Best Smart Home Devices for Your Connected Home

Smart home gadgets are some of the coolest devices you can buy because you can control your entire home with a smartphone or a voice assistant like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. They help you secure your home, save energy, and even have more fun around the house.

The selection of smart home devices is bewildering, especially if you’re buying for the first time. We’ve rounded up the best home automation products out there so you can find the exciting shiny gadgets that are useful enough to be worth your hard-earned money.

Every device on this list can work with every other device, though you might have to use IFTTT in a few cases, depending on which voice assistant or mobile device you have.

>>Learn more about IFTTT.

Philips Hue is one of the more expensive smart bulb kits available, but it’s compatible with so many other smart home products that we think it’s worth it. We like that you can set schedules with your Hue lights to make it look like someone’s home while you’re on vacation and customize colors to set different moods.

It comes in a set of three bulbs and a button so you can get more smart lighting coverage right away while the button gives you another convenient way to control your lights.

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Whether you go with Amazon or Google for your voice assistant comes down to a matter a personal preference. Still, Amazon wins handily for the number of different Echo smart speakers it offers and how many compatible devices it has. You can also link multiple Amazon Echos together for multi-room audio so you can listen to your music throughout the house.

While the regular Amazon Echo is a good balance of sound quality and smarts, you can save a little cash if you go with the Amazon Echo Dot or Amazon Echo Flex.

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Smart plugs are a great addition to the smart home since they don’t require special installation like with smart outlets. These aren’t complicated devices, but they give you a lot of freedom to control lamps, fans, and other devices around the house. They can also help prevent energy vampires from raising your electricity bill.

We think that most people would benefit from having a smart plug in the home, especially the Wemo Mini since it doesn’t require a hub. We like the Wemo Mini because it’s affordable, works with the most popular smart home ecosystems, and has a compact design that won’t block the other outlet.

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If you’re okay with the regular light bulbs you already have and don’t mind a small DIY home project, a smart light switch is an excellent alternative to smart bulbs. It won’t let you control individual bulbs, dim the lights (there’s a dimmer version for around $35), or change bulb colors, but we like the Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Light Switch by TP-Link because it’s an affordable option that doesn’t require a smart home hub.

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A lot of smart locks require you to replace your entire lock, which means getting new keys for your family, but not August Smart Lock Pro. Instead, the lock attaches to the back of almost any deadbolt in less than 20 minutes.

This smart lock comes loaded with useful features—it locks the door behind you when you leave, alerts you if your door isn’t securely closed, and unlocks as you approach your home. August Pro also comes with an August Connect Wi-Fi bridge that allows you to control the lock remotely and makes the lock compatible with a wide array of smart home ecosystems.

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Prevent package theft and keep an eye on whoever comes to and from your house with a doorbell camera. You get mobile notifications, customizable motion detection, and affordable cloud storage with the Google Nest Hello.

We especially like that the Google Nest Hello comes with advanced facial recognition that learns the faces of your family and friends so you can get custom notifications. There’s even a package detection feature that lets you know when a delivery arrives on your porch.

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The Nest Cam IQ Indoor is one of the smartest security cameras you can buy to help you watch your home while you’re away. It has Google Assistant built-in so you can use it just like a smart speaker. It has the same facial recognition software as the Nest Hello doorbell. We also like this camera because it has two-way audio, motion sensors, mobile alerts, and Alexa integration, and it is easy to install.

Nest sells an outdoor version that has lots of the same benefits as the indoor camera but lacks the built-in Google Assistant to keep your home more secure. Plus, since this one is weatherproof, it can withstand precipitation and varying temperatures.

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In many ways, the Nest Learning Thermostat ushered in the modern smart home era by taking the less-than-exciting thermostat and making it into an attractive product you can control with your smartphone. We like that you can connect it to other smart devices for voice controls or turn down the AC when you leave home.

Nest even went a bit further by designing its smart thermostats to learn your habits and preferences over time. We especially love how it encourages and teaches you to save energy—something we can all feel good about.

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If you plan to integrate most types of sensors into your smart home, you’ll need a smart home hub that can coordinate everything. Hubs are also a great option if you want to sync multiple devices from different companies under one smartphone app.

We recommend the Samsung SmartThings hub because it’s compatible with nearly everything, particularly Zigbee and Z-Wave sensors that aren’t as battery hungry as ones that use your Wi-Fi network.

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Ring Alarm is our favorite fully DIY security system because it’s easy to install and affordable and you can monitor it yourself. If you want professional monitoring, Ring offers this too. At $10 a month, it’s much cheaper than most other professional monitoring plans.

Ring sells several starter kits, but you can also buy whatever sensors you need from Ring’s website. Ring Alarm isn’t compatible with as many products as Samsung SmartThings, but it makes a decent smart home hub if you primarily use Amazon Alexa and need Z-Wave support.

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The MyQ isn’t actually a garage door opener but a small device you install in your garage that acts as a remote control for your existing garage door opener (so you don’t need to get a new one). While it isn’t exactly a complicated device, it can alert you if the door’s still open after you leave and it can open the door automatically when you get home.

The Chamberlain MyQ is first on our list of the best garage door openers because it’s compatible with most standard garage doors, can be controlled through an app, and integrates with other smart home systems like Nest, Wink, and Apple HomeKit. By integrating with other smart devices, you can link the lights in your home to the garage door so everything turns off as you leave (or on when you get home).

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Despite their fancy features, not many robot vacuums actually work as part of a smart home system. The iRobot Roomba 960 is an exception since it works with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Of course, this makes the Roomba 960 more expensive than the average robot vacuum, but the additional control is worth the extra cost if you want everything to work together.

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A smart home system is any combination of connected devices that work together, either directly or through a third-party (like IFTTT). While you don’t need smart home hubs to have a smart home system, they can make it easier to control your equipment with fewer apps (or even a single app).

You can create a smart home system in one of two ways: piece by piece or all at once. We recommend getting a couple of devices at first to see if the smart home life is right for you and building your system from there.

If you decide to get everything all at once, be prepared to shell out the big bucks. Even though many connected devices are relatively cheap by themselves, it adds up the more devices you buy. Don’t forget to check compatibility before you go all-in on a smart home system so you can program things to work together.

We think the Amazon Echo is the best smart hub for most people, but the Samsung SmartThings hub is an excellent option if you want even more control over your home automation devices.

>>Learn more: Read our smart hub reviews

It really comes down to your personal preference on this one. We think Amazon Echo is better for home automation, but Google is a better virtual assistant.

>>Learn more: Amazon Echo vs. Google Home

The devices on this list are a drop in the bucket compared to all of the wonderful smart home technology out there. We simply can’t include everything, and our definition of “the best” might differ drastically from yours. We’d love to hear about your experiences. Maybe you found a hidden gem nobody’s talking about? What devices have you installed? Have they been helpful? Sound off in the comments below!

Contributing Author: Brianna Jensen