Note (September 2026): Several products named in this 2021 article have changed. The Luna mattress cover is now sold by Eight Sleep as the Pod, the $20 Wyze Sense Starter Kit has been discontinued, and Sleep Number’s business was sold to Sleep Country Canada in July 2026.
Smart home devices are internet-connected products, such as garage door openers, thermostats, security sensors and temperature-controlled beds, that you control from a phone app, a voice assistant or automations. The most useful ones save time or energy: according to ENERGY STAR, certified smart thermostats cut heating and cooling bills by about 8%, or $50 a year, on average.
Key Takeaways
- Smart home devices are worth buying when they solve a daily problem: a garage left open, a bed that is too warm, an unmonitored door or a high energy bill.
- ENERGY STAR reports that certified smart thermostats save about 8% of heating and cooling bills, or roughly $50 a year, on average.
- Matter, the cross-brand standard from the Connectivity Standards Alliance, launched in October 2022 and reached version 1.5 in November 2025; it runs over Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Thread.
- Check subscription costs before buying: Eight Sleep lists its Autopilot plan at $25 a month or $299 a year, and Wyze home monitoring costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year.
- Cloud-dependent devices carry privacy and outage risks, so check a maker’s security record and third-party integration policy first.
The technological and fast-paced society demands everything to be automated. Soon after the internet became a necessity for every household, things have changed a lot. From waking up in the morning to going back to bed, our eyes are stuck on screens engaged in different activities like streaming, downloading, surfing, socializing, and freelancing.
The Best Smart Home Devices to Consider
However, one of the things that people might face before automating a home is hunting for the best internet provider offering high-speed download, unlimited data caps, no contract obligations.
Spectrum, the consumer brand of Charter Communications, is one of several US cable internet providers; availability, speeds and plans depend on your address, so compare the providers that serve your home before automating it. Spectrum internet prices vary by plan and location, so check the current offers for your address.
When it comes to automating your home, smart home devices help you achieve your goals such as environmentally friendly technology and saving energy bills. Here are some smart home device categories worth considering, with an update on each product’s status as of September 2026. Let’s take a look at some of the best ones.
Smart Garage Door
Getting out of your car to open the garage door in extreme hot and cold weather is quite challenging. Moreover, if someone else has to open the garage door, it might take some time. But worry not because smart garage doors are now available in abundance and people are investing in them to add convenience to their lives.
Smart garage doors can be controlled through a mobile application, which can easily open and close the door when needed. If you forget to close the garage door before leaving, the app lets you check its status and close it remotely.
Heat-adjustable bedding
Have you ever imagined IoT devices right in your bed? Luna, a smart mattress cover from 2015 that was later sold under the Eight Sleep name, turns an ordinary bed into a smart bed. The smart bed solution can control the mattress temperature separately on each side of the bed.
That means you can keep one side warm and one side cool. You don’t have to do anything manually as the smart bed sheet Luna knows your bedtime and sets the temperature in time before you lie on the bed.
The smart bedding is meant not only for adjusting mattress temperature; it also tracks breathing rate, sleep phases, and heart rate.
This means you don’t have to wear any smartwatches or Fitness trackers to keep track of your sleep and other bodily functions. The data collected is then used to give you feedback to help you sleep better. Turning off your mobile phone might be a smart start.
The most exciting thing about Luna is how it connects to other smart devices in your home. For instance, if you are sleeping, Luna makes sure that the alarm is set, the home temperature is maintained and the front door is locked. Moreover, it also synchronizes with Wi-Fi coffee machines to prepare your morning energy booster.
Wyze Sense
Smart cameras are replacing barbed wires and humans. Over the period, there has been a great improvement in security cameras. However, the expensive price tag keeps low-income households away from it.
The original Wyze Sense Starter Kit sold for $19.99 and has since been discontinued, according to a February 2026 Security.org review, but Wyze’s newer sensors can still be a useful addition if you want to deter burglars and thieves from storming your house.
The starter kit included one motion sensor, two door or window contact sensors and a sensor bridge that plugged into a compatible Wyze Cam. Watch every move outdoors and keep track of stalkers and thieves from breaking into your home to steal valuable items.
Smart Bed
Most people are tracking their physical activities through smartwatches and phones. These devices are also helpful in tracking sleep patterns. But there is one more addition you need to consider to track more than what you are doing presently.
For instance, the smart bed can help you sleep well and manage your foot temperature, support, and firmness. It also sends the data to your smartphone giving details about how you slept the night before.
Summing Up
Hope you have liked the aforementioned smart home devices that you didn’t know you needed. Before buying, check that each device works with the platform you already use, what any subscription costs, and whether the maker still supports the product.
If you are worried about a tight budget, you can simply purchase one or two products in one or two months.
What Is a Smart Home Device?
A smart home device is a home automation product with an internet connection that can be monitored and controlled remotely. Common categories include thermostats and HVAC controls, lighting, security cameras and door locks, occupancy and environmental sensors, leak and smoke detectors, smart appliances and voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Nest speakers.
Smart home devices talk to each other over wireless standards such as Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Thread and Bluetooth. Many older systems used proprietary protocols, which is why buyers often ended up locked into one brand’s app. For more ideas on what automation can do, see these smart home automation features.
Smart Home Devices Compared
The table below summarizes the device types covered in this article and what has changed for each one, as of September 2026.
| Device type | Example | Main benefit | Status as of September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smart garage door opener | Chamberlain myQ | Open, close and check the door from a phone | Chamberlain restricted third-party access to myQ in November 2023 and left the Connectivity Standards Alliance in December 2025 |
| Temperature-controlled bedding | Eight Sleep Pod (formerly Luna) | Separate heating or cooling for each side of the bed, plus sleep tracking | Pod 6 listed at $2,899; each side can be set from 55°F to 110°F |
| Security sensors | Wyze Sense | Low-cost door, window and motion alerts | $19.99 starter kit discontinued; individual sensors from about $25 |
| Smart bed | Sleep Number | Adjustable firmness on each side using air pressure | Assets sold to Sleep Country Canada; deal completed July 31, 2026 |
| Smart thermostat | ENERGY STAR certified models | Automatic scheduling, away detection and remote control | About 8% or $50 a year average savings on heating and cooling |
What Happened to the Products in This Article?
Luna Is Now the Eight Sleep Pod
Luna was a smart mattress cover discussed by smart home users from January 2015; it offered dual-zone heating and integrations with Nest, Lockitron and IFTTT, and SmartThings support was added by July 2015. Eight Sleep, founded in 2014 in San Francisco and now based in New York City, funded its first projects through a 2015 crowdfunding campaign.
Eight Sleep’s current product is the Pod. According to the company’s product page, the Pod 6 costs $2,899 with a standard cover, can cool or heat each side of the bed from 55°F to 110°F, and uses sensors to produce a nightly sleep score. The Autopilot plan is listed at $25 a month or $299 a year.
The Wyze Sense Starter Kit Is Discontinued
Wyze Labs, founded in Seattle in 2017 and now headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, introduced the Wyze Sense contact and motion sensors by 2019. The $19.99 starter kit is no longer sold, but a February 2026 Security.org review notes that buyers can still build a similar system from individual sensors, which start at about $25 each. Wyze professional monitoring is listed at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. If you are choosing a camera to pair with sensors, compare Wi-Fi vs. wired security cameras first.
Sleep Number Has Been Sold
Sleep Number, founded in 1987 in Minnesota as Select Comfort and renamed in November 2017, makes adjustable air beds whose firmness on each side is set on a 0 to 100 scale. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2026. A bankruptcy court approved the sale of substantially all of its assets to a subsidiary of Sleep Country Canada on July 20, 2026, and Sleep Country announced completion of the deal on July 31, 2026.
Smart Garage Openers Are More Closed Than Before
Chamberlain Group, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, and owned by Blackstone since 2021, runs the myQ platform for garage doors. In November 2023 Chamberlain restricted third-party access to myQ, which broke integrations with open-source platforms such as Home Assistant, and in December 2025 it left the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the group behind Matter. Buyers who want one app for everything should confirm which platforms an opener supports before buying. More setup ideas are in this guide on how to make your dumb garage smart.
What Is Matter and Why Does It Matter?
Matter is an open smart home standard maintained by the Connectivity Standards Alliance. The project was founded in December 2019 by Amazon, Apple, Google and the Alliance under the name Project Connected Home over IP, and officially supports Wi-Fi, Ethernet and the Thread mesh network. A Matter-certified device is designed to work with any Matter-compatible controller, reducing brand lock-in.
- Matter 1.0 (October 4, 2022): lights, door locks, thermostats, HVAC controllers, blinds, security sensors and TVs.
- Matter 1.2 (October 23, 2023): added refrigerators, dishwashers, washers, robot vacuums, smoke and CO alarms, air quality sensors, air purifiers and fans.
- Matter 1.3 (May 8, 2024): added energy and water management, ovens, cooktops, dryers and media players.
- Matter 1.4 (November 7, 2024): added batteries, solar systems, heat pumps, water heaters and EV chargers.
- Matter 1.5 (November 20, 2025): added cameras and soil moisture sensors.
Do Smart Thermostats Really Save Money?
Yes, on average. ENERGY STAR states that certified smart thermostats save approximately 8% of heating and cooling bills, or about $50 per year, with larger savings possible depending on climate, occupancy and equipment. ENERGY STAR also notes that heating and cooling account for almost half of the average American household’s annual energy bill, more than $900 a year.
ENERGY STAR certification is based on field data from real homes. Certified models typically offer automatic adjustments when you are away or asleep, geofencing, remote control from a phone and software updates.
How to Choose Smart Home Devices: Step by Step
- Pick your platform. Decide whether you will use Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home or a Matter controller, and buy devices that support it.
- Check your network. Most devices need reliable Wi-Fi; if coverage is weak, a newer router helps. See this roundup of the best Wi-Fi routers.
- Add up the running costs. Look for subscriptions such as Eight Sleep’s Autopilot ($299 a year) or Wyze monitoring ($99.99 a year) before comparing sticker prices.
- Check the maker’s integration policy. A brand can restrict third-party access later, as Chamberlain did with myQ in 2023.
- Review the security record. Search for past data leaks or camera-feed incidents and confirm the maker still ships firmware updates.
- Start small. Add one or two devices, confirm they work together, then expand.
Risks: Privacy, Security and Cloud Dependence
Connected devices depend on their makers’ servers and software. Wyze Labs disclosed a December 2019 server leak that exposed details of roughly 2.4 million customers, a September 2023 web caching issue that showed some users other accounts’ camera feeds, and a February 2024 incident in which about 13,000 customers were shown images from someone else’s home. Wyze later introduced VerifiedView in 2025 to tie camera feeds to user IDs.
Cloud outages matter too. According to Wikipedia’s Eight Sleep article, an Amazon Web Services outage in October 2025 caused problems for Eight Sleep beds, including overheating, and the company said it would add an offline mode. To reduce risk, keep firmware updated, use strong unique passwords with two-factor authentication, and put smart devices on a secure network; see how to protect your security and privacy in the age of IoT and how to update router firmware.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most useful smart home devices?
The most useful smart home devices are the ones that solve a daily problem: smart thermostats for energy savings, door and motion sensors for security, smart garage openers for convenience, and temperature-controlled bedding for sleep comfort. ENERGY STAR reports average savings of about 8% on heating and cooling for certified smart thermostats.
Is Luna the same as Eight Sleep?
Yes. Luna was the original name of the smart mattress cover later sold by Eight Sleep. Eight Sleep’s current product is the Pod; the Pod 6 is listed at $2,899 and heats or cools each side of the bed from 55°F to 110°F.
Is the Wyze Sense Starter Kit still sold?
No. The $19.99 Wyze Sense Starter Kit has been discontinued, according to a February 2026 Security.org review. Wyze still sells individual sensors, from about $25 each, and offers professional monitoring for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year.
Do smart home devices work together across brands?
Smart home devices from different brands work together when they share a standard such as Matter. Matter launched on October 4, 2022, reached version 1.5 on November 20, 2025, and runs over Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Thread. Some brands, such as Chamberlain, have limited third-party access, so check compatibility before buying.
What happened to Sleep Number?
Sleep Number filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2026. A court approved the sale of substantially all of its assets to a subsidiary of Sleep Country Canada on July 20, 2026, and the deal was completed on July 31, 2026.
Do smart home devices need a subscription?
Many smart home devices work without one, but some key features require a paid plan. As of September 2026, Eight Sleep lists its Autopilot plan at $25 a month or $299 a year, and Wyze monitoring costs $9.99 a month.
