The Best Pet Monitoring Cameras for Your Home

Whether you’ve left your pet home alone to go to work, or if you’d just like to know what’s happening when you’re not looking, petcams have been popular monitoring tools for over a decade.

The problem with picking the “best petcam” is the variety of use cases that need to be taken into account. The 3 things we will be taking into consideration with this list are good video quality, portability, and affordability.

Here are 4 cameras that we recommend you to use as pet monitoring cameras. Let’s start with the easiest solution…

#4. Your Webcam

Connecting your webcam with Camcloud will give you 3 of the most essential features you need in a camera: Motion Detection, Remote Viewing, and Portability. All you have to do is sign-up for a free account at Camcloud. It just takes a minute! You can follow this tutorial for some guidance.

#3. Netgear Arlo

The Netgear Arlo is a small, portable, and weatherproof camera that can record good video quality. It’s biggest buying factor is its portability. These things are so tiny they can be placed anywhere around your house!

From PCMag:
“If the lack of a conveniently located power source has kept you from installing surveillance cameras where they are needed most, the Netgear Arlo Security system VMS3230 is for you. These neat little Wi-Fi cameras run on batteries and can be installed just about anywhere to monitor activity in and around your home. They deliver sharp video and will detect and record motion and save it to the cloud, and they are built to withstand the elements. My only gripes have to do with the lack of audio support and dynamic pan, tilt, and zoom (PTZ) capabilities, but I believe longer battery life is an equitable trade-off. If the lack of audio and PTZ features are a deal breaker, check out our Editors’ Choice for home surveillance cameras, the Piper nv. It’s easy to install, offers sharp 1080p video and full PTZ and two-way audio functionality, and pulls double duty as a home automation hub, though you can’t use it outdoors.”

#2. D-Link DCS-5020L

If you’re looking for something affordable with Pan/Tilt/Zoom and Night Vision functionality, the Dlink 5020L would be a solid pick. The camera is capable of streaming a solid video feed, but lacks modern HD capabilities that many cameras today have.

Our verdict:
The D-link DCS-5020L is another good IP camera by D-Link because of its pan/tilt capabilities, working well with a VGA stream, and great night vision, all for $120 (at the time of this review). The lack of a high definition video quality and the long setup process are my biggest gripes with the device. Overall, this is a solid and affordable camera with a lot of features. If the lack of a high definition doesn’t bother you, I would highly recommend these, otherwise look elsewhere.

#1. D-link DCS-2332L
If you’re looking for something both affordable and with a solid build, the D-Link 2332L has you covered. It doesn’t have a Pan/Tilt feature like the D-link 5020L, but the good video quality combined with the sturdy design gives it a place in our recommended picks.

Our verdict:
Once you get over the learning curve there’s a lot of great flexibility built-in to the camera to configure these settings to meet your needs. I setup the service with our own cloud video monitoring service Camcloud, so all my recordings are stored in the cloud. The camera produces 720P video and the quality is very good for a consumer camera. In our tests, we’ve never had any issues with D-Link video qualities or its general stability and this camera is no different. Overall, despite some of the setup rough-spots, I would give this camera a thumbs-up. It’s video quality is good and the device is reliable and sturdy.

There you have it! Are there any other petcams that you’d recommend? Let us know in the comments below.

If you’re looking for a cloud video monitoring service, try out the free plan, and if you want to use an IP camera, check out our list of supported IP cameras. We also have several paid plans for more cloud storage.