Tech Talk

If you're looking for indoor cameras that offer AI person / pet detection and local storage out of the box, with no need for a monthly subscription, you'll want to weigh the Eufy 2K Indoor Cam vs. YI Smart Home Cam. Both are bargain-priced wired cams with useful features like sound detection, strong infrared night vision, and smart home integration. The Eufy Cam is double the price of the YI Cam, but has some spec and feature differences that may justify spending a bit extra.

Eufy 2K Indoor Cam vs YI Smart Home Cam: AI detection

Many home security cameras and systems offer person detection, only sending you an alert if it detects human beings moving and ignoring pets, cars, or other everyday movements. However, most of them only offer this as part of a subscription or professional monitoring service. Eufy and YI are two of the rare companies that don't charge you for this and still differentiate between people and pets by default.

With the Eufy app, you can choose to have it detect people, pets, all other motion, crying, and other sounds. You can choose the interval between triggered event recordings so you aren't inundated with alerts from the same source, and you can adjust the sensitivity of the visual and audible alerts so only large things or loud noises will alert you.

By comparison, YI uses the more traditional person detection setting. It can recognize humans versus pets, but its primary settings are either to detect humans only or all motion based on your sensitivity settings. However, it can specifically detect crying, making it useful as a potential baby monitor.

Thanks to AI detection, both cameras can ignore your pets and spot intruders both inside and outside.

Which cam pet owners should pick depends on what they want in an indoor security cam. If they want one that ignores their pets, both are solid bets. If they want one that specifically sends you an alert that a pet has entered a room it's not supposed to, then you'll want a Eufy Cam because of its more specific pet alerts. The Eufy 2K Indoor Cam also lets you pre-record a message that triggers if a human or pet enters a specific activity zone, so you could have your Eufy shout "get off the couch" in your voice if the dog goes where it shouldn't.

One rare perk both cameras offer is that they can detect motion through glass during the day. Even though neither is rated to work outdoors safely, you could theoretically point one towards a sliding glass door and get motion alerts of people walking outside. Just don't expect it to work at night, as IR won't travel through glass.

Eufy 2K Indoor Cam vs YI Smart Home Cam: Storage and subscriptions

The new normal for security cameras today is for manufacturers to sell them for cheap, then recoup the costs by locking important security features and storage behind a monthly subscription. One positive of both these cameras is that they have microSD card slots, making cloud storage optional.

The YI Cam can take any microSD card up to 64GB in size versus 128GB with the Eufy 2K Indoor Cam. That extra storage space is more useful if you intend to record on a camera 24/7, but most users will stick with AI-activated alerts, making 64GB plenty. That being said, if you don't buy a microSD card or your storage fills up, these cams can only provide alerts and live view unless you pay for cloud storage.

One perk of the YI Smart Home Cam is that it automatically stores six-second clips to the cloud free for 24 hours, giving you time to download them before they're deleted. That being said, six seconds isn't much time to get a clear sense of what's happening. For longer alerts and longer storage time, you need a cloud storage plan. Depending on your tier, you'll get between a week and a month of stored clips. Your YI Cam records for as long as it detects motion, and it doesn't wait between activations to start recording again.

Only YI offers free cloud storage for 6-second clips, but Eufy charges you less for its cloud subscription.

As for the Eufy Cam, you get no free cloud storage whatsoever, but a cloud subscription will cost you less than with YI. Eufy charges $3/month or $30/year for 30 days of cloud storage for a single camera, or $100/year for a cloud subscription bundle for up to 10 cameras. YI bills you $40/year for one camera for seven days storage, $100/year for five cameras' storage for 15 days, or $150/year for five cameras for 30 days' storage and access to an emergency services button in the app.

Eufy 2K Indoor Cam vs YI Smart Home Cam: Specs

The main area where Eufy shines above YI is in resolution and field of view (FOV). As its name implies, the Eufy 2K Indoor Cam offers 2304x1296 resolution, versus the industry-standard 1920x1080 on the YI Smart Home Cam. That will give you slightly better visual quality of recordings and live view. Plus, Eufy has a 125-degree FOV, versus 112 degrees on the YI.

Otherwise, both cameras are fairly similar in what they offer. Each indoor cam has strong night vision, with eight infrared LEDs to help boost their range. Neither works on the 5GHz band, only connecting to your network over 2.4GHz. Both use a Micro-USB cord connected to a power outlet.

The only spec we're not clear on is the YI Smart Home Cam's frames per second (FPS). YI lists it as hitting 15 on its Amazon page and 20 on its own website. By contrast, Eufy typically hits 15 FPS, but can reportedly boost its FPS speed to 24 if you connect it to an Apple HomeKit account. Only Eufy offers HomeKit integration or allows you to control your cameras using Google Assistant commands.

Fortunately, both cameras will work with Alexa commands through an Echo speaker. You'll mainly check your cameras' security feeds and alerts using their respective iOS or Android apps, but YI also has a handy PC app you can use, which some users can take advantage of on their work computers. With Eufy, you'll need to use its web portal.

Eufy 2K Indoor Cam vs YI Smart Home Cam: Which should you buy?

The Eufy 2K Indoor Cam 2K just beats out the YI Smart Home Cam in specs, but 2K versus 1080p and a few extra degrees of FOV aren't necessarily enough to justify spending twice as much for a smart home camera — particularly if you want to buy multiple to fill your home. A more reasonable justification to pick Eufy is if you already have a Google Assistant or Apple HomeKit smart home hub set up.

Either camera is a solid choice for pet or baby owners thanks to their AI smarts, and we're big fans of any security cameras with local storage that save us on expensive cloud storage costs. If you would prefer not buying microSD cards for multiple cameras, however, you can make a case for either company. YI gives you limited free cloud storage, but we think six second clips won't be enough for most users. If you do choose to pay for the cloud, Eufy will charge you less and guarantee 30 days of storage for a single camera, where YI only gives you seven days for a higher cost.

Better resolution and integrations

Eufy Security 2K Indoor Cam

Peeping on people and pets

$40 at Amazon

For a camera that slots into most smart home ecosystems, won't send you too many false alarms, and doesn't make you subscribe for cloud storage unless you prefer it, the Eufy Security 2K Indoor Cam is a solid purchase.

Better price and free cloud storage

YI Smart Home Camera

AI smarts, but for just one smart home

$19 at Amazon 

YI is one of the cheapest indoor cameras that doesn't skimp on features or charge you extra to unlock features. Thanks to its AI smarts and low price, you can set up a whole series of cameras in your home for cheap and not worry about getting too many false alarms.