How to build a complete smart home system for under $200

When I see the term “smart home,” I think about the Disney movie, Smart House. It came out in the late ’90s and was about a family that won a contest for a super-high-tech smart house. It was a bit over the top. It could produce holograms and milkshakes and do the typical “smart home” stuff: voice commands, automated floor cleaning, security system, and more. I don’t think the movie said how much the house cost to build, but it had to be millions of dollars, putting the idea of a smart home and its features out of reach for the average person.

That’s not the case anymore. You can purchase a smart home device for less than a month’s worth of Netflix, and build an entire smart home system for a few hundred bucks. Using some of our best value buyer’s guide picks, you can create a complete system (with smart speakers, doorbells, security cameras, and smart lighting) for under $200.

5

Amazon Echo Pop Smart Speaker

Give voice commands to your smart home devices, hands-free

Some folks might argue that you don’t need a smart speaker in your smart home setup, and they’re correct since you can tap, swipe, and command your system via your phone or tablet. But of the things that make a smart home smart, hands-free voice control is towards the top of that list. Saying, “Alexa, turn off the kitchen lights,” is more efficient than picking up your device and fumbling through screens or widgets.

There are tons of smart speakers and smart displays with built-in speakers, but to clear the $200 price limit, we’re going with the Echo Pop Smart Speaker. It won’t blow you away with its sound quality, but it’s fine for solo-listening to podcasts or defiant jazz, and it comes with the same Alexa that you get in other smart speakers. As a bonus, you can pair multiple Echo speakers for stereo sound or broadcast mode, and each Pop can act as a network extender for your Eero Wi-Fi network.

4

Blink Video Doorbell

Answer your front door from virtually anywhere

The smart doorbell is essential to any smart home system. It alerts you when a package has arrived and discourages would-be porch pirates or intruders. It’s also a communication device if a spouse or child is locked out of the house without a phone. Above all else, a video doorbell allows you to answer the door remotely. That means you can see who is at the door and speak to them from your phone, tablet, smart display, or compatible TV set.

Amazon’s Blink doorbell does all this and more at one of the lowest price points in the segment. It checks all the boxes: 1080p HD video, two-way audio, motion alerts, and [infrared] night vision, and there is a wireless option with great battery life for those that don’t want to hook into the previous doorbell system. It’s not perfect, and you’ll make concessions for the price point (no local storage and sync module required for certain features). Still, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better bang-for-your-buck in this space.

3

Blink Mini Pan and Tilt Camera

Check in on pets or kids while at work or traveling

A smart security camera pairs well with the smart video doorbell, as the combo can blanket your home with live camera coverage. Your doorbell can watch the front of your home, and the Blink Mini Pan/Tilt Camera can cover the rest. We list the Blink in our buyer’s guide for the best smart security cameras, noting that it has a fantastic field of view, smooth and quiet rotation, and excellent motion tracking. Whether you want to keep an eye on your children, pets, or home, the Pan/Tilt can get it done at a fraction of the price.

If you’re thinking that it looks like the Blink Mini camera was mounted to a motorized base, you’re correct. That motorized base gives it incredible range. It’s good for 350-degree panning and 135-degree tilting, meaning it can see from nearly every angle. It also has night vision and two-way audio, and works great with your Alexa devices for things like Live View video streaming. As with all smart video devices, some features are hidden behind a monthly subscription plan. However, unlike other video products, you can unlock most for $3 a month.

2

Sengled WiFi Color Changing Light Bulb

Dimmable smart lighting that doesn’t require a hub

Many users write off smart lighting because they initially thought, “I don’t need my lights to change colors or pulsate to music.” However, there is more to it than that. You can turn a single light off with a tap of your phone or turn off lights all over your home with a voice command like, “Alexa, I’m going to bed.” When it’s time to get up in the morning, you can have the lights in your room slowly increase in brightness to gently wake you. With the proper smart bulbs, you can unlock a library of functionality, and these Sengled bulbs fit the bill.

A four-pack of Sengled WiFi Color Changing Bulbs costs about the same price as a single Philips Hue bulb, but you don’t lose many, if any, of the features. They support over 16 million colors with adjustable brightness and tunable white lighting (amber to cool white), dimming, timers, scenes, and almost everything else you can think of. Plus, they work well with Alexa and Google Home devices and don’t require a separate hub for operation.

1

TP-Link Tapo Smart Plug

Make regular lights and appliances smarter

A smart plug was my first smart home device. I plugged it in, plugged a desktop lamp into it, and gave a cheesy grin when a tap of my phone screen made the light flicker on. It felt simple and accessible. That’s the idea behind these things. They’re cheap and easy to set up, and work with most standalone lights and small appliances. Have a lamp in a hard-to-reach corner of the room? Smart plug it. A box fan in the bedroom that you want to operate from bed? Smart plug it. Christmas lights? You get the idea.

There are tons of smart plugs to choose from, but we like the Tapo from TP-Link for a few reasons. They are affordable. They’re small enough to fit two of them in the same outlet (some of the larger plugs block the second outlet), they’re UL-certified flame retardant, and come with a two-year warranty. They do all the smart things you’d expect, including remote control, timers, and scheduling, and they are compatible with Alexa, Google Home, Apple’s HomeKit, and Matter.

It’s all about the ecosystem

Anytime you talk about building a new smart home system or adding to one, you must pay attention to platform compatibility. A good rule of thumb is that most smart home devices work with Alexa and Amazon products. However, if you have Google/Nest or Apple HomeKit devices, double-check that the device you’re adding is compatible. This confusion was supposed to be resolved by Matter, a protocol that allows devices from different brands to play nicely together, but adoption has been extremely slow.