If there’s an electrical appliance that exists, there’s a strong chance that you can also get a ‘smart’ version of it. Some of these products can be incredibly useful, such as smart bulbs and smart plugs. However, there’s one small problem: smart tech products from different brands don’t tend to play nicely together. While technological advancements are being made in those areas, see Thread and Matter, smart home devices are still not all on the same page. With manufacturers using different communication protocols and proprietary apps, your smart doorbell may not talk to your smart display, even though this would be incredibly useful.

Thankfully, there’s a way to integrate all your smart tech together, allowing you to control all of your smart home devices from one place. Even if your home gadgets are from different manufacturers and use different communication protocols, you can use a smart home hub to control all of your different devices, provided that they are compatible with the smart home hub that you choose.

It’s very likely you already own a device you could use as a smart home hub. Even a low-cost speaker like the Echo Dot, though it may not be able to control all your devices, can double as a smart home hub. If you want to bring all of your smart home tech under one roof, these are the best smart home hubs you can buy right now.

Best smart home hub overall

The Amazon Echo Hub is new on the scene, but it’s already jumped to the top of our picks for the best smart home hub. Unlike other Echo devices on this list, which are smart speakers or smart displays first-and-foremost, Amazon designed the Echo Hub specifically to be the central hub of your smart home. What’s more, although you can still control everything with your voice, the Echo Hub has a stronger focus on touch control than any other current Echo device. It’s incredibly satisfying to be able to turn off all the lights at home with a tap or two on the Echo Hub before walking out the front door.

The Echo Hub is a connectivity powerhouse, with support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as Zigbee, Sidewalk, Thread, and Matter. All that’s missing is Z-Wave support. With the Echo Hub, you can turn off the lights, open your smart blinds, start your smart coffee maker with just a tap, or you can run an Alexa routine to do all three at once. You can also see multiple live streams from your security cameras and video doorbells. At some point in the near future, the Echo Hub will get support for Amazon Map View, allowing you to control your smart devices from a digital floor plan of your own home.

Best smart speaker home hub

You may already have a smart hub in your home without even realizing it. The Amazon Echo isn’t just a speaker with Alexa smarts. It’s also a smart hub in its own right, with the ability to control smart devices over Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and now Thread too, thanks to its built-in Thread border router functionality. This means you can use an Amazon Echo to control a wide range of devices, from Zigbee-compatible light bulbs to Thread smart plugs.

Of course, with Alexa built-in, the Amazon Echo also makes it easy to control smart home devices with your voice. You can even create routines in the Alexa app to control multiple smart home gadgets simultaneously. For example, you can program the smart assistant to turn off all the lights, power down any smart plugs, and lock the front door when you say, “Alexa, good night.” The 4th generation Echo even comes with a temperature sensor inside, so you can use it to automate actions like turning on the fans in your home.

Best smart home hub for HomeKit

If you’re an Apple user, then you may already own a lot of HomeKit-compatible smart home accessories that you can control through the Home app on your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch. You don’t need a smart hub to control many HomeKit devices locally. For example, you can control Philips Hue lights from the Home app without any other equipment. However, if you want to control those devices remotely, you’ll need a hub that remains in your home to transmit the appropriate commands.

The HomePod mini works as that smart hub. It can connect to HomeKit devices over Wi-Fi. The HomePod mini also doubles as a Thread border router and Matter controller, meaning it can communicate with Matter devices, such as the Nest Thermostat. Additionally, Apple’s speaker features built-in temperature and humidity sensors that can monitor the conditions inside the room you put the HomePod Mini in and trigger automations if the humidity or temperature reach specific values.

Of course, with the HomePod Mini, you can use Siri to control your smart devices with your voice, even if you don’t have your iPhone with you. It’s also a pretty solid-sounding speaker for the size, but if you’re looking for even better sound quality, the larger HomePod also works as a smart home hub, too.

Best smart home hub for SmartThings

If you were all in on SmartThings as a smart home ecosystem, for a while there was no official hub for you. Samsung stopped making the excellent SmartThings Hub, but you could still buy the Aeotec Smart Home Hub which was essentially the same thing with a different badge. But in 2023 Samsung released the new SmartThings Station hub, and it’s excellent.

The SmartThings Station has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee built-in. It also offers Matter support and can act as a Thread border router. It doesn’t include Z-Wave, however. There’s a physical button on the hub that you can use to run three different automations with a short press, long press, or double press, and you can even use the SmartThings Station as a wireless charger supporting up to 15W. Using the SmartThings app, you can create routines to control the wide range of compatible smart home products, and it works with voice assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant, too.

Best Google smart home hub

Google may not have quite the same level of supported devices as Alexa, but there is still a huge range of smart home products that will work with Google Assistant. For hands-free voice commands and remote control, you’re going to need a smart hub. The Google Nest Hub Max is a great option, as it features a 10-inch touchscreen display that allows you to see the live feed from your Nest Doorbell with a single voice command.

The Google Nest Hub Max can connect to a smart home kit via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Matter, and can act as a Thread border router. The smaller Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen) also has a Thread radio inside. The Google Nest Hub Max has some other nice features too, such as the ability to play or pause a song just by waving your hand, and can even monitor your sleep if you have one in your bedroom.

The bottom line: What is the best smart home hub?

Amazon Echo devices already made great smart home hubs in their own right, but the new Amazon Echo Hub is the first time that the company has produced a device that’s designed from the ground up to be the hub of your smart home. Voice control with Alexa has always been great, but sometimes you just want to give something a quick tap without needing to speak out loud. The Echo Hub gives you the best of both worlds, allowing you to control all of your smart home devices with touch controls or with your voice.

If you don’t want to rely on the Echo Hub, there are options from Apple, Samsung, and Google that might fit your smart home better.

How I chose the best smart home hubs

When selecting the best smart home hubs, I wanted to ensure that there were options that would work with the most popular smart home ecosystems, such as Apple HomeKit, Alexa, and SmartThings. I also wanted to include hubs that covered the most popular communication methods, including Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Thread. I made sure that there were a range of price points, from budget options to more expensive smart speakers with built-in displays. Finally, I included Home Assistant in the mix because although it’s not a smart home hub in its own right, in my opinion, it’s one of the most powerful ways to make your home smart; my own smart home is controlled by Home Assistant running on a Raspberry Pi.

FAQ

Q: What should you look for when buying the best smart home hub?

There are a number of considerations when choosing a smart home hub for your home. Here are some of the key questions you’ll need to keep in mind.

Q: What devices does my smart home hub support?

Building a smart home is far more frustrating than it should be, because there’s still no real overarching set of rules how smart home devices should operate. Each company has its own set of protocols, meaning that very few smart home devices will play nicely with each other. A smart home hub can help, allowing you to connect a range of smart home devices from different brands, but not every smart home device will work with every smart home hub.

The Amazon Echo was the first smart speaker to really gain critical mass, so understandably there are a lot of smart home devices that will work with Alexa. This isn’t the case for every smart home device, however. If you’re looking for a smart home hub, you should look at the kit you already own, and choose a hub that clearly states that it will work with what you already have as a jumping off point in your research.

Q: What voice assistants will work with my smart hub?

Many smart home hubs have voice assistants built in, such as the Amazon Echo, Google Nest Hub Max, or Apple HomePod Mini. Once again, not every smart home hub will work with every voice assistant, however. Some smart home hubs also don’t have any built-in microphones, such as the Aqara Smart Hub M2, so if you want to use voice commands, you’ll need to use your phone or a separate smart speaker. If you have a preferred voice assistant, make sure it’s compatible with your smart home hub of choice.

Q: What communication protocols do I need?

There are numerous ways for smart home devices to communicate, from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to Zigbee and Thread. Not every smart home hub can communicate over all of these methods, however. If you only want to control Wi-Fi smart plugs and light bulbs, then this isn’t an issue, but if you have Zigbee motion detectors, or Thread lighting, then you’ll need a smart home hub that’s compatible. Matter and Thread are an effort to try to introduce a common language for smart home devices, so choosing a smart home hub that supports Matter and Thread may offer you some level of future-proofing. If you’re using Z-wave smart tech, then you’ll need to find a smart home hub that supports Z-wave, such as the Hubitat Elevation.

Q: What else can my smart home hub do?

Many of the smart home hubs on this list do more than just communicate with your smart home devices. Choosing one may also come down to the other features that you’re looking for. You might want a new smart speaker, or a smart display, or you might be looking for a new streaming device. If so, you can find one with a smart home hub inside that will give you the best of both worlds.