Best local security cameras for Home Assistant: I'd buy UniFi

Buy UniFi Protect cameras if you can pay for the console. That’s what I run, I’d buy it again in a heartbeat, and I regularly tell people to get UniFi cameras already. If the budget decides it, wired Reolink PoE cameras are the pick; I have a Reolink camera and I had no issues with it. Either way, buy wired. I tell everyone to avoid Wi-Fi cameras because of jammers and other security issues.

Both options record locally with no cloud subscription, and both work in Home Assistant. That rules out a lot of cameras that only feel good when everything runs through the vendor app and cloud account.

Which one to buy

If you want cameras, recorder and app from one vendor with support behind them, buy into UniFi Protect, as long as you buy a console that runs Protect. It costs more up front and it’s a bigger ecosystem commitment.

If you want the most camera for the money, or you plan to build the system yourself around Frigate, start with Reolink PoE cameras. (Not sure which to wire up? See when to use PoE vs Wi-Fi for home cameras.)

How I judge local cameras

I care about:

1. RTSP / ONVIF / local stream reality
2. NVR and Frigate friendliness
3. Home Assistant integration quality
4. Cloud dependence
5. Value over time, rather than first-impression app polish
6. A wire to the camera, because of what jammers can do to Wi-Fi cameras

My pick: UniFi Protect

UniFi Protect is better seen as a platform decision than a single camera recommendation. It’s the system I run at home, and the whole UniFi experience is the thing I want: the extra support UniFi can give that I don’t get in a DIY solution.

Protect does the recording for about five cameras in my house, including a UniFi G4 Doorbell Pro that I love. The one Wi-Fi camera in the house, a G3 Instant, isn’t for security: it’s our indoor pop-up camera for when we need to watch something, pointed out a window at the deer in the backyard or, often, as a baby monitor. Frigate runs alongside it on my Unraid server, pulling the Protect streams with Frigate’s own recording turned off, for object detection and license plate reading on the driveway camera. That detection is largely for fun and to detect individual people, which it is… okay at. Plates read fine in daylight, but at night the plate reflects the camera’s own IR and clips to white, so I can’t read them. If you want to build the Frigate side yourself, see how to build a Frigate NVR.

Why it earns the spot:

• cleaner integrated experience
• good local recording posture
• strong fit if the house already uses UniFi networking gear, provided that gear includes a console that runs Protect

Why I would hesitate:

• you need a console that runs the Protect application: a UDM Pro, UDM SE, UDM Pro Max, Dream Router, Cloud Gateway Max, or a UNVR/UNVR Pro (a CloudKey Gen2+ also runs Protect but is the legacy option). The base UniFi Dream Machine does not run Protect at all and has no video storage, so check the model before you buy.
• higher cost
• more ecosystem lock-in
• worse value than a pragmatic Reolink-heavy setup for many homes

Which UniFi camera to buy

If you do commit to Protect, the current lineup maps cleanly to use cases - all of these record locally to your own console, none carry a subscription:

• UniFi G6 Bullet (~$199) - the current-gen outdoor pick: 4K, PoE, on-device AI detections.
• UniFi G5 Bullet (~$129) - the budget weatherproof pick: 2K and PoE, without the on-device AI.
• UniFi AI Pro - the premium 4K bullet that adds face and license-plate recognition, processed on the Protect host rather than in a cloud.

I left the Wi-Fi G6 Instant off this list on purpose. I tell everyone to avoid Wi-Fi cameras because of jammers and other security issues, and that goes for UniFi’s too.

Best for a tight budget: Reolink PoE cameras

Reolink is the budget pick because it covers what a practical buyer needs:

• good value
• strong local-stream support
• solid Home Assistant usefulness
• easy fit for NVR and Frigate-style setups

The nice thing about Reolink is that it makes sense even if you’re gradually building the rest of the stack. You don’t need to marry an entire camera empire on day one. I have one Reolink camera and had no issues with it; my other cameras are on UniFi Protect, so the rest of this pick rests on the spec sheets and what other Home Assistant and Frigate users report. Budget for the wiring, though. Reolink ships its PoE cameras without a power supply, so every camera needs an Ethernet run back to a PoE switch, a PoE injector or a PoE NVR before it will power up at all.

What to avoid

Avoid camera systems that only feel good when everything runs through the vendor app and cloud account. If you are moving off one, my guide to replacing Ring, Arlo or Eufy with fully local cameras swaps one location at a time.

That usually means:

• weaker local recording options
• shallower Home Assistant usefulness
• more risk that a future pricing or feature change makes the product worse after you buy it

Compatibility notes

Home Assistant

Both Reolink and UniFi Protect are workable in Home Assistant. Reolink is the cheaper one to start with, and UniFi Protect is the one I’d buy. I put the two side by side on cost, Home Assistant integration and storage in Reolink vs UniFi Protect.

Apple Home / Google Home / Alexa

If your top priority is polished native voice-assistant camera UX, this page isn’t trying to flatter you. It’s biased toward local camera quality over cloud-first convenience theater.

Frigate and local NVRs

Reolink is usually the easier value pick for local recording projects, because Frigate can point straight at its RTSP streams. UniFi Protect cameras can feed Frigate too - that’s how I run mine - but it takes Ubiquiti-specific go2rtc settings, and Protect is the more opinionated, more expensive system. For the whole setup around the cameras, see local smart home security setup from scratch.