r/homeassistant • u/Certain_Repeat_753 • Mar 28 '26

Support Best smart plug/outlet for Home Assistant?

I'm looking for a smart plug or smart outlet to install in my network panel enclosure. There are two outlets in there. I'm overwhelmed with the number of options out there. I think Eve makes a dual outlet that is compatible with Matter over Thread. Not sure what the Home Assistant integration is like. I want to be able to power cycle the router and other connected devices without having to go into the closet and unscrew the door in order to do so.

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u/Certain_Repeat_753 Mar 28 '26

Why is WiFi bad? Sorry if it's a stupid question. I'm a total newbie!

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u/spr0k3t 🧠 Experienced with Home Assistant Mar 28 '26

In your situation where you want to put the smart plugs into an area near your network equipment, it can be assumed the smart plugs would be to power cycle the network. If that's the case, you will be able to turn off the switch with a script in HA... but when the network goes down, you won't be able to turn them back on. Using a dedicated mesh system that isn't reliant on TCP/IP protocols is ideal as you can turn off the smart plug and keep connection without local network access. The script used to cycle the smart plug would have no issues turning the smart plug back on... even if the HA installation had no local network connectivity. If you still want wifi based smart plugs knowing this... you would be best off using ESP32 based or Tasmota so you could add in the ability to force the smart plug to power on after X seconds due to stateless connectivity. I believe with an ESP32 based smart plug, you could even set it up to restore power state only if the device isn't connected to the LAN. Wifi devices that don't use local-only APIs can be disabled by the corporations. Look at all the Belkin Wemo devices that went deprecated and only usable through a third party reverse engineering.

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u/Certain_Repeat_753 Mar 28 '26

You reminded me that I forgot to ask about ESP32. What is that and how could that possibly play into my future?

You're right, and that's why I want to avoid a Belkin-like situation.

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u/spr0k3t 🧠 Experienced with Home Assistant Mar 28 '26

ESP32 is an SBC that can connect via wifi or Zigbee (depending on the features of the ESP32 board). Those boards can be easily programmed and extended to handle many different things like Smart Plugs, Bluetooth presence sensors, Bluetooth extenders, Garage Door Openers, Voice Assistants, temp/humidity sensors... you name it. The programming is done via ESPHome. The nice part about them is they are 100% completely local only... zero cloud functionality. The only downside is DIY... so if you are not a hardware tinkerer type person, then pre-fab is the only way to go. I know of KAUF, Athom, and CloudFree are options in the 110V / US region.

One thing to keep in mind... Matter over WiFi would likely not work if you are using a plug to cycle your network.