The Best Outdoor Smart Plugs of 2021

If you don't need a smart plug with dual outlets, the Geeni Indoor/Outdoor smart plug works well and is a good option. We find it's easy to set up and install, it works reliably and quickly, it has bright status lights, and our favorite feature is the tight cover to seal the plug when it's not in use. It's also one of the smallest outdoor smart plugs we've tested, so it wouldn't be awkward to use indoors when you don't have a need for it outside. It even has a notch that will allow you to hang it from a screw or nail, which a nice touch, as it keeps it up off the ground. Aside from the fact that it doesn't have dual outlets, we really have no complaints.

The Geeni app requires you to log in using your cell phone number, which might turn some people off. The home screen shows the outdoor temperature, humidity, and air pressure—we’re not sure how useful that information is in relation to a smart plug, but we guess it doesn’t hurt. The app will walk you through the creation of scenes to turn your plug on or off with ease, but we didn’t find the setup process to be as intuitive in the Geeni as it was in Meross. We found it difficult to specify which action we wanted to trigger the scene (for example, the action could be local sunset, which would trigger the scene that turns the plug on). But if you’re not looking for automation, this plug is good enough at being turned off and on from a phone.

If you want to control your outdoor smart plug remotely, but you don’t need a lot of bells and whistles, the Geeni is definitely worth considering since it is a few bucks cheaper than the others we reviewed. It’s a solid little plug and a good value for the price.

The Kasa Smart Outdoor Plug by TP-Link features two front-facing outlets, each of which can be controlled separately through voice commands or the Kasa app. Kasa’s WiFi outdoor plug feels durable, doesn't require a hub, and has a wireless range of more than 300 feet.

From its simple setup to its ease of use, there’s a lot to love about Kasa’s Smart Outdoor Plug. We didn't run into any issues during the setup process, and the plug never lost connectivity during our tests. TP-Link’s outdoor plug works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and integrating the plug with both of these two popular smart assistants was easy as pie.

The Kasa app makes it easy to control the plug from anywhere and includes the ability to set schedules, program timers, and access Away Mode. And, although it doesn’t offer energy monitoring, the Kasa app shows basic insights about the outlet’s current, daily, and total runtime.

The heavy-duty plug has a weatherproof rating of ISP64, which means it can handle splashes of water and sideways downpours without any problems. We put this plug to the test in Florida’s hot, humid, and sometimes rainy climate with no issues. However, it’s not totally waterproof, so it’s best to place the plug on an elevated surface or a spot with proper drainage and make sure it’s plugged into a GFCI receptacle when used outside or in wet locations.

Overall, Kasa’s Smart Outdoor Plug is a foolproof plug that’s delightful to use when automating your outdoor setup.

The iHome Outdoor Smart Plug is a solid little spark plug, but it lacks some of the features of the others we tested. The plug itself is slim and compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant. The indicator lights on the side of the plug are a little smaller than we'd like, as we can't really see them without getting up close. It does have a notch that allows it to hang from a nail or screw but doesn't have energy monitoring, a plug cover, or dual outlets.

The iHome Control app on Android offers a quick view of your smart plug and its status. It doesn’t offer any extra information like local weather or energy usage like some of the others to, but it’s simple to operate, and it makes it easy to set up schedules and trigger power on/off in response to Nest’s home/away status or information from motion, leak, and window sensors.

The IOS version of the app is more impressive, as it connects with HomeKit and can, therefore, control every HomeKit-enabled smart item in your house. If you don’t need dual plug capacity and the rest of your smart home is operating on HomeKit, the iHome might be a good choice.

GE's Outdoor Smart Switch requires you to have a Z-Wave hub in order to use it. If you don't have a Z-Wave hub, there's really no reason to even look at this smart switch. Even if you do have a Z-Wave hub, it's worth noting that this is one of the more expensive switches we tested and it's not directly compatible with voice assistants like Alexa, Google, and Siri.

Since we used a Wink hub to control this switch, that was the app we used. We didn’t have any complaints about the Wink app, as it’s easy to use and offers an activity feed, easy to create shortcuts, and automation. But any Z-Wave-compatible hub should work with this plug, so your app experience may vary depending on which hub you choose. SmartThings, Wink, ADT Pulse, Trane, Vivint, Nexia, Honeywell, HomeSeer, Harmony Home Hub Extender, Vera, Connect, and Iris are all Z-Wave certified hubs.

It does have a really nice outlet cover for when it is not being used, so that's something. This plug sticks out instead of angling down, meaning my outlet cover couldn't close over it, but that also means that it didn't block the second outlet. This plug works fine, but it's definitely not worth going out and buying a hub for.

While we like that the Wion outdoor smart plug has two outlets and an easy-to-find the power button, we struggled to get it to work properly. The app is awkward to use and difficult to understand, and we couldn't get it to connect it to Alexa at all, though it's supposed to be compatible.

The WiOn app isn’t great. It offers an on/off switch for the plug as well as a programmable timer, and it does have a button called "usage," but if you tell it will just tell you "this device does not have this function." There is a button in the lower right-hand corner that looks like a pen and paper, but it’s not immediately clear what it does (it starts and email draft to support). The settings tab contains frequently asked questions, troubleshooting, online supports, and videos, so there’s plenty of help getting the plug up and running, but the app just feels far from intuitive. The font is awkwardly large, and the icons in the app are confusing. We could have looked past this clunky app if the plug had been outstanding, but unfortunately, that was not the case.

If you need two outlets, you'll be much happier with the Meross.