Best Smart Home Hubs

Best Smart Home Hubs of 2024

Networking

Last Updated on September 1, 2023 by Daniel Osakwe

List of Best Smart Home Hubs

Products Features Where to Buy
Amazon Echo (4th gen)

Amazon Echo 4th gen Best Smart Home Hub

  • Sleek spherical design
  • Great smart home skills
  • Audio in/out port
Get it on Amazon
Samsung SmartThings Hub v3

Samsung smarthings Hubs v3 Smart Home Hubs

  • Allows for more automation
  • Works with Zigbee and Z-Wave devices
Get it on Amazon
Apple HomePod mini

Apple homepod mini Smart Home Hubs

  • Great audio for size
  • Attractive design
Get it on Amazon
Amazon Echo Dot

Amazon eco dot Smart Home Hubs

  • Nice design
  • Vastly improved audio
Get it on Amazon
Hubitat Elevation

Hubitat Smart Home Hubs

  • Works with Zigbee and Z-Wave devices
  • Allows for complex interactions between smart home devices
Get it on Amazon
Amazon Echo Show

Amazon eco show smart home hub

  • Excellent audio with bass
  • Convenient smart-home hub
  • Two-way doorbell and camera audio
Get it on Amazon
Apple TV 4K

Apple tv 4k hubs

  • Fantastic 4K HDR content
  • Intuitive home screen
  • Simple iOS and macOS integration
Get it on Amazon
Samsung SmartThings Wifi

Smasung SmartThings WIFI Hubs

  • Excellent performance
  • Home automation hub
  • Mesh extensions available
Get it on Amazon
Apple HomePod

Apple homepod smart hubs

  • Excellent audio quality
  • Attractive design
Get it on Amazon
Google Nest Hub Max

Google Nest home max Hubs

  • Excellent audio
  • Lots of entertainment options
  • Good camera for video chats
Get it on Amazon

Searching for the best smart home hubs to buy? You just found the right place. With regards to searching for the best smart home hubs, things can get complicated. So, to make it easy and straightforward, we’ve high

lighted and reviewed the 10 best smart home hubs available in the market.

These Hubs are easy to set up, easy to use, compactable, and packed with a lot of other features. Having said that, lets take a look at the 10 top smart home hubs we’ve discovered for you below.

Buyers Guide: What to Look for in Smart Home Hubs Before Buying

USE: While picking a smart home hub that is best for your requirements, you initially need to ask yourself what you need to do with it, and what you need to control. In the event that the sum total of what you have is one bunch of smart lights, at that point you likely needn’t bother with a smart home hub. However, in the event that you have smart lights and a smart lock, and need the lights to turn on when the lock opens around evening time, at that point you may require a smart home hub.

CONNECTION: Next, consider the items you need to associate. On the off chance that they’re all on Wi-Fi, at that point you can utilize a smart home hub like the Amazon Echo Dot, and utilize the Alexa application to control everything. If you have different sorts of gadgets — Zigbee and Z-Wave, for example — you’ll have to buy a smart home hub that can get those signs.

10 Top Smart Home Hubs

Amazon Echo (4th gen)

Amazon Echo 4th gen Smart Home Hubs

Size: 5.7 inches (diameter) | Wireless: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Sidewalk | Ports: 3.5mm audio | Battery Backup: No

With Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Zigbee, the Amazon Echo (fourth era) is the best smart home hub for a great many people. Because of its different radios, it can associate with countless low-power smart home gadgets, and Alexa’s schedules are really complex, allowing you to utilize various triggers to naturally actuate other smart home gadgets.

It additionally works with Alexa Guard, which will tune in for glass breaking and smoke cautions, and can turn on your lights and advise you in case of a crisis. The fourth generation Echo likewise supports Amazon Sidewalk, an exceptionally extraordinary failure power, long-range networking convention, which will work with things, for example, Tile trackers and smart lights over a lot more noteworthy distances.

Pros Cons
Great smart home skills Audio not as good as Sonos One
Audio in/out port I wish it had a clock

Samsung SmartThings Hub v3

Samsung smarthings Hubs v3 Smart Home Hubs

Size: 5 x 5 x 1.2 inches | Wireless: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave | Ports: Ethernet, USB | Battery Backup: No

The third-generation Samsung SmartThings hubs is our top pick of the very best smart home hubs since it has both Zigbee and Z-Wave inside, so you can associate with many gadgets, more than most different hubs. In addition, the SmartThings application is stacked with usefulness, which allows you to make a wide scope of various situations for the entirety of the devices in your home.

This adaptation of the SmartThings hubs has Wi-Fi worked in, so you presently don’t need to connect it to your router. That implies you can put it in an area that is ideal for interfacing it to all your smart home gadgets. In any case, it no longer has battery reinforcement, however risks are, if your capacity goes out, you won’t have the option to turn your lights on at any rate. In any case, SmartThings will before long work with Nest items, which will make this smart home hub far and away superior.

Pros Cons
Works with Zigbee and Z-Wave devices Doesn’t work with Nest products — yet
Wi-Fi makes installing this hub easier

Apple HomePod mini

Apple homepod mini

Size: 3.9 inches (diameter), 3.3 inches tall | Wireless: 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, Thread | Ports: None | Battery backup: No

We really feel that Apple’s HomeKit smart home stage is superior to Google’s. Despite the fact that HomeKit upholds less gadgets, it takes into consideration more noteworthy intricacy when making smart home schedules. Furthermore, we don’t need to stress as much the thing Apple is doing with our information.

The HomePod scaled down isn’t just a moderate smart speaker, yet it additionally goes about as a HomeKit hub, allowing you to interface locks, lights, and other low-power gadgets straightforwardly to it. The HomePod small likewise has Thread implicit; while there are generally hardly any smart home devices that have this innovation, we anticipate that it should improve in prevalence, as it’s upheld by both Apple and Google.

Pros Cons
Attractive design No physical microphone button
Affordable Limited child controls

Amazon Echo Dot

Amazon eco dot home hub

Size: 3.3 inches (diameter) | Wireless: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Ports: 3.5mm audio | Battery Backup: No

At just $49, the Echo Dot is a large portion of the cost of the vast majority of the other best smart home hubs, making it an economical speculation for those simply getting into smart home computerization. While it needs Zigbee or Z-Wave, if your smart home gadgets have Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, this shouldn’t be an issue.

Also, by means of the Alexa application, you can make some shockingly ground-breaking schedules; we particularly like Alexa Guard, which can initiate smart home gadgets on the off chance that it hears alarms or glass breaking. You can buy the Amazon Echo Dot in a couple of flavors: The fourth generation Echo Dot costs $49, the 4th-gen Echo Dot with Clock (our undisputed top choice) is $59, or the more established (and flatter) 3rd-age Echo Dot, which currently costs $49.

Pros Cons
Vastly improved audio Doesn’t get loud
Affordable Can’t change its look

Hubitat Elevation

Hubitat smart hubs

Size: 2.5 x 2.5 x 0.5 inches | Works With: Zigbee, Z-Wave, IFTTT, Wi-Fi | Ports: Power, Ethernet | Battery Backup: No

As a result of its precarious expectation to absorb information however unbelievably granular controls, the Hubitat Elevation is the best smart home hub for power clients. Property holders who need to make staggeringly explicit principles and circumstances for when their smart home gadgets initiate will like all that you can do from inside Hubitat’s web interface.

The Hubitat Elevation itself is little — the size of a thick liner — however, packs in both Zigbee and Z-Wave reception apparatuses. Nonetheless, it needs Wi-Fi, so you’ll need to connect it into your switch request to utilize it. At the point when we originally evaluated the Hubitat Elevation, it did not have a cell phone application, so you needed to control everything through a web interface.

From that point forward, the network added a versatile application for both Android and iPhones, making it simpler to screen your smart home in a hurry.

Pros Cons
Allows for complex interactions between smart home devices Hub has to be plugged into a router
All smart home logic stored locally Steep learning curve

Amazon Echo Show

Amazon eco show smart home hub

Size: 9.7 x 6.9 x 4.2 inches | Works With: Zigbee, Nest, Philips Hue, SmartThings, IFTTT, WeMo, Honeywell | Ports: microUSB | Battery Backup: No

A standout amongst other smart home hubs and smart presentations in a single gadget, the second-gen Amazon Echo Show enhances the first all-around: The screen is greater and more splendid, the plan is substantially more alluring, it has a superior camera for video calls, the sound is more extravagant, and you can accomplish more with its display.

Like the Amazon Echo Plus, the Echo Show has Zigbee underlying, so you can associate smart home gadgets straightforwardly with the Show. However, at $229, it’s one of the more costly smart home speakers around. We’d suggest buying it for its different highlights prior to thinking about it as a smart home center.

Pros Cons
Excellent audio with bass Nasty screen glare
Two-way doorbell and camera audio Clunky browsing experience

Apple TV 4K

Apple tv 4k hubs

Size: 3.9 x 3.9 x 1.9 inches | Works With: HomeKit | Ports: Ethernet, HDMI, microUSB | Battery Backup: No

Apple’s HomeKit smart home stage isn’t as famous as Google’s or Amazon’s, yet it is extremely ground-breaking for what it offers, in particular, a genuinely modern arrangement of collaborations between your smart home gadgets. Be that as it may, these gadgets all must be associated with a smart home hub.

While you can utilize an assortment of Apple items as a HomeKit hub—an iPad and the HomePod likewise work—the Apple TV 4K is the most economical strategy. Besides, it’s a standout amongst other streaming gadgets around, allowing you to watch 4K HDR content from countless sources by means of a simple to-utilize interface. We’re not devotees of its distant, however.

Pros Cons
Simple iOS and macOS integration No digital audio or USB ports
Intuitive home screen Fiddly remote

Samsung SmartThings Wifi

Smasung SmartThings WIFI Hubs

Size: 4.7 x 4.7 x 1.6 inches | Works With: Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Z-Wave, SmartThings | Ports: Ethernet | Battery Backup: No

Accessible in a three pack for $289 (or $120 per gadget), the Samsung SmartThings Wifi is the best lattice Wi-Fi framework we’ve surveyed at this cost.

However, something other than a cross section switch, the SmartThings Wifi likewise goes about as a smart home hub, allowing you to make robotizations for associated home gadgets, for example, clocks for smart lights and controlled window shades, and profound combination with Samsung’s own smart home items.

It’s a standout amongst other cross-section Wi-Fi options for any individual who is into home mechanization, and an affordable method to fill pretty much any home with Wi-Fi while fulfilling requesting clients.

Pros Cons
Mesh extensions available Short-range
Excellent performance Requires two apps

Apple HomePod

Apple homepod Smart Home Hubs

Size: 6.8 inches x 5.8 inches (diameter) | Works With: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Ports: None | Battery Backup: No

The Apple HomePod’s smart speaker sounds fabulous, because of its large number of speakers and mouthpieces, which consequently tune the HomePod to whatever room it’s in. While massive, it’s a genuinely appealing gadget, and the top lights up in a rainbow of shadings when you enact Siri. With regards to smart home gadgets, there are moderately not many that work with HomeKit when contrasted with Alexa and Google Assistant.

Nonetheless, Apple has assembled a lovely vigorous arrangement of highlights that permit you to control those gadgets dependent on your area, the season of the day, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Truth be told, you can accomplish more with HomeKit than you can with Google Assistant.  However, this is an expensive speaker, and Siri as a wireless helper is, in general, more restricted than Alexa and Google Assistant. What’s more, the HomePod’s silicone base can finish some wood furniture.

Pros Cons
Attractive design Expensive
Excellent audio quality Can stream only from Apple Music

Google Nest Hub Max

Google Nest home max Smart Home Hubs

Size: 9.9 x 7.2 x 4 inches | Works With: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Thread | Ports: None | Battery Backup: No

The Google Nest Hub Max is an astounding smart presentation: It has an open 10-inch screen that can be utilized for viewing YouTube and Netflix, looking into plans, news, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg; its double speakers are ground-breaking, and its 6.5MP camera is extraordinary for Google Duo video calls, and will even “track” you as you get across the room.

Availability insightful, it has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread, another smart home systems administration convention that Google has been attempting to promote for a couple of years. The Nest Hub Max’s presentation can be utilized to see a live film from Google Assistant-viable home surveillance cameras, video doorbells, infant monitors, and on-screen controls that let you change smart light levels.

In any case, as a smart home stage, Google Home doesn’t have almost a similar refinement as Alexa or HomeKit.

Pros Cons
Excellent audio Google Home has limited smart home capabilities
Great display

How We Picked

Before publishing this post, more facts and data about these smart home hubs were gotten from further research and online reviews (both positive & negative). With the result and feedback we got, we were able to rank each product according to the standard we set.

If you observe the reviews carefully, you’ll see that each smart home hub has been carefully categorized according to our research results. However, take note that the smart home hubs that didn’t meet our standard were not included in this list.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do you need a hub?

A hub fills in as the operational hub of your home robotization framework and ties the entirety of your gadgets together. If you need one relies upon the kind of segments you’re utilizing and the number of gadgets you need to control.

Is SmartThings hub worth it?

By goodness of its further developed computerizations and capacity to associate to both Z-Wave and Zigbee gadgets, the Samsung SmartThings Hub is as yet the most ideal decision for connecting various smart home items together. Truly, SmartThings is as yet the best smart home hub out there, yet it very well may be better.

Does SmartThings hub have to be connected to router?

Beforehand, you needed to plug the SmartThings hub straightforwardly into your router, however, the new hub can work remotely. That implies you can put the hub somewhere else in your home and diminish the gigantic mess of links that will in general develop around home routers.

Does SmartThings hub work without Internet?

Without the internet, SmartThings can just run some preconfigured computerizations locally. As indicated by SmartThings Support, it can run a few scenes, known as SmartApps. Privately run SmartApps are put away in your SmartThings center your hub will even now run them without web

Conclusion

Picking the best smart home hubs is something that ought to be considered very important and without a doubt,  we believe that this review must have helped you in selecting the best hubs you need. Be that as it may, ensure you check all the necessary details of your preferred choice before purchasing.