Smart Plugs Are the Cheapest Way to Make Your Home Smart
Good Housekeeping
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Smart Plugs Are the Cheapest Way to Make Your Home Smart
Smart plugs are becoming more and more popular because they instantly transform your living space into a smart home — sometimes, within just a few minutes. When inserted to an ordinary outlet, smart plugs allow you to control whatever is plugged in (think air conditioners, lights, and TVs) via an app on your smartphone or a smart home assistant like Apple Home Pod, Google Assistant, or Amazon Alexa. But to find the best smart plug for your home, you want to make sure to find one that's easy to use and works smoothly with the smart devices you already have.
The Engineering Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute tests a range of smart plugs to find the best ones in terms of performance, ease of installation, and compatibility with other devices. Our 2021 top picks for smart plugs are:
To find the absolute best smart plug for your home, consider the following:
Power: Check the smart plug's power to see how many amps it uses and what it can and can't be used with. Simply put, an amp is a unit of measuring electricity. Lights and smaller smart devices, like the Amazon Echo Show, only draw about one amp, TVs can draw about three amps depending on size, and more powerful devices like air conditioners draw 15 to 20 amps.
Smart device compatibility: Some, but not all smart plugs work across multiple platforms, so it's a good idea to double check whether or not a smart plug works with Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Homekit, or any other devices you use.
Ease of use: Smart plugs make life easier, but it won't be worth it if you can't figure out how to use it!
Energy-tracking capabilities: Though not a necessary feature, some smart plugs help monitor how much energy (and money) you're using with each device you use.
Physical footprint: Can you stack your smart plug with another plug in a normal wall outlet? Smaller smart plugs work best for tighter spaces.
Indoor vs. outdoor: Note that indoor smart plugs operate different from outdoor smart plugs, so make sure to get an outdoor-specific product if you want to use it outside.
Hub requirement: Some smart plugs can stand alone, but others will require a hub for a seamless experience.
See below for best smart plugs of 2021 hand-picked by the Good Housekeeping Institute. Every plug was a top performer in Lab tests. Browse through our smart plug reviews to find smart outlets to best-selling WeMo smart plugs you can find on Amazon.
amazon
They give you hands-free and remote access to your home's devices.