What the heck is a smart device? Why do I need one? Do I even want one? If you’re wondering about the best smart home devices to make life easier, I’ve got you covered! These are my 9 favorites that I own and love so you can control your home with the touch of a button.
I’ll admit, it’s hard to keep up with the latest technology. And it’s not just computers and phones these days, but cars, watches, alarm systems, front doors locks, and more! It seems like there’s a smart device for everything.

There are really so many smart devices these days and the terminology can seem like a foreign language, so I’ve tried to simplify things for you here and narrow it down to what I think are the BEST smart home devices.
Let me preface this by saying that I am not IT support in my home. That unpaid but highly-appreciated roll falls to my husband. So in order for me to recommend a smart home device to you it either has to work really well, be easy to use/understand, or be so worth it that you might consider hiring someone to help you with installation and setup.
So What is a Smart Device?
Basically, a smart device is one that connects to the internet to perform its function. The benefit of this is that you can control it from just about anywhere through an app on your phone!
- Need to let a delivery person into the garage but you’re on vacation? No problem, you can open the garage door from your phone for him.
- Want your lights to be on when you get home late at night? You can do it from your phone in the car.
- Want to heat the house up in the Winter after you’ve been away on vacation? You can turn the heat off from your phone.
You still might be wondering why you want a smart device. I’d compare it to when I first got a smart phone (way back when). At first I thought, why do I want to read emails on my phone or check the weather? A phone is for making calls! But if you have a smart phone you know that once you have one, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without one!
These smart devices for the home are the same. Once you have them, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them!
So let’s dig in! You can use the Table of Contents below to jump between sections.
1. Best Smart Speaker – Amazon Echo Dot
The Echo Dot is essentially a smart speaker powered by Amazon Alexa. This device sits on any surface but does need to be plugged in.
So why might you want a smart speaker? Well, they can act like your own voice-activated personal assistant of sorts. As a speaker, it can play music for you, but you can also use the Echo Dot to set reminders for yourself, make shopping lists, answer basic questions, and more.
I have one Echo Dot and it sits in my kitchen next to the stove. I mostly use it to play music while I’m cooking and when I’m working.

Here are some of the questions I ask of mine most often:
- What’s the weather going to be today?
- Set a timer for XX minutes
- Remind me to XX in XX minutes
- Play my list on Spotify
- Play the news
- What time does XX business close today?
- Tell me a joke (after all, who doesn’t need a pick me up once in a while!)
2. Smart Thermostat – Ecobee
With rising energy rates, who wouldn’t want to save money on heating and cooling? And it all starts with your thermostat. Basic thermostats allow you to set the temperature on the control panel and the panel is the sole location to determine the temperature.
When we first moved in, our wall thermostat was directly below a skylight. During the day, the sun would shine directly down on the thermostat, elevating the temperature reading on the panel and turning the heat off. But our bedrooms were so cold!
We changed to the Ecobee Smart Thermostat and it was the best decision for our home. We can easily set the house to the right temperature when we’re home while saving money when we’re away. Plus, it learns our routines and makes suggestions about heating/cooling options to help us save money. It can also be voice controlled through Siri or Alexa and works as a general home speaker.
It’s just this little wall device!

Perhaps the best feature for us, is that it has remote sensors. That means that each room can have a sensor and instead of taking the temperature reading from just the panel, it reads all of the rooms and adjusts accordingly. This little sensor sits on my nightstand to detect temperature in the primary bedroom.

One of my favorite features is that the thermostat is fully accessible from my phone. While I’ve set my home, away, and sleep settings, sometimes I change my mind.
So if in Winter if I wake up cold one night, instead of getting out of bed, I can simply open the app on my phone and turn up the heat. Or if we’ve been out of town and I want to cool the house up before we get home, I can turn the air conditioning back on from my phone so that it’s just the right temperature when we arrive!
And all you have to do is replace your standard thermostat with the Ecobee Smart Thermostat.
3. Home Alarm System – Ring
Your safety is important! We had an ADT security system for years, but recently switched over to the Ring Home Security System and couldn’t be happier.
True story: Just last week, I was away from home and received a notice that my side gate opened. The alarm wasn’t on because my son was home, but I figured he was sleeping and not going through the side gate so I was a bit confused as to who opened the gate.
I quickly pulled up my Ring camera footage and watched as an Amazon delivery person got out of the BACK SEAT of a REGULAR unmarked car and walked up my driveway straight into my backyard!! I’m not kidding!
If the alarm had been armed, it would have obviously gone off, but I like that I get notifications even when it’s not armed because sometimes, weird things happen! And this was weird.

Ring is a DIY alarm system that allows us to pick and choose what features we want and gives us 24/7 live monitoring. Plus, we easily installed it ourselves, so there was no lengthy appointment and it’s one set price for monitoring.
The basic 5-piece Ring alarm system includes one Base Station, one Keypad, one Contact Sensor, one Motion Detector, and one Range Extender. With your base station and keypad, you can then add lots of other devices, including multiple contact sensors, a doorbell, indoor and outdoor cameras, floodlight, glass break sensors, water leak sensors, etc.
You can arm/disarm your alarm from the keypad, or you can use the app. You can also create alarm schedules. For example, if you want the alarm to turn on automatically at 11:00PM each night and turn off at 6:00AM each morning, you can set a schedule once and be done.
With Ring Protect Pro, you get professional monitoring for just $0.67 per day. Sadly, I’ve set the alarm off a couple of times by accident and it’s amazing how quickly my phone rings to check on me!
4. Smart Smoke Detector – Ring
I know your home already has smoke detectors, but if you switch to the Ring smoke and CO2 detectors, they connect to your alarm system. So not only do they make a sound, but they’ll also alert the appropriate emergency response authorities if you have Ring Protect Pro.
But the Ring smoke detectors are battery-operated and my home also has a few hard-wired smoke detectors and Ring doesn’t make a hard-wired version. Instead, we found these Ring listening devices!
Basically, if a hard-wired smoke detector goes off, these listening devices hear the smoke detector beep and notify the alarm company. It’s probably not that likely that only one of our hard-wired smoke detectors would go off and not the others that are on our Ring system, but better safe than sorry! This way, all of our detectors are linked to our alarm monitoring, both hard-wired and battery-operated.

5. Garage Opener – Chamberlain
Full disclosure, this is NOT the system that I have but the one I wish I had bought based on reviews! The Chamberlain myQ Smart Garage Door Opener allows you to open or close your garage door from anywhere.
This means you don’t have to wonder if you remembered to close the garage door ever again! You can also let friends, family, or delivery people into your home while you’re away. Locked out of your house? You can always get into your garage.
The wi-fi enabled garage door opening allows you to use the app to connect. You don’t need to buy a new garage door opener, but you do need to check to ensure that your garage door opener is compatible with the Chamberlain or any other smart device that you purchase.
Plus, you can get a keypad for the Chamberlain so that you don’t have to use wi-fi of the app but can open the garage door from outside.

6. Smart Water Detectors – Moen Flo
Water leaks are no joke and can create thousands of dollars in damage in repairs. My friend recently discovered that her dishwasher had been leaking and it ended up ruining the hardwood floor underneath! So it’s always best to detect a leak as soon as it starts and before it causes costly repairs.
There are leak detectors that can be installed directly to your pipes to measure water flow and even shut the water off for you in case of emergency (Flo by Moen). Here, though, I’m focusing on water-sensing smart home devices that will alert you if they detect moisture.
The Ring Water/Freeze sensor is very popular because it works with the Ring alarm system. Since I have the Ring alarm, we have the Ring water sensors.

If you don’t already have a Ring system, though, consider the Moen Flo, which consistently has great reviews and has a remote sensing disc. It’s compact so that you can place it in tight spaces, like behind a toilet, under a sink, or near the washing machine. If it detects moisture, it will beep and send you an alert.
7. Smart Light Switch – Lutron Caseta
When it comes to smart lighting, I’m going to mention three different things: light switches, plugs, and bulbs. When you want to automate a hard-wired light, you can either use a smart bulb or a smart switch. Let’s start with light switches!
Have you ever gone up to bed only to discover you left the hall light on downstairs? Or come home late and realized that the porch lights aren’t on?
The Lutron Caseta smart switch replaces your standard hardwired wall switch. A startup kit includes one smart dimmer switch, a Pico remote, and the Smart Hub. With one Smart Hub, you can add additional switches, dimmer switches, motion detectors, window shades, fan switches, and plugs to connect your entire home.

Lutron Casets allows you to turn lights on/off, set lighting schedules, create timers, and more. You can use the Pico remote to control the lights OR you can use voice controls synched to your smart devices! So if you have the Echo Dot, you can simply say, “Alexa, turn off the kitchen lights” and the lights will go off. Or you can also use the app to adjust any hardwired lights that you have in your home that are connected to your app.
Additionally, there’s a Smart Away feature that will randomly turn lights on/off while you’re away so that it doesn’t look scheduled and looks more natural, as if you might actually be home.
So what if your wi-fi goes down? Do your lights still work? Yes. They will. If your wi-fi is down, you can still use your wall switch or the Pico remote to turn your lights on/off.
8. Smart Plugs – Kasa Smart Plug Mini
For items that are plugged into an outlet, you can use a smart plug! Lutron Caseta makes a smart plug that allows for light dimming, but it also requires the Smart Hub and the plug itself is a bit bulky. But if you already have the Lutron Caseta system, their smart plugs are worth considering.
Alternatively, I like the Kasa Smart Plug Mini. It’s so easy to set up and allows you to easily set schedules or turn items on/off all from the app. These plugs are also compatible with the Echo Dot so you can use voice control as well. I also have the Govee smart plugs and like them equally as well.
I have a Govee Smart Plug next to my bed for my lamp. I’ve programmed it to come on in the evening because I like to have my lamps on in the evening for a cozy feel.

So, with a smart plug, you can turn on/off any item that’s plugged into a wall outlet. Like what you might ask? Well, accent lamps or task lamps that you might want to turn on in the evening for a cozy glow. Or maybe you want the Christmas tree lights to come on in the morning, go off during the day, and on again in the evening? Maybe you iron a lot or use a straightner or curling iron and sometimes forget whether you’ve turned it off. By plugging these items into a smart outlet, you can check on them even when you’re not home.
9. Smart Lightbulbs – Kasa Smart Light Bulb
If you don’t want to use a smart plug that sits between the outlet and your plug, you can also use a smart lightbulb!
My little kitchen lamp has a Feit Timer Bulb. Technically, this isn’t a smart bulb because it isn’t wi-fi enabled, but it’s smarter than the average bulb! It has a built-in timer so it turns itself on and off at the same time every day! I have it set to come on in the evening. I chose a smart bulb for this location instead of a smart plug because I didn’t want to add more bulk to the underside of my cabinet where the outlet is.

A real smart bulb is wi-fi enabled and so is voice activated in addition to being able to control it from an app. The Kasa Smart Light Bulb has great reviews and if you have the smart plugs, you wouldn’t need to download another app! You can use voice control to turn the bulb on/off and even dim it! If you’re away from home, you can use the app to control the bulb.
So those are the things that I think are the best smart home devices that make my life easier! Here’s a recap of everything I mentioned above:
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