Best WiFi peephole cameras 2026: six compared, the 14 mm door check and what UK law says about a shared hallway

Almost always, but two numbers decide it. The hole: Yale describes 14 mm as the standard bore a mechanical door viewer leaves, and Ring says its peephole camera fits 12 to 14 mm, so 14 mm is the British reference. Among the units here the declared minimums run from 14 mm (EZVIZ EP4) to 15.5 mm (EZVIZ CP4). The thickness: the EZVIZ units declare 35 to 105 mm and Yale declares 38 to 110, while Ring stops at 55 mm. Unscrew your viewer, measure the hole and measure the door edge. It takes a minute.

No. Every unit in this guide with a microSD slot records locally with nothing to pay monthly, and the ICODI ships with a 32 GB card already in the box. The EZVIZ models offer their cloud as an option rather than a requirement. If you do not want a subscription, buy one with a card slot and simply do not switch the cloud on.

It changes what you are responsible for, which is not the same as being banned. The official guidance on domestic CCTV published on GOV.UK, updated 21 May 2026, says that if a system captures images of people outside the boundary of your private domestic property, including shared spaces, then the GDPR and the Data Protection Act apply to you. From that point you have duties on what the footage is used for, on letting people exercise their rights over images of themselves, and on deleting recordings you no longer need. A camera that only shows a live view and records nothing does not raise any of it. And in a leasehold flat, check the lease and ask the freeholder or managing agent, because the door and the hallway are usually not solely yours.

The screen and the doorbell work without an internet connection: you still see who is at the door. WiFi is only needed for the alert on your phone and for viewing remotely. And if you record to a microSD card you are not dependent on anyone's cloud either, which is a useful property in a hallway with poor signal.

All of these have a rechargeable battery, from 4600 mAh on the EZVIZ CP4 to 7100 mAh on the EZVIZ EP4, with declared endurance from weeks to months depending on use. The CP4 declares up to 90 days on standby. They charge over USB in a few hours. The more alerts and recordings you generate, the faster it goes.

The ones with infrared night vision, yes: the Nivian, the ICODI, the EZVIZ EP4 and CP4 and the cheap Tuya unit all declare it. The exception is the EZVIZ CP2, which has neither night vision nor detection: it is live view only, so it depends on the light in the hallway.

The ones with a motion sensor and WiFi, yes: the sensor fires when someone stands outside, whether or not they ring. The EZVIZ EP4 adds human shape detection to filter out shadows and passing lights. The CP2 detects nothing at all, by design.

It replaces the viewer you already have: unscrew the optic, pass the camera through the same bore and the screen covers it from the inside. The only real work is if your door has no viewer, which means drilling a new hole to the size the unit declares, or if the model needs a wider bore than you have, which means opening it out by a few millimetres. On a leasehold flat door, and on any fire door, check who is responsible for the door before you make a hole in it.