Best Smart Plugs for Home Automation (2026)

The Kasa Smart EP25 is the smart plug for people who want to actually understand what their devices are consuming — and potentially do something about it. The built-in energy monitoring tracks real-time wattage, daily and monthly kWh usage, and estimated electricity cost, all visible in the Kasa app with clean historical graphs. We plugged it into a space heater, a gaming PC, and a refrigerator over several weeks, and the readings were consistently accurate within a few percent of a dedicated power meter. That data is genuinely useful: you can see exactly how much your always-on devices cost per month, identify energy hogs, and set up alerts if consumption spikes unexpectedly. Beyond energy monitoring, the EP25 is a well-rounded smart plug in every other dimension. It works with both Alexa and Google Home without any friction, the Kasa app is one of the better third-party smart home apps — clean, fast, and reliable — and scheduling and automation features are comprehensive. The plug supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and doesn't require a hub. The design is slightly bulkier than the Amazon plug but still leaves the second outlet accessible on most wall plates. TP-Link's Kasa ecosystem has been around long enough to have a strong reliability track record, and the EP25 is the best expression of it. If you care about energy awareness alongside smart control, this is the plug to buy.

For anyone living in the Apple ecosystem, the Wemo Mini Smart Plug is the go-to choice — it's one of the few smart plugs with genuine, well-implemented Apple HomeKit support, which means you can control it through the Home app, use Siri voice commands, and include it in HomeKit automations and scenes without any workarounds. Setup via HomeKit is as smooth as you'd expect from an Apple-certified device: scan the HomeKit code on the plug, and it's in your Home app in under a minute. The "Mini" name is accurate — this is one of the most compact smart plugs available, and it reliably leaves the second outlet free even on tight wall plates. It also works with Alexa and Google Home if you're in a mixed-ecosystem household, which gives it more flexibility than the Amazon plug. The Wemo app itself is functional and covers scheduling, away mode (random on/off to simulate occupancy), and remote access. The one area where Wemo has historically had issues is Wi-Fi connectivity — older Wemo devices had a reputation for dropping off the network. The Mini has been significantly more stable in our testing, but it's worth noting that Wemo's track record isn't as clean as Kasa's. If you're an iPhone and iPad household using HomeKit as your smart home hub, the Wemo Mini is the most natural fit and the most polished HomeKit plug experience at this price.

The TP-Link Tapo P125M is the smart plug to buy if you're thinking about where home automation is heading, not just where it is today. It supports Matter — the new universal smart home standard backed by Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung — which means it works natively with every major ecosystem without needing separate integrations or workarounds. Set it up once through the Tapo app, then add it to Apple Home, Google Home, or Amazon Alexa directly, all from the same physical device. That's a genuinely big deal in a market where ecosystem lock-in has been the norm. In practical terms, the P125M performs exactly as you'd expect from TP-Link: reliable Wi-Fi connectivity, a clean app, solid scheduling and automation features, and a compact form factor that doesn't hog the outlet. Matter support does require a Matter controller (an Apple HomePod mini, Google Nest Hub 2nd gen, Amazon Echo 4th gen, or similar), but if you have any of those already, setup is seamless. The trade-off versus the Kasa EP25 is that the P125M doesn't have energy monitoring — you're paying a small premium for Matter compatibility rather than power tracking. If you're building a smart home from scratch in 2026 and want to avoid being locked into any single ecosystem, the Tapo P125M is the most forward-thinking plug on this list.

The Govee Smart Plug is the answer to "what's the cheapest smart plug that actually works?" — and at around $8–$12 per plug (often sold in 4-packs), it undercuts everything else on this list while still delivering a functional smart home experience for everyday use. It works with both Alexa and Google Home, setup through the Govee Home app takes about three minutes, and scheduling, timers, and remote on/off all work reliably. The app is more cluttered than Kasa's — Govee makes a wide range of smart home products and the app tries to serve all of them — but the core plug functionality is solid. Voice control response times are comparable to more expensive options. Where the Govee plug shows its budget nature is in the build quality: the plastic feels lighter and less premium than the Kasa or Amazon options, and the Wi-Fi connection can occasionally drop and require a manual reconnect, though this was infrequent in our testing. There's no energy monitoring, no HomeKit support, and the app experience isn't as polished. But if you want to automate a bunch of lamps, fans, or holiday lights without spending a lot, buying a 4-pack of Govee plugs for the price of one Wemo Mini is a completely reasonable trade-off. For anyone just getting started with home automation on a tight budget, the Govee Smart Plug gets the job done.