The best pet cameras in the UK (2026)

Six pet cameras compared on what they really cost over two years, treat tossing, two-way audio and privacy, from a £20 pan-and-tilt camera to Furbo and Petcube treat-tossers. Useful if you are buying one as a Christmas present or waiting for Black Friday.

Dog care · Buying guide · Updated November 2026

By Eunrae Cho · Last reviewed 2026-11-01 · How we source this

A pet camera lets you check in on your dog or cat from your phone while you are out. Most let you talk through a speaker, some toss treats, and nearly all send an alert when they hear barking or see movement. They will not make it fine to leave a dog alone for longer than they can cope with, but they can show you how your pet actually spends the time. Our guide to how long a dog can be left alone covers that side.

The biggest difference between cameras is not the picture quality. It is what you have to pay for each month. Several cameras only show live video unless you subscribe, so you cannot watch back what happened while you were in a meeting. Others record to a memory card for free. We have worked out the two-year cost for each one below.

We also looked at privacy. An indoor camera sees and hears your home, so we checked which ones have a physical lens cover or a privacy mode, and what UK guidance says about setting one up safely.

Pet cameras compared

*Petcube says its Care subscription is optional and an owner review confirms two-way audio works without it, but we could not find a full list of free features. The Furbo Mini's Amazon listing includes "treat tossing" under recommended uses, but its bullet points don't mention it, and Furbo's own UK shop lists the Mini as "No Treat Tossing". We have gone with Furbo.

What they really cost over two years

If you only want to look in live and talk to your pet, all six work without a subscription. If you want to watch back what happened, or get smarter alerts such as "dog is chewing" or "person seen", you will usually need a plan. Here is the hardware price plus 24 months of the cheapest listed plan, using the prices we found on 1 November 2026.

• Tapo C210: £19.98, plus a microSD card (not included) for free local recording. With Tapo Care at £29.49 a year, about £79 over two years.
• Ring Indoor (2nd Gen): £39.99 for live view only. We could not load Ring's UK price page when we checked, so we haven't added a plan cost. Check ring.com before relying on recordings.
• Furbo Mini: £59. With Furbo Nanny Standard on a two-year plan (£5.99 a month), about £203.
• Petcube Cam 360: £55.99. With Petcube Care Optimal paid yearly (£59.88 a year), about £176.
• Furbo 360°: £129. With Nanny Standard on a two-year plan, about £273.
• Petcube Bites 2 Lite: £149.95. With Care Optimal paid yearly, about £270.

Some plans also cover extra cameras for a small fee. Furbo adds £2 a month per camera, for example. Watch out for Furbo listings marked "[SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED]" on Amazon. These are cheaper up front but need a paid plan to work properly. The two Furbo cameras we recommend are the "[No Subscription Required]" versions.

1. Furbo 360° Dog Camera [No Subscription Required] — best treat-tossing camera for dogs

The Furbo 360° is the camera most people picture when they think of a treat-tossing dog camera. The 1080p camera rotates a full 360°, and Furbo says it can automatically turn to follow your dog around the room. It has colour night vision, two-way audio with volume control in the app, and a barking sensor that pushes an alert to your phone. You can adjust the size of the treat toss, and Furbo recommends dry, firm, round treats about half an inch (roughly 1cm) across.

Without a subscription you get live view, talking, treat tossing and basic bark alerts. Furbo Nanny adds video history (3 days on Standard, 7 on Premium), more detailed alerts such as person and smoke-alarm alerts, and a daily diary. UK prices are £7.99 a month for Standard, or £6.39 a month paid yearly or £5.99 a month on a two-year plan, according to Furbo's help centre. The Amazon listing says plans start from £5.38 a month, so check the price before you subscribe.

Some owner reviews say treats occasionally jam, and that the camera pans but doesn't tilt, so place it about a metre off the floor. One reviewer reported many more false bark alerts after the free Nanny trial ended. We can't verify that.

Pros: rotating view with auto-tracking; treat toss works without a plan; clear bark alerts.
Cons: video history needs a subscription; fussy about treat shape; no USB plug in the box, per one owner review.
Best for: dog owners who want to reward calm behaviour from afar.

2. Petcube Bites 2 Lite — best treat-tosser for cats and dogs

The Bites 2 Lite flings treats rather than dropping them, and you can control the amount and the distance from the app. There's also an autoplay mode. One Amazon reviewer who switched to Furbo said the Petcube's tray-style dispenser coped better with odd-shaped treats such as freeze-dried squares. The camera is 1080p with a wide 160° view, 8x digital zoom and night vision, and it can be wall-mounted with the kit in the box.

Petcube says the Lite has the same functions as the full Bites 2. The differences are a plastic body instead of aluminium and 2.4GHz Wi-Fi only. Petcube Care Optimal (3 days of video history, smart alerts and downloads) costs £9.99 a month, or £4.99 a month paid yearly. Premium (90 days of history) costs £16.99 a month, or £11.99 a month paid yearly.

When we checked, Amazon UK said the Bites 2 Lite could not be dispatched. Petcube's own UK store had it at £149.95, and Pets at Home and Argos also stock it.

Pros: wide view; adjustable treat distance; copes with more treat shapes.
Cons: the most expensive here; fixed view (no pan); 2.4GHz Wi-Fi only.
Best for: cats or dogs who like to chase a treat, in a room you can see in one wide shot.

3. Furbo Mini [No Subscription Required] — best small camera for checking in

The Furbo Mini is a small, fixed camera that uses the same app and alerts as the bigger Furbo, without the treat tosser. It records 1080p through a wide-angle lens, has colour night vision and two-way audio, and sends alerts when it hears barking, howling, crying or meowing. Furbo says the software tells dog and cat sounds apart. It can sit flat or stick to a wall with the double-sided tape supplied, which is handy if you rent.

It works with the same Furbo Nanny plans as the Furbo 360°. Don't confuse it with the newer Furbo Mini 360°, which pans and has a small treat toss but was sold on Amazon UK as "[SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED]" with a three-month commitment when we checked.

Pros: small and renter-friendly; bark and meow alerts without a plan; colour night vision.
Cons: no treat toss; fixed view; conflicting treat-toss information on the Amazon listing.
Best for: a cat owner, or a second room alongside a Furbo 360°.

4. Ring Indoor Camera (2nd Gen) — best for privacy

This isn't a pet-specific camera, but its privacy features make it worth considering. A manual cover swivels over the lens, and Ring says it also turns off the microphone, so you can see at a glance that the camera is off while you are at home. You can also black out areas such as a bathroom door with privacy zones, and turn on end-to-end encryption in the app. Ring says the camera will get security updates until at least four years after it stops being sold new on its websites.

It's a small plug-in camera with 1080p video, colour night vision, two-way talk with noise cancellation and a 143° diagonal view. It needs 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. Live view and alerts work without a plan. To save and rewatch videos, which Ring says it can store for up to 180 days, you need a Ring plan, sold separately.

Pros: physical privacy cover; cheap; works with Alexa.
Cons: no treat toss or pan; recordings need a plan; not built around pets.
Best for: anyone who wants a camera they can visibly switch off when they are home.

5. Petcube Cam 360 — best pan-and-tilt for following a pet

The Cam 360 pans and tilts, so you can look around the room from your phone. It has a 105° lens, 8x zoom and night vision. Its privacy mode physically turns the lens away, triggered from the app, and Petcube says data is encrypted. Two-way audio works without a subscription. Petcube Care adds sound and motion alerts and video history, at the same prices as for the Bites 2 Lite.

It only works on 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. Amazon UK showed it as currently unavailable, and the few UK reviews there are mixed, with some reporting connection problems. Petcube's UK store had it at £55.99, and Pets at Home listed it at £59.

Pros: pan and tilt; lens-away privacy mode; Petcube Care covers several cameras.
Cons: alerts need a plan; mixed connection reviews; no treat toss.
Best for: pets who move around a big room.

6. Tapo C210 — best budget, no monthly fee

If you mainly want to see what your dog is doing and don't need treats, the Tapo C210 is hard to argue with on price. It's a 2K (3MP) camera that pans 360° and tilts, with night vision, two-way audio, motion tracking that follows movement, and privacy zones. You can record to a microSD card of up to 512GB, bought separately, so you can watch back the day without paying a monthly fee.

Tapo Care adds cloud storage of event clips for 30 days and snapshot alerts. Tapo's UK store says it starts at £2.99 a month or £29.49 a year, and the C210 comes with a 30-day free trial. It needs 2.4GHz Wi-Fi.

Pros: very cheap; free local recording; pans and tilts.
Cons: no treat toss; general home camera rather than pet-specific; microSD card not included.
Best for: a first camera, or for checking how a dog copes when left.

How we chose

We have not tested these cameras ourselves. We compared each maker's published specifications and UK subscription prices with live Amazon UK listings and UK retailer pages on 1 November 2026. We only included cameras that were in stock from a UK seller or the maker's UK store. We looked at:

• what works without a subscription, and what a plan costs;
• whether it tosses treats, and how;
• two-way audio and alerts;
• privacy features such as a lens cover or privacy mode;
• the field of view, and whether it pans and tilts.

We left out the eufy Indoor Cam C220 because Amazon UK showed no featured offer, the Petcube Cam 360 on Amazon because it was unavailable there (we link Petcube's own store instead), and the Blink Mini 2 because it was out of stock. We also left out the Furbo Mini 360° because the Amazon UK version needs a paid subscription to use.

How to choose a pet camera

Subscription costs

Before you buy, decide whether you want to watch back what happened or just look in live. If you want recordings without a monthly fee, choose a camera with a microSD slot, such as the Tapo C210. Many plans start with a free trial, so put a reminder in your calendar for when it ends.

Treat tossing

A treat toss is fun and can reward a dog for settling, but it isn't a treatment for separation anxiety. Tossing treats while a dog is very distressed is unlikely to fix the underlying problem, and the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior recommends reward-based training with professional help for behaviour problems. If your dog barks, howls or is destructive when left, speak to your vet or a qualified behaviourist. Count tossed treats as part of your pet's daily food, and use the size and shape the maker recommends to avoid jams.

Two-way audio

Every camera here has a microphone and speaker. Pets react differently to hearing your voice when you aren't there. Some settle, some look confused or go looking for you, and owner reviews describe both. Try it from the next room before relying on it, and keep messages short and calm.

Privacy and security

An indoor camera can see and hear your home, so set it up with care. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre advises changing any default password, turning on two-step verification, and keeping the device and app updated. Since April 2024, UK law under the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) regime has required makers of connected products sold here to avoid universal default passwords and to say how long they will provide security updates. We haven't audited any of these companies' security. A physical lens cover, like Ring's, or a camera you can unplug when you are home is the simplest protection. Also think about anyone else who lives in or visits your home, and tell them the camera is there.

Where to put it

Put the camera where your pet spends most time, at about table height, out of reach of chewing and paws, and near a socket and good Wi-Fi. Most of these need 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. Keep cables tucked away from puppies.

FAQs