8 Cheap Smart Home Gadgets Under $30 That Are Actually Worth Buying

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With the advancing technology, many consumers are shifting toward smart home automations by including various smart devices around the house that eliminate the physical efforts attached to executing everyday tasks. For instance, gone are the times when you had to get up from the comfort of your bed to turn off your phone’s charger or turn on the lights or fans in the room. All of this is now possible via smart bulbs, smart plugs, and other devices that let you perform these tasks through dedicated apps or voice assistants like Alexa or Google Home.

And unlike common belief, not all smart home gadgets will cost you an arm and a leg. Instead, there are some cheap smart gadgets that will add to your setup without being expensive, like smart security cameras and more. Hence, we rounded up an assortment of smart home gadgets that were not only affordable (all under $30) but were also high-quality products with great user feedback (based on a minimum rating of 4.3 stars) on various retail sites to back the product’s performance and reliability.

Smart light bulbs are a useful addition to any smart home setup since they let you control the operation via dedicated apps or through voice commands when integrated with the common smart assistants like Alexa or Google Home. The Govee Smart Light Bulbs, priced at just $11.99 following a 20% discount on Amazon, offer all the above-mentioned convenience. 

Capable of producing 800 lumens of light output, you can experiment with around 16 million color combinations and over 64 effects with these RGB lights. Plus, you can schedule them to turn on or off at specific times every day, such as at 6 p.m. daily to eliminate the hassle of getting up and switching on the lights physically. It can also sync with the music currently playing on your smartphone to match light effects with the beat of the sound for an immersive experience. These lights also let you choose on a spectrum of cool and warm white shades to suit the mood of the room. 

Considering all these cool features, this gadget, possessing an impressive score of 4.6 stars from more than 26,500 global Amazon customers, is a must-have for your smart home. It has been praised for the vibrant color options, easy setup, and seamless integration with the voice assistants for hands-free control.

With the Amazon Smart Plug, the control of all your devices is in the palm of your hands. Manage the power status of the connected device, such as a smartphone charger via the Alexa app or compatible Alexa devices like the Echo, without having to physically get up and push the switch on or off. You can connect the plug to any electrical outlet in your house and turn it into a smart outlet, plus the compact design ensures the nearby outlets remain available for use. 

Furthermore, it lets you set timers for the devices to turn off after a particular period, such as two hours, which especially proves useful in the prevention of overcharging of your smart devices. You can also schedule them to operate them at certain time intervals, like the coffee machine turning on every morning at 9 so you can enjoy a hot cup of coffee as soon as you wake up.

Rated at 4.7 stars by more than 570,000 Amazon reviewers, this smart plug can be purchased for $24.99 on the platform. Users of this gadget found it handy in controlling their small appliances, and the ability to control the device despite being away from home also sat well among the user base.

Keep track of everything that’s happening inside your house with the Mubview Indoor Security Camera that offers crystal-clear video quality in 2K FHD quality so you can note all the tiny details in the footage — right on your smartphone. You can also swipe up, down, left, or right on the phone screen to change the camera’s point of view, with the total viewing angle being 355 degrees horizontally and 80 degrees vertically. Moreover, it can secure footage even in low-light conditions, thanks to the Night Vision feature that offers a five-megapixel clarity; hence, it is perfect for keeping an eye on your baby throughout the night as they sleep.

Not only this, but you can also hear when they cry as audio is picked up by the integrated microphone, while the speaker lets you talk with the person on the other end via the app for two-way communication. This smart camera is also great for monitoring the movements of your pet, as it can track its moves via motion tracking to send you real-time alerts on the phone if it steps into the specified activity zones. 

The camera is currently selling on Amazon at a 20% slashed price of $23.99 and sits at a 4.3-star rating from more than 8,000 customers. Most users liked that the camera offers the live pan feature, which is super convenient to look around the room when physically being somewhere else.

The Kasa Smart Power Strip comes with three Type-B electrical outlets and two USB-A ports so you can power all types of devices, be they monitors, printers, or smartphones, via the same strip. All the Type-B outlets are individually controlled, which means you can manage the power supply to each of the connected devices via the Kasa smart app or the smart home assistants, like Alexa or Google Home. The status light above each outlet indicates its power status. 

Moreover, the app also updates you on the power consumption of each device so you can turn off the ones that are consuming significant electricity, hence saving on the bills. This power strip has built-in surge protection to keep your devices safe against sudden voltage fluctuations. Other than these, you can also schedule each outlet to turn on or off at certain times, which is another handy feature to give you more control over the appliances. 

Making for an easy smart home upgrade for beginners, this gadget is available on Amazon for $24.99 following a 17% reduction in the original price. It is rated at 4.6 stars from 16,395 customers who appreciated its smart features and how easy it made to control different devices via the smart app.

A contact sensor keeps you informed on when a door has opened or closed, making for a great addition to smartly automated homes. The ThirdReality Zigbee Contact Sensor pairs with compatible Zigbee hubs or Echo devices and uses two AAA 1.5-volt batteries to work. You can install it on your main doors and windows, and it will work as a security guard for the house by alerting you when a particular door or window has opened by sending alerts to the connected smartphone via the app. It also lets you monitor the battery levels so you can carry out timely battery replacements to ensure uninterrupted home security.

Furthermore, the app also keeps a history of when a particular door was opened and closed, so you can keep track of the movements. This smart sensor is up for grabs on Amazon for $19.99 and possesses a score of 4.4 stars following over 1,100 Amazon reviews. Customers found it to be reliable and a functional gadget that also makes for one of the cheapest ways to turn their house into a smart home.

The AgsHome Smart Garage Door Opener installs onto your garage door to give you remote access over its operation, such that you can open or close it while sitting inside the house, at the convenience of the SmartLife app on your phone. Not only this, but you can also schedule the door to close or open at a specific time, for instance, eight in the morning every day when you leave for work. The app sends you an alert when the door has opened or closed, or in case someone mistakenly forgot to close it, so you can do it from your phone.

In addition, it also integrated with Alexa and Google Home for a hands-free control. Thus, you can speak into your phone to open the garage door as soon as you arrive near the house. It also keeps a record of when the garage door was accessed so you can keep an eye on any suspicious activities while you were away. The device is available on Amazon for $21.99 and holds a 4.3-star rating from 1,363 reviewers who liked that they could manage their garage door’s operation from an easy-to-use app, making it a must-have smart device for a garage.

Remain worry-free by installing the GoveeLife Smart Water Leak Detector in different areas of your house near the kitchen sink, washroom basin, basement, and more. Built with a range of 1,804 feet, it can signal for water leaks even through five dense walls, enabled by the 105-decibel loud alert alarm integrated into the device. However, you can tone down the sound intensity per your requirement and instantly turn off the alarm via the app once you are aware of the issue. On top of this, it also sends push alerts in the compatible app and your connected email as soon as a water leak is detected.

The sensor has an IP67 rating with a five-year battery life, so it stays by your side for a long time. There are four contact points — two on the bottom and two on the top of the device — that help figure out whether there is a drip or a leakage by mentioning which point came in contact with water. 

Up for $28.48 on Amazon after a 5% discount, this water leak detector holds 4.4 stars from 2,189 reviewers. Buyers talked about how the device quickly detects water and notifies them timely before there’s a mess in the room. The app integration was also seamless, and the purchase brought many a piece of mind by elevating their smart home setup.

Maintaining of your body weight, burned calories, and relevant health-related numbers have been easier. The iHome Smart Bathroom Scale utilizes four advanced sensors to capture an accurate body weight, up to 397 pounds, along with other essential readings like body fat, water weight, muscle mass, and BMI. All of this can be viewed in the iHome Health and Fitness app, which is also compatible with Google Fit and Apple Health, since the device pairs with your smartphone via Bluetooth to maintain the updated numbers. Consequently, you can have a database of all your health in a single, easy-to-use app, which you can further use to stay healthy by regulating the water intake and more.

Additionally, the scale is made of durable tempered glass with scratch-resistant properties, as well as an anti-slip back for a firm placement. The LED screen shows the noted weight in large and clear digits for convenient observation. Rated at 4.6 stars on Walmart.com by more than 6,000 customers, this battery-powered scale is one of the best sellers on the platform. Users like it for the comprehensive data it offers, all within an affordable price of around $20.

While there are plenty of smart home gadgets available out there, we picked the ones that met our set criteria. Beginning with the ratings, all of these gadgets hold a minimum rating of 4.3 stars gathered from at least a thousand reviews on the particular product page. We picked gadgets from popular retail platforms, like Amazon and Walmart, that have gained the trust of customers over the years of their existence. Additionally, all the products here are listed at a price of under $30, though the current sale price may vary due to the ongoing deals and discounts on the respective retail sites.