Smart Home Automation Hubs & Controllers
The first step to making your smart home truly intelligent is a central device that can tie your devices together, eliminating the need to open multiple apps on your smartphone when controlling each individual gadget. Smart home hubs, also called smart control centers, provide a central place to view your daily schedule and automations, control all of your devices through voice commands or touchscreens and automate each gadget with a single word or command.
A good smart home hub can work with any connected device that uses Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave or another compatible home automation protocol — and most do. But you’ll also want to consider whether you prefer one of the unified ecosystem hubs like Apple’s HomeKit, Samsung SmartThings or Amazon Alexa or one of the multi-protocol smart home hubs that can support most major brands.
Some of the best smart home controller offer features like voice assistant integration, a mobile app with dashboard, and compatibility with other smart home ecosystems. You’ll also want to choose a hub that is easy to set up and has the potential to grow with your smart home as you add more connected devices.
The Best Smart Home Automation Hubs & Controllers
To help you find the best smart hub, we spoke to experts on the technology, consulted our own hands-on experience with different smart home control centers and considered the latest research and user reviews. We’ve narrowed down our list of the top-rated smart hubs that meet our criteria for ease of setup and integration with your existing or planned smart devices, multi-protocol support, compatibility with most major smartphones and their operating systems and the ability to run a range of popular services and voice assistants.
A few smart home automation hubs can act as an all-in-one smart display, smart speaker and security camera too. These hubs are typically powered by battery, and have integrated sensors such as motion and sound, plus built-in Alexa or Google Assistant functionality. They can play music and podcasts, display daily reminders, shopping lists and more, and have a touchscreen to interact with. But be aware that these are often more expensive than stand-alone hubs.
One of the most recent additions to our list of the best smart home automation hubs is the Hubitat Elevation. This powerhouse of a hub is an excellent choice for hardcore smart home technology enthusiasts, who want to build specific and granular commands for their devices to follow using protocols like Rule Machine, Simple Automation Rules, Mode Manager and others. This is a bit more difficult to set up than the competing SmartThings hub, but it’s an excellent value.
The fourth-generation Amazon Echo has a lot going for it, including compatibility with the largest selection of smart devices and a built-in Alexa assistant with routines and over 130,000 skills. It works with Zigbee, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, plus it supports the eero mesh Wi-Fi router and Matter. But the $59 price tag isn’t as low as other options on our list and it lacks Zigbee and Z-Wave, which may be a deal breaker for some.