Hi,
I’m looking for the smallest and cheapest smart plug (in a pack). I found this one: Tuya-Wi-Fi-Smart-Plug
Do you have any feedback on this product? Do you know of a better one?
Thanks.
You probably need to specify for what country, and whether you want zigbee, zwave, thread, or wifi.
Also is there a reason you choose to go cheapest over most reliable? Reliability to me is the number one, followed by protocol.
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Never buy Tuya wi-fi products. They’re a world of pain.
You don’t say where you are - plugs are going to be quite different in different parts of the world.
I was going to search for the weirdest thread plug that has a plug for Russia mains but these guys already got the point across I think.
Better or smaller and cheaper?
You’re right. It’s type E (or even just C or F because most of the time I don’t need the ground).
Zigbee and Thread are ok.
As far as reliability is concerned, I hadn’t thought about it for a simple plug, but if you’re talking about it, it must be important.
Most of the time, I’m not interested in consumption and other frills: I just want on/off.
The perfect ratio, the golden ratio 
As small a plug as possible (I have a Meross Matter, which is not bad but a bit big), as cheap as possible. And as for reliability… it “just” has to work. It doesn’t matter how accurate it is at measuring power consumption, for example.
Shelly Plug S would be my choice. Not cheap though.
It matches the size, it’s really small! The price is a different story, because €20 for a plug in a pack of 4 is pretty expensive. Thanks for the reference, it’s still interesting.
I totally agree.
But it’s certified product, 2years warranty and it works out of the box locally. No chinese cloud, flashing, tinkering needed.
That’s good points, for sure.
I am renting so have to use smart plugs like that because I cannot change the wall sockets.
How long does it have to work for ? I do not know about that particular plug (I am in Australia with a different shape for the pins), but there are lots of ones like it on the market, and most of them fail fairly shortly after the 1 year warranty, constantly switching on/off/on/off and possibly damaging the appliance you have plugged into them. I guess that’s where the price comes in if you’re OK with throwing them away (or opening and replacing the capacitor) each year or two.
Be aware also that almost all use Tuya firmware which relies on their cloud based server. HA has LocalTuya and TuyaLocal integrations (different, but do the same thing) - or you can flash some devices OTA with Tasmota or ESPHome to make them local.
You can also purchase (what look like the same hardware) smart plugs which already have open source firmware installed, from https://www.athom.tech/ … though I have not heard that athom’s quality is noticably better.
IKEA INSPELNING for 9,99€ with energy monitoring work perfectly for me
Or there also INNR smart plug, they are smaller but not cheaper
Thanks Don for your answer from Australia
Taking everything into consideration (relative reliability, size, and price), here’s what I found:
- Ikea Tretakt (€8, Zigbee, compact size)
- Meross Matter (found for €6 per pack of 2!, Matter, compact size)
- Shelly Plug S Gen3 (no less than €21!, Matter, ultra compact)
All of them come with at least a 2-year warranty, which is the legal minimum in France (obviously, this doesn’t apply on AliExpress or any non-French retailer).
Meross claims that it’s not possible to view power consumption without their app (meaning a cloud connection is required), which is actually false, since I can retrieve the data on Home Assistant.
That said, without sniffing the network, it’s hard to tell exactly what these plugs are sending externally.
I’m very tempted by the Athom brand you mentioned, it’s exactly the kind of approach I’m looking for! The plugs are quite compact, and the price ($12 plus $8 shipping, spread across the number of units) is fair. Still need to find out how reliable they are, but it’s definitely very tempting. Thanks for the info!
Indeed, on my short list 
Or just replace the whole socket?
They have wifi as well as zigbee versions…in different colors too
(not that cheap though 
)
Yes, that would have been a good idea for some of my outlets, but I just finished renovating and unfortunately I’ve already bought and installed conventional outlets. Given the cost, I won’t be changing them.
I don’t know that but I would expect they are uncertified “unknown manufacturer” devices like Tuya ones. Warranty might be just a joke.
Also:
Yes not small at all unfortunately but cheap af