Best in Home Automation: Top Innovators

Winners of the CreditDonkey Best in Home Automation have been announced. These resources will make life around your house so much easier - you'll wonder how you ever got by without them.

Best Home Automation © CreditDonkey

After a long day at work, you don't want to have to think or do too much. Fortunately, you're living in the here and now, when smart technologies and automation are multiplying by the day, and they're making home life easy by smartening up your appliances - even your light bulbs. You can keep your home humming by equipping it with the latest devices and tools from our list of the Best in Home Automation.

TOP TOOLS IN HOME AUTOMATION TOOLS

Innovation has hit the home market. Great ideas and advances in technology have combined to ease consumers' way of life.

At CreditDonkey, we pay attention to ways you can best secure your home and create cost efficiencies in running your household. Many of the devices and systems on our list are "smart," with Internet connectivity to give you more control over your household runs. And they can help you save money by making things more efficient (like not having your heat on high when you're away) or freeing up your time so you can spend it doing something else besides home upkeep.

There's only one downside to all of these modern tools: So many startups show up in the home automation space that it's hard to know which ones are truly innovative, practical, and likely to last. Only the ones that we think are worthy of your time are on this list.

Read on to turn up the intelligent meter of your home and your appliances.

Best Home Automation © CreditDonkey

• Smarthome
  

  Smart home is an online home automation superstore that sells everything from locks to thermostats to smart home hubs. CEO Joe Dada co-founded the company in 1992, and has continued selling the most cutting edge products in home automation ever since.

  Why Smarthome is Best in Home Automation: Whether you're looking to add to your smart home system or just doing some research on what's out there, this site almost certainly has what you're looking for. There's even a step-by-step guide to getting started with home automation for newbies.

  Read: Smarthome Smart prices
  Follow @SmarthomeInc

• Tekoia
  SURE Universal is a universal remote app for Android, and soon for iPhone, that connects to smart home and Internet of Things technology, enabling you to control your home appliances with your phone.

  Why SURE Universal is Best in Home Automation: SURE technology is truly universal, working with legacy infrared appliances as well as Wi-Fi enabled digital media devices. Best of all, you can set it up to work with any number of gadgets in just minutes. SURE Universal is also future proof since it is certified by Open Connectivity Foundation - the leading open standard for IoT and Smart Home.

  Read: 7 Fun Activities For Kids During The Summer Vacation
  

• Yonomi
  

  Yonomi is a free app that enhances the smart devices around your home by allowing them to connect to one another and work in harmony.

  Why Yonomi is Best in Home Automation: Get all of your favorite connected home devices to play together like Sonos speakers, Philips Hue lights, Amazon Echo, Nest® products, and Schlage smart locks with the free Yonomi app. You can quickly and easily set up “Routines” where your devices respond automatically to each other and you based on your location, the time of day and your preferences.

  Yonomi helps make daily routines easier and more connected. When you head out, the “Leave Home” Routine can turn off all of your lights, pause the Sonos, and turn down the thermostat to save energy. After a busy day, tap your phone, Apple Watch or ask Alexa to "Turn on Movie Night" and get comfortable as the lights dim, TV flips on, and thermostat warms up the house.

  Read: New Honeywell Lyric T5 Thermostat Heats Up Smart Thermostat Market
  Follow @Yonomi

• Twist Home
  

  Twist Home offers users a smart home experience in a lightbulb that wakes up each morning with energizing white light, and eases into relaxing yellow light at night.

  Why Twist Home is Best in Home Automation: They also offer a lightbulb that contains a wireless speaker, so you can stream music to any room in your house. With wireless audio in every room and automatically-adjusting lights, you'll feel like you're living in a smart house just by replacing your lightbulbs.

  Read: Twist Home
  Follow @TwistHome

• Igloohome
  

  Igloohome creates smart digital locks and lockboxes, perfect for Airbnb hosts and anyone who's sick of losing their keys.

  Why Igloohome is Best in Home Automation: With their digital locks, you can create time-sensitive PIN codes and Bluetooth keys, allowing you to restrict access for temporary guests. They keyboxes make it easy for Airbnb guests to check in and out: they just enter a temporary PIN to access the key.

  Read: The World's First Smart Lockbox
  Follow igloohomeco

• TrackR
  

  TrackR is a simple solution for people who constantly misplace their keys, wallet, TV remote or other items around the house. Just attach TrackR to your important items and pair it with the free phone app via Bluetooth to locate your belongings in seconds . Co-founder and CEO Chris Herbert and fellow co-founder and President Christian Smith were inspired to create TrackR when they misplaced their car keys on the beach while surfing. After this experience, they were determined to never lose anything again. They set out to create a device that would not only keep track of keys, but everything.

  Why TrackR is Best in Home Automation: Anyone sick of hunting for their wallet, keys, or anything else will love the ease of TrackR, which will ensure that you never lose your most important stuff again. If you've lost your phone, you can even press a button on TrackR to make it ring (even if it's on silent mode) so you can hunt it down.

  Read: TrackR bravo
  Follow @TheTrackR

• Luma
  

  Luma is an advanced home Wi-Fi system that eliminates dead zones and gives you unprecedented control over your network via its handy app. Luma is the brainchild of Dr. Paul Judge and Mike Van Bruinisse, who have worked together for 15 years to solve complex networking and security problems for the some of the world's largest companies.

  Why Luma is Best in Home Automation: Easy to set up and even easier to control, turn off, and monitor, Luma's Wi-Fi system is perfect for families. You can even turn the Internet off from your phone, or set time limits for certain devices so the kids aren't online when they're not supposed to be.

  Read: Careers
  Follow @LumaHome

• Tovala
  

  Tovala takes makes eating at home easier than ever with a smart oven that ensures every meal comes out perfectly. Co-founder and CEO David Rabie previously worked under the CEO of Veggie Grill and ran the froyo chain Groovy Spoon, while co-founder and CTO Bryan Wilcox worked at GE and Whirlpool before earning his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Illinois.

  Why Tovala is Best in Home Automation: They send users meals made from healthy, fresh ingredients, and all you have to do is pop it in the Tovala oven, scan a barcode and press start, and you'll have a perfectly-cooked meal. They're offering gourmet meals at home with no prep or cleanup, and, of course, you can use the Tovala oven to cook meals from your own pantry, too.

  Read: Product
  Follow @tovalafood

• SimpTek Technologies
  

  SimpTek Technologies is a company that's making it easy for users to track their utility usage so they can save money and energy more easily. Founder and CEO Asif Hasan created the company with Keelen Gagnon and Lionel Fernandes with the aim of making an impact in the world's energy use.

  Why SimpTek Technologies is Best in Home Automation: With their app, you can measure your energy usage in real time, which may empower you to make changes in the way you consume electricity. The app even offers up personalized recommendations for saving energy.

  Read: SimpTek Technologies
  Follow @SimpTek

• Ray
  

  Ray is an advanced universal remote that can be used with your TV, streaming device, sound system, and more so you can get rid of your remote clutter.

  Why Ray is Best in Home Automation: If you're sick of the remote clutter and are seeking an all-in-one touchscreen option, then Ray is the product you're looking for. Not only is it easy to set up, but it will even learn your viewing tendencies and provide you with recommendations for new shows.

  Read: Ray Super Remote
  Follow @RaySuperRemote

• Deako
  

  Deako is a smart lighting system that lets users turn all the lights in their house on or off with ease, and can even light up your house to welcome you home at night. CEO and co-founder Derek Richardson has 15 years of experience in sales, marketing, engineering, and executive management, while his co-founder and head of product and software Alexander Strunkin has 10 years of experience in engineering, management, and product development for companies like Microsoft.

  Why Deako is Best in Home Automation: With options for security lighting, mood lighting, timers, nightlights, and more, this is an incredibly full-featured lighting system. Best of all, the lights are easy to install and simple to use once they're in.

  Read: Deako Beta
  Follow @godeako

• Plumis
  

  Plumis is a startup that offers home fire sprinkler alternative technology using innovative water mist technology to suppress home fires. Co-founder and Managing Director William Makant is an experienced mechanical engineer and product developer with a background in the fire protection industry, and his co-founder and Design Director Yusuf Muhammad is a multi-award winning industrial designer with an Honours Masters degree in Engineering and a double Masters in Innovation Design Engineering.

  Plumis has developed a series of multi-award-winning watermist fire sprinklers. Their systems are installed in over 1,500 homes in the UK and have saved at least two lives. They are in the process of bringing their patented technology to the US. Utilising US Building Codes new section (904.11) that allows a watermist system to replace a mandatory residential sprinkler. Their flagship product Automist Smartscan is IOT enabled, more efficient, applicable in more homes, and leaves less water damage than was possible with traditional approaches. Utilising a dry pipe when on standby, 10% of the water (when compared to sprinklers) to extinguish fires, and connectivity to monitor status, it can enable tighter insurance product offerings, produce valuable data and better risk management.

  Why Plumis is Best in Home Automation: Plumis' unique system can not only detect fires, but also suppress them with much less water damage than traditional sprinkler systems. It's also simple to control with the tap of a button, allowing users to turn it off with ease.

  Read: Care home fire safety and the RRFSO
  Follow @PlumisAutomist

• Stack Lighting
  

  Stack Lighting is a smart home lighting system that mimics your presence when you're gone, turning lights on and off, adjusting lighting to suit your circadian rhythms, and even turning on when you enter a room.

  Why Stack Lighting is Best in Home Automation: They'll also automatically dim and brighten according to the natural light in the room, reducing energy use by up to 60%. These smart lights work right out of the box and will learn your inputs over time, adjusting to your habits.

  Read: Care
  Follow @stacklighting

• Keen Home
  

  Keen Home is an advanced temperature system for your home, allowing you to tailor each room's temperature to its occupant's preference.

  Why Keen Home is Best in Home Automation: Families who sleep better at different temperatures, or anyone who wants to invest in a system that will help them save energy, should check out Keen Home's unique system. Their smart vent system even integrates easily with existing smart home technology like Nest and SmartThings.

  Read: Keen Home back on Shark Tank
  Follow @KeenHome

• peeple
  

  Peeple is a smart camera that attaches to the existing peephole in your front door, sending you notifications when someone is at your door and letting you see who's there even when you're not at home.

  Why peeple is Best in Home Automation: It's easy to install, works with your home Wi-Fi network, and only needs to be charged a few times a year. Not only can it increase your home security, but you can use it to check when the kids get home or if your package arrived.

  Follow @peeple

• MaxMyTV
  

  MaxMyTV turns your TV into a hub for your smart home, letting you access your devices and even receive social media alerts as you watch your favorite shows.

  Why MaxMyTV is Best in Home Automation: With this simple box connected to your television, you can control your home devices from your TV, display alerts and warnings onscreen, and even overlay home security camera footage over broadcast programming. It also allows you to track things like energy usage and even game scores and statistics, all without moving from the couch.

  Follow @MaxMyTV

• IntuitThings
  IntuitThings creates smart home devices that think, doing things like regulating the temperature, turning off the lights when you leave room, and more.

  Why IntuitThings is Best in Home Automation: Of course, you can also control all of their devices from your smartphone, from anywhere in the world. You can also create custom profiles using their devices, so that the lighting, temperature, fans, and more are all just like you want them. The biggest thing that sets IntuitThings apart is that they are making adoption of Home Automation simply by the virtue that they have designed their smart modules in the form factor of normal switches (that just snap into the existing switchboard). Their smart modules simply replace existing dumb switches keeping the same wiring from behind.

• Cubical Laboratories
  Cubical Laboratories is an India-based home automation startup with technology that allows users to control electronic devices, watch a live video feed of their home, and even moderate power consumption, all from their smartphone.

  Why Cubical Laboratories is Best in Home Automation: Their technology will also learn your lighting and temperature preferences over time, leading to further automation. Cubical's app makes it easy to control every aspect of your smart home on the go, from anywhere in the world.

• Loop Lab
  

  Loop Lab creates smart air vent registers that open and close according to your preferences.

  Why Loop Lab is Best in Home Automation: Thanks to the Loop Hub, they can monitor the temperature and humidity in a room and adjust accordingly. When paired with Loop's compatible smart thermostat, you'll never have to think about the temperature in your home again.

  Follow @looplabco

• NEEO
  

  NEEO is an all-in-one smart remote that can control everything from your TV and speakers to your lighting and heating. CEO Ralph Oberholzer and CTO Oliver Studer co-founded NEEO in Switzerland in 2014 with the aim of coming up with a single, sleek input device for the wide variety of smart home systems on the market.

  Why NEEO is Best in Home Automation: It works with over 30,000 devices and can be set up to work with any of them in a matter of minutes. It also features hand recognition technology, so you can set up personal preferences as well as parental controls.

  Read: NEEO Test Stations
  Follow @NEEO

• Droplet
  

  Droplet is a smart sprinkler system that knows how to take care of your plants and will water them for you, saving you water by up to 90% each year and cutting down on your water bill. Founder and CEO Steve Fernholz is a former developer at Microsoft who helped build Office, Bing, and Windows 8 before launching Droplet.

  Why Droplet is Best in Home Automation: It's easy to set up: simply hook it up to a hose and use any smart device to tell it what plants are in your yard and where they're located. Droplet will then automatically water each plant the proper amount; it's the perfect solution in any yard.

  Follow @SmartDroplet