Which WIFI plug is the best that has local control not relying upon a cloud service that can be integrated with HA? Seems like Tasmota plugs are few and far between these days.
I like the Sonoff S31ZB (zigbee) or Sonoff S31 wifi with power monitoring. I’ve flashed my S31 wifi plugs with esphome, but you’ll need an FTDI adapter and some soldering skills
I agree with the S31 - although I only know the WiFi version - and the need for an adapter.
But instead of soldering, the approach of using the hooks (see Amazon link here) as shown in the instructions linked above worked fine for me.
I initially flashed the first two I owned with Tasmota, but have since then moved to ESPHome, just as @steriku recommends.
I use a ton of shelly products, they have the Plus Plug US which I use, I prefer WiFi but they also have Zwave versions. They’ve been rock solid, and for the WiFi of course no dongle needed and also they can act as a bluetooth gateway
I have been using http://athom.tech wifi plugs and although they at first don’t immediately spring to mind when someone asks for the ‘best wifi plug’ they have been functioning rock-solid for over 3 years with no drops, no issues whatsoever.
They run Tasmota by default and can be used with Esphome as well, although with more limited functionality. And they measure power consumption.