The best smart hubs make it easy for you to control your favorite smart home products. Smart hubs use protocols like Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread to communicate with smart devices, and they serve as a sort of centralized network for your smart lights and other connected products. This allows you to easily create automation commands. For instance, you can automatically have your lights go off when your smart blinds open, or you can have the doors lock when you set your alarm.
Without a hub, you have to use each device’s companion application to control devices individually, but the devices can’t seamlessly interact with one another for more advanced home automation. However, smart home products have come a long way in the past few years, and so have smart home assistants like Google Assistant, Alexa, and Apple HomeKit. Alexa and Google Assistant apps have the ability to create routines and essentially serve as centralized hubs. Therefore, opting for a smart speaker is an alternative way to control your smart home devices from one centralized location.
Best Overall
Exceptional sound quality
AZ1 processor
Built-in Zigbee hub and temperature sensor
Less mics for voice recognition than previous model
The aesthetic design is brand new too, along with a number of performance upgrades. The most striking is that the Echo has ditched the cylindrical look of previous generations and now is a very sleek looking (and kind of adorable) sphere. This is a visual upgrade, but also improves sound quality. Choose between three different neutral colors: charcoal, glacier white, and twilight blue. It looks a bit more premium, blends in with all kinds of decor, and features that signature gradient light ring, which is now on the bottom of the unit to softly illuminate a surface in dim lighting.
“A worthwhile investment, the new Echo looks better, sounds better, and it performs better in just about every category.” — Erika Rawes, Product Tester
If you own Samsung devices or some of the many SmartThings-compatible smart devices on the market, a good smart hub router to invest in for your home is the Samsung SmartThings Wi-Fi + Hub. This small router/hub is less than five inches in length and width, so it doesn’t take up much space. But, it offers a great deal of functionality, letting you connect your compatible smart devices to one place and allowing you to control those devices through the SmartThings app for iOS or Android.
Best for Home Automation
Samsung SmartThings Wi-Fi Mesh Router and Smart Home Hub
Adaptive intelligent WiFi network
Expandable coverage can eliminate dead zones
Very easy to set up
No built in speaker or microphone
A single Samsung SmartThings Wi-Fi + Hub will cover up to 1,500 square feet in your apartment or home, but if you want 4,500 square feet of coverage, you can buy three and connect them together. The SmartThings Wi-Fi + Hub has been praised for covering a large home with wireless signal and for delivering fast speeds to many devices.
Lenovo also introduced a contender to the digital assistant hub market. The 10-inch Smart Display has Google Assistant built-in, ready and available to meet all of your needs. Want to check your meetings for the day, watch a YouTube video, or control a compatible smart thermostat? Lenovo’s Smart Display is fully voice-controlled, so you can perform all of these functions hands-free.
Best Display for the Kitchen
Lenovo Smart Display (10-inch) with the Google Assistant
Big screen
Fantastic audio quality
Beautiful design
Limited adjustments for display angle
Treat it as a hub for your home, commanding it to turn smart lights on or off, adjust thermostats, or display feeds from smart home cameras. While it doesn’t have the strongest speakers, the 10-watt driver delivers a crisp, clean sound that pairs well with its 1920x1200 screen resolution for entertainment. Plus, Google Cast allows it to act like a TV, and you can run compatible apps like YouTube, Spotify, or Netflix.
With a white body and bamboo back, the Lenovo Smart Display easily blends into any décor for a sophisticated addition to any room in the house. The 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 624 processor is more than sufficient for daily use, but it should be treated as a device to make your life easier, rather than store apps.
The Google Nest Hub Max is interactive and easy to use, with a 10-inch touch display and a front-facing camera. The crisp 1280 x 800 display and far-field microphones make it perfect for video calls with friends and family. Equipped with Google Assistant, the Nest Hub Max allows for hands-free control of your smart devices from a central hub. Google Assistant also makes it easier to personalize the home screen with your calendars, reminders, photos, and traffic reports on your commute. An ambient EQ light sensor adjusts the photos you display on screen based on the color and lighting in the space, so your display looks its best in any room in your home.
Best Voice Assistant
Google Nest Hub Max
Sleek, attractive design
Large screen and strong sound
Useful camera perks
Incompatible with Ring
Best Budget
“The new Echo Dot is a great speaker at a great price…for first-time buyers, it’s a no brainer.” — Erika Rawes, product tester
Logitech’s Harmony Hub isn’t your typical smart hub, but it’s compatible with more than 270,000 entertainment and smart home devices. With a simple setup that can have you online and connected to up to eight devices within minutes, the Harmony Hub works great with your TV, satellite, cable box, Blu-ray player, Apple TV, Roku, game consoles, and more.
Best Home Theater
Logitech Harmony Hub
Affordable
Works with Alexa and Google Home
Easy to use
Only controls up to eight devices
Beyond voice control, the Logitech Harmony Hub truly stands out with closed cabinet control, which allows it to send commands to connected devices through Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or infrared commands that don’t require a direct line-of-sight.
Best Dual Purpose
Tenda Nova MW6 (3-pack)
Unique design
Serves as a mesh Wi-Fi system
Easy setup
Mediocre speeds
The set-up process is as simple as plugging in the modem and following the app’s instructions. From there, the Tenda’s system can be controlled from anywhere, and on any device. You can adjust temperature settings, listen to music from your home entertainment center, or even set timed-restrictions on Wi-Fi use for your children and teens.
About our Trusted Experts
Erika Rawes has been writing professionally for more than a decade, and she’s spent the last five years writing about consumer technology. Erika has reviewed roughly 125 gadgets, including computers, peripherals, A/V equipment, mobile devices, and smart home gadgets. Erika currently writes for Digital Trends and Lifewire.
David Beren is a tech writer with more than 10 years of experience in the industry. He has written and managed content for tech companies like T-Mobile, Sprint, and TracFone Wireless.
What to Look for in a Smart Hub
Compatibility - There are different standards for communicating with smart home devices including ZigBee and Z-Wave. Before purchasing a smart home hub, ensure that it supports the standards used by your existing smart home devices.
Automation - Some hubs will include automation software for your smartphone or computer. If you’re looking to have the lights in your home automatically turn on at a specific time or have the thermostat adjust itself depending on the weather, you’ll want to make sure your hub includes the needed software.
Coverage - Depending on the size of your home, you may need to check that the hub you’re purchasing will provide sufficient coverage. If it isn’t powerful enough to transmit a signal throughout your entire space, you might find that some of your smart devices won’t respond.
