Mashable Readers’ Choice Awards 2025: Your favorite smart home devices

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Home products have become much more “smart” in recent years. according to StatistaSmart home penetration will reach 89.5 percent in 2025, and 99 percent by 2029. This means that almost every household in America is using some form of smart home device. We’ve come a long way since the days of The Clapper.

Smart home devices can add a level of convenience to daily life, assuming they are installed correctly and offer a truly seamless integration and user-friendly experience.

But this leads us to the question: Which home devices actually qualify as smart?

Instead of just answering it ourselves, we put it to you, our readers. In our first Readers’ Choice Awards, we asked you which smart home brands you use and love across different smart home categories.

Best home security cameras in 2025

First up are the security cameras. In a survey conducted by US News & World Report, 62 percent of respondents use outdoor security cameras, while 36 percent use indoor security cameras. Home security cameras can obviously be great for peace of mind and a sense of security, or for monitoring porch pirates. But your privacy is also an important factor to consider in a device that captures continuous footage of you, your home, and your neighborhood.

Blink was the winner in overall satisfaction here with a score of 7.8 out of 10, beating out Ring and Wyze, both of which scored a 7.7 rating. A note from us: We do not endorse rings in our product recommendations Due to many privacy issues,

(Be sure to click on the arrows on the chart below to cycle through each category of our survey results.)

All three brands were great across the board, but each stood out in a few areas. Blink users appreciate the ease of setup and use, budget-friendly pricing, and free cloud storage.

Wyze was rated best in cost, but lowest in audio quality and motion detection, so this could be a potential compromise. Price was definitely a big factor among survey respondents, with comments such as “Great product. Reasonable price,” “Cameras work well and the price was within budget,” and “Wyze security cameras are decent for the price.”

Our readers praised Ring for its easy setup, with two respondents writing, “I’ve owned multiple generations of cameras over 20 years and Ring is the easiest to set up and use,” and “I’ve had security cameras before. None were as easy to set up and use as Ring.”

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A common complaint across all three brands was that the cameras do not record enough time before detecting motion.

Best smart home assistant in 2025

Smart assistants are like the brain of a smart home. They act as a hub for controlling other devices through voice, schedules, or other triggers. Smart accessories can range from small speakers that take up very little space to large screens that mount on your countertop or on the wall. Apple’s Siri is arguably the most popular in smartphones, while Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa are big names in smart home devices.

Google was our winner across the board, although Amazon Alexa came in second. One survey respondent said, “I like Alexa for regular items and integration, but Google Assistant [is] better [at] Answering questions.”

Some surveyors had similar experiences in that they like the convenience provided by their smart assistant, but have also had frustrating interactions with them.

One wrote: “My experience with Amazon Alexa was great. One of the best moments was when I set up my smart home with Alexa and connected everything from lights to thermostats and smart plugs. It was very easy to control everything with just my voice. For example, I could ask Alexa to turn off the lights or set the temperature, which made life much more convenient, especially when I had my hands full. However, I did encounter some problems at times. It was a little frustrating when Alexa didn’t respond properly, especially if there was noise in the background or I wasn’t very clear. Sometimes, Alexa also didn’t sync correctly with some smart devices, which required troubleshooting, however, I have found Alexa to be helpful and a great addition to my home automation.

And one Google user wrote: “We have Google displays, speakers, TVs integrated with Google TV, and third-party plugs, bulbs, and the like all over our house. Just recently, I upgraded to a Google Mesh router. Setting up third-party devices can be a little tricky sometimes, but once everything is working, it’s nice to be able to control everything in the Google Home app.”

Best Smart Lights in 2025

Smart bulbs and smart plugs are some of the most accessible smart home devices in terms of price and ease of use. Philips Hue, Govi, and TP-Link (Kasa) are some of the big names in smart lights. Each has product offerings ranging from basic dimmable white light bulbs to programmable outdoor string lights or TV backlights.

Philips Hue is a more premium brand with a higher price tag, and this was evident in our survey results. Just a note: TP-Link is under investigation for security vulnerabilities With its routers and predatory pricing,

TP-Link led most of our survey categories; However, both TP-Link and Philips Hue were rated equally for likelihood of recommendation.

One reader wrote, “The only reason I’m not ‘highly likely’ to recommend Philips Hue is because they’re relatively expensive compared to other brands.” And we saw this reflected in the comments from TP-Link users, with one person writing, “I’ve had another brand before and been very disappointed. I’m glad to see that these work as well as I like at a lower price.”

Best Smart Vacuum Brands in 2025

Our resident vacuum expert, Leah Stoddart, says, “Actually cleaning performance definitely plays a big role in how spotless your floors will be. But if your vacuum is a pain to clean, you won’t feel like using it – whether it’s an upright vacuum that’s too clunky to pull out of the closet or a robot vacuum that often gets stuck.” And these are the types of functions we wanted to ask you about.

Only two brands made the cut for our readers, but Stoddart tested the Upright Vacuum and the Robot Vacuum in her own apartment and has some great recommendations from other brands.

iRobot offers different price points, ranging from basic and budget-friendly to high-tech and downright expensive. Our survey participants had some of the newer models as well as older, simpler models that get the job done without any extra features. One wrote, “This is an easy-to-use, simple feature, low-powered smart vacuum robot; however, this makes it desirable to a lot of people like me because it is easier to use than complex systems.”

Mashable’s Readers’ Choice: Smartest Homes survey ran from November 16, 2024 to March 20, 2025. Stay tuned for our next survey,