You can add some serious smarts to your home by upgrading it with some of the best Alexa-compatible devices. Amazon's smart assistant lets you use your voice or phone to control the best smart lights, locks, speakers, TVs, and more when connected to the Alexa smart home platform. This makes it easy to manage these gadgets with a tap or voice commands from the best smart displays or speakers.
Alexa's smartphone app makes it easy to schedule operating times for your gadgets as well as create 'routines' to automate your gear when an action is taken. For example, you can have a motion sensor act as a trigger that turns on your living lights and TV when you enter it after work hours. Spending the time to cook up efficient automations such as these makes your home more intuitive to your needs while also helping you reduce energy usage.
After you figure out how to use Alexa like a pro, you can have the assistant automatically change the temperature on your smart thermostat when you leave or return home. Or maybe you simply want to wind down before bed; you can use Alexa-compatible devices to streamline your lockup process down to a phrase like "Alexa, Goodnight" to turn off your lights and lock your doors as part of a nighttime routine.
There are hundreds of smart home devices that work with Alexa, and advertise as such on Amazon. And while all claim to be the best, most don't hold water when put through their paces. We've done the testing for you to come up with this list of the best Alexa-compatible devices below.
The quick list
The best Alexa streaming device
This compact TV streaming box houses a powerful octa-core processor that quickly loads 4K video apps and runs 3D games smoothly. It also doubles as an Alexa speaker. Not only does it let you control a cable box (or a live TV service if you cut the cord), but it's also able to control your TV volume and inputs thanks to IR controls.
For
- Speedy performance
- Newly integrated Ethernet and USB-A port
- HDMI-IN port lets you connect more devices
- Controls cable and cord-cutter services
Against
- $10 more expensive than before
- Super Resolution Upscaling doesn't make a notable difference
- No HDMI cable included
The best Alexa smart plug
Turn your existing "dumb" outlet-powered appliances smart by plugging them into the Wemo WiFi smart plug. This sleek device takes up minimal outlet space and features robust scheduling options. It fits right into the Alexa smart home platform so you can tie it to more advanced automations.
For
- Improved footprint
- Physical control button
- Works with Alexa, Google Home and HomeKit
- Robust scheduling features
Against
- Not compatible with 5Ghz Wi-Fi
The best Alexa smart lock
This easy-to-install smart lock converts the inner half of your existing deadbolt. It has a wide variety of auto-lock and unlock features plus alerts you if your door is left ajar. You can manage it from the Alexa app to integrate into a whole home routine.
For
- Smaller size
- Wi-Fi built in
- Easy to use
- Works with lots of smart home devices
Against
- Keypad sold separately
The best Alexa smart thermostat
Ecobee's flagship smart thermostat has an Alexa smart speaker built-in, so you can access all of the assistant's features from your wall. The new Ecobee thermostat also has much better sound and improved remote sensors.
For
- Better speaker
- Full Alexa support
- Improved remote sensors
- Works with Spotify
Against
- Large
- Big bezel
- Not as attractive as Nest thermostats
The best Alexa soundbar
This second-gen Sonos Beam comes equipped with Alexa onboard. It brings a new CPU, tweaked profiles, more audio formats, and HDMI eArc support into the mix. The drivers have been re-tuned, resulting in a crisper central channel that emphasizes vocal clarity and dialog.
For
- Impressive sound for its size
- 3D audio with support for Dolby Atmos
- Reliable TruePlay tuning
- Best option for 55-inch and smaller TVs
Against
- More expensive than Beam (Gen 1)
- Some new formats not available at launch
The best Alexa smart lights
Virtually all smart lights work with Alexa, but Philips has the widest range of bulb types, and the Hue app lets you do far more with those lights than ones from other companies. They're responsive and integrate easily into the Alexa app.
For
- Comprehensive app
- Works with a ton of smart-home systems
- Dimmable
Against
- Requires hub
- Light color not tunable
The best Alexa compatible devices you can buy today
Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.
Best streaming device
Amazon's Fire TV Cube is the best Alexa-compatible streaming device we've used. This little box brings some serious smarts like home controls and cloud streaming to the biggest screen in your home. In fact, its powerful new octa-core processor makes it one of the best streaming devices you can buy, period. In our testing, the improved speed makes loading 4K video and launching apps nearly as snappy as the experiences of the Roku Ultra and Apple TV 4K (2021).
Aside from FireTV OS bringing streaming apps and games to your TV, the Cube doubles as an Alexa smart speaker. Its special feature is a built-in IR controller that lets you use voice commands to control your cable box (or a live TV service if you cut the cord), accessories like sound bars, as well as your TV volume and inputs with your voice.
This model also offers an HDMI-in port if you're juggling multiple devices, and puts a USB-A port and Ethernet inside as well, so no adapters are necessary for connecting accessories like webcams or ethernet for even more stable streaming. That said, don't expect Amazon's new Super Resolution Upscaling feature to remaster your content, as it's more about proving smaller upgrades to non-4K content.
Read our full Amazon Fire TV Cube (2022) review.
Best smart lights
Virtually all modern smart lights work with Alexa, but we think the Philips Hue smart lights are the best Alexa compatible devices in this category. That's because Philips has the widest range of bulb types, and the Hue app lets you do far more with those lights than ones from other companies.
Philips sells several different types of smart lights, but the company's basic Hue White Starter kit includes two bulbs as well as a small hub that links the lights to your Wi-Fi. From there, you can command Alexa to dim the lights, and the bulbs will respond. The bulbs in this kit don't change color, though; for that, you'll want the Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 bulb starter kit. In fact, Philips makes a wide range of smart LEDs and light fixtures; check out our guide to Philips Hue lights to see what each does.
Read our full Philips Hue White LED Starter Kit review.
Best smart plug
The Wemo WiFi Smart Plug is one of the best Alexa compatible devices under $30 and our overall top choice among the best smart plugs. It's more compact than competing options out there, even its predecessor the Wemo Mini. And while it doesn't have energy monitoring like some other smart plugs, the Wemo WiFi Smart Plug does work with all the major smart assistants.
This smart plug has a physical switch, so if you don’t want to ask Alexa to turn your appliance on or off, you can click the switch on the Wemo. It also has a clever Away mode. This can make it seem like you’re home even when you’re not by turning a lamp on intermittently.
Read our full Wemo WiFi Smart Plug review.
Best smart lock
Ever leave the house trying to remember if you locked the front door? As one of the best Alexa compatible device, the August Wi-Fi Smart Lock can bring ease to your anxiety. Just ask Alexa if your door is locked, and it'll tell you — and you can lock or unlock it using your voice while away from home. There wasn't much to improve on in our August Smart Lock Pro review, but the company went ahead and tweaked its original to make it smaller and easier to use.
As our top pick among the best smart locks, the August Wi-Fi Smart Lock is 45 percent more compact than its predecessor, so it looks less obvious on your door. It also has built-in Wi-Fi, so you can skip the August Connect bridge to link your lock directly to your home network.
Read our full August Wi-Fi Smart Lock review.
Best smart thermostat
Ecobee's flagship Smart Thermostat Premium makes our list of the best Alexa compatible devices because it doubles as an Alexa smart speaker, among other things. Our reviewer found this makes it easy to interact with Amazon's assistant without installing a separate hub or speaker. You can simply use this thermostat to ask about the weather or drop in on other Alexa devices for an intercom experience.
The new Ecobee also has a much better sound and Spotify support, so it's now ok—but not great—for playing tunes if you're looking for a device to provide some background music. Most importantly, the new Ecobee has redesigned remote sensors that have much better range and battery life. This makes it possible to tailor your heating and cooling to the conditions of certain rooms like the bedroom or a basement.
Read our full Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium review
Best smart air quality monitor
While the smart thermostat above controls your climate, Amazon's smart air quality monitor helps you learn more about it. This device's front-facing air intake continuously checks your air and scores your environment on a simple 100-point scale. The five areas it looks at are temperature, humidity, particulate matter (PM), Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and Carbon monoxide.
This little cube does a lot with the information it gathers. For one, it displays trends neatly on visual graphs and notifies you about air quality drops. However, its most useful ability is how it talks to your existing Alexa devices. For example, it can turn on your air purifier if your score goes below a certain threshold. Or it can activate a smart plug for your existing fan or air conditioner when it gets too hot.
Best smart TV
The LG C3 OLED TV is the best Alexa compatible TV we've used. Not only is it one of the best OLED TVs thanks to an impressive display panel, but a premium design, maximum versatility and great smart TV platform hit all the high marks, too.
What’s more, this C series lineup is LG’s largest in terms of size options — the configurations span from 42- to 83-inches, all of which sport full arrays of HDMI 2.1 ports. Most also feature LG’s evo OLED panel. Plus, with LG's Web OS smart platform, that gives you flexibility if you want this TV to be the center of your Alexa-enabled smart home.
We can’t say our test results for this LG C3 OLED TV review showed significant improvement, but to be fair, there wasn’t much room to improve. Instead, what makes this one of the best TVs of the year is that it offers fantastic picture quality for the price — exactly what you’d expect from LG’s best-selling OLED TV series.
Read our full LG C3 OLED review.
Best soundbar
An upgrade to one of the best soundbars with Alexa built-in available, the second-gen Sonos Beam brings a new CPU, tweaked profiles, more audio formats, and HDMI eArc support into the mix. The drivers have been re-tuned, resulting in a crisper central channel which our reviewer found emphasizes vocal clarity and dialog. That's in addition to Dolby Atmos and other home-theater sound formats for a wide 3D sound that surrounds your living room.
We also appreciated some of Sonos' unique features like NFC for seamless setup, as well as TruePlay which helps you curate sound to your space and optimal couch position, bringing more value to this small speaker system. It also pairs perfectly with 55-inch (or smaller) HDTVs.
You should know that Sonos products don’t come cheap and the price tag on this beauty might be a bit steep for the average consumer. Those who can afford it will find this to be a welcome addition to their ecosystem of Sonos products.
Read our full Sonos Beam (Gen 2) review.
Best smart alarm clock
Amazon’s Echo Spot alarm clock doubles as a discrete smart speaker. Our reviewer had no problem keeping one in the bedroom or bathroom since it ditches the cameras found on the Echo Show lineup of smart displays for full privacy. Not only is it stylish, but it sounds as good as it looks. The full sound brings out backing instrument layers and clear vocals which are a great way to wake up in the morning.
Unfortunately, its smaller screen loses out on the ability to display media. Instead, this basic LCD display can only show the time, weather, and album cover art with large colorful icons. There's still excellent smart home functionality with a built-in occupancy sensor for motion detection that can trigger routines. For example, it can turn on your lights for you when you enter your bedroom.
Best DIY home security kit
SimpliSafe is one of the best DIY home security systems we've used because it's a cinch to set up yourself, has a ton of options when it comes to sensors and accessories—it even has its own smart lock—and offers optional professional monitoring for a reasonable price. The reason that it's one of the best Alexa compatible devices is because you can use Amazon's assistant to arm your Simplisafe system as you walk out the door.
Simplisafe Essentials costs around $200, and comes with a base station, a keypad, three door/window sensors, and a motion detector; you can purchase additional sensors if you so choose. Simplisafe's professional monitoring fees start at $15/month, but if you want features such as smart home connectivity with Alexa, August, and Google Assistant, the fee increases to $25 per month.
Read our full Simplisafe Essentials review.
How to pick the best Alexa compatible devices for you
While nearly every smart home product works with Alexa, knowing which are the best can be tricky. Things you'll want to consider include the following:
Design: Is this a well-made product? In the case of a smart plug, for instance, is it slim enough so that it doesn't block your other outlet?
Functionality: What features does the smart home device have? If it's a smart light, does it have a Home/Away feature, and can you schedule it to turn on at sunset?
Price: Often, the cheapest smart home device is not the best. You may be tempted buy a cheaper gadget, but make sure it meets your needs before buying it.
How we test the best Alexa compatible smart home devices
When reviewing any smart home device, we look at a few things before assigning it a rating:
- Ease of setup: How simple is the device to install?
- Features: What features does the device have relative to others in its price range?
- Performance: Does it actually work as advertised? Is its app easy to use, with a sensible layout?
- Price: How expensive is it when compared to similar devices? While this isn't the most critical criteria, it is a factor in its final rating.
If you're loyal to a single smart assistant platform, here are the best Google Home compatible devices, best HomeKit devices, and best smart displays.
