The Best Smart Home Devices for Apple HomeKit of 2021

While pricier than our favorite streamer, the Apple TV 4K is an impressive, high-end streaming box, and it also doubles as an Apple home hub. The included remote offers Siri voice control so you can do things like open apps, check the weather, and search YouTube videos. You can even ask Siri to dim the lights as you decide what movie to watch with a simple click. Additionally, if you have iOS-enabled cameras, like the Logitech Circle View Doorbell, you can use the hub to view smart alerts, live streams, and recording histories right from your TV.

The Apple TV 4K also supports both HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR, has access to the most popular streaming services, and includes Apple’s TV+ service and its TV app, which integrates streaming content from multiple services in one spot. It also offers more robust support for Dolby Atmos than many cheaper devices.

Check out our roundup of the best streaming devices.

With the inaugural Apple HomePod on its way out, the Apple HomePod Mini is the speaker to buy for your HomeKit ecosystem. The baseball-sized smart speaker is priced right, sounds bigger than its size, and offers quick and responsive access to Siri. The setup is fast and easy, and you can pair multiple HomePod Mini speakers to create stereo pairs or a multi-room audio system. It also can be used as a home hub.

The speaker feels heavy in your hand, the power cord is thick and has a sturdy connection to the Mini's base, and the lights on top are beautiful swirling colors like you'll see when you summon Siri on an iOS device. Its small footprint, combined with its big sound and control for Apple smart homes, make it an enticing smart speaker.

Check out our roundup of the best smart speakers.

Want to be able to check or change the temperature in your house using Siri? The Emerson Sensi Touch Smart Thermostat is one of the best HomeKit-compatible smart thermostats you can buy.

It offers straightforward installation, a fantastic user experience, an easy-to-use touch screen, and full integration with all of the major voice assistants, including Siri. If you want the same functionality as the Sensi Touch thermostat, but with a cheaper price tag, check out the Emerson Sensi Wi-Fi Programmable Thermostat.

One final note: Like most smart thermostats we test, it requires a C-wire; be sure your heating/cooling system is compatible before buying.

Check out our roundup of the best smart thermostats.

With the Schlage Sense smart lock, you can ask Siri to lock or unlock your door, even through your remote control if you own an Apple TV if you’ve got one.

It doesn’t offer built-in Wi-Fi like some other smart locks, but it can still connect to the internet via a Schlage Sense Wi-Fi adapter. It comes equipped with built-in alarm sensors that will issue an alert if it senses an attack, which is great for those concerned about their smart lock being hacked.

Overall, the Schlage Sense is a standout Siri-compatible smart lock that should be on your radar.

Check out our roundup of the best smart locks.

There aren’t many worthy options when it comes to Apple HomeKit-enabled video doorbells, but the Logitech Circle View Doorbell is one of the best we’ve tested. The Siri-only doorbell works well at quickly detecting motion events and accurately telling the difference between people, animals, and vehicles. The 3:4 head-to-toe view and integration with other iOS devices make it an ideal pick for any Apple-driven smart home. It requires existing doorbell wiring for installation.

The doorbell supports facial recognition, an optional feature that can potentially tell you who specifically is at the door by pulling from the photos on your iOS device to recognize your friends and family. It also comes with customizable motion zones, so you can draw activity zones tailored to your front door view to help avoid false notifications.

A paid iCloud subscription is needed to access smart alerts that differentiate between people, animals, vehicles, and motion. Logitech’s smart doorbell also supports HomeKit Secure Video, which encrypts videos before uploading to iCloud. For a HomeKit-enabled doorbell, Logitech’s is a fantastic option.

Check out our roundup of the best video doorbells.

At 1800 lumens, the HomeKit-compatible Eve Light Strip is one of the brightest and most colorful strips out there, offering a full spectrum of tunable whites and bold colors you can customize to taste. This strip light is a bit more restrained, lacking the kind of fun lighting effects or presets you’ll find on other strip lights—with Eve, you're limited to single colors.

We had no problem using Siri voice control to power the lights on/off, adjust the brightness, and change the colors. It also supports HomeKit’s Adaptive Lighting technology, an iOS feature that automatically adjusts the color temperature of the strip light as the day goes on.

The light can be trimmed to a smaller size, or you can add a few of Eve’s extension strips up to 32.8 feet. There aren’t many great HomeKit-enabled light strips out there, making the Eve Light Strip your best choice for a Siri-centric setup.

Check out our roundup of the best smart light strips.

For the best HomeKit-enabled smart bulbs, you want Philips Hue LED lights. Across the board, Philips topped all of our tests thanks to an easy setup, a robust suite of features, and an intuitive app. From dimming the lights to changing the bulb color and creating scenes, there's a lot you can do using Siri voice commands to control Philips Hue bulbs.

The only downside is that, unlike some other options, Philips Hue lights do require a Philips Hue Bridge) to work over Wi-Fi or when you're away from home (in addition to an Apple home hub. Bluetooth control is available when you’re within range. Additional hardware isn’t usually a strong point, but it’s a small price to pay for the incredible performance and reliability that Hue offers—including compatibility with Apple HomeKit.

Check out our roundup of the best smart bulbs for Apple HomeKit.

The Logitech Circle View is one of the top-rated outdoor security cameras we’ve tested that works exclusively with iOS. We set this camera up on an iPhone and were quickly able to add it to Apple’s Home app. Many security cameras are wire-free these days, but the Circle View camera comes with a cord and needs to be plugged into a nearby outlet to use.

Logitech’s Circle View camera offers a 160-degree field of view and good-looking 1080p video resolution. You can ask Siri things like “show me the Circle View camera” and the stream appears almost immediately, which is a nice touch for any Apple ecosystem.

Check out our roundup of the best smart outdoor security cameras.

Home security systems that work with HomeKit are few and far between, but the Abode iota All in one system is a winner for Apple smart homes. It comes with a gateway hub that discreetly doubles as a home security camera and offers rare compatibility across all three major smart assistants, including Siri. Apple’s dedicated voice assistant can be used to arm and disarm your system, making it easy to call out to a nearby HomePod speaker as you’re on your way in or out the door.

Abode’s system, which comes with one mini door/window sensor and a key fob, is quick and full of smarts when it comes to managing your Apple smart home. When a sensor is triggered, the gateway makes a chirping sound.

The gateway also offers visual cues about the alarm’s status. The audible and visual signals are a nice touch for managing your system as you’re moving throughout your home. However, to get the most out of this system, including access to Siri, you’ll need to sign up for one of Abode’s paid self or professional monitoring plans.

Check out our roundup of the best DIY home security systems.

Using voice-activated Siri commands, you can turn on the light, adjust the brightness, and activate scenes for a completely convenient smart lighting setup. This dimmer nails the software details, even responding to the scrubbing of the app's digital dim slider in real-time. The app performed beautifully on iOS devices during testing and we were able to connect and control it easily using Siri and the Home app.

The other great thing about the Lutron system is that it will work with the wiring found in older homes, unlike many other smart dimmers and switches on the market. This is because Lutron dimmers don't need a neutral power line, which isn't common in the electrical wiring found in older homes. It’s more expensive than other dimmer switches, but the overall polish of the system is definitely worth spending up on.

Check out our roundup of the best smart in-wall dimmer switches.

Smart light switches are another way to take your home’s basic lighting setup to the next level. Not only do Lutron’s smart switches work with Apple HomeKit, but they’re also some of the fastest and simplest switches to install and set up.

The switch is wired for single-pole, but can be turned into a three-way switch when paired with Lutron’s Pico remote. A neutral wire is required. During our test, the switch was quick and responsive to Siri voice commands and also performed well from the Lutron and Apple Home apps. You can even manage your entire Lutron lighting system from an Apple Watch.

Overall, this system offers a really smooth HomeKit experience and speedy setup, making the extra cash worth spending if whole-home smart lighting is what you’re after.

Check out our roundup of the best smart light switches.

Water leaks can be costly, so why not protect your home with a HomeKit-enabled water leak detector like the Eve Water Guard? The device runs through the Apple Home app and connects via Bluetooth Low Energy. Unlike most water leak detectors, Eve’s plugs into a nearby outlet so you don't have to worry about replacing the batteries over time. That said, you may have to get creative with wiring, depending on your setup.

The Guard comes with a 6.5-foot sensing cable that is small enough to fit in tight spaces like under the dishwasher or washing machine. When water is detected, the sensor plays a blistering 100-decibel siren, flashes a red light, and quickly sends smart alerts to your iPhone, iPad, and/or Apple Watch.

Suffice to say, if water is detected, you’re going to know about it in a timely manner, which is the most important feature of a smart water leak detector.

Check out our roundup of the best water leak detectors.