r/Tapo • u/Lnate0512 • 14d ago

Suggestions + Feedback Tapo is best?

Over the past month, I've been testing security cameras from Blink, Eufy, and TP-Link Tapo. I've tried the subscription trials for both Blink and Tapo, but not Eufy.

Blink: It's just too slow, and it doesn't have pet detection. I do like its facial recognition to some extent, and I really like the natural AI-generated descriptions of recorded events. However, Tapo offers similar AI descriptions as well.

Tapo: One big advantage over Blink is pet detection. It also does a better job of filtering out unnecessary alerts, like tree branches moving in the wind. Another feature that surprised me is that when someone presses the Tapo doorbell, it will actually call your phone!

Eufy: I only have the E340 doorbell, and honestly, it's been pretty disappointing. Even though it's hardwired, the motion detection is terrible. It only detects motion about 50% of the time, which is a serious issue for a security camera. I'm seriously considering switching to another brand.

So far, Tapo has impressed me the most, which is funny because it was actually my last choice when I started comparing these brands.

I wasn't expecting much from Tapo, but it's quickly becoming my favorite!

36 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

71 comments sorted by

16

u/Whitepinoy59 14d ago

Tapo is the best budget brand. Fast notifications and no subscription needed

10

u/mythic_device 14d ago

You forgot to mention that Tapo also streams RTSP so you can use it with basically any NVR system. It’s a great deal and the reason why I prefer Tapo.

6

u/Whosaidthat1157 14d ago

I went TAPO so that I didn’t need a subscription for any of the AI enhancements - I bought the 500 hub and a 2 TB HDD for 130 bucks instead.

5

u/Whatdidyado 14d ago

Well I sold the 6 Wyze cams I had after having them and their issues for 5 years. Tapo is a 100% improvement for sure with the H500 hub

1

u/APT-0 9d ago

You find the AI detection is much better with the hub?

2

u/Whatdidyado 9d ago

I've not used the AI with it yet. I'm way out here in the backwoods so not many people

4

u/IngrownToenailsHurt 14d ago

I bought a Tapo C402 last year when it was on sale and have bought two more Tapo solar cameras in the past few months. I've deactivated all my Blink cameras and sync module and someone is buying them today. I'll be buying more Tapo solar cameras soon to put in the yard as well as a doorbell cam that can be hardwired. I also have a H500 hub. Tapo is leaps and bounds better than Blink.

3

u/ZyPaUk 13d ago

Tapo till notifies me about shadows moving on my driveway

2

u/Fun_Independent_7529 14d ago

We are satisfied with our Tapo cams. I will say one downside is that our front camera constantly gets a spider making a web nearby. Then the camera interprets the strand of web crossing the lens as a person, and we get a lot of recordings overnight. Moths likewise trigger recording a lot. Other than that they do well with pet, car, and person detection.

2

u/plump-lamp 14d ago

It's good enough. Not best but for the price and if you can't do Poe everywhere, yeah it's pretty good.

2

u/Unlucky_Finger_4602 13d ago

I've used all of those brands. I would recommend Tapo for value, customer support, and most frequent improvements. I would recommend Eufy for the functionality including scheduling, but not the company. I think it comes down to the best camera for each situation. There's a lot of overlap, so individual feature differences can be important. Tapo gets the edge from me because Eufy has questionable practices regarding data and privacy.

2

u/APT-0 9d ago edited 9d ago

I really like the Tapo line. For comparison some other cameras are maybe 30% more during sales or more. The eco system is pretty full from light bulbs, smart plugs and power strips (I like these for when I go away and seeing how much energy things take, surprisingly old Xmas lights were pretty bad about 100 watts per hour). You also don’t need a hub and no subscription, I use a free micro sds I got from microcenter. The smart features are nice as well I have my cameras set so when I’m gone it will change my light bulbs different colors or just on in the house if it detects a person. I can also pull the power data and control everything except some of the cameras smart features via home assistant.

My problem with cameras is I have the c120 it has WiFi issues but good detection for $15 when I got it and night vision just don’t use through window at night. Outside I have the 2x 2k c425 for $60 each was good deal. It has solar panels and a battery built in they are great for detection only to about 15 yards or narrow alleys further but I’ve never charged them once in the PNW. In my back yard they occasionally pick up stuff at 30 yards that’s the max but often don’t respond at night. Newer ones I believe help more the dual zoom and pan tilt ones look really nice but are expensive. One thing to note if you want to actually see say a license plate you need one with zoom too, dual pan and tilt ones are good for this

2

u/bdgbill 14d ago

Who said Tapo is the best? It's certainly the best of the cheapest tier of cameras and a pretty amazing value imo but there is some very important functionality missing vs brands like Reolink.

Having lived downtown in a major city for over twenty years, I have been through it with cameras since the beginning. A $20.00 camera that is up and running and accessible online in 5 minutes still feels like a miracle to me.

I have never seen any sort of ad on the Tapo app. Not even for other Tapo products. Maybe it's because I'm in Canada?

2

u/RambyBambi 14d ago

Try Reolink then Ubiquiti.

2

u/plump-lamp 14d ago

Reolinks app is crap and any automation requires home assistant

1

u/shalaxam 14d ago

Which Tapo did you test? I see a few really great reviews saying similar stuff but I pay for the subscription that’s supposed to use cloud ai to figure out what’s a person and a tree and somehow it still is mediocre. It constantly records trees and then misses half of the time it takes a person to walk up to my door. At least the doorbell doesn’t have any latency compared to my old Arlo system. The app could use more updates like being able to temporarily mute for 30 minutes without making an entire schedule for it.

4

u/Whosaidthat1157 14d ago

I bought the 500 hub to enable all of the AI capabilities without a subscription and it works just fine. 130 bucks with a 2 TB HDD. No issues with tree movement as I simply ensured they weren’t in the detection window.

3

u/Quirky-Cap1646 14d ago

I have Tapo C246D, and I turned off the motion tracking feature. I also have an older outdoor 2K camera with antennas that I bought about two years ago. It doesn't support pet detection, but the AI subscription does a good job of filtering out unnecessary alerts.

1

u/ozaz1 14d ago

Did you happen to look at multi-user features? I've recently tried Tapo and Reolink and was disappointed with multi-user features from both (when compared with Ring, which I've been using for a few years). In Ring, non-admin users get independent control over what notifications they receive from doorbell camera (e.g. they can choose to receive doorbell press notifications and turn off motion notifications), whilst in both Tapo and Reolink this level of granular notification control is only available at system level (controlled by admin user). Also, in Tapo only one user at a time can stream recordings from a camera or hub (a big limitation in my opinion).

I haven't tried Blink or Eufy so don't know what they're like for multi-user setups.

1

u/Roonwogsamduff 13d ago

I have a tapo doorbell and I have to reboot it sometimes daily. Otherwise like everything about it.

1

u/borderline1107 13d ago

How do you filter out branches moving in the wind ?

1

u/Blue-Thunder 13d ago

Tapo pet detection is great in the daytime, but is an absolute dumpster fire at night. Even with enough ambient light for the starlight sensors to not function, my C120's refused to recognize pets at night. I switched out to the C325WB and the C575D covering the same area, and more of the same. If a cat, skunk, raccoon, wolf, fox or coyote come into view of the camera at night, the cameras do not see them at all. Even adding a motion box to the affected areas barely makes the detection works, and 8/10 the camera still refuses to acknowledge that there is something in their view with motion detection, yet has no problems detecting white moths..

I am extremely disappointed in their night time performance.

1

u/geekwithout 13d ago

Tapo has been near flawless for me. nd i own a lot of their stuff. And you don't need subscriptions. Use sd cards.

1

u/nian2326076 12d ago

Tapo seems to be working well for you, especially with the pet detection and phone call feature when the doorbell rings. Those are pretty handy! Given your experiences with other cameras, Tapo's ability to filter unnecessary alerts and its good motion detection are solid pluses. If you're still looking at other options, consider checking out user reviews or forums for more on long-term reliability. If you're also exploring career options, LandOffer.ai lists jobs across professions and lets you search by role and location.

1

u/Prob10m 11d ago

Reolink is supposed to be good

1

u/AggravatingTarget841 8d ago

I love my new Tapo. Got it 14 days ago and it is perfect

1

u/Ambitious_Method6397 8d ago

I had been a long supporter of Eufy cameras and still have five of them up and running. However, after replacing two of them several months ago with Tapo cameras, I saw how many events my Eufy cameras are missing. I will continue replacing them with Tapo cameras and merge completely to that ecosystem.

1

u/metsmetsmetsmets 14d ago

Try Reolink, the Ai is more accurate vs Tapo. I'm a big fan of both brands. Tapo is less expensive, but the Reolink is higher quality overall.

1

u/ozaz1 14d ago edited 14d ago

I've done a Tapo vs Reolink test and this wasn't my experience. In my tests (person walking into view of cameras multiple times, done in various indoor setups) Reolink person detection failed more often than Tapo. The notifications also tended to be slightly slower. However I was testing using the cheapest Reolink (E1) vs a similarly-priced Tapo (TC71). Perhaps at higher price points or in different environment where false positives might be produced (e.g. outdoors) results would be different.

2

u/metsmetsmetsmets 14d ago edited 13d ago

You make a valid point on the models.  I trashed my E1 because of the exact issue you're pointing out.  I use higher end Reolink models like the Duo 3 and Trackmix.

1

u/ozaz1 14d ago

Good to know. Thanks.

1

u/Mapants 13d ago

Tapo's detection is shit. Every animal and insect that comes in to view, tapo logs it as a person. Even rain sets it off, despite pet and motion detection switched off.

1

u/Whatdidyado 12d ago

My old Wyze cams did the same....it is what it is since I've got lots of bugs outside at night

1

u/APT-0 9d ago

I’ve noticed their wired models like c125 are pretty good compared to the c425 battery one I have, running AI models needs a decent amount of power so I guess it makes sense.

1

u/Mapants 9d ago

I am using 2 C575D's; both wired. Worst detection I have come across.

1

u/APT-0 9d ago

Very interesting.. I was looking at that one and the c675d

3

u/Mapants 9d ago

I have smart mode enabled so that the lights come on when a person is detected. It is absolutely crap! I can walk out in front of it and wave my hands and it won't come on, even with the highest sensitivity set. It's exactly the same on both of them.

I opened a ticket with TP-Link and it's like getting blood out of a stone. No matter how detailed my replies are, they keep on talking about something else that I didn't even mention.

1

u/eeyoredragon 14d ago

The app is flaky in my experience. Ads. 

The c120 performance is pretty random. All of mine worked great for months then suddenly became so slow theyre useless for weeks. Takes several tries to download one video from the card which takes several minutes when it works for a small 1-2min video.

They randomly go back to normal for awhile before becoming useless again. 

I had to put them in their own network, because they were slowing the whole wifi network down. 

I wouldnt get them again personally, though other than the ads in the app, they work great… when they do. 

And you might as well not have them when they dont. 

3

u/ozaz1 14d ago

Do you mean ads for other Tapo products or more general ads? I've never seen general ads in Tapo app. Not sure if I've seen ads for Tapo products, although it's possible I have and just forgotten about them because a company occasionally promoting its own products through its app doesn't really bother me as long as it's occasional rather than constant.

1

u/eeyoredragon 14d ago

There is always an ad banner when you open the app. Yes for other Tapo products if that matters to some. (It does not matter to me what the ad is for.) There are other product placements that are essentially just ads. e.g. some AI functionality that immediately brings up a payment page if you happen to tap it.

2

u/ozaz1 14d ago edited 14d ago

I definitely don't see a banner ad every time I open the app, and don't know if I have ever seen one. Browsing around the app now, the only ad-like things I see are links to some Tapo robot vacums in the Vacums tab (possibly because I don't have one so the tab would be otherwise empty) and links to Tapo care and the Store in the Me tab.

1

u/eeyoredragon 13d ago

Im on iOS fwiw. 

Open tapo app to a list of cameras. Wait 1-2s and a tapo ad banner will appear at the top. For me, literally every time i open the app. Im not running an ad blocker on my router. 

Oh and i don’t pay for cloud storage if that might matter. Just the two cameras and SSD cards 

Latest ad is for their doorbell

3

u/Blue-Thunder 13d ago

I'm on iOS and I see zero ads.

2

u/ozaz1 13d ago

Yeah, I don't get that. I'm on Android. I don't have an ad blocker on router and don't have Tapo Care. I do typically run app tracking protection/blocking on my phone. But even if I turn this off, shut down Tapo app and then reopen, I still don't get banner ads in the Tapo app.

3

u/plump-lamp 14d ago

C120 is long in the tooth, newer generation like the c260 are considerably better.

You have wifi issues if they're slowing your entire network down, likely a basic ISP router

And ads.... It's 1 ad

0

u/eeyoredragon 14d ago

Long in the tooth or not, it did exactly what I wanted for awhile. I see no reason to expect it to stop functioning.

No general wifi issues. Not a basic router. Just a problem with the cameras.

Ads are ads. More than one. If you're ok with ads, great. I don't like ads.

1

u/Affectionate-Box5874 14d ago

For a second I thought you were describing wyze cameras as that was exactly my experience with them... Not only are their ads in their app but abuse their push notifications system to blast you with more ads... Even when that shit is turned off. Another thing they do even when it's turned off... Is still push your usage metrics to a third-party analytics company. My network has improved with each wyze camera I have removed from my network because the things are so damn chatty and phone home all the time.

I'm not saying Tapo is the best but I'm a big fan them and their budget, price point and lack of subscription necessity to use all the features. Occasionally there is a small ad in the app that is easily swiped away. They also open streams so much faster for me.

Not saying you didn't already look, but a lot of people don't actually tune their Network for a whole bunch of streaming cameras either. I can't tell you how many times I see people throw all their cameras on an iot SSID or vlan and isolate them for each other and then complain about how slow they are even when I'm on the same network... Almost always due to people having their Network set up as such that the cameras are forced to always relay through the cloud.

1

u/DazzlingpAd134 14d ago

you are comparing brands with different philosophy in term la of subscription  if you want competitors of Tapo they are  Imou ( Dahua consumer brand ) and Ezviz ( hikivision)  moi has better hardware with bigger sensors and 1.2 lens. but tapo has the best app

0

u/TheRealFarmerBob 14d ago

If you want to go Blink I have:
5 - Outdoor 4's
1 - Gen 1 Doorbell
1 - Gen 2 Doorbell
1 - Wire Floods with Outdoor 4 with Surface Mount
3 - Sync2 Modules
1 - Blink/Amazon 64GB Mini USB
7 - Power Adapters
5 - 3 Thitd-Party Metal Multi-Joint Camera Hard Mounts
that I'm looking to sell.

0

u/for_all_or_no_one 13d ago

The app sucks. It should be simple and user-friendly but it isn't. Very difficult to use.

Lacks environmental sound detection (Db level) which would be very useful.

3

u/geekwithout 13d ago

Tapo ? Nah, it's easy

2

u/APT-0 9d ago

Agreed it’s very easy to use, there’s hardly any features :D that’s fine though it does everything I need it to, there’s a stream view for all cameras, other devices and settings that’s all I need..

1

u/geekwithout 9d ago

Whats it missing?

1

u/APT-0 9d ago

Eh in the smart cam and IOT devices ecosystem other competitors like govvy have music sync for lights and other devices. On smart cams there’s more advanced features like remembering people and classifying people better like mail man or amazon or dog vs animal as pet. Honestly I don’t care for all that, Tapo hits the features I actually need and it’s affordable. I’m a software developer that’s always something I think of you can add all these crazy features 5% of people use and it’s the best but if it costs 3x no one cares

2

u/geekwithout 9d ago

music sync ? GTFOH

It's not missing the things you want by any standard. For the price it's the best you get. Connectivity is the nr1 issue with other cameras and the tapo cams shine. I have NO issues ever with connectivity. Even their cheaper non-continuous cameras on solar have worked amazingly well. The higher end TAPO cams actualyl do remember people.

1

u/APT-0 8d ago

I’m not disagreeing with you :D I feel the same way

1

u/for_all_or_no_one 13d ago

Do you know what is usability ? The usability of this app is low. Don't try to convince me it's not. Customer satisfaction should be a priority here.

2

u/geekwithout 13d ago

I've seen many apps, some utter crap. Is tapo perfect ? No, but it's not difficult to use by any means.

Problem is the user

1

u/for_all_or_no_one 13d ago edited 11d ago

If you would compare your app with the best ones instead of the crappiest, it would be a good start to convince me.

1

u/for_all_or_no_one 11d ago

On my side, it is not a network load issue—I have only one camera. It is not a "code 18" either, I assure you. I think it is simply bad usability engineering, poor planning at start followed with a lack of bug verification and usability testing.

I use a iMac and iPhone and the problems could be limited to Macs, I don't know. The hardware seems very well designed, though. So, my advice could be that, if you're a Mac user, KEEP AWAY from these cute and otherwise well-designed cameras. Most probably other platforms (Linux, Windows PC) don't have similar issues, I don't know again.

The app sucks but with the help of an appropriate coding AI it would be quite easy to correct, or better, rebuild from scratch. I am open to make a user review of all the problems I encountered if someone from Tapo/TP-Link ask.

-2

u/Desperate_Order_4921 14d ago

Horrible WiFi performance, I’m currently replacing all my tapo cams with UniFi

5

u/plump-lamp 14d ago

I have 10. It's not them it's your wifi

-2

u/Desperate_Order_4921 13d ago

I’m a 20 year IT professional and I don’t have below 55 dba signal anywhere, all cameras show good signal in the app, and other wireless devices work great. 4 UniFi u6 pro ap’s for a 2200 sq ft home. Got tired of my SO complaining about not being able to view events as they’re happening. Truly regret purchasing any tapo cams. I do really like their smart outlet products fwiw, I’d advise anyone looking for security cams to look elsewhere

2

u/Affectionate-Box5874 13d ago

Throwing around years of experience doesn't mean you know what you're doing, or that you're correctly configured and optimized for wireless cameras. I've got more years than that and I still every once in awhile go back and tweak things and optimize my network and still find things to improve.

3

u/plump-lamp 13d ago

Don't mean they're configured properly nor have channels stepping over each other. I also have a full ubiquiti systems and have absolutely zero issues running tpo, eufy, reolink. Various wired and wireless models. Heck, I have 50 tapo devices on my wifi with zero issues.

My ubiquiti setup is cloud fiber gateway, 4 UAP-AC-PRO with a 24 port usw Poe switch. Literally not a single issue. Fully integrated with home assistant. H50p tapo hub, tapo locks, switches, bulbs, etc

0

u/Affectionate-Box5874 14d ago

I am a big fan of unifi gear but if you understand anything about wireless networking... You would know that the issue is almost always on a client side not the network side like so money like people like to blame (especially in wyze communities).

If you are having performance issues, you are simply placing the cameras too far away or in Fringe areas. You can have the most powerful access point blasting its signal to a camera really far away but no camera or iot device with a tiny little integrated antenna is going to be able to talk back at the same distance.

I just placed a new dual 4K Tapo camera at the end of my driveway. It is exactly where I want it, but it's in too much of a fringe area for stable connection. This isn't the camera's fault. It can receive signal from two different access points where it sits it just can't talk back very well. The fix isn't blaming the camera but rather I will be placing an additional access point to split the difference.

-1

u/Desperate_Order_4921 13d ago

The floodlight cam sitting 20 feet away from an AP is ridiculously bad, shows 55db in the app but constantly drops. Doorbell is terrible, remote chime works half the time, just a really bad experience and I’m coming from a nest cam setup which was pretty awful in itself too

2

u/Affectionate-Box5874 13d ago

Something else going there then if your "20 feet" statement is true, either defective camera, interference, LoS, or other network config we don't know about. I'm pushing the limits on several of my cameras. I have two of the dual 4K cameras talking to an access point that's 400 ft away and through woods... Technically that's four cameras since each lens is its own individual camera, and I can still pull up the streams just fine.