The smart plug market is crowded. Everyone and their mother makes one now. Most are junk. A few actually work.
Emporia’s Smart Plug stands out for being cheap and useful. Under fifteen bucks gets you real-time energy tracking, something the competition charges extra for. The app doesn’t suck either. But forget about it if you’re an Apple person – no HomeKit support.
Real-time energy tracking under fifteen bucks. The app actually works. Apple users need not apply.
TP-Link’s Kasa Smart Plug Mini gets the basics right. Setup takes minutes, it stays connected, and it’s tiny enough to fit anywhere. The thing just works, which apparently is too much to ask from most brands. The EP25 model maintains reliable connection even when placed far from your router.
Amazon’s Smart Plug is exactly what you’d expect. Dead simple if you’re already drinking the Alexa Kool-Aid. Useless otherwise. It’s like they built it in a bubble where Google Assistant doesn’t exist.
Wyze keeps things budget-friendly while throwing in vacation mode and IFTTT support. No energy monitoring though. Pick your poison.
The Kasa HS300 power strip brings six outlets to the party, each with its own controls. Energy monitoring for every plug, plus surge protection. It’s a beast that hogs outlet space, but at least it earns its keep.
Speaking of space hogs, those no-name brands flooding Amazon? Most lack basic safety certifications. Nothing says “smart home” like burning your house down. Smart plugs won’t handle high-powered appliances like heaters or air conditioners anyway, especially those pulling over 1,800 watts.
Integration varies wildly. Alexa and Google Assistant work with almost everything decent. HomeKit users get screwed, as usual. The Kasa Mini now supports Matter, which might actually mean something someday.
Meanwhile, cheap knockoffs can’t even maintain a stable Wi-Fi connection on the 2.4 GHz band they require.
Energy monitoring separates the pretenders from the real deal. Emporia tracks everything, builds charts, helps cut costs. The Kasa power strip monitors each outlet individually. Basic plugs from Wyze skip this entirely. At least they let you schedule stuff to save power the old-fashioned way.
Major brands offer multi-year warranties because their plugs don’t catch fire. Novel concept. UL and ETL certifications mean something. That twenty-pack of smart plugs for thirty bucks? Good luck with that.
Quality smart plugs can help achieve energy efficiency by automatically cutting power to devices that drain electricity even when not in use.
