The Best Smart Home Hubs

Chances are, you’ll already have smart devices in your household. With a smart home hub, you can control all your home’s smart devices easily from one place. So why not check out what a smart hub could do for you?

What to Look for in a Smart Home Hub

A smart home hub is an essential piece of kit if you want to centralize your home’s smart devices. By connecting them all together with one hub, you have control of an ecosystem where everything interacts in harmony, providing you with the effortless convenience of a fully automated smart home.

Depending on what you’re looking for, some smart home hubs are screenless and entirely voice-controlled, while others also work as smart displays on which you can view TV, movies, photos, or live camera feeds.

For instance, the Amazon Echo Dot is a great entry-level smart home hub that will appeal to budget buyers. Entirely voice-controlled, it has Alexa built-in and offers an extensive list of compatible devices that can be integrated into your setup via the Alexa app.

Conversely, for larger families, something like the Echo Show 15 offers an exhaustive list of features to benefit any smart home setup. Great for audio and visual media streaming, it can also be used with video doorbells, baby monitors, and other security devices, thanks to its built-in camera. With customizable widgets and split-screen capabilities, it’s the perfect way to stay connected to your smart devices, and to each other.

For every household, there’s a different smart home hub solution. Different devices will suit different types of smart home setups. And no matter whether you’re looking for the best smart speaker or the best smart display, there’s plenty to choose from.

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The beauty of the Aeotec Smart Home Hub lies in this versatility. Using the SmartThings app as its base of operations, it allows you to connect to both Apple and Android products, as well as Alexa and Google Assistant voice controllers. And with so many compatible devices and platforms, you can control and monitor almost anything with this smart hub.

So, what can it do? Well, just about anything you can think of. We’re talking about complete wireless control over all your connected devices. Being embedded with Samsung SmartThings, the Aeotec Smart Home Hub can provide a command center for your lights, locks, doorbells, appliances, audio, and more. Set schedules and routines to suit your lifestyle, and watch everything run like clockwork.

Aeotec’s list of compatible brands and devices is staggering. In fact, the only thing it lacks is compatibility with Apple HomeKit—which isn’t unusual in the world of smart ecosystems. Unless you’re a HomeKit devotee, you’ll be more than satisfied with what it can do.

Topping the list for the best budget smart home hub is the Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen). This voice-activated home hub works with Alexa and allows for connected smart devices’ voice and motion detection control. With it, you can also play your favorite music, audiobooks, and podcasts and enjoy an audio upgrade from the 4th Gen version, thanks to its larger 1.73-inch driver.

As well as the upgraded audio, the Echo Dot also comes with Eero built-in, allowing you to add up to 1,000 square feet of Wi-Fi coverage. This is a great feature for upping your Echo Dot’s efficiency and eliminating buffering or drop-offs. There’s also a low-power mode that the Echo Dot engages automatically when idle, making it a good option for keeping energy costs down.

The list of Amazon-owned and Alexa-compatible devices is vast as well. Big brands like Ring, Ecobee, and Philips Hue can all be controlled via the Echo Dot, giving you a broad scope for smart home automation with this mini hub. It can also be used as a handy home intercom system with other Echo devices around the home.

On the downside, and in a change from the 4th generation Echo Dot, there is no Zigbee hub integration here. You’ll also notice that the previous generation’s 3.5mm output port is also gone. Granted, if you didn’t use these features in the past, you won’t miss them here.

With boosted audio, including customizable EQ controls via the Alexa app, and a huge amount of Alexa-enabled smart home devices, you might feel the Echo Dot 5th Gen more than compensates for these omissions.

Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) works well as an entry-level smart home hub. It’s affordable, relatively simple to install, and offers a surprising amount of versatility in implementing schedules and routines for the home. Make or take calls, send messages, control your lighting, set timers and alarms, and more.

The Amazon Echo Show 15 is a full HD 15.6-inch smart display with Alexa and Fire TV built-in. It can be wall-mounted in landscape or portrait mode and is a brilliant way to keep the whole family organized. With customizable widgets, you can use shared calendars, write personal sticky notes, shopping lists, and more to stay on top of your busy schedules.

All connected smart devices can be easily controlled via the home screen, and we love the fact that it can be used in multiple ways at once, thanks to its split-screen display. So, if you want to watch a movie while you cook dinner and still be able to view a live camera feed of the nursery, you can.

When idle, you can set up your Echo Show 15 to display all your precious pictures with its Photo Frame feature. This displays all your albums from Amazon Photos, and it’s a great way to relive those memories and circulate those pictures rather than leaving them forgotten in a virtual folder somewhere.

It’s easy to set up, and using the Alexa app you can find all your compatible devices and add them to Echo Show’s roster with minimal effort. It’s excellent for Alexa functionality and is an effective means of staying connected with the rest of the household and staying part of each other’s loop. It does what every good smart hub should do. It promotes connectivity with others while providing effortless control of your devices.

For Google Home aficionados, the Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen) is the best showcase for its capabilities. Using the Google Home app, this smart display allows you to take control of all your compatible smart devices from one place.

It works with Nest speakers and can broadcast messages across the house, make calls, and play all your favorite media. It can display a live camera feed of your Nest video doorbell, and should you choose to place it next to your bed, it can even track your sleep using motion sense technology and the Sleep Sensing function.

Google Nest Hub’s smart display measures seven inches across, just under half the size of the Echo Show 15. Therefore, while it does include support for the likes of Netflix and Disney Plus, it will probably not be your first choice of places to stream them.

On the plus side, sound quality has been upgraded since Nest Hub’s first-gen release. The 2nd Gen’s larger 1.7-inch speaker provides an additional 50% bass power, and a third mic has been added to this version to allow Nest Hub to respond more accurately to your instructions.

There’s no camera built-in to the Nest Hub, so buyers beware if this is something you’re particularly looking for with your chosen smart hub. However, it is compatible with other Nest cameras, so it may not be a dealbreaker, given that there are workarounds.

Best Smart Home Hub for Apple HomeKit: Apple HomePod Mini

The natural choice of smart home hub for Apple HomeKit users is the new Apple HomePod Mini. Its diminutive size belies a big audio punch with features that benefit your smart home setup.

With 360-degree audio, the MonePod Mini impresses with rich sounds that fill up the room. It comes with Siri built-in and provides convenient voice assistant control for all your connected HomeKit devices. Featuring four built-in speakers, Siri has no trouble at all hearing you, whether you’re making calls, setting reminders, or asking for your favorite music.

The HomePod Mini is smaller and cheaper than the Apple HomePod, roughly one-third of the price and about half the size. It’s still expensive compared to the latest Echo Dot, but its easy setup and impressive audio make it a no-brainer for iPhone and HomeKit users.

All you need to do is hold your iPhone or iPad next to the HomePod Mini, and it will instantly pair with the hub. Plus, it’s just as easy to set up two speakers together if you want to amp up the sound at home or have access to Siri in more than one room.

It’s great for Apple Music, and works with Spotify, too, despite the fact that Spotify has no native support for HomePod. However, using AirPlay connects your Spotify account to your HomePod Mini and allows you to stream music via your phone.

Overall, the HomePod Mini provides a better audio standard than many of its similarly-sized rivals and is easily the best mini smart home hub if you’re Siri-ous about HomeKit.

FAQ

Do I Need a Hub for a Smart Home to Work?

Smart home devices will work either with or without a smart home hub. However, if you want to operate all your smart home devices easily under one single ecosystem, then a smart home hub will give you the freedom to interconnect your devices, to enjoy simple and convenient control of everything.

How Do Smart Home Hubs Work?

Smart home hubs essentially connect all smart home devices in the home onto one automated network, which then controls communication between those devices. It therefore allows you to control everything from one place, either through voice commands or via the associated smartphone app.

Do All Smart Home Hubs Work With All Smart Home Ecosystems?

The short answer is no. Depending on the smart home hub itself, it may only be compatible with one specific smart home ecosystem. The Apple HomeKit Mini is an example of this, as it is only compatible with Apple HomeKit. Other smart home hubs, like the Aeotec Smart Home Hub, are compatible with several smart home ecosystems, such as Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings.