You will want one of the best smart home hubs as you add additional smart home devices. From a smart home hub, you can manage your devices, including lights, locks, garage door openers, thermostats, cameras, and more.
More importantly, a smart home hub enables you to connect every single, smart home device. For instance, a smart home hub may instruct your lights to switch off and your thermostat to enter eco mode when your smart lock is locked. It’s a key tool for building a smart, automated home.
A good smart home hub can perform many additional things, although some are more effective than others.
We examined the available smart home hubs to determine which is the best. Below is a list of the best smart home hubs.
1. Google Nest Hub Max
Thanks to Google’s expertise with other smart home hubs like Google Home, the Nest Hub Max is a smart display with a ton of functionality.
Reading the news, watching movies, playing interactive games, or seeing a revolving gallery of your favorite images are all excellent uses for the touchscreen display. However, the Nest Hub Max is capable of much more than that.
It can connect to compatible smart devices in your house using the built-in Google Assistant to create scenes that control the lights, play music, read the news, and do other things. Voice commands for Google Assistant may be used to manage all of this.
Depending on who in the house is using the hub, the display’s camera may switch between profiles based on facial recognition.
Additionally, capable of handling video chats, that camera can also frame you intelligently when you walk around in front of the screen while speaking.
Wherever you put the Nest Hub Max in your house, it also serves as a security camera. You can log on with a mobile device and check the camera anytime you need to (as well as receive certain alerts).
The impressive speakers in the back also provide on-demand audio playback.
2. Amazon Echo Show 15
The new Amazon Echo Show 15 is one of the smart home hubs designed to foster interaction inside the house.
The Echo Show 15 expands on the multi-generational Echo Show smart display’s strong foundation by allowing you to mix numerous user accounts for an engaging experience.
Using customizable Alexa widgets, you may see shared calendars, sticky notes, lists, reminders, and more. You may also like the display is sensitive enough to identify the person in front of it and adapt its look to match the person.
Another significant difference is that this is the first Echo Show with wall-mounting capabilities. The Echo Show 15 is an amazing smart home controller in addition to its home management features.
Use it to manage your smart locks, cameras, lights, and other devices. With the Echo Show, you can stream your favorite songs and watch your favorite movies and television programs in HD.
3. Starling Home Hub
The Nest Learning Thermostat and Nest Protect are only two examples of Nest devices that the Starling Home Hub links to Apple’s HomeKit smart home hub.
This implies that the top smart thermostats and smoke detectors are compatible with Apple’s smart home hub.
Even better, the Starling Hub enables HomeKit secure video for compatible Nest cameras, including the Nest Cam (wired), Nest Cam (battery), and Nest Cam with Floodlight. This allows you to watch your Nest security cameras in the Apple Home app.
However, because Nest Aware requires a subscription, the costs may escalate. You can now change settings and add new devices without using a web interface, thanks to Starling’s launch of an iOS app.
4. Hubitat Elevation Smart Hub
The Alexa and Google Home hubs are excellent for the basics of most smart ecosystems. The Hubitats enable you to connect with customizable dashboards to get your devices turning on and off and interacting precisely the way you want them to without hard coding.
These dashboards support protocols like Rule Machine, Simple Automation Rules, Mode Manager, and more.
Additionally, the Hubitat has Zigbee and Z-Wave antennas for controlling any devices you possess that are appropriate for these Wi-Fi-adjacent devices. The hub doesn’t include Wi-Fi, which is a bummer since you must manually connect it to a network.
5. Aeotec Smart Home Hub
Since the Samsung SmartThings hub supports Zigbee and Z-Wave, you can connect to hundreds of devices more than most other hubs. This has made it one of the best smart home hubs for many years.
Additionally, the SmartThings app has a ton of flexibility that enables you to program various scenarios for any device in your house.
The fact that SmartThings now integrates with Nest products makes it the ultimate smart home hub.
However, as Samsung no longer produces the SmartThings Hub, you must utilize the Aeotec Smart Home Hub, which performs all of the same features, to use the SmartThings platform.
6. Apple HomePod mini
Apple’s entry into the market for smart home hubs has given rise to various user-friendly smart speakers and audiovisual devices, including the Apple TV 4K.
The Apple HomePod mini is the ideal way to get started the Apple way for those seeking to enter the world of smart controls.
No matter how little room you have, the mini is simple to position around the house since it is small and stylish-looking.
Additionally, the mini’s computational audio adjusts the audio output according to the speaker’s surroundings, so don’t worry about the room’s layout impacting the sound quality.
The mini still rocks, even if the overall sound doesn’t equal the full HomePod’s raw power. This time, Siri is the voice assistant in charge of navigating smart home hubs.
While not quite as sophisticated as Alexa or Google Assistant, Apple’s AI is still more than capable. You may ask the assistant to manage your smart home equipment, read out your daily calendar, and more.
If you’re a fan of Apple Music, you can quickly share and stream whatever music you’re listening to on your iPhone or iPad to the mini using AirPlay 2, and vice versa. The Apple HomePod mini makes all of this possible.
7. Amazon Echo Show 10
The third-generation Amazon Echo Show 10, one of the best smart home hubs and smart displays combined, can now turn to face the person speaking to Alexa.
It guarantees that you have the best possible view of the screen, which takes up much more space than earlier models.
The Amazon Echo Show and Amazon Echo Plus include built-in Zigbee, allowing you to connect smart home devices directly to the Show.
Additionally, it includes Amazon Sidewalk, a cutting-edge networking system that extends the range of connections for low-power devices to the Internet. It is, however, one of the most costly smart home speakers available at $249.
8. Amazon Echo
New features in Amazon’s latest Echo speaker will enhance your interaction with Alexa. To begin with, a dramatic redesign substitutes a more spherical speaker for the old cylinder Echo design.
With adaptive audio, your Echo quickly adjusts sound quality depending on the environment to ensure that you always receive the best sound.
With Alexa, you can connect to Netflix and watch your favorite programs using voice commands or touchscreen prompts to check your smart lights, cameras, and thermostats. Even a Zigbee hub is included within the Echo.
As a result, you won’t need to spend money on separate hardware to operate and keep an eye on any Zigbee-capable devices, such as lights, smart plugs, and cameras.
The most recent version of the Echo speaker includes Amazon Sidewalk, a new feature for community networking that will be released later this year. This allows your Echo to serve as a transmitter for the whole street.
9. Apple TV 4K
Apple’s HomeKit smart home hub may not be as well known as Google’s or Amazon’s, but it is strong for providing a complex configuration of interactions between your smart home devices. However, a smart home hub is required to link these devices.
Although several Apple devices, like the iPad and HomePod, may serve as a HomeKit hub, the Apple TV 4K is the most affordable option.
Additionally, it’s one of the best streaming devices available, enabling you to view 4K HDR video from various sources on a user-friendly interface.
