Building a Smart Home in 2026: The 7 Devices Actually Worth Buying

Most smart home advice starts with the gadget. This guide starts with the order: which devices deliver the most for the least, so you build the setup that actually gets used rather than a drawer of abandoned tech. All seven picks below have full reviews on PickCompass, and every one clears our 4.4-star minimum.

Quick Comparison

Step 1: Smart Plugs — £27 to Test the Water

Start here. The Tapo P100 4-pack makes four dumb devices smart for £27: lamps on schedules, the heater on when you're ten minutes from home, everything off with one voice command. At 4.7 stars across a huge owner base it's the safest first purchase in smart home. If you also want to know what your devices cost to run, the Meross 4-pack adds per-socket energy monitoring and HomeKit support for £10 more — our Meross review compares the two directly. Tapo review here.

Step 2: Lighting — the Daily-Use Upgrade

Lighting is the smart home feature you'll touch every single day. The Hue White Ambiance A60 4-pack covers warm-to-cool white scheduling — bright in the morning, warm in the evening — and works without a hub over Bluetooth. If you want full colour scenes and the rock-solid Hue Bridge ecosystem, the White and Colour Starter Kit is the better foundation; the bridge unlocks away-from-home control and up to 50 bulbs. Both carry 4.7 stars, which for products this widely owned is remarkable. Full reviews: A60 bulbs, starter kit.

Step 3: the Front Door

The Ring Battery Video Doorbell is the device non-technical family members thank you for. Head-to-toe HD video, motion alerts, two-way talk from anywhere, battery powered so installation is four screws — no wiring. Parcel theft and missed deliveries effectively stop being problems. Our Ring review covers the subscription question honestly: it's useful but not mandatory.

Step 4: Heating — Where the Money Comes Back

The Hive Thermostat is the only device in this guide that pays for itself. Heating schedules that match your actual life, geolocation that turns things down when the house empties, and frost protection for winter trips — typical savings run £100+ a year on a gas-heated UK home, which clears the £120.99 price inside 18 months. Read the full Hive review for installation notes (you'll want the Hive Hub).

Step 5: the Control Centre

Once you own five-plus devices, app-juggling gets old. The Echo Show 8 puts your camera feeds, lighting controls, timers and music on one screen in the kitchen, and its built-in smart home hub speaks directly to many devices. It's the glue that turns a pile of gadgets into a system — our Echo Show 8 review has the details.

The £200 Starter Recipe

If we were starting from zero today: the Tapo plugs (£27), the Hue A60 bulbs (£50), and the Ring doorbell (£100) — roughly £177 for plugs, lights and a video doorbell, all expandable later. Add the Hive next autumn before heating season and let it pay for the rest.

Browse everything in our Smart Home section. We earn a commission on qualifying purchases through our links at no extra cost to you — see how we choose what to recommend.