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If you need a new speaker, consider upgrading to a smart speaker. Not only will you get excellent audio performance, but you’ll also be investing in one of your essential items Smart home.
A quality smart speaker should excel, first and foremost, at playing music, audiobooks, and podcasts. Moreover, it should offer smart features for online searches and voice control of your connected devices. Naturally, it should be able to understand you easily, whether it’s right next to your bed or across your kitchen.
Most speakers today run Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, but you also have an Apple HomePod Mini with Siri if you’re fully committed to the Apple ecosystem. That being said, here are the best smart speakers for your home in 2025.
What is the best smart speaker?
Amazon Echo speakers are among the most affordable and easy to set up smart speakers. That’s why the 4th generation Amazon Echo It’s our pick for the best smart speaker overall. It is likely to best meet the needs of most families. Although it’s a few years old, the device features improved sound quality over the previous generation, is compatible with a variety of smart devices and is priced at a relatively affordable $100 (although it can be found on sale for $80 or less).
The 4th generation Echo may not be the best choice for your home. barely Every speaker is smart It lets you control lights, play music, ask questions, set reminders, and more with simple voice commands. The decision may simply depend on which brand you’re already invested in. If you have an affinity for a particular company’s products, whether you’re loyal to Amazon, Apple, or Google, choosing a speaker is easy.
For the platform-agnostic (or those looking to change things up), our top picks other than the 4th generation Amazon Echo are the 2nd generation Google Nest Mini, the Amazon Echo Dot (5th generation), the Apple HomePod Mini and the new Sonos 100 Era. Find out why below.
The best smart speakers of 2025
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We’re giving the smart home edge in Amazon’s best smart speakers category, thanks to Alexa and the $100 fourth-generation Amazon Echo.
The latest version of Echo (not to be confused with… Echo Dot 5th generation or Echo pop) combines the usual Alexa smarts with a speaker that sounds great and has a built-in Zigbee radio. This is a great inclusion that allows you to connect Zigbee lights, locks, sensors, and other devices to your setup without the need for a separate hub device.
Echo is also useful when you’re away, as Alexa can send alerts if the smart speaker’s microphones detect the sound of breaking glass or a smoke alarm.
What helps the Echo take the top spot is sound quality: This speaker delivers loud, room-filling sound with plenty of clarity and bass control. While there are better-sounding speakers, like the Sonos Era 100 and Echo Studio, neither can beat the Echo’s price.
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If you’re in the market for a smart speaker on a budget, it doesn’t come with more features than the Amazon Echo Dot (5th generation). It offers a wealth of capabilities including a temperature sensor, an Eero network extender, and the ability to tap it like an alarm clock.
The Echo Dot (5th generation) also sounds better than other speakers at the price, including the Echo Pop and Google’s Nest Mini, with plenty of vocal clarity and decent bass weight. Their microphones are sensitive enough to hear you from across the room, even while another speaker is playing.
While Google’s Nest Mini is a little more advanced in terms of its responses, the Amazon Echo Dot is better in every other respect and is the best smart speaker under $50.
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Google has done a great job of catching up to Amazon in the smart speaker race. At this point, choosing between the cheaper smart speaker devices from the two companies is splitting hairs.
Google Assistant now has almost as many capabilities as Alexa, making the $50 Google Nest Mini a solid alternative to the Amazon Echo Dot if Google Assistant is your preference. plus, In our tests, Google Assistant is a little smarter than Alexa.
It responds more flexibly to voice commands if you can’t remember the exact name of your smart home devices, and Google’s grouped commands, called routines, work with more types of smart devices than Amazon’s equivalent routines.
Google Assistant can recognize multiple voices, so it will give you and your spouse different answers if each of you asks about your calendars (although Alexa can do that now, too).
Overall, Google still has the edge on smarts, and the Google Nest Mini is a great, low-cost way to take advantage of those smart features.
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Apple’s tiny Siri-enabled smart speaker fills a strange gap between $100 competitors like Google Live the sound and Amazon EchoAnd cheaper speakers that come in small packages like the Nest Mini and echo point.
Features such as intercom, audio delivery and stereo pairing make this small smart speaker very practical. It looks good and sounds great.
When it comes to smart home, Siri and HomePod Mini are limited to devices that work with Apple’s smart home platform, HomeKit.
There are fewer HomeKit-compatible devices available than there are devices that work with Alexa or Google Assistant.
If you love Apple (and if Siri is your favorite smart assistant), or if HomeKit is your favorite smart home platform, you’ll love Apple’s smart speaker.
For those who already use an iPhone, Apple TV, or original HomePod, adding this smart speaker to the lineup makes sense.
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It will be a difficult task to replace Sonos Onebut the company managed not only to make the Era 100 sound better, but also to give it more functionality.
In addition Apple AirPlay 2 And Sonos’ own multi-room system, the Era 100 now features Bluetooth, bringing it in line with the Roam and Move portable speakers.
The only downside to the Era 100 is that the speaker no longer offers a choice between Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Although adding the Nest Mini may seem to defeat the purpose of a speaker like this, it should solve that problem for people in the Google ecosystem. The issue is said to be related to Google’s rules change, so there may be hope for Assistant to be added in the future.
Either way, the Era 100 looks great and Alexa fans in particular should love it.
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The smart speakers above are our current favorites, but you still have plenty of other options if you’re looking for something specific in audio performance. Read our details about Alexa vs. Google Assistant vs. Siri If you want to know the pros and cons of each and decide on a smart home device based on its platform.
In the past year or so, we’ve seen several new smart speakers (namely… Apple HomePod, Amazon Echo Popthe Sonos era 100 and era 300)but most of the available models have been available much longer. The Era 100 is the top pick among these new speakers, and while the $40 speaker is interesting in its way, Dot (5G) It offers more features for just $10 more.
If you like the idea of ready-to-listen technology but want something more visual, check out our list of The best smart displays. Smart displays essentially combine a smart speaker with a touchscreen so you can watch YouTube videos and make video calls. Scroll through the photos And control you Smart home Tools with a touch. Amazon and Google both have several options worth considering in this category.
Read more: The best smart displays
Find out what platform or features you want, and you should be able to quickly narrow down your options and find the best smart speaker for you and your family.
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