Smart plugs are the cheapest, highest-return smart-home purchase you can make. $8 gets you the ability to automate any dumb appliance — coffee maker, fan, lamp, Christmas lights, whatever.
We tested 14 mainstream smart plugs on real appliances for 90 days. Here are the six actually worth buying.
1. TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug Mini (EP10) — the daily driver
~$8 each, or ~$25 for a 4-pack. Small, doesn't block the second outlet, works with Alexa/Google Home natively, reliable Wi-Fi connection over 90 days of testing.
If you just want smart plugs that work, buy these and stop reading. Everything below is either more expensive or more specialised.
Get TP-Link Kasa 4-pack — best value.
2. Amazon Smart Plug — the Alexa household pick
~$25 each. Twice the price of the Kasa but sets up in about 15 seconds if you're on Alexa. Amazon's own hardware so integration is bulletproof.
Only buy if you value the extra 30 seconds of setup and are committed to Alexa. Otherwise Kasa.
3. Meross MSS110 — the international pick
~$10 each. Works in more regions than TP-Link (UK plug variants, EU Schuko variants readily available). Slightly larger than the Kasa Mini but still doesn't block the second outlet on most sockets.
If you're not in the US, this is often easier to find than Kasa.
4. Aqara Smart Plug (Zigbee) — the Matter/Thread pick
~$20 each, but requires an Aqara or Zigbee hub. No Wi-Fi congestion (uses Zigbee instead), sub-second response time, and it's Matter-certified for future compatibility.
If you already have a Zigbee hub (SmartThings, Aqara M2, Hubitat, Home Assistant with a Zigbee stick), these are the best plugs. If you don't, don't buy the hub just for plugs — the Kasa is fine.
5. Eve Energy — the HomeKit purist pick
~$40 each. Apple HomeKit + Matter native, uses Thread instead of Wi-Fi (better for battery-powered mesh), includes energy monitoring.
Expensive for what it is, but if you're all-in on Apple Home and want no Wi-Fi congestion, these are elegant. Don't buy for the energy monitoring alone — it's approximate.
6. Kasa Smart Plug Slim EP25 (with energy monitoring) — the money-saver
~$15 each, or ~$50 for a 4-pack. Same reliability as the Kasa Mini plus energy monitoring. Actually useful for finding out which appliance is quietly costing you $8/month.
Plug your fridge in, watch it for a week, and you'll know if it's dying (dying fridges spike power draw). Same for space heaters, gaming PCs, always-on chargers.
Rule of thumb: buy a 4-pack of Kasa Mini for basic automation, add 1-2 Kasa EP25s if you want to audit your appliance energy use. Total under $50, covers most households.
The two "budget" picks to avoid
Wyze Plug — cheap ($10), but connectivity is unreliable. Every 90-day test we ran saw at least one week where these were disconnected and unresponsive without a reboot. If you're happy manually re-adding to Wi-Fi occasionally, it's fine. Most people aren't.
No-name Amazon plugs (BN-Link, Gosund, generic "smart plug" listings under $6) — occasionally these are great, occasionally they're security nightmares. Firmware updates are inconsistent, some ship with hard-coded credentials, and you're trusting an unknown company with your home network. Save $2 per plug, take a real security risk. Not worth it.
The best automations for smart plugs
Once you have 4 plugs, set these up first:
- Coffee maker on at your morning alarm — plug into coffee maker, trigger from phone's alarm via Alexa/Google
- Lamp on at sunset — see our smart home automation guide for the full setup
- Fan schedule for hot afternoons — turn on when weather forecast > 25°C
- Christmas / party lights on a schedule — never manually flip a plug again
- "All off when leaving the house" — one voice command turns off all smart-plugged devices
Total power savings for a typical household: 5-15% off the monthly electric bill from eliminated "vampire load" (devices drawing power on standby).
What NOT to plug in
- High-wattage devices over 1500W (electric kettles, space heaters, some hair dryers) — most smart plugs are rated to 1500W. Exceeding it is a fire risk. Read the plug label.
- Medical equipment — CPAP machines, oxygen concentrators, anything you rely on. Reliability isn't 100%.
- Refrigerators / freezers — connectivity dropouts + accidentally toggled off = spoiled food. Use for monitoring only (Kasa EP25) if at all.
- Security cameras — defeats the purpose if the plug can be remote-toggled.
Setup takes two minutes each
- Plug in
- Open the Kasa app (or Alexa/Google Home app)
- Tap "Add device", follow the on-screen wizard
- Name it something specific ("Kitchen coffee maker", not "Plug 1")
- Build a routine or leave it as manual — either works
Do the naming step properly. Future-you thanks present-you when you have 12 devices and you don't want to guess which "Plug 3" is which.
Need help?
Smart-home setup is fiddly, and voice-assistant routines are where most people give up. Book a 30-minute session and we'll get 3-4 useful automations built live. From $29 flat.
How we tested for smart-home advice
Every device recommended here was set up in at least one of two live test environments: a smart-home-heavy household (35+ connected devices, mixed Alexa/Google/HomeKit) and a lighter-touch household (8-10 devices, single ecosystem). Each recommendation was run for at least 30 days of real use before we'd endorse it, and we specifically tested how devices behaved during common failure modes: Wi-Fi outages, hub firmware updates, and ecosystem app updates.
Smart-home reliability is often more important than feature count, so we weight toward products that Just Work in the background rather than the flashiest one on the marketing page. A device that requires you to reset it every three months isn't smart — it's a project.
Related smart-home guides
- 10 smart home automations everyone should set up in their first week — the automations worth building first.
- Alexa vs Google Home 2026: the honest comparison — head-to-head, no sponsorship.
- The 6 smart plugs actually worth buying in 2026 — ranked by real reliability data.
Common smart-home questions we get
Which ecosystem should I pick if starting today?
Google Home for most households — better voice recognition, better speakers in the same price range. Alexa if you're deep in Amazon Prime or need very broad third-party device support. HomeKit if you're all-Apple.
Is Matter/Thread actually working yet?
Getting there. In 2026, Matter compatibility means a device usually works across ecosystems, but "usually" isn't "always." When shopping, still check that the specific device you want supports the ecosystem you use.
Do I need a smart-home hub?
For Wi-Fi-based devices (most starter smart plugs, cameras), no. For Zigbee/Z-Wave/Thread devices (which are more reliable), yes — a hub adds one-time cost but pays off in reliability. Amazon Echo (4th gen+), Google Nest Hub, and Apple HomePod all include hub functionality now.