The best smart plugs for Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomeKit

Smart plugs are one of the easiest ways to bring additional functionality into your home. These nifty devices are built to turn “dumb” devices into smart ones — allowing you to remotely power them on or off. There are hundreds of uses for them, whether it’s using them to turn on a traditional lamp via your smartphone, restart your router without having to scrounge behind your entertainment center to find the plug, or track your appliances’ energy usage, smart plugs can do it all.

The market is flooded with smart plugs nowadays, but not all of them are smart investments. If you need help navigating all your options, we’ve put together a short list of our favorites. This includes picks for most smart home platforms (like Google Home and Apple Home) and a variety of price points.

The best smart plugs

• Best for Amazon’s Alexa: Amazon Smart Plug
• Best for Google Home: TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug
• Best for Apple HomeKit: Buy at Amazon
• Best for outdoor: TP-Link Kasa Outdoor Smart Plug
• Best for energy monitoring: Emporia Smart Plug

How to choose a smart plug

When buying a smart plug for a specific smart home platform, you need to make sure that it’s compatible with the corresponding voice assistant. Not all smart plugs will work with more than one voice assistant, which you should also think about if you like jumping between them in your everyday routines.

Smart plugs comes with various features, and you need to determine which ones are important for you. In addition to controlling the smart plugs remotely, creating schedules, and monitoring energy usage, smart plugs can also provide surge protection and extra outlets. You’ll also need to consider if you’ll be using them indoors or outdoors, as you’ll need to spend extra on outdoor smart plugs because they come with protection against the elements.

How we chose these smart plugs

We’ve reviewed smart plugs from various brands, and we’ve determined that these smart plugs provide the best balance of price, features, and performance. Their prices may change depending on the online sales that are happening, but they’re generally affordable devices that will provide you and your family with a wealth of benefits that will outweigh their cost.

Among our chief concerns when choosing smart plugs are their durability, which is important because we’re dealing with electricity here, and their ease of use, because we don’t want people going through a complicated process to set up something that should make their lives simpler.

Amazon Smart Plug

The Amazon Smart Plug was designed to work exclusively with Amazon’s Alexa, adding voice control to any outlet in your home. It’s very simple to set up — just plug it into an outlet, open the Alexa app on your smartphone, and follow the onscreen instructions. Once it’s up and running, you can turn on or turn off the device that’s on the smart plug remotely, and you can also create schedules. The Amazon Smart Plug is compact so it doesn’t hinder usage of the adjacent outlet, and it doesn’t need any smart home hubs to function.

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TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug

The TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug is more affordable compared to its peers, but that doesn’t mean it sacrifices performance to keep its low cost. It works with both Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa for hands-free control of the devices plugged into it, and you can remotely access the smart plug through the Kasa app, which you’ll also use for its simple setup process. There’s also a button at the side of the TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug to manually turn it on or off, for your peace of mind when you’ll be gone for a while, such as when going on a vacation.

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Meross Smart Plug Mini

A surprising number of smart plugs lack support for Apple HomeKit. Thankfully, the fantastic Meross Smart Plug Mini is all you need. Along with a compact size that lets you stack two smart plugs in the same socket, you can program in schedules, issue voice commands, and you’ll benefit from a rapid 0.01-second response time. You’ll need a hub like a HomePod, Apple TV 4K, or iPad to get the smart plug working, but once connected, you’ll have access to everything that makes smart plugs such a compelling addition to your home.

Buy at Amazon

TP-Link Kasa Outdoor Smart Plug

If you need a smart plug outside your home for light bulbs and other electrical installations, the TP-Link Kasa Outdoor Smart Plug could be your solution. It features IP64 weather resistance to protect it from the elements, and it also has a waterproof cover that you can attach when it’s not in use. It works with Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, and it also has a built-in power amplifier that enables long-range Wi-Fi connections of up to 300 ft.

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Emporia Smart Plug

The main feature of the Emporia Smart Plug is its capability to monitor the electricity that’s used by your devices and appliances, which will allow you to eliminate wasteful standby power and save on energy costs. The Emporia app will allow you to control the smart plug from anywhere, but it also has a manual power switch on the side. The Emporia Smart Plug works with Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, and its slim profile doesn’t block nearby outlets.

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