The best webcams help you look your best, whether you need one for work, streaming to Twitch, or video chatting with family. A good webcam’s image sensor is much larger than the camera built into your laptop, so will pick up features better, even in lower light. Most webcams also have a higher resolution than most laptops, so you’ll get a lot more detail, too.
Many of the best webcams are very affordable, and even the top-end models (some of which have built-in lights and can stream in 4K) are usually no more than $200. We’ve tested a range of webcams, starting at models less than $40, to bring you as wide a range of options as possible. So regardless of whether you’re using Zoom, Skype, Discord or Microsoft Teams, there’s a webcam here that should meet your needs.
Back to school and the best webcams
Webcams are but one part of a student’s back-to-school setup, and are always in high demand as people start shopping for supplies, so it pays to start looking as early as possible. Whether you’re heading off to college or going back to school, you’ll want a webcam suitable for both work and play. Right now many of our favorite picks are currently on sale making now the ideal time to buy one of the best webcams. Be sure to check out the best back to school sales and follow our back to school guide for all of your shopping needs this season.
What are the best webcams right now?
Our current pick for the best webcam for most people is the $60 Anker Powerconf C200, which offers crisp 2K video at 30 frames per second. The C200 also features dependable dual microphones for capturing your voice, an adjustable field of view, and a tripod mount, should you want to use it away from your laptop or desktop. And, it comes with a privacy shutter built into the webcam itself.
If you want the absolute best, we recommend the $299 Insta360 Link, which has a 4K camera that’s mounted to a 3-axis gimbal, so the camera can swivel and rotate to follow you around a room. It also has a ton of innovative features, including the ability to respond to hand gestures and a vertical video mode for TikTok and similar formats. It also delivers some of the best video we’ve ever seen from a webcam.
You can also make yourself look better with the best ring lights, and the best microphones will make you sound better on your calls.
The best webcam under $100 is the Anker Powerconf C200. For the price, you get a 2K webcam that delivers excellent video in all sorts of lighting conditions, an adjustable field of view, and an integrated privacy shutter for those times when you don’t want to be seen.
In our review, we found its 5MP camera sensor was great at accurately displaying colors, even if the overall image was a bit grainy. Its dual mics were very sensitive — it could head us from 30 feet away — but its AI noise cancellation was great at blocking out extraneous noise. Anker’s software also lets you tweak the image and audio settings very easily, In all, this is a great bargain for an excellent webcam.
Read our full Anker Powerconf C200 webcam review.
But all of its fancy features would mean nothing if the video was poor; fortunately, its 1/2-inch image sensor delivers some of the best image quality we’ve seen, day or night. Even in a dark room, it was able to show us perfectly, using nothing more than the light from our monitor. For power users, this is the webcam to get.
Read our full Insta360 Link review.
There’s a reason you’ve probably seen the Logitech C920s HD in just about any conference room — this is one of the best webcams you can buy overall. The C920s HD records sharp videos at 1080p and 30 frames per second, and has a wide 78-degree field of view that’s ideal for both solo conference calls and large meeting rooms. Its sleek black design is equally ideal for clipping to displays or attaching to tripods, and its companion software offers customizable backgrounds and avatars. And, it has a privacy shutter to physically block the camera’s lens.
If you need something higher-end for gaming, the Logitech C922 Pro Stream webcam is an enhanced version of the C920s that touts 60fps video recording at 720p. But if you’re just seeking the best overall quality for video calls, the Logitech C920s Pro HD is the way to go.
Read our full Logitech C920s Pro HD review.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find as good a value as the NexiGo N930AF. For around $50 — and often less — you get a webcam that records at 1080p, has auto-focus to help you avoid blurry images, and even a privacy shutter to provide a little peace of mind.
At first glance, the NexiGo resembles a Logitech webcam, but we’ll overlook its copycat design. One tradeoff at this price is that there’s only one microphone, so it’s not as good at isolating your voice; callers were not impressed. But for this much, you could spring for one of the best microphones if you want better audio.
Read our full NexiGo N930AF webcam review.
Other features of this premium webcam include 5x HD zoom, three fields of view (65, 78, and 90 degrees), and the ability to add text to your image, via the Logitech Capture software. You can choose font styles, font colors, and even a background color. Of course, all this comes at a price: The Logitech Brio is $199. But for those who need the best, it’s worth the price.
Read our full Logitech Brio review.
This excellent streaming webcam offers a high-speed USB-C connection, a variety of mounting options and 3 months of XSplit Premium streaming software. Its refreshingly attractive design, which comes in white and charcoal, is also a great touch. We were highly impressed with its image quality; it’s definitely worth the premium.
Read our full Logitech StreamCam review.
The P5 only has a single microphone, so it’s not as capable of isolating your voice against background noises as webcams with two or more mics — but if you’re really concerned about audio quality, you should pick up one of the best microphones. Poly’s software also lets you fiddle with various visual settings, too. And, its small size means it won’t stick out much.
Read our full Poly Studio P5 webcam review.
You’ll have to spring for something more expensive if you want 1080p video or tripod mounting options, but if all you need is a solid camera for everyday video calls that costs less than $50, the C310 is one of the best webcams for most people.
Read our full Logitech C310 review.
If you’re making a lot of conference calls for work, then you should check out the business-centric Anker PowerConf C300 webcam. It has a sharp 1080p camera that can record at up to 60 frames per second and an adjustable field of view that can be as narrow as 78 degrees or as wide as 115 degrees.
We loved its Auto Frame mode, which is particularly useful if you move around a lot during conference calls. Plus, thanks to dual stereo mics and impressive low-light capabilities, your Zoom companions won’t miss a syllable — or a shadow. And, it has a physical shutter, to help ensure your privacy.
Read our full Anker PowerConf C300 webcam review.
The Logitech C930e webcam looks much like the company’s super-popular C920, but has a few more features tailored for business. For starters, the C930e has a wider 90-degree field of view, which lets you fit more into the frame. The C930 also has omnidirectional mics, which allow it to pick up more of a conversation in the room. And, it also supports H.264 with Scalable Video Coding (SVC), UVC 1.5 encoding and is certified for Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, Fuze, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Zoom, and other popular platforms.
We loved the quality of the video from the C930e’s camera — it made our laptop’s webcam look far, far worse by comparison — and its microphones were able to easily pick up whatever we said from across a room.
Read our full Logitech C930e review.
only stream at 1080p, but has an HDR setting, which helps when your face is lit up by your screen, but everything else around you is dark. The Kiyo Pro also has three field-of view settings, letting you choose what you want your viewers to see — just you, or everything around.
We were impressed by the quality of the video from the Kiyo Pro, and Razer’s Synapse software lets you make other tweaks to your video stream. We did find that the Kiyo Pro occasionally suffered from some autofocus issues, but you can set it to manual focus. You’ll also want a beefy computer if you’re planning to stream to Twitch or Discord: A full-resolution stream while playing a game caused the Kiyo Pro’s video to stutter on our older laptop.
Read our full Razer Kiyo Pro review.
