9 Best Baby Monitors 2023

Type: Wi-Fi smart monitor | Video display: 1080p HD camera | Features: Sleep metrics, optional wearables

If you’re looking for a smart, Wi-Fi-enabled monitor that can provide you with insights into how your baby is sleeping and more, then you’ll want to consider the Nanit. The smart monitor received the most recommendations, with five of our experts telling us it’s a favorite. Made for the tech- and data-obsessed parent who wants to know and track everything about their baby, it has won a number of awards and was named one of the best inventions of 2018 by Time magazine. It’s an over-the-crib Wi-Fi camera that not only offers standard video-monitoring capabilities but provides data, including sleep metrics, via its app. The bird’s-eye camera captures real-time HD-quality video and uses what the company calls “computer vision” to track whether your child is awake, sleeping, or fussing — no wearables required. Nanit synthesizes this data to generate nightly sleep reports and sleep scores, even providing tips on how to help your baby sleep better. As the Bump’s executive editor, Lauren Kay, puts it, “The Nanit is a two-in-one monitor that gives you helpful training and guidance when it comes to sleep, which is different from a lot of the competitors.”

Nevares says the Nanit is her favorite of all the cameras she’s used over the years. LaBracio loves it, too, telling us she recommends it all the time for its data-tracking ability. (It’s one of the most popular smart monitors among Babylist users and, anecdotally speaking, among new parents.) “You can pick up on patterns and sort of take a step back and see how your baby is sleeping the whole night,” she says. Jennifer Saxton, the founder of the Tot Squad, loves the monitor’s sleep-tracking feature, saying it helps eliminate the guesswork of trying to figure out how long a baby has been asleep. “The data tracking helps me understand exactly when the baby fell asleep (so I can predict how long I have until she will be up again), and the summary data of her average bedtimes and number of night wakings really help with watching trends during sleep training,” explains Saxton. Echoing this praise, Fathercraft co-founder Paul Zalewski says, “Nanit’s ‘smart features’ are actually useful,” adding that his business partner made significant changes to his son’s bedtime routine based on the Nanit’s analysis. “When a ‘smart product’ can actually deliver on a promise — in this case, that promise is more sleep for babies and parents — that’s pretty spectacular.”

If you want even more insight into how your baby is sleeping, you can use the breathing band (which comes with the Nanit Pro; you can get it as a swaddle, sleep sack, or pajamas), which tracks a baby’s breathing motion in real time, without a sensor, by way of the camera. “We used the breathing wear for peace of mind with our infant, especially once she started sleeping on her stomach,” says Saxton. You can purchase Nanit’s smart sheets, which let you to track your baby’s physical growth through the camera. To save a few bucks, you can buy everything in a bundle, but for most families, the Pro camera alone should be more than sufficient. The Nanit Pro includes a free one-year subscription to your video history and data with purchase; after that, you’ll have to pay $5 a month or $50 a year. I personally think this data is less important once your child turns 1, so I didn’t consider paying for an additional year. You can still use the monitor’s basic live-video monitoring without a subscription — you just won’t have access to any of the analytics or sleep insights.

Aside from the data-tracking features of the Nanit, the basic camera function is just fine. I prefer a non-Wi-Fi monitor (see above), but I decided to test the Nanit with baby No. 2, since we needed a second monitor for his room. I appreciated being able to check in on the baby via the app even when I wasn’t home (great for nights out), and like others have said, it was helpful to be able to see some of those sleep insights. For instance, though my two boys are generally very good sleepers, the Nanit recommended putting the baby to sleep a little earlier, which hadn’t occurred to us. But one thing that frustrated me and my husband — and this might be true of Wi-Fi monitors in general — is that connectivity can be extremely unreliable. When I opened the app, sometimes the video feed would take a while to load, or wouldn’t load at all, which is extra-annoying when you can hear your baby crying but can’t see whether he’s sitting up or just getting settled — whether you need to go in or let him be. After using the Nanit for a year, I noticed that the connectivity issues actually got worse, even after I adjusted the internet settings and reset the whole system. It became so unreliable that we got that second camera for the Infant Optics, making that the main monitor in his room and the Nanit a backup. (One workaround that seems to have worked for Strategist senior editor Simone Kitchens, however, is to keep the camera on instead of turning it off every morning, because what is admittedly annoying is connecting to the internet each time. Like with any other Wi-Fi product, once it’s connected, it usually stays connected.) Still, it is very convenient to be able to check in on the baby on my phone when I’m enjoying a night out, which is why we haven’t taken it down yet. When the Nanit is online and ready to go, it’s a great product.