Best Nanny Cams for 2024
Keep an eye on your household with one of these nanny cams from Amazon, Google and more.
Our Experts
Our Picks
The tech advances of the 21st century have made things like home security setup easier and more accessible. You can use nanny cams to keep an eye on your home -- that's no longer exclusive to the rich and famous. The best nanny cams let you keep an eye on your infant children, your pets, or anyone and anything else you want to feel secure about. They allow you to monitor your home with your iPhone or Android device, no matter where you are.
A smart nanny cam can help with this, but you might want something a little different than the usual home security-oriented features. I'm not considering concealed or hidden cameras for this list, since that gets into some pretty questionable territory with regard to privacy. Instead, I'm weighing all the needs you might want to have met for your nanny cam: two-way talk, quality real-time streaming, options for story footage storage, cost and field-of-view or pan-and-tilt functions.
Taking all these considerations into account, these are my favorite nanny cams.
Best nanny cams of 2024
While the Arlo Essential Indoor Cam is fairly standard for a $80 smart camera -- 130-degree field of view, 12x digital zoom, 1080p HD live stream, two-way talk, night vision, a built-in siren, etc. -- it has one design feature that might make it worth special consideration as a nanny cam: its privacy shield. When the camera isn't on, a quarter-sized white shield shows it's not recording. When it begins to record, the shield flips. This makes it easy for caretakers and children to tell at a glance whether they're being recorded, which makes maintaining privacy boundaries a little easier.
A clever alternative
Amazon Echo Show 5 Kids Edition
If you're less worried about keeping a digital log of your kids' or caretakers' activity throughout a whole evening than you are about dropping in to chat with them during that period, an Echo Show 5 kids edition may fit your needs better than a traditional camera. First off, you can drop in to chat, and the kids will actually be able to see your face. Second, your kids or caretakers can contact you through the device with a simple voice command. Finally, checking the activity log on the Echo is a nice, indirect way to see what your kids have been up to while you're out -- making sure not to intrude too much, but also give some helpful insights, depending on how much they use Alexa.
How we test nanny cams
Hands-on testing is core to our evaluations of any home security products. In short, when it comes to security cameras, we pay special attention to resolution, night vision and latency, extra features, general performance and overall value. We evaluate all of these elements in a real home environment over a week. If you want to read more about our review process, check out our in-depth article on how we test home security cameras and video doorbells.
Nanny cams compared
| Wyze Cam Pan v2 | Arlo Essential Indoor Cam | Amazon Echo Show 5 Kids | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $48 | $80 | $75 |
| Resolution (pixels) | 1,920x1,080 | 1,920x1,080 | 960x480 |
| Field of view | 120 degrees | 130 degrees | Not specified |
| Setup | Moveable, indoor only | Moveable, indoor only | Moveable, indoor only |
| Extra features | Live streaming, 2-way talk, sound and motion alerts, color night vision, panning and tilting functions | Live stream, 2-way talk, night vision, built-in siren, privacy shield | Parental controls, video calls, built-in camera shutter, microphone/camera off button, drop-in function |
| Review score | 9.2 | 7.6 | 8 |
Is it OK to use a nanny cam?
Nanny cams do raise important questions about privacy in the home, parental reach and an array of other issues. Laws differ based on where you live, but it's almost always illegal to conceal cameras in places where privacy is presumed -- such as bathrooms. Otherwise, as long as the nanny or babysitter is watching the children in your home, you are generally within your legal rights to use a camera.
Whether you should or not -- or whether you should tell the nanny about the camera or not -- is a more complicated question and one that you'll have to settle for yourself. Some experts recommend telling the nanny about the camera as a sign of respect, while others worry that defeats the purpose of the camera: to catch abuse or other problems when they happen. In general, such issues can be at least partly avoided by performing thorough background checks on caretakers, watching how your children behave around them and dropping by the house at unexpected times to check-in.
Can someone hack my nanny cam?
The short answer here is: probably, although it's not likely. You can protect your device in a few ways. First, be sure to use a camera from a major developer with a solid track record when it comes to device security. Second, use additional security measures for your device, like multifactor authentication, local storage and video encryption, when possible. Third, use a camera with a clear privacy screen or a physical cover, so you can reliably disable it when you're not using it.
Should I hide my nanny cam?
Although some parents hope to hide their nanny cams, our recommendation is to keep your cameras in an open space. Clearly communicate your expectations to your children and their caretakers about staying in monitored spaces, call using two-way talk at certain times and so on. In general, establishing clear boundaries and expectations helps build trust with caretakers and children while still giving you the ability to monitor your home while you're away.
Is there a difference between a security camera and a nanny cam?
"Nanny cam" is a term used to talk about how a camera is used -- as opposed to how it's designed. You can easily use a smart security camera, a video baby monitor or any other camera as a nanny cam. Generally speaking, I recommend nanny cams based on their monitoring and communication features -- without factoring in devices made to be concealed.