amount of public space which I think is problematic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47129861)) "people should not have pointed cameras into public spaces and live streamed everything to the cloud" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47000004))
- Shares footage with law enforcement (4 comments): "Ring (owned by Amazon, who runs a private airgapped AWS region for the CIA onsite at Langley) also works with law enforcement agencies." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46997761)) "The camera didn't even have an active subscription, yet law enforcement was still able to recover video from Google's systems." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46997799)) "the company that built it is going to turn my porch into a node in the nationwide Good Citizen network" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47001857))
- Privacy and surveillance concerns (5 comments): "only have Rings/Nests and other similar spyware because of a combination of fearmongering, aggressive marketing, and pricing subsidized by data collection" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46980634)) "I feel less safe knowing that anyone's doorbell could be tracking me and sending my movements to a third party" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46952628)) "I'm getting fed up with being recorded without consent just because I want to go visit someone." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46954552))
- Subscription and cloud dependence (2 comments): "The camera didn't even have an active subscription, yet law enforcement was still able to recover video from Google's systems." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46997799)) "There was never a motion alert, and no footage of the culprit was recorded." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47006757))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Reolink doorbell](https://hackerapproved.com/p/reolink-doorbell.md): 15 recommend
- [Amazon Ring](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ring.md): 11 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Ring+Video+Doorbell&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://ring.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Ring doorbell", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ring-doorbell/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).