Best Amazon Alexa-compatible smart home devices in 2024

When it comes to smart home assistants, Alexa is a behemoth that dominates the market with its intuitive voice-activated smart home controls. Alexa’s success is due to its teachability, user-friendly interface, and convenient voice control.

Amazon Alexa has made it easy to build a formidable smart home ecosystem that can include thousands of handy devices that keep your household running smoothly. Enhance your smart home with our round-up of the best Alexa-compatible devices that can make themselves comfortable in any room in your home.

Top Alexa-compatible smart home devices

The Bose Home 500 is the audiophile’s choice of Alexa smart speaker, thanks to its superb audio engineering. This smart speaker is just over eight inches in height, yet delivers 360-degree wall-to-wall sound, using powerful twin speaker drivers.

With enhanced voice detection and integrated Alexa, you can not only browse your music library but also access millions of hits from online platforms like Spotify and Deezer, though, we’re bemused by the absence of YouTube Music compatibility. By using Alexa, you can go directly to the music you want, while grouping multiple Bose speakers to stream music throughout your home.

The Home 500 excels as a home audio solution that works in any room and can be easily integrated and upgraded with other Bose smart speakers, earbuds, and soundbars using the Bose Music app.

Amazon’s Echo Show displays are a popular choice for managing an Alexa-controlled smart home. This eight-inch HD display is the perfect interface for managing Alexa, ZigBee, and Material-compatible appliances, lighting, music, and home security devices.

Devices are easy to onboard and can then be controlled via the display using the touchscreen or your voice. Not only does the Echo Show 15 operate an effective smart home hub and ZigBee gateway but it also performs well as an entertainment center, where you access favorite photos, music, and streaming channels. The screen is not as large as the Amazon Echo Show 15, but we’re sure it will be hijacked for Netflix by someone!

Field video calls or monitor your Ring video doorbell, using the 13MP video camera (with thoughtful privacy shutter). This latest Echo Show has its microphones located towards the back of the display, which may cause some teething problems with voice reception by the device, but you should expect responsive voice control from up to 20 feet away.

Nanoleaf’s range of smart LED light bulbs is an ideal addition to an Alexa smart home ecosystem. These RGBW bulbs offer a near-infinite range of hues and warm tones that you can program and control using Alexa, Material, Google Assistant, and other smart home controllers.

If you’re looking for an affordable but competent alternative to the Philips Hue smart lighting system, Nanoleaf’s 16 million colors and greater vibrancy put Hue in the shade. Some Nanoleaf users have found the Nanoleaf app to be not so user-friendly, though. Using Alexa voice controls on your Amazon devices to group and control bulbs, change brightness, and preset scenes is far more convenient.

The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus readily integrates with Amazon Alexa and has a lot to offer in this price range. Although it doesn’t have a pre-roll function, the color night vision is above average, allowing for visibility in low-light conditions. This video doorbell boasts HDR for clear and detailed videos, while the quick replies allow you to send preset messages to those at the door.

Additionally, the camera has a wide 150-degree field of view and provides head-to-toe coverage. This makes it ideal for monitoring packages, including those placed right by the door. However, some users may find the fisheye view unnatural. On the plus side, the Battery Doorbell Plus is easy to set up with the Ring app, offering clear step-by-step instructions for user convenience.

The two-way talk system produces clear audio for conversing with visitors in real-time. One drawback is that all cool features are hidden behind a paywall. That said, you’ll have to subscribe to Ring’s Protect service, which unlocks rich notifications, person and package alerts, video saving, and more.

A smart thermostat is an investment that pays for itself. If Ecobee is to be believed, its Premium smart thermostat and sensor could shave as much as 25% off energy bills. It’s easy to see how, with useful features like room occupancy sensing, alerts for open windows and doors, and AI that learns room temperature preferences across the home. Another smart feature is the air quality monitor that tells you when it’s time to change the filter on your furnace.

Of course, this all boils down to optimal setup and configuration, which can be a hassle but is worth it if done properly as you can control everything with your voice. Responsiveness of the thermostat can be variable and, like any thermostat, there is always the challenge of getting real-world indoor conditions to match your thermostat reading, but Alexa integration makes those problems easier to solve than ever.

This little robot vacuum boasts that it is one of the world’s smallest. At under 10 inches in diameter, the SwitchBot Mini K10+ is perfect for keeping your studio, apartment, or other small space clean and tidy, mopping and vacuuming your floors with Alexa voice control.

Once you get this robot vac configured using Alexa, Matter, or Google Assistant, you can let it get on with the job for up to 70 days without laying a finger on it. However, this little bot does have its downsides. Firstly, it takes a pretty long time to get a floor done, especially if you vac and mop. Despite its diminutive stature, the K10+ can make a lot of noise, especially when it empties itself into its 4-liter capacity waste tank.

The Kasa six-socket smart plug exceeds cheaper models with individual smart control of each socket. The plug also carries an additional two USB sockets, but surprisingly, they are not smart.

Using Wi-Fi, you can use the HS300 with almost all the leading smart home technologies, including Matter, IFFT, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings, so it’s easy to onboard, and then switch an appliance, television, heater, or lighting on or off using voice control.

If you are using these sockets to power your NAS or other tech, you’ll be relieved to know that your most sensitive electronics will be covered with a cumulative 1,710 joules of surge protection.

The August Wi-Fi Smart Lock (4th Generation) is versatile, reliable, and super easy to install. It’s compatible with most standard deadbolts, so it’s ideal for those looking to make their regular lock smarter. This smart lock readily connects to 2.4GHz routers thanks to the built-in Wi-Fi module. We like how responsive the lock is and the fact that it delivers audible locking feedback when the deadbolt moves into place makes it even better.

Best of all, it has auto lock and unlock with the former engaging the deadbolt after a set period, or immediately after you close the door. On the other hand, the latter will disengage the deadbolt when you are close to the door, saving you the hassle of pulling out your phone every time you get home. Since the lock installs on the inside, you can always use a mechanical key in case the two CR123 batteries run out of juice.

The 4th Gen August lock also allows users to define access schedules according to their needs. As such, you can grant family and friends access to your home when needed. The app even has an option for making them homeowners, meaning they’ll have unlimited access to available lock functions.

Alexa helps you get value out of your smart devices

Alexa is perfect for the workarounds and solutions that make a smart home a success. With a wide range of practical, affordable Alexa devices available, it should be easy to find the items you need for every room in your home. Yes, there are often teething issues, but troubleshooting Alexa problems is usually straightforward.

This roundup is just a sampling of the many great Alexa-compatible devices out there, but, for us, some of these devices are a great buy for any household. In particular, take a look at the Nanoleaf smart lighting, which is an easy lighting upgrade for any room. Also, the Echo 8 delivers outstanding value for money and is just as useful for building routines and organizing tasks as it is as a smart home hub.

But our top pick is the Bose Home Speaker 500. This classy speaker pairs Bose’s outstanding audio quality with hits from your favorite streaming platforms and can be located anywhere in your home.