Best baby monitor app? 28 apps compared

Guide · 2026-09-08

The App Store and Google Play list well over twenty baby monitor apps side by side, and the store descriptions nearly all say the same thing. This overview puts 28 of them next to each other with price, payment model and reach, so the differences become visible.

Disclosure: this overview comes from the team behind the baby monitor app Murmeli, and Murmeli is one of the 28 apps listed. We list it by the same criteria as every other app. The table contains only verifiable figures from the two stores, no judgements of our own, and we award no ranking.

What "test winner" means for baby monitor apps

Anyone shopping for a baby monitor runs into the phrase test winner, or Testsieger in German-speaking countries. It is not a marketing word. A test winner is the product that scored highest in a test run by an independent consumer organisation: Stiftung Warentest in Germany, K-Tipp in Switzerland, Which? in the UK, Consumer Reports in the United States. Whoever uses the term has to be able to name the test, otherwise the claim is misleading.

Those organisations test baby monitor devices, meaning hardware with its own parent unit. Apps have so far not been part of such tests. There is therefore no test winner among baby monitor apps, and where a store listing or a comparison site names one, it is worth checking who ran the test. Often it is the vendor.

This page is accordingly not a test. We did not put the apps into service, did not measure range and did not compare audio quality. What you see here is store data: price, payment model, platform and number of ratings. That is enough for a shortlist. For the rest there is the free trial that nearly every one of these apps offers.

What the numbers show

Of the 28 apps compared, 13 charge a subscription in whole or in part. Eight are pure one-off purchases. That is the most striking finding. A baby monitor is needed for one to two years and then goes in a cupboard, yet the segment has largely moved to recurring payments.

It pays to do the arithmetic. A subscription at three francs a month costs 72 francs over two years, several times any one-off purchase on this list. The full calculation is in the article on apps without a subscription.

The second finding concerns platforms. Only 11 of the 28 apps run on both iOS and Android. Anyone wanting to pair an iPhone with an Android device, which is the common case when an old phone becomes the baby unit, has far less choice than the number of apps suggests.

And a third, visible on reading the table: rating counts say something about reach, not about the technology. An app with 50,000 ratings has been on the market longer and has more users than one with 50. Whether it runs more reliably in your flat is a different question.

All 28 apps at a glance

Sorted by number of ratings, so by reach. Names are the ones used in the English-language App Store. Prices were recorded in the Swiss store and are therefore in Swiss francs; where an app only states a price in Google Play, that price is in dollars. In your country both the name and the price can differ.

Data recorded 19 August 2026. Store listings change constantly. In case of doubt, what the store says is what counts.

App or device?

That question comes before the question of the best app. Classic baby monitor devices come from Philips Avent, Chicco, VTech, Angelcare, Motorola, Babymoov, Alecto, Reer, Beurer, NUK and Momcozy, plus camera systems from Nanit and Owlet. Prices run from roughly 40 francs for an audio-only unit to well over 300 for a set with camera and screen.

A device has three real advantages. It works without any network, because transmitter and receiver talk to each other directly. It does one job and does not take calls or show notifications. And it needs no second smartphone, which you first have to have spare.

An app has different ones. It costs a few francs once instead of a hundred and more, provided it asks for no subscription. It transmits video at the resolution of a phone camera, which beats most devices in that price bracket. And it works over any distance as long as both sides have internet. What it cannot do is work without a network at all. Which situation allows what is covered in the article on baby monitor apps without wifi.

In practice the decision usually comes down to whether there is an old phone in the house. If there is, trying an app costs little. How to set that up is described under old phone as a baby monitor.

Which app suits which need

If you do not want a subscription

Then the eight pure one-off purchases are the candidates. Watch the wording in the store: "in-app purchases" on its own says nothing about whether it is a subscription. The store page lists every item separately under the purchase options, and the term is stated there.

If you have to pair iPhone and Android

Then every single-platform app drops out. The platform column shows which those are. There are more of them than expected, and the store description often mentions it only far down the page.

If you want to watch while you are out

Then you need an app that also transmits over mobile data, not only inside the same wifi. That is usually in the name or the first line of the description, often as "3G" or "3G & wifi".

If privacy matters to you

Check two things: whether the app requires an account, and whether it stores recordings. Both are in the privacy policy, not in the store description. An app without an account cannot recognise you again. An app without cloud storage cannot lose recordings.

Frequently asked questions

Which baby monitor app is the best?

It depends what you need. Occasional use is fine with a free app. Daily use on a subscription costs more over two years than any one-off purchase here. If you have to pair iPhone and Android, only 11 of 28 apps qualify. This overview compares price, model and reach, and deliberately awards no ranking.

Is there a test winner among baby monitor apps?

No. The independent consumer organisations test baby monitor devices, not apps. Where an app advertises itself as a test winner, it is worth looking at who ran the test and when.

How many baby monitor apps use a subscription?

Of the 28 apps compared, 13 rely on a subscription in whole or in part, and eight are pure one-off purchases. With subscriptions the term matters. Monthly prices look small and add up over the baby years.

Is an app as good as a real baby monitor?

Usually better on picture quality and price, worse on independence from the network. A device transmits directly and needs neither router nor mobile signal. An app needs a network, but works over any distance and uses a phone camera.

Do many ratings say anything about quality?

They mostly say something about reach. An app with 50,000 ratings has been on the market longer than one with 50, not necessarily built better. Conversely a new app with few ratings is not bad, only untested.

Where does the data in this overview come from?

From the public listings in the Apple App Store and Google Play, recorded in the Swiss store. Prices are Swiss prices in francs. In other countries both names and prices differ.

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