Best smart home products under $100 in 2022

Nest Mini on shelf
Nest Mini on shelf (Image credit: Android Central)

If you think upgrading your home with smart home products sounds difficult and expensive, know as frustrating as smart homes may sound, the experience is totally worth it — and doable. You can buy several smart home products for under $100 that provide tons of smart functionality. From smart speakers to devices that allow you to control lights or music with just your voice using smart home assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, to smart plugs and the best smart outlets that transform coffeemakers or table lamps into smart ones you can control from your phone. Here are some of our top favorite affordable smart home products to help get you started.

Upgrade your smart home for less

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It's really easy to build out your dream smart home without spending a fortune. Just make sure that when you find the best smart home products under $100, you're investing in quality products that can connect and communicate seamlessly with one another and are easy to install and/or set up.

First, decide if you want to go with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa for voice control and decide on a smart speaker to serve as your central hub, so to speak. Lots of devices work with both platforms, so you could even set them both up if you wanted to. Google Assistant's strength is in unmatched language processing for answering your queries. It also integrates into other Google services like YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Calendar — apps you probably rely on daily. For Alexa, its strength used to be Amazon's deep Skills ecosystem for smart device support. But now, it's more so the expansive Amazon Echo lineup that includes smart displays, security cameras, smart plugs, and more.

The Google Nest Mini 2nd-gen is a great starting point for controlling small lamps or other convenience appliances around your home. This will help you get your feet wet regarding what it's like to control devices you already use in the home with your smartphone and an app and/or voice. Likewise, the Philips Hue Starter Kit is a great place to start for adding smart bulbs to your home network, simply replacing a standard bulb with a smart one.

For entertainment, you really can't go wrong with a Roku device like the Roku Premiere that can turn your boring old TV into a smart one, able to access all of your favorite movies and shows from the top streaming services along with dedicated Roku channels.

Christine Persaud
Contributor

Christine Persaud has been writing about tech since long before the smartphone was even a "thing." When she isn't writing, she's working on her latest fitness program, binging a new TV series, tinkering with tech gadgets she's reviewing, or spending time with family and friends. A self-professed TV nerd, lover of red wine, and passionate home cook, she's immersed in tech in every facet of her life. Follow her at @christineTechCA.