Upgrading to a smart thermostat is a great way to save money on your annual energy bill and automate your home. However, choosing the right one for your home isn’t easy. We have the best for your budget and smart home ecosystem.
UPDATE: 02/02/2024
We’ve updated our pick of the best smart thermostat for Apple Homekit.
What to Look For in a Smart Thermostat in 2024
Shopping for a smart thermostat is a surprisingly complicated process. Not only do you have dozens of great products to choose from, but you also need to ensure your prospective purchase is compatible with your current smart home setup.
If a smart thermostat is the first part of your connected home, that’s less of a concern. Pick up any of the ones below, and you’re ready to rock. However, if you’ve already put together a smart ecosystem of lights, locks, and appliances, the last thing you want is a smart thermostat that doesn’t play well with your kit.
Thankfully, most smart home systems can effectively incorporate today’s top-selling smart thermostats. Whether you’re an avid Alexa user, love Google Assistant, or are piecing together an interconnected Apple Home, rest assured there’s a product with your name on it.
Beyond zeroing in on your smart home ecosystem, you’ll also have to consider a variety of other factors. Do you want to deal with C-wire installation? Are you open to adding additional sensors to your home? Do you need a smart thermostat with built-in microphones and speakers?
Choosing an expensive product typically means you’ll get all the bells and whistles—but not every home needs every feature. A budget option might be more than enough for what you need, as some even stand toe to toe with premium offerings.
Finding the right smart thermostat is highly dependent on your current setup, but some products stand head-and-shoulders above the competition. Here are the five best smart thermostats currently available based on performance, pricing, and ease of use.
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How-To Geek’s product recommendations come from the same team of experts that have helped people fix their gadgets over one billion times. We only recommend the best products based on our research and expertise. We never accept payment to endorse or review a product. Read More »
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Pros |
Cons |
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✓ Fits seamlessly into smart home ecosystems |
✗ Slightly expensive |
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✓ Easy-to-use thermostat controls |
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✓ Clever energy-saving recommendations |
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✓ Real-time air-quality and weather monitoring |
Your smart thermostat is integral to making your house a smart home. That makes choosing one that is compatible with the rest of your smart home kit essential. The ease with which the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium slots into almost any existing ecosystem is the first of many reasons it tops this list.
The thermostat has Alexa built into the device, so you can start using voice commands as soon as it is installed. It is also compatible with Google Assistant, SmartThings, IFTTT, and Apple HomeKit. If you have an Apple HomePod speaker, you can also link that up and use Siri commands.
The ecobee eco+ software, makes recommendations based on your schedule, household humidity, and on/off-peak pricing based on AI analyses. What it doesn’t do is try to impose those recommendations on you—automatic overriding of your settings is a sometimes frustrating feature of other smart thermostats that isn’t here.
There is a sensor for monitoring air quality, and the device checks the weather in real-time to give better temperature recommendations. How well the air-quality sensor works depends on where you position the thermostat. Indeed, it might have been better to have it on the much more portable SmartSensor bundled with it.
The ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is not cheap, although the price is in line with similar devices. For your $250, you get a stylish, feature-rich smart thermostat made from quality materials. The large, bright display is a joy to use, and the clever software will help you save money on your energy bills.
Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium
Best Smart Thermostat Overall
Brilliant compatibility with smart home ecosystems, clever software and useful extra sensors make this a perfect choice for taking smart control of your energy usage.
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Pros |
Cons |
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✓ Affordable |
✗ No built-in voice controls |
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✓ Minimalist design |
✗ Requires a C-wire or power adapter |
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✓ Optimized performance with Alexa Hunches |
Don’t let its rock-bottom price tag fool you—the Amazon Smart Thermostat can hang with the best in the business. Although the thermostat is a newcomer to the smart home arena, Amazon leveraged over 130 years of experience by building it on the Honeywell Home platform.
The Amazon Smart Thermostat is more than just reliable and affordable, as you’ll find plenty of functionality packed into the handsome device. The product is officially Energy Star certified, meaning you can expect to save an average of $50 a year on your energy bills. Plus, its Alexa compatibility makes it easy to adjust the temperature when away from home.
Alexa Hunches can automatically change the temperature for you based on your preferences. Whether you’re home, away at work, or about to fall asleep, Alexa can tweak your home’s temperature without much input on your end.
The biggest drawback to Amazon Smart Thermostat is the required C-wire or power adapter, making the installation process more challenging. However, if you already have a C-wire installed, getting Amazon Smart Thermostat up and running is as simple as connecting a few cords, which takes a lot of the installation work out of it.
Anyone in the market for a capable smart thermostat that doesn’t break the bank could do a lot worse than Amazon’s latest invention.
Amazon Smart Thermostat
Best Budget Smart Thermostat
Offered at a surprisingly affordable price, the Amazon Smart Thermostat packs in several premium features typically reserved for high-end products.
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Pros |
Cons |
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✓ Auto-scheduling and programming |
✗ Expensive |
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✓ Powerful Nest app |
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✓ Nest Leaf icon when optimal settings are in use |
It should come as no surprise, but the best smart thermostat for Google Home is manufactured by none other than Google itself. While most products in the Google lineup are suitable picks for your smart home ecosystem, the Google Nest Learning Thermostat is the best money can buy.
Available in various metal finishes to mesh with any interior décor, the understated Nest Learning Thermostat saves the average homeowner more than 10% on heating and 15% on cooling bills.
That’s made possible due to its interactive interface that alerts you when the temperature has been set to an eco-friendly value. If you see the Nest Leaf on the screen, you can rest easy knowing you’re saving money. You can also rely on the Nest’s ability to adapt to your lifestyle, with the thermostat learning and changing the temperatures with the seasons.
Not convinced all the fancy tech is saving you money? The Nest app on iPhone and Android makes it easy to check your energy history and proves it’s worth the steep price tag.
If you can foot that initial investment, the Nest Learning Thermostat is all but guaranteed to be a perfect fit for your Google Home ecosystem, and it’ll even save you money in the long run.
Google Nest Learning Thermostat
Best Smart Thermostat for Google Home
$186 $249 Save $63
Auto-scheduling temperature changes is a simple process, and you’ll know you’re saving money when the Nest Leaf icon appears on the screen.
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Pros |
Cons |
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✓ Affordable price |
✗ SmartSensor required for some features |
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✓ Simple Apple Homekit integration |
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✓ Built-in occupancy detection |
Apple Homekit is great if you want to have the simplicity of controlling all your smart home gadgets from a single app. On the downside, there isn’t the same range of smart thermostats available for Homekit as there is for other smart ecosystems like Alexa or Google Home. Thankfully, the ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced is not only compatible with Homekit, it’s also one of the best smart thermostats around.
Although not exactly cheap at around $185, ecobee’s new enhanced thermostat has enough desirable features to make it a better value option than many of its competitors. And that’s before you consider the possibility that using this device could save you up to 26% on your home heating and cooling costs compared to a traditional thermostat.
Aside from seamless Homekit compatibility, automatic temperature adjustment, the useful pre-heat and pre-cool feature, and real-time weather monitoring, the Smart Thermostat Enhanced offers built-in occupancy detection. This allows the device to manage the temperature based solely on whether people are at home.
There is also the option to add smart sensors to the system, which allow you to monitor temperatures in individual rooms. This will bump the price up considerably, but it’s completely optional and might not be required by everyone.
The ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced is not only clever, convenient, and compatible with Apple devices, the potential savings on your utility bills means it could pay for itself in next to no time.
Ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced
Best Smart Thermostat for Apple Homekit
The ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced is a smart thermostat that can control your home’s temperature with just a tap or command from your Apple smartphone.
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Pros |
Cons |
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✓ Affordable |
✗ No built-in voice controls |
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✓ Minimalist design |
✗ Requires a C-wire or power adapter |
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✓ Optimized performance with Alexa Hunches |
The Amazon Smart Thermostat emerges once again, this time as the best pick for fans of Alexa. While it lacks built-in voice control or smart speakers, the smart appliance can easily connect to any other Alexa-enabled device in your home. Specifically, Echo Dot or Echo Show users will find Amazon’s Smart Thermostat perfect for their needs.
Although it requires the installation of a C-wire, there’s a good chance your current thermostat is already equipped with one. If that’s the case, upgrading to a smart thermostat is as simple as connecting a few wires. And if you need to install a C-wire, the Amazon Smart Thermostat helps with guided instructions via the Alexa app on Android or iPhone.
Not only will Amazon’s new smart thermostat save you at least $50 a year on energy bills, but it also carries a paltry $60 price tag. That’s less than half the price of most competitors—yet it still manages to pull together an impressive list of features.
As long as you can look past its lack of built-in microphones and speakers, the Amazon Smart Thermostat is the perfect fit for your Alexa-powered home.
Amazon Smart Thermostat
Best Smart Thermostat for Alexa
Amazon’s smart thermostat was already a great price, but you can save even more on it during Prime Day.
