The Best Smart Plugs For Easy Home Automation

We've got several Meross Mini Plugs around our own house, and the first thing you notice is how little of the socket they take up. On a double socket it leaves the second outlet free, which plenty of bulkier plugs don't. Meross says its 6.1 x 5.1 x 3.3 cm body makes it one of the thinnest on sale.

It works with Alexa, Google Home and Apple HomeKit, so it fits whichever voice assistant you already have. In the Meross app you can set schedules, and the routines and scenes were the feature we enjoyed most while testing. Meross also builds in an offline mode, and says its schedules and timers keep running if your internet connection drops. Getting each plug into the app takes very little effort, which helps when you're adding them a few at a time.

Amazon's own plug is built for one job, which is adding a switchable socket to an Alexa home. It plugs into any UK socket and sets up inside the Alexa app, so there's no separate brand app or account to deal with. The photo above shows it standing beside its box.

Once it's set up you can switch it by voice, through the Alexa app or with the manual button, and an LED shows whether it's on. Schedules and routines are built into Alexa, so the plug can join routines with your other Alexa devices.

Because it only works with Alexa, it's the wrong pick for a Google or Apple home. It's also chunky, and it doesn't look as smart as the Hive plug.

TP-Link is best known for its routers, and the Tapo is its cheap, compact way into smart plugs. It needs no hub and runs from the Tapo app on a phone or tablet, with Alexa and Google Assistant support for voice control.

Scheduling is simple to set up in the app. The feature that sets it apart at this price is away mode, which switches the plug on and off at varied times so a lamp makes the house look lived in while you're away. The body is compact enough to sit comfortably in a UK double socket.

It doesn't feel as solid in the hand as the premium plugs, but for lamps and fans that hardly matters.

The Kasa strip is the answer when you want to control several things in one place, such as a TV, games console and lamp in the corner of a living room. It has three sockets that you can control separately in the Kasa app, along with two USB ports for charging.

TP-Link has built in surge protection too, which is welcome for a TV or computer. Our round-up of the best surge protected extension leads explains why that matters for expensive electronics. It needs no hub, works with Alexa and Google Assistant and has the same schedules and timers as the single plugs.

It costs more than one smart plug, but it's tidier and cheaper than three plugs stacked on an extension lead.

Energy monitoring is the reason to choose the Eve Energy plug. The Eve app tracks how much power the appliance uses and gives you projected running costs, which is handy for checking what an old fridge freezer or a tumble dryer really costs you.

It needs no hub and Eve doesn't ask you to register an account or hand over personal details, which plenty of people will appreciate. It works with Siri and Apple Home, and the app has the usual schedules, with several modes to choose from, plus remote control.

Check the phones in your house before you buy, because Eve builds around Apple first and Android households get less out of it.

Nooie sells its smart plugs as a pack of four, which makes it a cheap way to put smart control into several rooms at once. Each plug runs from Nooie's free app with no hub, and they work with Alexa and Google Assistant.

You get the schedules and timers that cover most smart plug jobs, such as lamps in the evening or a fan at night. The plugs carry ETL certification, and set-up in the app is straightforward.

The only real drawback is that you can't buy one on its own. If you only need a single plug, the pack works out as poor value. For a rental, a new home or several lamps, four in the box is exactly what you want.

Hive is best known for its smart thermostats for UK heating, and its smart plug runs in the same app. We use one to control the outdoor lights at the front of one of our houses, set to come on early in the morning and again in the evening, and our guide to how a smart plug works shows that schedule in the Hive app.

The app lets you set up to six time slots a day and override them whenever you like. There's a button on the front for switching it by hand, and it works with Alexa. It's also the neatest-looking plug in this list and sits quietly in a living room.

You need the Hive hub to use it, which plugs into the back of your router. That's no extra cost if you already have Hive heating, but it adds up if you don't.