Phone-based baby monitor apps compared

Comparison pages written by one of the products are usually worthless, and you already know why. So here is how this one is built, and you can decide whether it holds up.

Every claim about another app was read off that company's own website on 22 August 2026, and each is linked so you can check it. There are no quality judgements — no "best", no scores — because we are not a neutral party and any ranking we produced would put us on top. What is here instead is the handful of factual differences that actually change which one you should install, and a section on where Bebrise is the weaker choice.

There are also no prices, for a reason worth stating: Annie's own pricing page notes its figures apply to the US and to iOS, and tells you to check the app for your own country. That is true of all of them. A number typed onto this page would be wrong for most people reading it, so this compares payment models, which are stable, and leaves the amounts to the store.

Cloud Baby Monitor

VIGI Limited runs it across the widest Apple spread of the four: iPhone and iPad on iOS 12 and newer, Mac on macOS 11, Apple TV on tvOS 15, alerts on Apple Watch, and an Android version for 5.0 and newer.

Its own site is unusually direct about payment: "Cloud Baby Monitor is not a subscription app. We charge you one time for iPhone/iPad/Apple TV, once for Android, and once for Mac." So it is a one-time purchase, but once per platform family — a mixed household buys twice.

On architecture it does both things. Locally it uses your home Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth "in areas without WiFi coverage", and states that no internet connection is required. Away from home, "Unlimited Range" works over 3G, 4G, LTE, 5G or another Wi-Fi network, establishing what it calls the shortest path between the devices. It describes all communication as protected by industry standard end-to-end encryption.

Suits you if you have Apple hardware to spare — an old Apple TV as the viewer is genuinely useful — you want remote viewing, and you would rather pay once than monthly.

Dormi

Sleekbit's Dormi is Android-only, which decides it for a lot of people either way. It connects over Wi-Fi, mobile data, or ad-hoc setups like Wi-Fi Direct and a hotspot — that last option is unusual and genuinely handy somewhere with no network at all.

It is the most forthcoming of the four about how traffic moves. Its FAQ says Dormi connects through its relay servers for remote sessions, and that devices can connect directly across networks where the router supports PCP, NAT-PMP or UPnP. It also states that all communication — control, audio and video — has been encrypted since version 3.0 and is encrypted end to end, using a post-quantum hybrid scheme. That is a stronger published cryptographic position than anyone else here, ours included, and it is worth saying so plainly.

Payment is a free allowance of four hours of monitoring per month, topped up monthly from the install date with no signup, and then a monthly subscription, an annual one, or a one-time lifetime unlock tied to your Google Play account.

Suits you if both phones are Android, you want to try it properly before paying, or you need it to work somewhere without a router.

Annie Baby Monitor

Annie is the broadest of the four by platform — iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux and the web, with Apple TV, Apple Watch and Vision listed on its App Store entry. Pairing is by numeric or QR code, and it supports several parent devices and several children at once.

It is the clearest subscription product here: weekly, monthly and yearly plans, a three-day free trial on the yearly, and a one-time "Lifetime" option. Its pricing page carries the disclaimer quoted at the top of this article — the listed figures are for the US and iOS, and you should check the app for your country.

Suits you if you need it on hardware nobody else covers — a Windows PC or a browser as the viewing end — or you want several people watching from their own devices.

Bebrise, including where it loses

Ours runs on iPhone 6s and newer and Android from roughly 2016, in either role. The detection — cry recognition and the camera analysis — runs on the bedside phone itself, and the video travels between the two phones over your own Wi-Fi.

The architectural difference is narrower than it sounds, and it is the only one worth choosing us for: there is no remote path at all. Not disabled, not optional — the app ships with no relay infrastructure to route video through, so there is nothing to switch on and nothing for a scan of the internet to find. Why that is a design decision rather than a missing feature is its own guide.

Now the losses, which are real:

• You cannot watch from outside the house. All three of the others can. If that matters to you, one of them is the right answer and this is not a close call.
• One watching phone at a time. The others support several. Two parents cannot both have the picture open, which is the thing we are asked for most.
• Two platforms, no Mac, TV, PC or web. Annie and Cloud Baby Monitor both cover far more hardware.
• It is not out yet. It is in small-scale home testing and not in the app stores, so you cannot simply install it tonight. The other three you can.
• Encryption is not our differentiator. Cloud Baby Monitor and Dormi both publish end-to-end encryption claims, and Dormi's published scheme is more advanced than anything we have described. Our argument is about the absence of a route, not about better cryptography.

Suits you if the thing you want is for the video to have nowhere to go, you are content watching only at home, and you would rather use a phone you already own than buy a camera.

Choosing between them

Work down this list and stop at the first one that is true for you:

1. You need to watch from work or a restaurant. Cloud Baby Monitor, Dormi or Annie. Bebrise cannot do it.
2. Both parents need the picture on their own phones. Any of the three, not us.
3. The viewing end is a PC, a browser or a TV. Annie for Windows and web; Cloud Baby Monitor for Apple TV and Mac.
4. Both phones are Android and you want to test it first. Dormi's free monthly allowance is the least committal way in.
5. You object to subscriptions. Cloud Baby Monitor's one-time purchase, or Dormi's lifetime unlock.
6. The video must not leave your home under any circumstances. That is the one where our answer is different from everyone else's — though you are trading away most of the list above for it.

Whichever you pick, the setup and safety parts do not change: cords three feet from the crib, air around the phone, and test the alert path before you rely on it. Those matter more than which app you chose.

If anything here is out of date or wrong — including if you work on one of these products — tell us at [email protected] and we will check it and correct the page.