Real advice on Smart Home DIY by a professional techie & technology enthusiast

Get my advice on cool gadgets and the latest smart technology before you buy

I’ll help you quickly understand your smart home device to find the right IOT based on my years of research and testing different products

Beginners Smart Home Guide

Get an overview of setting up a smart home and how it all works.

Ultimate guide to Matter

Critical facts you need to know about the new “Matter” smart home release.

How to choose a Protocol

Comparison of home automation protocols – which protocol is best?

Smart Home Hubs

Critical facts you need to know about smart home hubs before you buy one

Smart Home Thermostats

My expert advice on smart home thermostats and whether they are worth it.

Smart Home Lighting

Essential info you need to know about smart home lighting uncovered by me

Here's How to Build the Best Smart Home System

We write about how to build the best home automation system (or smart home) for the common homeowner. The IOT in TheIOTpad refers to “the internet of things“. This refers to the network of physical objects embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for connecting over the Internet. Many smart home products use WiFi, Bluetooth and the latest technological innovations. We review the best products and systems so you can find one right for you.

Here you’ll find straight forward advice on home automation products that can be easily sourced. You won’t find any custom components that you have to solder or hack to make work.

Get the best automation device for your home

We do all the research, reviews and comparisons so you don't have to

When you come to the best home automation device reviews, you can expect well-researched and helpful information, buyer guides, reviews and comparisons for smart devices of all styles and brands.

We are technology enthusiasts who love to research the details and bring easy-to-read summaries so you can fully understand the products and make smart buying decisions to save time and money.

Our Buyer's Guide To Smart Home

Ad-free. Influence-free. Powered by Testing.

The Internet of Things (TheIOTPad) website is founded on the principle of honest, objective reviews. Our experts test thousands of products each year using thoughtful test plans that bring out key performance differences between competing products.

And, to assure complete independence, we buy all the products we test ourselves. No cherry-picked units sent by manufacturers. No sponsored content. No ads. Just real, honest, side-by-side testing and comparison.

How We Compare & Choose

Expert knowledge to help you buy smart

We provide expert knowledge about smart home hubs, systems, light bulbs & switches, smart thermostats and accessories, and ratings and data about how they measure up in various performance categories.

We explain what sets a product apart from its competitors and suggest other comparable products based on price or use.

We also look at how the smart devices have been designed and what type of building they are targeted – so you can make your decision based on what is right for you and your riding style.

Factors in choosing smart devices for your home

1. Easy to Use

2. Universal device from any manufacturer

The ideal system will allow you to choose from a wide variety of components from whichever manufacturer you prefer.

This is a challenge with the range of proprietary communications protocols on the market, but it is achievable.

Think about it, you can use an iPhone to call a landline or an Android phone. You can send a text file from your Mac at home to your Windows PC at the office. Smart home systems should be no different.

This will require IOT (Internet of things) standards to be established and agreed to by the various manufacturers and programmers, but it is doable.

3. Expandable, Upgradable, and Backwards Compatible

4. Secure

Last, but most definitely not least is security. Our smart homes must be secure – just as secure as our cell phones and online banking. Security is challenging, especially since we also want ultimate flexibility and universality. However, device manufacturers cannot skimp on security just to add a gimmicky feature. Security first, features later – we can’t stress this enough.

5. Smart, but not Gimmicky

Of course, smart homes should be smart. However, they aren’t currently as smart as they should be. Yes, your Nest Learning Thermostat is quite smart in that it can learn your temperature preferences, it keeps track of your energy use, and sends you a report on how you are doing. However, thermostats are one of the few product groups that has this level of intelligence. We need all of our devices to track power consumption and to ask you if something seems odd. Wouldn’t it be great if your oven sent an alert to your phone after it has been left on an hour longer than the timer you set?

Right now, a lot of devices (especially lighting) are gimmicky. Do you really want your lights to turn purple? Do you really need to turn your lights off by voice command if you are standing right next to the switch? We know that “the smarts” will develop and overtake the gimmick, but we can’t wait for that to happen.