Ring Video Doorbell

Ring Video Doorbell price drops to just $100 after Amazon completes its acquisition

To celebrate closing its deal on Ring, Amazon dropped the price of the original doorbell by $80 — to just $100 Don't have one of the video doorbells yet? That's a price point that makes it worth giving one a try.

Amazon paid $1 billion for Ring in February, adding the connected doorbell with security camera to its stable of smart products. Amazon, of course, owns the Echo line of smart speakers and other Alexa devices, but also snapped up another doorbell and security camera firm, Blink, for $90 million, in December.

Blink's security cameras integrate with Alexa (and of course Ring's doorbells do too)and can run on just two AA lithium batteries, making them cost-effective and also easy to install.

Smart doorbells and security cameras are some of the first connected products people tend to buy for their homes. Cameras and doorbells are very easy to install — making them a great choice for apartment owners, renters and home owners.

Doorbells can be a bit more complicated — if they're being installed and wired into an existing doorbell space. But some, like Ring's original Video Doorbell, can be mounted flush outside a door, and can run just on batteries. Still, not every renter can install a video doorbell, no matter how easy it seems.

A renter in Santa Monica, CA. — where Ring is based — found herself facing an eviction notice after putting a Ring Video Doorbell outside her front door. The landlord told Jessica Katz to take it down or she'd be forced to leave. Ring's CEO Jamie Siminoff, who remains at Ring's helm even after Amazon's acquisition, paid for Katz's attorney fees, wrote to the landlord, and smoothed out the issue.

Ring's more recent doorbells, the Video Doorbell 2 and Video Doorbell Pro, Ring's first hardwired doorbell, are still priced competitively with other smart doorbells on the market.

Visit GearBrain's What Works with Amazon Alexa to see the connected devices that work with Amazon Echo and Alexa enabled devices.