The Best Smart Locks for Your Amazon Echo

A smart lock for your front door is a great way to add some convenience to your daily routine, and if you want to be able to control it with your voice using your Echo, there are a couple of good options that work great with Alexa.

Keep in mind that there are different smart locks to choose from that come with different features, so the “best” one for you may be different than the “best” one for someone else. With that said, we’ll go over a few different locks that come with various features.

Kwikset Kevo ($229)

Whether or not you want a smart lock that works with Alexa, one of the best on the market is the Kwikset Kevo. It uses touch-to-open technology and it has a discreet style that doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.

The touch-to-open feature is our favorite thing about the Kevo, as you simply tap on the lock’s body and it proceeds to either lock or unlock. To do this, it detects if your phone is nearby and uses that as authorization of sorts. It can even detect if you’re outside or inside your house so that no one tries to unlock your door while you’re home.

It’s one of the more expensive smart locks on the market, although you can usually find it on sale at a nice discount. But in order to use it with your Amazon Echo, you’ll need Kevo Plus, which is a one-time $99 purchase that comes with a gateway hub in order to connect it to your network. Otherwise, it simply works over Bluetooth with your phone.

Keep Your Existing Deadbolt: August Smart Lock ($149)

If you’re a fan of not replacing your existing deadbolt (either because you like the look of it or just don’t want to change out the keys), then your best bet is the August Smart Lock.

All you do is replace the interior mechanism with the August lock and the outside part remains the same, so it looks just like a normal lock from the outside. However, you’re pretty much left with a full-fledged smart lock.

Just like with the Kevo, you’ll need a separate hub in the form of the August Connect Wi-Fi Bridge in order to use it with your Amazon Echo. However, this still makes the August lock cheaper overall than the Kevo, making it a good option if you’re on a budget.

If You Have a Smarthome Hub: Schlage Connect ($199)

If you already have a smarthome hub, there are plenty of Z-Wave smart locks that you can choose from, but the Schlage Connect is our favorite.

While this does require a pre-existing smarthome hub, the Connect will work with just about any of them that support Z-Wave, so there’s a lot of flexibility here, especially since the other smart locks require their own proprietary hub. And as long as your smarthome hub works with Alexa, the Connect will too.

The Connect also has a keypad, which allows for entry without needing your phone or a physical key. We think a keypad is a really nice feature to have regardless of its smart lock status, and it’s particularly useful if you have kids (who tend to lose their keys and may not have a smartphone of their own yet).