5 Cheaper Smart Plugs That Work Without A Hub

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Upgrading to a smart home can get expensive pretty quickly, especially if you need to replace all your appliances with their smart counterparts. Thankfully, there's a way to massively cut down on the cost and keep using your dumb appliances. Just plug a smart plug into a wall outlet, connect your appliance to it, link the plug to your Wi-Fi, and you'll be able to turn your device on and off from your phone or even set it up on a schedule.

The good news is that smart plugs don't have to cost a lot, and they can last for a few years before needing to be replaced. In fact, you can find several solid options out there for less than $20 a plug, and many of them don't even require you to set up a separate smart home hub to use them. That's because instead of connecting to a hub device, they are usually controlled through an app and connect over your 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network. This is great if you don't want to go through the trouble of setting up an entire hub or if you just want to make smartening up your home as easy as possible. 

To make sure we weren't just picking the cheapest options to highlight, we also focused on highly rated smart plugs. In fact, every plug on this list has an average rating of at least 4.0 stars on Amazon and at least 500 ratings.

If you also want to monitor how much energy your devices are using, then a smart plug like the Tapo P115 is a great place to start. The Tapo app can track how much electricity a connected device is using and it can even estimate how much that is costing you. Smart plugs like the Tapo P115 can be a great way to save on the electricity bill as you can set schedules and countdown timers. Another cool perk of the P115 is its Away Mode, which is especially helpful when you're out for a while. It turns your devices on and off at different times to give the impression that someone's at home. 

The P115 doesn't need a Tapo hub to work, either, and it supports both Alexa and Google Assistant. The four-pack on Amazon runs for $32.99, which works out to around $8.25 per plug. There's also a two-pack for $19.99 if you don't need four of them. One user even highlighted the energy monitoring in a five-star review of the two-pack, saying they love being able to see how much electricity a device is using and that the plugs were easy to set up and had responded reliably through the app since. In another review, a user noted how some of their plugs had stopped communicating with the app after just three weeks. However, they were able to reconnect the plugs and one even brought back all of the information that the plug had reported before.

Govee's Smart Plug four-pack is another one of the budget smart plugs out there worth checking out. You can get the four-pack for $29.99 typically, though it often drops in price. It's also the most-reviewed plug on this list, with a 4.5-star average and close to 14,000 ratings. Like the rest of the plugs on this list, Govee's option connects through its own app (Govee Home), and it works with Alexa and Google Assistant. You can set schedules and timers, and even group plugs together, which means you can control each one on its own or turn a bunch of them on or off at once — great for controlling entire rooms of devices.

One reviewer shared how they hooked up their plugs to plant lights, tank lights, and a few small ambient lamps. This allowed them to control every single light and set them to timers, while also making it easy to turn off lights from their bed if they forgot to before crawling under the covers.  Govee also sells a ton of other smart home gear, like its lights, so you can pair them with the plugs to keep everything situated in one app. One buyer who was already using several Govee devices said the plugs connected quickly and that they haven't had to worry about any disconnections yet.

One of the main reasons to go with the Meross Smart Plug 15A is that it also works with Apple HomeKit, which is fantastic for users who want to run their plugs through Apple's Home app. The downside here, though, is that you do technically need a HomePod or an Apple TV device to act as a hub for HomeKit remote control support to work through Apple's Home app. If you just want to use the Meross app, though, then you can set it all up without anything extra.

The four-pack retails for $39.98 on Amazon at the time of writing. This particular plug holds a 4.3-star average rating across more than 13,000 ratings. They're also small enough that two of them should fit side by side on a standard outlet. These plugs support sunrise and sunset scheduling, which makes it easy to have your lamps turn on as soon as it starts to get dark outside. One user said they have recommended the smart plugs to several people and noted that they are simple to set up and are their "go-to" plug for HomeKit.

The Geeni Dot is sold as a single or two-pack, making it a great option if you only have a couple of items to connect. It typically runs for $12.99 a piece on Amazon and has a 4.5-star average from close to 6,000 ratings. The plug connects directly to your 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and doesn't need a hub. It also allows you to set up schedules and timers through the Geeni app, and can be connected to both Alexa and Google Assistant.

One user who picked up a two-pack noted that the plugs worked great and made it easy to turn their lights on and off remotely even when they were out of town. They called the setup "effortless" and said that they already had some of the cameras that Geeni offers, which means they could manage everything in one app. Another user praised the plugs, even going so far as to call them the "closest thing to 'Star Trek' you can get" thanks to how easy they make managing your lights without having to turn everything on manually. The biggest downside to this particular model over some of the other options on the list, though, is that users say that you can only fit one Geeni plug into an outlet, as the overall design is too large to let you plug in another.

If you're already using the Wyze app for other devices around your home, then the indoor Wyze Plug is going to fit right in. It is the most expensive option on our list, though, with the Amazon two-pack retailing at $29.98. It does have a 4.5-star average from over 9,000 ratings, and like the others, it connects over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi without a hub and works with both Alexa and Google Assistant. Along with remote control and schedules, Wyze also lets you group plugs together, and it offers a Vacation Mode — which works similarly to the Away Mode on the Tapo P115 – that randomly turns your lamps on and off during the morning and evening to potentially ward off thieves.

One reviewer who received the plugs as a gift said they've since ditched their old manual timers and bought even more of them. They did note that they have run into the occasional connectivity problem or bug, but said those were usually easy to fix. This is, unfortunately, a common concern with smart plugs, as they operate off your internet connection, so it is something to keep in mind if you have an unstable internet connection. Still, if you're comfortable using the Wyze app already and want to keep everything in one ecosystem, then Wyze's smart plug is a slightly pricey yet solid option.

When we sat down to come up with this list, we wanted to not only highlight smart plugs that didn't require a hub, but also plugs that were extremely affordable. Making your home smarter shouldn't cost hundreds or thousands of dollars for the basics, and all of the plugs on this list should make it possible to get something set up without breaking the bank. Additionally, we wanted to highlight smart plugs that had good reviews, and every option we picked has an average rating of over 4 stars on Amazon and thousands of ratings.