The Case Against Cheap Off-Brand Smart Plugs

It seems like everywhere you look these days there’s a deal on cheap smart plugs from companies you’ve never heard of.  Names like Anbes, Etekcity, Gosuna, PowerBear, ISELECTOR, Pecham are all selling what appear to be the same smart plugs for ten dollars each or less, and in lots of one, two or four.  They don’t require a hub, they work with Alexa and Google Assistant and they can generally be controlled with your phone or tablet via the Smart Life app.

I’ve often pushed the idea that it’s fine to seek out the cheapest solution to solve your smart home problems, but have also cautioned against being too cheap.  Often times you’ll find you get what you pay for.

While I can’t speak to the quality, functionality or long term durability of these smart plugs, I can explain why I urge you to use caution.  The reason you’ve never heard of most of the companies selling these plugs is because they’re often resellers or Fulfillment by Amazon businesses who all sell the same rebranded product produced by one Chinese company.  In this case, the company is Tuya.

Tuya makes both the plugs and Smart Life app, among other things.  For all I know they may also make the devices that we all know and love from some reputable name brand companies.  And while I’m sure many of the companies reselling Tuya’s products offer some level of customer support, you wont ever get the same level of support that you would get from a manufacturer like Philips, Belkin or Samsung.

These resellers also aren’t responsible for updating the app or releasing any sort of firmware updates or features.  All of that falls on Tuya, who’s main business is manufacturing, not software.  You may find that the plugs you purchased never receive many feature updates for the lifetime of the device.  This could be problematic in the fast paced, ever changing world of home automation.

In contrast, when you buy from a name brand company, you’re buying more than just the product.  You’re buying their support, their warranty, and their reputation.  You may pay a little more for a name brand product, but generally you’ll be better off in the long run.

As someone that got started with smart home products in 2013, I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years.  I’ve bought a lot of cheap products that got the job done, but with no clear idea of how I wanted those products to interact with one another, or how long I expected to have them.  Most of those cheap products have been replaced, sold, thrown out or given away to make way for name brand products specifically for the reasons listed above.  Right now, the smart home world is expensive, fast paced and ever changing.  Products like these and the companies that sell them may come and go fairly quickly, and you could wind up with a product that receives no support or updates.