Amazon’s Alexa is great, a voice assistant that can control all manner of smart home products, answer questions you may have and play the music you request. The Amazon Echo devices aren’t the only speakers that offer the capable Alexa assistant, as there are numerous third-party options that have embraced Alexa, as well.

From portable speakers to Alexa-compatible soundbars, we’ve gathered together the best Amazon Echo alternatives. If you’re after Google Assistant speakers, we have a feature on those too.

Our Top Picks: Best Alexa Speaker

• Sonos One (2nd gen)

  Best overall

• Bang and Olufsen Beosound A1

  Small but mighty

• UE Megablast

  Great and rugged

• Sonos Move

  Brilliant and adaptable

• Bose Home Speaker 500

  Great sound

Sonos entered the Alexa-enabled speaker market with the Sonos One. As well as Alexa, it also offers Google Assistant too, making it one of the most capable smart speakers around. As you’d expect, it sounds fantastic and looks just as good too, though not all of Alexa’s skills are available as yet.

If you want one of the best-sounding speakers around though, with Sonos multi-room capabilities and Alexa built-in, look no further. Sonos also offers a cut-down version of the Sonos One – Sonos One SL – that doesn’t have the smart element, if you’re not so fussed about it.

Bang & Olufsen has refined an already impressive speaker with this refresher of its diminutive but powerful A1 wireless speaker. One of the key additions is built-in Alexa support, making it a smarter speaker than ever before.

Elsewhere, though, you get superb sound and a really distinctive and classy design, plus the build quality that B&O is known for. It’s by no means the best bit of value on this list or the wider market, but if you’re looking for a high-class mini speaker, it’s a superb pick.

Ultimate Ears offers the Megablast (and smaller Blast), both offering always-on Alexa voice-control, that’s always listening out for your voice. The only caveat is that you need a Wi-Fi connection, so it can only be used at home.

Being a dedicated speaker first and foremost, the UE Megablast sounds fantastic and it’s portable and waterproof so while Alexa won’t work outside your Wi-Fi connection, the Megablast stills offer great portable speaker functionality around the house.

Sonos took a leap into the future (or the present, if you prefer) by finally releasing a portable speaker towards the end of 2019, and the Sonos Move is a seriously impressive bit of kit. With that textbook Sonos sound balance and great volume, even when you’re outside, it’s a brilliantly versatile speaker.

When you’re at home, though, you can dock the speaker and have it connect to your home Wi-Fi to become a really capable smart speaker, with Alexa compatibility just like the Sonos One. It’s arguably the best of both worlds, although it does have a pretty hefty price tag to go with it.

The Bose Home Speaker 500 features a well-known Bose design but it adds a display on the front, which is quite unique for smart speakers. The Home Speaker 500 has eight mic arrays to make sure it hears your Alexa commands, and there is a chance other voice assistants could be added in the future too.

The Bose Home Speaker 500 supports Amazon’s multi-room platform, allowing you to group this speaker with other Alexa speakers and it also sounds excellent.

How we decided on which products to include

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