Most people shopping for smart locks and video doorbells start in the wrong place. They start with the app, or the resolution, or whichever box is on sale, and they end up three weeks later on a support chat trying to figure out why a gateway will not pair or why a doorbell only records the top of a delivery driver's hat.
I spent five years as a locksmith before smart hardware was normal, rekeying deadbolts for landlords and drilling out seized cylinders at seven in the morning. The calls changed around 2021, when property managers started asking whether a door could just open with a code so nobody had to drive across town with a key. Since then I have installed a few hundred of these things on real doors, in real weather, for real tenants.
This guide covers six current products: three deadbolt locks and three video doorbells, plus one device that tries to be both. The point is not to crown a single winner for everybody. The point is to match the hardware to the door it is going on, the person who has to use it, and the network it has to live on.
Related: Setting Up a Smart Lock Gateway in the Right Order
Quick answer
The ULTRALOQ Bolt Fingerprint WiFi Smart Lock with Sensor, Remote Control, BHMA is the strongest fit for a front door that needs to be checked and unlocked remotely because it combines fingerprint entry, WiFi remote control, and a door sensor with hardware listed under the BHMA program. Choose the EIYSIE Video Smart Lock with Camera & Doorbell, 8-in-1 WiFi Keypad Deadbolt instead when you want one device to cover the lock, the camera, and the doorbell in a single installation.
Smart locks and video doorbells worth comparing
The six products below split cleanly into three groups. The ULTRALOQ Bolt and the Tapo DL110 are standalone deadbolt replacements, the kind that go on a front door and replace the existing bolt. The EIYSIE unit is a hybrid that puts a camera and doorbell into the lock body itself. The three Tapo and Arlo doorbells are cameras for the porch, and they differ mainly in resolution, power source, and how wide they can see.
ULTRALOQ Bolt Fingerprint WiFi Smart Lock with Sensor, Remote Control, BHMA
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A WiFi fingerprint deadbolt with a door sensor and remote control, and hardware listed under the BHMA program. The best all-round choice when you need to confirm and control the door from somewhere else.
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Tapo Smart Wi-Fi Door Lock, Deadbolt, Fingerprint Recognition, DL110
A WiFi deadbolt with fingerprint recognition that sits in the value zone most rentals can justify per door. A sensible pick when you are buying several locks for one building.
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EIYSIE Video Smart Lock with Camera & Doorbell, 8-in-1 WiFi Keypad Deadbolt
A keypad deadbolt that also carries a camera and doorbell, so one installation covers entry and porch video. Useful where drilling a second hole for a separate doorbell is not an option.
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Tapo 2K Wireless Smart Video Doorbell w/Chime, 160° Ultra-Wide View, D210
A wireless 2K doorbell with a 160 degree ultra-wide view and a chime in the box. The wide field of view is the selling point, because it catches more of the porch than a tighter lens at the same resolution.
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Tapo 2K+ Wired or Battery Powered Smart Video Doorbell with Chime, D225
A step up in resolution over the D210, and it runs either on existing doorbell wiring or on battery. The flexible power option is what makes it work in rentals where you cannot modify the wiring.
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Arlo Video Doorbell 2K (2nd Gen) Wireless or Wired - 1-Cam + Chime
A 2K doorbell that installs wirelessly or on existing wiring, sold as a single camera with a chime. A reasonable pick if you already run Arlo cameras and want the porch on the same app.
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How these products were compared
This guide compares hardware type, power source, entry methods, remote access, and how much of the porch or doorway each device actually covers. Product names, images, and retailer links are matched by product identifier so that every card points to the exact item shown.
Two things are deliberately left out. First, no current price is printed anywhere, because these listings move and a stale number helps nobody. Use the link on each card to confirm today's price and availability. Second, nothing here is presented as lab measurement. The distinctions below come from what each product is built to do, not from a bench test in a warehouse.
How to choose the right smart lock or doorbell
Start with the door, not the feature list. A deadbolt replacement needs a bore hole and a door thickness that matches the hardware, and it needs a frame where the bolt can fully extend. Deadbolt throw is the part people skip. If the bolt does not seat completely into the strike plate, the door looks locked and can be slipped with a credit card. Check that after every install, and check it again after the seasons change, because a swollen frame in July is a different fit than a shrunken one in January.
Then decide what the lock has to do. If you manage rentals, the feature that matters is remote access plus a way to issue and revoke codes without driving over. That pushes you toward a WiFi deadbolt like the ULTRALOQ Bolt or the Tapo DL110 rather than a Bluetooth-only lock that needs a phone within range. If you want one device to handle both entry and porch video, a hybrid like the EIYSIE unit reduces the number of holes in the door and the number of apps on your phone.
For doorbells, field of view beats resolution every time. A 2K image of a hat brim is not evidence. A 160 degree lens on the Tapo D210 sees the whole landing, which is what you need when a package disappears and you are trying to work out who was standing there. After that, decide on power. Wired is more reliable and never needs charging, but it assumes existing doorbell wiring you are allowed to touch. Battery is the answer for apartments and rentals where the lease and the wiring both say no. If you want to think harder about camera placement and night performance, our porch camera placement notes go deeper.
One more thing that trips up almost everyone: the network. Most smart locks and doorbell chimes speak only to the 2.4GHz band. If your router is running a single merged network name or a 5GHz-only mode, the device may never connect, and the manual will not explain why. Separate the bands before you start, not after two hours of failed pairing.
ULTRALOQ Bolt Fingerprint WiFi Smart Lock with Sensor, Remote Control, BHMA
The ULTRALOQ Bolt is the pick here because it answers the two questions that actually matter for a rental or an Airbnb. Can I get in without a key? Yes, through fingerprint recognition. Can I check and control the door when I am not standing at it? Yes, through WiFi remote control, and the door sensor tells you whether the door is open or closed rather than just whether the bolt is thrown. Those are different states, and confusing them is how you end up driving across town at midnight.
The BHMA listing matters more than it sounds. BHMA is the standards program that covers builders hardware, so a lock that carries a rating has been evaluated against a recognized durability and finish standard rather than only against a marketing deck. For a landlord buying hardware that will get used by strangers every day, that is a real filter.
The trade-off is that this is the more expensive route of the two standalone deadbolts in this guide, and a fingerprint reader is still a fingerprint reader. Readers get less reliable with wet hands, cold hands, and worn ridges, which is why you should treat the code entry path as your fallback and not an afterthought. Set it up, test it, and make sure every user knows it exists before the fingerprint stops being convenient.
Alternatives to consider
The Tapo Smart Wi-Fi Door Lock, Deadbolt, Fingerprint Recognition, DL110 is better suited to a landlord buying several locks at once, where the per-door number matters and the hardware just has to work. It is a WiFi deadbolt with fingerprint recognition, and it keeps the install simple. If you are outfitting a duplex or a small building, matching locks means matching codes and matching behavior across units, which saves you a support call later.
The EIYSIE Video Smart Lock with Camera & Doorbell, 8-in-1 WiFi Keypad Deadbolt is a stronger fit when you want the door and the porch covered by one device. A keypad deadbolt with a camera and doorbell built in means one installation, one app, and no second hole in the door frame. That is appealing for a front door with no existing doorbell wiring and no easy way to add it.
The Tapo 2K Wireless Smart Video Doorbell w/Chime, 160° Ultra-Wide View, D210, the Tapo 2K+ Wired or Battery Powered Smart Video Doorbell with Chime, D225, and the Arlo Video Doorbell 2K (2nd Gen) Wireless or Wired - 1-Cam + Chime cover the porch side. The D210 leans on its ultra-wide 160 degree view and its included chime. The D225 goes a step up in resolution and gives you the choice of wired or battery power. The Arlo pairs with a wireless or wired install and is the natural pick if the rest of your cameras already live in the Arlo app.
Day-to-day use and maintenance
Batteries are where doorbells quietly fail. A doorbell that records every car passing on a busy street will drain far faster than the spec suggests, because the spec assumes an empty sidewalk. Turn down motion sensitivity on zones you do not care about, and check the battery percentage on a schedule rather than waiting for the low battery notification that arrives after the device has already stopped recording.
For locks, plan on recharging or replacing batteries on a calendar, not on a warning light. A dead smart lock is a door with no code entry, and if you have disabled the physical key path or left the key somewhere nobody can find, that is a lockout. Keep the mechanical key accessible to at least one person who is not a guest.
Clean the fingerprint sensor the way the manufacturer instructs and keep grit off it. Most readers do not fail because the electronics die, they fail because the surface gets scratched and oily and stops reading the ridge pattern. Keep a code path working for every user, and re-check the deadbolt throw once a season. If a door swells in summer and the bolt stops seating fully, that is a security problem, not a cosmetic one.
Finally, be careful with any device that requires a subscription for basic remote access. Paying monthly to open a door you already own is the worst deal in this category, so read the plan details before you buy rather than after the free trial ends.
Buying checklist
- Measure the door thickness and the bore hole before ordering a deadbolt replacement.
- Confirm the existing doorbell wiring voltage if you plan to go wired.
- Check that your router broadcasts a separate 2.4GHz band.
- Choose resolution based on how far the subject stands from the lens, not on the biggest number on the box.
- Verify that the exact model includes the chime or gateway you are counting on.
- Read the setup order in the manual before pairing anything.
- Check the current retailer price, availability, and return terms on the listing itself.
Final recommendation
Choose the ULTRALOQ Bolt Fingerprint WiFi Smart Lock with Sensor, Remote Control, BHMA when the door needs remote control, a door sensor, and hardware evaluated under a recognized standard, and when fingerprint entry is the convenience you actually want. Choose the Tapo Smart Wi-Fi Door Lock, Deadbolt, Fingerprint Recognition, DL110 when you are buying more than one lock and need to keep the per-door cost sensible. Choose the EIYSIE Video Smart Lock with Camera & Doorbell, 8-in-1 WiFi Keypad Deadbolt when one device has to cover the lock, the camera, and the doorbell. And when the door itself is fine and only the porch is blind, the Tapo 2K Wireless Smart Video Doorbell w/Chime, 160° Ultra-Wide View, D210 is the straightforward starting point, with the Tapo 2K+ Wired or Battery Powered Smart Video Doorbell with Chime, D225 as the higher-resolution step up and the Arlo Video Doorbell 2K (2nd Gen) Wireless or Wired - 1-Cam + Chime as the pick for an existing Arlo household.