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The desire for remote, autonomous devices continues to grow year by year, requiring brands to up their game to not only stay competitive but also stay relevant among the new tech products that are constantly being released. One of the main niches that gets a wide range of gadgets is smart home technology, whether that be convenience, leisure, or security products. Making your home as streamlined as possible doesn’t really have any downsides, making the investments more than worth it.

One of the major downsides for a lot of top-tier smart home gadgets, though, is that they can easily cost hundreds of dollars. This can be somewhat expected due to the complexity of many devices, but it puts them out of the budget range for many buyers. Luckily, there are still plenty of smart home gadgets that can be picked up for under $100, many of which can transform your home in surprisingly simple ways. Whether it’s unique lighting or understated surveillance, these 12 products should definitely be considered if you’re looking to modernize your home through smart technology.

For any smart home that relies on multiple gadgets, buying a top-quality smart speaker is the most important gadget you can buy. Being able to simply tell your smart speaker which one of your smart home products to control will make a significant difference, with the Amazon Echo often being the most recommended for smart home use specifically.

There are a few major brands that compete for the top spot in this category alongside Amazon, including Apple’s HomePod and Sonos’ Era. Overall audio quality tends to be where these two rivals shine brightest, but they can’t quite keep up with the Echo’s integration of communication tech. The version of the Echo we’d most recommend is the latest Dot Max, which supports Zigbee, Matter, Thread, and Bluetooth in one package. Priced at $99.99 as standard, it’s as close to the $100 mark as you can get, but Amazon has it listed for $74.99 at the time of writing. If you want to prioritize sound coverage, the larger, outgoing fourth-gen Echo also has the same connectivity options.

Amazon states that thousands of smart devices can connect to the Echo Dot Max, including lights, switches, and sensors, among others. Compared to the smaller Echo Dot, which doesn’t have Zigbee connectivity available, the Dot Max offers three times as much bass, as well as the new AZ3 chip, improving voice command accuracy and overall speed.

Moving over to the more specific smart home products, lights are unsurprisingly one of the most popular areas people invest in. Among all the brands competing in the crowded segment, Govee tends to stand out more than most. There’s no shortage of options from the brand at different price points, but if you’re OK with spending a little more, the Govee Table Lamp 2‘s incredible number of color variations makes it a perfect addition to any room in the house.

For starters, you have the choice of up to 16 million different colors, which is lower than other lights under the Govee brand. To make things easier, the Table Lamp 2 offers 60 themes if you don’t want to choose each color yourself, although the DIY mode keeps that option available. You can use the dedicated app to set up your smart light, or, to make it a proper part of your smart home setup, you can control it using a smart speaker, such as the Echo. And with almost 2,000 reviews on Amazon averaging a score of 4.7 out of 5 stars, it’s fair to say it’s worth the $79.99 standard price tag. At the time of writing, though, the light can be bought for $55.99 on Govee’s website.

This next product is much more functional, making it super useful in a few key circumstances. Particularly if you have little ones, there may well be rooms which you don’t want them to go searching around in, whether that’s an office or a bedroom. A standard lock will generally do the job, but Klloque’s fingerprint door lock can add a bit more peace of mind that only you will be able to get inside. This gadget can also add a great deal of security to your home, especially when paired with other devices such as sensors and smart cameras.

The brand goes to great lengths to ensure that this lock provides said security, as well as including a few different settings and features to match wherever you want to put it. Inside, you get settings like silent mode to ensure you don’t wake anyone up, privacy mode that completely restricts access from the outside, as well as the standard mode that’ll lock the door after five seconds of use. While the lock is primarily designed for indoors, it’s been tested in both hot and cold conditions and has an IP54 weatherproof rating. This means that it can’t handle too much exposure to the elements, but it should be fine if it has some natural protection. Amazon has it priced at $53.86, but it’s currently discounted to $35.96.

A few products on this list will focus on smart home security, with the Blink video doorbell being one of the most effective across the board. Companies such as Ring have made the video doorbell more mainstream, offering a level of home security that’s pretty hard to beat. But overall value-for-money options, such as Blink, shouldn’t be ignored. The second generation of Blink’s video doorbell was released last year, improving on all the major selling points for this gadget. Priced at $69.99 as standard on Amazon, the current deal drops it to a solid $35.99.

One of the most impactful improvements the newer video doorbell has made is increasing the field of view to 150 degrees, ensuring you get a clear view on your phone. The battery life also sees improvements, capable of lasting up to two years on lithium batteries. You’ll also be able to answer using an Alexa-powered smart speaker, making this another great gadget to use the Echo as a base for. Blink also offers a subscription plan that’s sold separately, which includes smart notifications to add another layer of security, but even without it, it still gives you peace of mind by letting you check who’s at the door before answering.

Smart technology has found its way into just about every essential appliance in the home. This is especially the case in the kitchen, which is probably the easiest place to innovate with so many different pieces of tech everywhere you look. On the simpler side of things, but no less effective, is the Cosori smart gooseneck kettle. It may not seem like it changes much, but for those who often have busy mornings or work from home, this specific kettle comes with plenty of features to help streamline things a bit more when brewing your favorite drink.

The main selling point for Cosori’s smart kettle is the free app that houses most of its features, allowing full control over the kettle’s temperature, scheduling, and whether you want it to hold temperature. It also has standard buttons on the kettle, should you prefer to use them as well. And if you’ve got your hands tied outside the kitchen, you can start boiling using voice control through compatible smart speakers. Priced at $75.99 on Amazon, it’s a little expensive for a kettle, but if you’ll be using it every day, the time it can save and the practicality it offers may well make the investment worth it.

Speakers aren’t the only area that Amazon has gone headfirst into within the smart home tech space. Having your home sitting at the right temperature is easily one of the most important factors for comfort and is even more essential in climates at either end of the scale. This is where Amazon’s smart thermostat comes in, offering one of the most well-regarded products in the segment.

This is another product that doesn’t require a smart speaker to use effectively but will complement one significantly through voice commands. Similar to many others on this list, Amazon’s smart thermostat is controlled through the Alexa app. This means that when you’re out of the house, you can set the temperature remotely to have things ready before you get home. At the time of writing, this smart home gadget sits at $79.99. Again, while you don’t need any other products to make it work, pairing it with other Amazon smart products, notably the air quality sensor, can create an ecosystem of sorts, working together to create the ideal climate for your home.

Another product that isn’t the most glamorous but can make your home much safer comes courtesy of Kidde. Smoke detectors aren’t exactly a new concept, but carbon monoxide detectors aren’t yet as widely used. Instead of needing two separate devices, Kidde combines the two in its smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector, which can keep you assured that your home is safe no matter where you are. 

Kidde uses a range of different apps that you can connect your detector to, but we’ve chosen the one that uses the Ring app due to how many other smart security devices you can have in one place, should you choose to pick up another gadget from Ring and/or Ring-compatible products. A subscription is offered to access a few more features, but the core reason for Kidde’s detector, that is, receiving notifications whenever smoke or carbon monoxide is detected, won’t cost you any more than the $69.98 standard price on Amazon. This detector is also designed to only alert you to real threats, reducing false alarms that can come up with standard detectors. User reviews often point out how easy it is to set up, frequently buying more than one to have around the house.

Another camera-based product from Ring takes the brand’s renowned quality inside. The smart doorbells are what allowed Ring to grow exponentially, but the pan-tilt indoor camera helps to cover all corners of your home as well as out front. To make sure you can actually cover all corners, this specific camera can rotate 360 degrees, as well as tilt vertically up to 169 degrees. The standard indoor cam is more than effective, judging by the tens of thousands of reviews, but the increased practicality of the pan-tilt model helps to justify its higher price point of $59.99.

Still, the pan-tilt camera has over 7,000 user reviews, averaging a score of 4.7 out of 5 stars. Many cite the clarity of the 1080p HD video, as well as the reliability of the motion detection. You can use the customizable settings to determine how sensitive the cameras are and choose which specific areas of the room trigger motion alerts sent to the Ring app. Voice activation can also be used through Alexa-powered speakers. The ability to mount the camera to the wall makes it great for larger spaces as well, meaning you shouldn’t need to purchase multiple to cover your whole home. 

Perhaps one of the most underrated smart home products to make things more comfortable is a smart humidifier. This is one that’s more specific to the climate compared to others on this list, as its most useful in colder temperatures that reduce moisture in the air. If you’re someone who is more susceptible to the cold from a health standpoint in particular, the Dreo smart humidifier can help maintain optimal indoor conditions in the winter.

Dreo’s product specifically comes with plenty of solid reviews, with its all-around practicality making the standard $59.99 seem like a great deal. At the time of writing, though, you can get it for $49.98 on Amazon. At its maximum, this humidifier can provide a mist output reaching up to 40 inches in height. The brand says that it’ll work best in rooms as large as 500 square feet, making it ideal for bedrooms and offices. The quietness is another strong point, reaching only 28 decibels. Other neat features include a humidity indicator light and an auto-dimming feature at night, keeping all the bases covered. 

While plenty of other smart home products use sensors to function, this next gadget is designed specifically for that purpose. Philips Hue has long been a leader in this specific segment, with the standard motion sensor combining with the brand’s bulbs to create an ideal lighting setup. It must be noted that this motion sensor will need a Philips Hue Bridge to function, making this an essential addition if you want to create the ultimate smart lighting setup with the brand’s products. 

Priced at $48.99 by itself, you can buy both the motion sensor and a Hue Bridge Pro for $98.99 if you don’t own one. When connected to the brand’s smart lights, this motion sensor has plenty of features to make it so effective for Hue setups. It’ll be best to position it in hallways to make sure the lights turn on before you enter the room, with the type of lighting able to be controlled through the Hue app. You can also set your personal schedule through the app to ensure that you get the desired lighting effect as soon as you enter the room at different times of day. 

While not a connected smart home device, the Hoto electric spin scrubber is a clever hands-on tool that can significantly upgrade your home’s cleaning routine. Priced at $79.99 from either Hoto’s website or Amazon, it’s definitely on the more expensive side of electric cleaning products, but Hoto does its best to make sure you get your money’s worth.

With a runtime of 110 minutes, you should easily be able to tackle the whole house without needing to take breaks to charge it. With a torque level of 2.5 newton-meters, Hoto offers six different brush heads to make sure you can clean most surfaces, including small brushes and larger pads, making it a key addition to your bathroom maintenance kit. The detachable handle should cause no trouble when getting behind fixtures, and the extendable 51-inch pole will be just as effective at reaching high walls. You can also be assured that you won’t ruin it by getting it wet, with an IPX7 waterproof rating to boot. Owners of the product frequently praise the quality of the scrubber as soon as you take it out of the box, further giving confidence that it’s worth the money. 

To add yet another layer of security to your home, purchasing a high-quality smart lockbox is one of the best ways to keep your keys secure, with a few different methods to make sure only the right people have access. It’s a highly competitive segment, but Moquin’s accessibility without sacrificing security makes it easily one of the most attractive. A price tag of $94.99 means it has to hit the mark, and judging by the dozens of reviews for the product, it ticks every box there is to tick.

The highlight for Moquin’s smart lockbox is the various ways you can open it. The first and standard method is the passcode, but you can also unlock it via fingerprint recognition. You also get some key cards to swipe to open it, as well as a standard keyhole on the underside of the box. If you’re away from home and someone needs to open the box, you also have the ability to unlock it through the app. Its IP65 weatherproof rating should keep it well protected from rain, and it can function in temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius and as high as 55 degrees.

To select the smart home gadgets for this list, we first made sure that they could be purchased for under $100 as standard, whether that’s from the manufacturer’s official site or primary outlets such as Amazon. To ensure their effectiveness, we also made sure that each product has a substantial number of reviews with an average rating of at least 4 out of 5 stars. 

If you are a frequent flyer, you are probably aware of how annoyingly long Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security lines can get in the U.S. These lines are the direct result of heightened security implemented following the September 11 attacks and are in place to make air travel secure. However, treating every single traveler as a potential suspect at airports is not a smart idea and initially led to increased processing times and passenger dissatisfaction. To get around this problem, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched the TSA PreCheck program in 2011.

The TSA PreCheck is a Trusted Traveler Program designed specifically for low-risk domestic passengers traveling within U.S. airports. Given that the vast majority of air travelers in the U.S. do not have malicious intentions and have verifiable clean records, the TSA urged passengers to sign up for the program. The process involves background check, followed by an interview. Once eligibility is confirmed, they gain access to less crowded TSA PreCheck-specific queues at airports and are subject to more relaxed security and checkup processes.

A TSA PreCheck-cleared passenger will be able to pass through specifically earmarked checkpoints without having to remove their shoes, belts, and light jackets. They are also allowed to keep their electronics and 3-1-1 compliant liquids in their carry-on bags. 

TSA PreCheck is not just limited to U.S. citizens. The program is also open for U.S. nationals, and individuals who are lawful permanent residents of the U.S. While these labels may sound very similar, there are clear differences between these three categories of people.

The first category of people who can enroll in TSA Precheck are U.S. citizens, who belong to a few specific groups: these include people born in the U.S. (regardless of the immigration status of a person’s parents), who were lawful permanent residents, and have become U.S. citizens by meeting all the requirements needed to become a naturalized citizen.

U.S. nationals are people who are born in, and are residents of, the U.S. territories of American Samoa and Swains Island. As for U.S. permanent residents, these are foreign nationals who have been granted a long-term right to reside and work in the U.S. Colloquially, they are known as green card holders.

If you fall into any of these aforementioned categories, you are eligible to sign up for the TSA PreCheck program. Do note, however, that this program is only one among the several Trusted Traveler Programs, which also includes Global Entry (for international travel), the Nexus program for frequent travel between the U.S. and Canada, and the Sentri program for U.S.-Mexico travel.