The beginnings of a smart home are becoming increasingly common in households nationwide, starting with the smart speakers. The idea is simple – with even affordable smart home devices, you can control your home using your voice, your phone, or without having to do anything at all. That makes your home more customizable, more automatic, and arguably more convenient.
But, smart home devices can still be relatively expensive – and if you want to add smart home devices to your entire home, the bill can really add up. That's exactly why we've put together this guide.
When buying smart home devices, there are a few things you'll want to consider. First of all, you'll want to make sure that the devices you buy are compatible with the rest of your devices. If you use Android and mostly other Google devices, you'll probably want devices that work with Google Assistant. If you use Amazon devices around the house, you'll want products that work with Alexa. And, if you're an Apple user, you'll want to only buy devices that work with Apple's HomeKit. There are other smart home ecosystems out there, but they're a little smaller, and to find compatible devices, you'll probably need to do some research.
You'll also want to think about price – and not just the price of a single device. If you plan on ultimately replacing all of your lights with smart bulbs, you'll need to figure out how many bulbs you need, what kinds of bulbs you want, and how much each bulb costs. The same is true for things like smart speakers, which you might want around the home, and smart plugs.
Thankfully, building a smart home doesn't have to break the bank. Here are the best budget smart home devices out there to get you started.
Here are our top picks for the best budget smart home devices: