The Best Smart Home Devices for Renters in 2026

Renting is not a reason to skip the smart home - it is just a reason to choose differently. The rule that decides everything here is simple: nothing permanent. No drilling into the door, no rewiring, no holes in walls you will have to explain at move-out, and nothing that upsets a landlord or costs you a deposit. On top of that, every pick charges no monthly fee and comes off cleanly so it moves to your next place with you. Get those two things right and a rental can be every bit as smart as a house you own, without a single change you cannot reverse.

We chose one device per everyday category - a lock, a doorbell, an outdoor camera, a plug and a voice speaker - and every one installs with adhesive, a tension fit, a couple of small screws, or nothing more than an outlet. The list starts with the hardest problem a renter faces, the front door, because that is where most people assume they simply cannot have a smart lock. They can. If you want the broader no-fee thinking behind these picks, our best budget smart home devices list is the companion, and anyone brand new should start with smart home for beginners.

The renter's rule: nothing permanent

A rental smart home lives or dies on how it attaches to the building. Anything that requires cutting, drilling into the door or hardwiring is out, because it either breaks the lease or costs you the deposit. What is in: devices that mount with adhesive strips, camera brackets held by a couple of small screws you can fill later, tension or existing-fixture mounts, and things that simply plug into an outlet. Just as important, everything should be removable, because the point of paying for it is that it leaves with you. A smart device you cannot take to the next apartment is a gift to your landlord, not an upgrade to your life. Every pick below is chosen against that test first, and only then for how good it is.

The lock is the hard part - and the August solves it

The front door is where renters give up, and they should not, because the top pick is built for exactly this problem. The August Wi-Fi Smart Lock is a retrofit: instead of replacing the whole lock, it mounts on the inside of the deadbolt you already have and turns the existing thumbturn for you. The crucial consequence is that the outside of the door does not change at all - the same keyed cylinder stays in place, and the landlord's keys keep working exactly as before. You are not swapping the lock the building owns; you are adding a motor to the inside of it. That is the difference between a lock a renter can use and one they cannot. You get phone unlocking, remote access and one-time codes for guests, its built-in Wi-Fi means no separate hub, and the included Keypad Touch lets visitors enter a code instead of needing a key. When you move, it unscrews from the inside in minutes and the original lock is untouched. If you want the full walk-through of how the retrofit works, our August Wi-Fi Smart Lock review covers it, and renters weighing a short-let angle should also see our best smart locks for Airbnb guide.

The one thing to do before you buy is confirm two facts: that your deadbolt is a standard single-cylinder type the August can retrofit onto, and that your lease does not specifically forbid touching the lock hardware at all. Most leases are fine with a reversible interior-only change that leaves the landlord's keys working, but it is a five-minute conversation worth having up front. A smart lock that keeps the exterior and the keys unchanged is about as landlord-friendly as security gets - it is the whole reason this pick leads the list.

A doorbell and a camera with no wiring

Two more categories where renters assume they are locked out are the doorbell and the outdoor camera, and both have wire-free answers. The Wyze Video Doorbell Pro runs on its own battery and ships with its own plug-in chime, so it does not need the low-voltage doorbell wiring a rental may not have - it mounts with adhesive or a couple of small screws and lifts off cleanly when you leave. Its clips save to a local microSD card, so there is no plan trailing you from address to address. For a yard, balcony or driveway, the eufy SoloCam S340 removes the other big barrier - power - by running on solar plus battery, which means no cable to run to an outlet and, in decent sun, no recharging. It stores footage on 8GB built in, again with no monthly fee, and pops off its bracket to move with you. For a deeper look at each, our Wyze Video Doorbell Pro review and eufy SoloCam S340 review lay out the details, and apartment dwellers should also read our best video doorbells for apartments roundup.

The easy wins: a plug and a voice speaker

After the door and the cameras, the last two picks are the ones with no installation at all. The Tapo P110M smart plug is the purest example: it plugs into an outlet, a lamp or appliance plugs into it, and you have schedules, remote control and energy monitoring with nothing mounted and nothing to undo. Its energy monitoring is a real bonus for a renter who pays the electric bill, because it shows what each appliance actually costs to run. Sold four to a pack, one purchase automates four things. The Echo Dot sits on any shelf and ties the rest together by voice, doubling as a light Matter controller, and packs up in seconds on moving day. Neither needs a wall fixing, a hub or a subscription - they are the frictionless end of this list, and either one is a fine place to start if the lock feels like a big first step. Our Tapo P110M review and Echo Dot review go deeper on both.

No monthly fee, because it should move with you

There is a reason every pick here is free of monthly fees, and it is not only about saving money. A renter's kit should be portable in every sense - it should physically move to the next place, and it should not carry a subscription that keeps charging regardless of where you live. Each device on this list does its core job with no plan: the lock has no subscription at all, the doorbell and the outdoor camera store footage locally, the plug just runs schedules, and the speaker's voice control is free. That means when you move, you pack the hardware, plug it in at the new address, and carry on - nothing to cancel, nothing to re-subscribe to. If avoiding recurring bills is a priority, our roundups of the no-subscription doorbells and the no-subscription cameras push that constraint even further.

How we chose, and what we didn't test

The honesty note that sits on every page here applies just as much to this one: we do not run a test lab and we do not hand out numeric scores. Every specification in the cards is the manufacturer's own published claim, read on the retrieval date in the sources, and where a maker does not claim something we say so rather than guess. We have not had hands-on time with these units, so the label reads "researched, not hands-on tested." And because prices change constantly, you will not find a dollar figure in this prose - the live price renders on each buy button, which is the only number honest enough to quote.