Best Smart Thermostats 2023

Aug 22, 2023

The best smart thermostats have a lot to offer. They make managing your home’s heating and air conditioning easier, and can help lower your utility bill in the process. This is especially true as much of the country faces record breaking heat this summer. Smart thermostats can turn the temperature up when you are home, then turn it down automatically at night or when you leave, saving energy and money. Some—like our current favorite the Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium—will also learn your schedule and find the most efficient settings to keep you comfortable at the lowest cost.

The best smart thermostats, like the Ecobee Premium, can help you live in comfort while saving ... [+] money.

Our team carefully researched all the latest options to find the best smart thermostats you can buy now. We took in consideration each thermostat compatibility, installation needs and learning capabilities. And we found answers to some of the most important questions to consider when buying one: Will it work with the same ecosystem as other devices in your home like a smart speaker or smart lock? How easy is it to set up? Can it automatically adjust to your routine and find ways to cut down your heating and cooling costs? Read on for our top picks.

Best Buy

Compatibility: Apple HomeKit (Siri), Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa | Self-installation: Yes | Learning: Yes

Best for: Controlling temperature from a mobile device or smart speaker.

The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium has a slew of useful features, including a smart sensor you can place in another room to maintain an even temperature throughout. It automatically adapts to your schedule and lifestyle—with the goal of saving money over time on your utility bills. Ecobee claims its smart thermostat will cut up to 26% off your heating and cooling costs.

The black unit has a sleek and modern design, with a compact 4.1 x 2.2 x 4.1-inch footprint. The thermostat is compatible with Apple HomeKit (Siri), Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa voice assistants, so you can control it through a smart phone or a smart home hub. The Ecobee works as a smart hub as well: You can talk directly to your voice assistant. If you use compatible Ecobee smart home devices, Ecobee’s Smart Security service ($10 per month) enables multiple cameras and 24/7 home monitoring to track things like humidity and sudden temperature changes.

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Amazon

Compatibility: Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa | Self-installation: Yes | Learning: Yes

Best for: Adding a smart thermostat that learns your preferences, schedule and lifestyle.

Google Nest has a distinctive "modern retro" circular look and full-color display that stands out from the sea of rectangular or square touchscreens on the market. It also comes in more finishes (about a half-dozen) than any other smart thermostat. Nest makes setup famously simple, as long as you have a compatible HVAC system. Google Nest works with modern 5-wire furnaces with a C-wire; it may also work with an older 4-wire setup, but you may need an electrician. Once installed, answer a few questions and hook it up to your home's Wi-Fi network. Over time, Google Nest learns your schedule and climate preferences and then makes these adjustments automatically with little to no input from you. Google Nest knows when you're away, so it won't cool or heat an empty house and can ramp up the temperature in anticipation of your return. As part of the Google Nest ecosystem, it integrates with Nest Cam, Nest Hub, Nest smart speakers and other compatible smart devices. You can also add up to six Nest remote sensors ($39 each) to detect the temperature in other rooms and help the Nest system keep temperature consistent throughout. It has apps for iOS devices and the Apple Watch, though and Google Home is available for iOS and Mac devices, so Mac users are not completely in the dark. It lacks native Apple HomeKit integration support, though, so you can’t control Google Nest with Apple’s voice assistant Siri.

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Amazon

Compatibility: Apple HomeKit (Siri), Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa | Self-installation: Yes | Learning: Yes

Best for: Controlling your home’s temperature without spending a fortune or sacrificing features.

The Emerson Sensi Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat costs about half of what the competition charges, but it still has the core features needed to make it one of the best smart thermostats. Its rectangular design lacks the style of Ecobee or Google Nest models, but what it lacks in aesthetics, the Sensi more than makes up for in ease of use and overall practicality. It’s easy to install, as it usually doesn’t require a C-wire, is simple to use, and works with plenty of smart home accessories.

The Sensi knows when you come and go, for example, thanks to a presence sensor, and can adjust the temperature accordingly. The brightly lit display is easy to read. You can control the display using the small array of buttons surrounding the screen, or via an app on your iOS or Android-based smartphone, tablet or smartwatch. When using this thermostat, you can set the temperature and forget about it, or create a specific schedule for the thermostat. Enable geofencing and the app will track your whereabouts and take that into consideration as well. The Sensi automatically generates monthly reports to track your overall energy usage.

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Amazon

Compatibility: Apple HomeKit (Siri), Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa | Self-installation: Yes | Learning: Yes

Best for: Controlling electric baseboard heaters.

Since baseboard-style heaters use high voltages, they require a specific smart thermostat like the Mysa Smart Thermostat for Electric Baseboard, which can deftly switch between 110 volts or 220 volts. The Mysa Smart Thermostat directly controls one room’s baseboard heater by design, unsurprising given each baseboard heater is a discrete unit. If your home has baseboard heating throughout, you need to get a smart thermostat for each room you want to control. Each thermostat can only handle 1500 watts of heating at 110 volts or 3800 watts at 220 volts, which may become an issue for those in a very cold climate or heating a very large room, two scenarios where the heating system may exceed that limit.

Although each room requires one of these devices, Mysa’s mobile app can group rooms into zones, so this works more like an ordinary smart thermostat. The app can also set up a schedule for each room, zone or the whole house, and turn off all heaters with a tap. While you can install this smart thermostat yourself, handling high voltages is usually best left to a professional electrician. Once installed, though, it has easy-to-navigate, touch-sensitive controls with audible feedback and an attractive, adaptive display that adjusts to the lighting.

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Amazon

Compatibility: Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant | Self-installation: Yes | Learning: No

Best for: A large, full-color display and strong manual controls.

The Vine Smart Thermostat TJ-919E features a generous 4.3-inch color display that shows detailed information. The display is intuitive, and its large size lets you quickly see the current temperature settings—even from across the room. That’s a big plus for those with vision issues or limited mobility. The thermostat is compatible with a wider range of heating and cooling systems than most competitors, including dual-fuel heaters and one or two-stage heat pump systems that include an auxiliary heating or source.

Using the Vine mobile app, you can control this thermostat from any Internet-connected mobile device. Voice commands, however, will only work with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant-compatible devices: it lacks support for Apple’s Siri voice commands and Apple’s HomeKit smart home system. The display and the app also offer a local weather preview, which is useful for knowing where to set the thermostat. When used over time, this thermostat should help you shave 20% off your HVAC-related utility bills.

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Amazon

Compatibility: Apple HomeKit (Siri), Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa | Self-installation: Yes | Learning: Yes

Best for: A smarter thermostat which covers the basics.

If you don’t care about voice control, smart home integration or air quality, the Ecobee3 Lite is our top pick for a smart thermostat which handles managing your home’s temperature. It offers a large touchscreen display and a mobile app that can set the temperature from anywhere. A nifty mounting plate system identifies where to place each cable, which makes it easy to install, even though it uses a C-wire. Ecobee also offers an upgrade kit to bridge the gap between older systems and a C-wire.

The Ecobee3 Lite doesn’t have features like an add-on security system, occupancy sensor or an air quality sensor. Nor does it have an integrated smart speaker or smart home hub. However, if you are moving up from an old-school dial thermostat or battery-powered programmable model, you probably won’t miss these features. Instead, you get an attractive, simple smart thermostat you can control via an existing smart home hub (including those from Amazon, Apple and Google) or through the Ecobee app—and nothing more.

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The Forbes Vetted team knows the ins and outs of the consumer technology market. We’ve researched, tested and written our way through hundreds of guides on electronics, including smart home gadgets and the Wi-Fi routers used to connect them to your home. Our writers and editors have years of experience covering tech and testing products to help you find the best ones for your needs. This includes contributor and seasoned product-tester Jason R. Rich, and deputy editor Dave Johnson, who is an accomplished technology journalist and author.

We also regularly update this guide to bring you the most up-to-date and helpful advice. It was last updated in August 2023 to expand how we chose the smart thermostats on this list and what factors to consider when buying one.

To compile this list, we sought out reputable brands, like Ecobee and Google, and poured over each smart thermostat’s specs. We compared each model in aspects of compatibility (does it work with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit or Google Assistant), installation requirements and learning capabilities to assess whether they meet the needs of the average household. We then leveraged our research findings with industry knowledge from our expert tech writers and editors to narrow down the best of the best.

Aside from specs, each smart thermostat needed to have stellar customer reviews—most of the picks on our list scored over 4.5 out of 5 stars. We also made sure each of the thermostats are conveniently available at popular retailers, like Amazon and BestBuy.

There are several key features to consider before adding a smart thermostat to your home. This includes compatibility with other smart home technologies, how it’s installed and its learning abilities. We break down these three features below.

Before you add a smart thermostat to your cart, you need to consider what smart home ecosystem you currently have or which one you’re interested in building. Some of the more popular options are Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant. Many of the smart thermostats on our list are compatible with all three, but some– like the Google Nest Learning Thermostat and Vine Thermostat (6th Gen)—only work with a select few.

We’re stating the obvious here, but your smart thermostat needs to be installed before you can start reaping its benefits. Luckily, all of the options on this list can be self-installed as long as you’re comfortable with basic electrical work. Just note that it’s important to know what type of HVAC system you have and how your current thermostat is wired before making the switch. For those less keen on handling installation themselves, you can hire a professional electrician even if a smart thermostat is DIY-friendly.

Some smart thermostats use sensors, algorithms and geofencing to learn your schedule and routine and then make adjustments to the temperature accordingly to save you energy and money. In fact, almost all the options on our list have the ability to do this in some capacity. But if learning capability isn’t a must-have feature, consider opting for one without it, like the Vine Thermostat (6th Gen).