If you’re a parent of a newborn or small child, we don’t have to tell you why you want a monitor – you know how important it is to keep an eye on your kids. That’s why, over the years we've tested a wide variety of devices to find the best baby monitors for new and watchful parents. Whether you want high-resolution images sent straight to your smartphone, features like two-way talk or humidity and temperature sensors, accessories like a breathing band or just a reliable device that delivers a clear picture, there’s a video baby monitor out there that can fit your needs.
Our favorite overall, the Nanit Plus offers not only a high-quality camera but also an excellent app with great smart features like sleep tracking insights and compatibility with the Amazon Echo Show. The Pixee Smart is our best choice for capturing milestones – it uses AI detection to capture pictures and create a photo growth chart, plus it looks cute. Similarly the Cubo AI is a charming, bird shaped camera that provides many helpful alert settings for both newborns and toddlers; if you’re looking for the best features, you should check out the Miku which also provides excellent video quality.
The best baby monitors you can buy today
Bleary-eyed parents who just want their baby to sleep soundly through the night will appreciate the insights that come from the Nanit Plus Baby Monitor. In addition to letting in you check in on your sleeping child from the comfort of your smartphone, Nanit's camera also monitors activities so that it can provide you with detailed analysis of your child’s sleeping patterns and quality of sleep.
Over time, the Nanit Plus recognizes your baby's sleep habits and uses that information to summon up articles and advice for you on ways to improve your baby's sleep. That's a subscription service and the first year is included with your Nanit Plus purchase; afterward, it's $50 a year. Since our review, Nanit has added compatibility with the Amazon Echo Show to let you see the video stream through an Alexa display.
As for the camera itself, you can expect videos in 960p resolution with an aspect ratio optimized to fit in your baby's crib. We found the images clear and the camera pretty easy to set up. You'll have to pay up for the Nanit Plus and its sleep tracking features, especially compared to other top baby cams, but for parents who just want a good night's sleep, the extra cost may be worth it.
Since we published our review, Nanit has introduced the Nanit Pro, which offers better resolution and improved sensors for a slight price increase over the Nanit Plus.
Read our full Nanit Plus Baby Monitor review.
The Pixsee Smart Baby Monitor immediately sets itself apart from the competition due to its unique design. Like the Arlo Baby and Cubo Ai Plus before it, this baby monitor hides in plain sight from your little one since it looks more like an animal-shaped toy than a camera.
In addition to temperature and humidity sensors, the Pixsee Smart Baby Monitor uses AI to detect if your child has a blanket over their head. The AI is also used to decode a child's cries and give you insight into whether they're sleepy or hungry. The best part of the Pixsee Smart Baby Monitor though is how it uses AI to automatically take pictures of your little one. These photos are then displayed in a Baby Bubble Tree that you can access from within the Pixsee app. It shows how your baby has grown from month to month but you can also access these photos from the family album within the app or get a link to download them all at once.
The Pixsee Smart Baby Monitor is available for $239 but you may also want to consider picking up the company's 5-in-1 stand as there isn't a wall mount in the box.
Read our full Pixsee Smart Baby Monitor review.
Nervous parents who don't blink at spending $199 to $299 for a baby monitor will want to consider the Cubo Ai Plus. Armed with artificial intelligence, it can recognize when your baby's face gets covered in the crib and send alerts straight to your phone.
Covered face alerts are the best thing about the Cubo Ai Plus, but that's not the baby monitor's only selling point. It comes with a cute design — it looks like a bird — and the night vision feature lacks the kind of red light that might wake or distract your baby. We also appreciate that the Plus version of the Cubo monitor features a free year of Cubo Ai Care Premium, including 30 days of sleep tracking and analysis.
Those sleep tracking features could be more helpful, and the floor stand that comes with the Cubo Ai Plus is light enough for a 1-year-old to move. The $299 version we reviewed comes with a three-stand set that lets you attach the camera to a floor base, the crib itself or a mobile stand; you can get the less expensive $199 version if all you need is the wall-mount set.
Read our full Cubo Ai smart baby monitor review.
The Miku Smart Baby Monitor can track your child's breathing while also letting you peak in on a sleeping baby via an HD video stream sent to your phone. And while the breathing monitor feature works well, Miku's setup is quite expensive, especially when compared with some of other best baby monitors.
Miku's design is simple and pretty easily to install, thanks to a sleek, compact design that fits just about anywhere. We also like the video quality delivered by the Miku's camera, though we wish the device offered the ability to zoom in on a sleeping baby. Built-in sensors for humidity and temperature are also nice to have, though unless you want the specialized breathing monitoring Miku offers, you'd be well-advised to consider a less expensive option.
Read our full Miku Smart Baby Monitor review.
Best baby monitor for your car
Driving with your little one or even little ones in the backseat can be stressful and seat mirrors require that you take your eyes off the road. Fortunately, the Tiny Traveler HD Baby Car Monitoring System includes a camera you attach to your backseat and a monitor that easily mounts to your car's dashboard. This way, you can keep an eye on your child and the road at the same time.
Another great thing about the Tiny Traveler is that it supports adding an optional, second camera which allows you to keep an eye on multiple children using its monitor's split-screen feature. Although the Tiny Traveler is only HD with a resolution of 720p, it gives you a clear view of your child in the backseat. It also has an automatic night mode that can be especially useful when driving at night.
Since the Tiny Traveler's monitor has a built in 4-hour battery, it doubles as a portable baby monitor that you can take out of your car and use in your hotel or wherever you and your child are staying. However, you will need to plug in the camera separately as it doesn't have a battery.
Read our full Tiny Traveler review.
How to choose the best baby monitor for you
Keep these criteria in mind to help you find the best baby monitor for your needs.
- Handheld Monitor vs Smartphone Display: Your baby monitor either comes with a handheld monitor or it relies on your phone to give you a view of your child. Either has its pros and cons: A monitor is another piece of hardware to keep track of and recharge, and while you're likely to have your phone on you at all times this method will require a good WiFi connection – and you may wish to use your phone for other things. Using your phone as a monitor may drain the battery, but connecting to your baby monitor over WiFi usually means you can check in on your baby from further away.
- Range: Look up the specs for how far the camera's signal extends, and make sure it can reach every area of your home. There may be particular areas where the range is spotty or hard to connect because of your home construction or your WiFi range.
- Camera features: Pay attention to the camera's pan and tilt features and how wide a view it provides of your child's room: Some cameras will provide a full range of view and some only provide a “bird’s eye” view of a crib.
- Video quality: Check the resolution of the camera; most will offer at least 1080p and some will offer HD video. You’ll want to make sure that your baby monitor includes clear night vision as well because you need to see what’s happening in the room no matter what the hour.
- Audio: Most monitors these days will offer push-to-talk features so you can speak to or soothe your baby remotely. Other audio features to look for include the ability to play lullabies.
- Battery Life: The cameras we tested come with power adapters and should be plugged into a wall, while the handheld monitors usually run on removable or rechargeable batteries. The box or manual should give you an idea as to how long the handheld display will last before it needs to be recharged or what the general battery life is.
- Special Features: Some monitors come with humidity and temperature sensors, which can help you check on other conditions in your child's room. Others come with smart accessories – for example, the Nanit can be paired with a smart Breathing Band that will detect breaths per minute and monitor movement.
- Price: Although you can get a baby monitor offering video for as low as $50 you can also spend nearly $300, depending on what kind of features you’re looking for. There are certainly plenty of options out there in a reasonable price range that are reliable and will offer you the features you’re looking for. You may not need every latest bell and whistle out there to still wind up with a great baby monitor.
When setting up a baby cam, always change any default password, just like you should for any connected device you buy. (Here's a closer look at good password practices, in the wake of recent reports of hacked cameras, including one that was used as a baby monitor.)
Whatever baby monitor you end up going with, be sure to familiarize yourself with the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendations for infant sleep safety, which include making sure your baby sleeps on his or her back.
We recommend going with a dedicated baby monitor over a repurposed security camera. While the best home security cameras cost about the same as the best baby monitors with video, the latter have features better suited to checking in on your baby. We reached this conclusion after trying out a Nest Indoor Cam as a baby monitor, but we'd feel the same way if we tested other top-rated home security cameras like the Arlo Q or Wyze Cam 1080p.
How we test baby monitors
When we test a baby cam we situate each monitor at an elevated position in a child's room. Units with dedicated handheld viewers were tested from 12, 20 and 35 feet away. For baby monitors that offered Wi-Fi connectivity, we connect them to a home Wi-Fi network. We test all built-in features such as pan and zoom, motion and sound detection, temperature and humidity sensors, and sleep timers. We also take note of how easy the interfaces were on both handheld viewers and streaming apps.
Ease of setup and installation factors heavily into our ratings, including whether an account needs to be created and if there were any extra subscription fees necessary. Each unit we've reviewed has cords protruding out of its back, so design wasn't much of a factor in my choice, though parents should take care to keep dangling cords and wires away from their children's reach when setting up a monitor.
When assigning ratings, we consider special features that a baby monitor might offer and also take its price into account.
Next: Here's how I turned an old phone into a portable baby monitor.
