Here are the best smart home hubs to suit all needs, smart home setups, and budgets. Aside from great audio, the redesigned Echo takes seconds rather than minutes to set up and connect to other compatible devices on your network. Since it includes a built-in Zigbee hub, you can ask Alexa to search for and link to Zigbee smart lights, plugs, and sensors in your home. This feature makes the fourth-gen model the easiest Echo we’ve ever used and the most user-friendly smart hub on our list. Another benefit of supporting SmartThings is that the Aeotec hub facilitates SmartThings Automations, a software feature that lets you build custom routines that automatically trigger multiple actions. You can use them to turn the lights on when you arrive home or switch on a smart coffee machine when your alarm goes off. The possibilities are practically endless via the app. Our biggest complaint is that this range of options can feel overwhelming if you’re a smart home newbie. Plus, while it’s great the Aeotec smart home hub supports so many devices, we regularly had connectivity issues with several different products. In each case, it was the devices themselves causing the problems, but managing them all was frustrating at times and slightly reduced the versatility of this hub. As a speaker, its 360-degree setup isn’t the loudest, but the sound quality is far better than expected. Its compatibility with Apple TV allows you to use HomePod Minis as a surround sound system. Our favorite feature is that you can “hand off” whatever you’re listening to on your iPhone straight to the HomePod Mini by putting the two devices next to each other. There’s no fiddling around with app controls, and you don’t have to rely on Siri. At the same time, personalized listening suggestions will also appear on your iPhone when you hold it next to HomePod Mini, letting you jump straight in. As with the Google Nest range’s reliance on Google, the HomePod Mini relies heavily upon and works best with Apple devices and services. Managing more complex automations takes longer, but the process is less involved than the SmartThings app. The options are also more varied than those offered by Apple because Wink uses If This Then That (IFTTT), a user-friendly online tool that helps you automate many tasks from a vast selection of apps, sites, and services. Another standout feature is the addition of an Ethernet port. By plugging the hub directly into your router, connections are more reliable, commands are faster, and there are fewer signal problems than when used over Wi-Fi. We never once had any issues using the Hub 2 over Wi-Fi, but the Ethernet option will appeal if your home has several signal dead spots. To navigate this, it’s worth spending time mapping out all of your current smart home products. From here, you’ll see which connectivity and compatibility options are most common across your products. You can then cross-check these options with those supported by the smart home hub you’re looking to buy. Be aware that two products that support the same connectivity options won’t automatically be able to “talk” to one another. Connectivity just describes how the network is created and formed. Protocols and software will ultimately determine how smart and useful this connection and network are.
Compatibility
Smart home hub compatibility requires considering the protocols used, the supported software, and connectivity. For a smart home device to be compatible with a smart home hub, they both need to speak the same language. A smart home protocol is the “language” that different devices use to send data and communicate. The largest and most common smart home protocols are Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and Thread. The two products should be compatible if a Zigbee-powered device and a hub support the Zigbee protocol. If a device only works with Z-Wave and your hub only supports Thread, the two products won’t be compatible. Even if a device isn’t directly compatible with a protocol, you may still be able to use it via the software it supports. The easiest way to guarantee compatibility is to buy all the products and devices from the same manufacturer. However, not everyone wants to rely on one specific ecosystem. “When choosing a product, it’s important that it will be future-proof. In this way, advancing technologies will be key,” explains Rai. Look for products that support newer technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, and Matter. “Matter is the new protocol that simplifies smart homes by using one standard across the industry,” says Rai. Products that support it today will still work everywhere they currently do in the future.
Home Automation
If there are smart home tasks that you carry out regularly and repeatedly, many platforms will let you automate them. This schedule can be as simple as setting your smart lights to turn off at a particular time. More complex routines might include getting your thermostat and lights to turn on, your door lock to open, your kettle to start boiling, and a notification to be sent to a loved one as soon as your smart camera recognizes you arriving home. Typically you manage these automations with the relevant app. The software determines the level of complexity and how easy they are to use. Apple manages its automations through its Routines and Shortcut tools. Any devices and hubs compatible with SmartThings can use the Samsung Automations feature. Google’s Home app lets you manage Home and Away routines, while other platforms, such as Wink, rely on If This Then That (IFTTT) services. IFTTT is a simple-to-use, well-established online tool that helps you automate numerous tasks from a broad selection of apps, sites, and services from any web-connected device. All you need is an IFTTT account.
Why Trust The Spruce?
Victoria Woollaston is a freelance science, technology, and lifestyle editor with more than a decade’s experience testing and reviewing consumer products. She’s had firsthand experience of every smart home hub in this list, as well as a number of others from different manufacturers and of different types. Her home has smart lights, a smart thermostat, multiple smart outlets, and a smart camera system. “A smart home is perfect for any individual or family that wants to experience a more helpful and well-connected home,” says Rai. “Life can be hectic, even chaotic, but we all want our homes to be a haven where we can switch off and relax. If that sounds ideal to you, a smart home hub can do the hard work for you.” If two devices don’t speak the same languages, or they don’t share the same connectivity, they can’t join the smart hub’s network, and they can’t receive data and commands from this hub. “A smart speaker in isolation allows a user to listen to their favorite music or set timers,” says Rai. While smart displays create what Rai calls “a truly connected home,” allowing you to “communicate with a delivery man from your morning commute using a smart doorbell, or catch up with your family while cooking a meal and following a recipe on devices like the Nest Hub Max.” To learn more about how smart hubs interact with such a range of products and device types, Woollaston spoke with Bobby Rai, Product Business Leader at Google Nest. Using these expert insights, she looked for smart hubs that were easy to set up, could be controlled in multiple ways, and which stood out from their competitors in terms of price, design, features, and automation tools. She prioritized smart home hubs that offer a wide range of connectivity and compatibility options and, as a result, would suit most smart home setups.
