The best home smart speakers at every price point in 2021 – Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri-enabled
Here are all of the Amazon Alexa/Google Assistant/Apple Siri-enabled smart speakers from $50 to $300 that deserve your attention.
Smart assistant-powered home speakers can be a great way to listen to music/podcasts, check the weather/news, ask questions, set alarms and control your smart home. If you’ll be playing a lot of music and your budget can stretch that far, we’d recommend looking at the $100+ options. If music isn’t your priority, $50 will be plenty. Get a few speakers for a multi-room sound system.
Can’t decide whether to buy in to Amazon, Google or Apple’s ecosystem? All of the below perform brilliantly at their price point. We’d recommend sticking with what you currently own most of. For example, if you own many Amazon products, Alexa will work best with the product you already own. The same goes for Google with Google Assistant, Apple with Siri. If you’d like a speaker that works well with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, we’ve got options at $200 and $300 that fit your criteria.
Note, Amazon’s Echo smart speakers regularly go on sale. If you can hold off from buying one, we’d recommened waiting until Prime Day or Black Friday.
Also note, Apple’s range is limited as they only sell one smart speakers (after discontinuing the original HomePod) and don’t license Siri out to any third-party speaker manufacturers.
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Under $50
Amazon Alexa
- Meet the all-new Echo Dot: Our most popular smart speaker with Alexa. The sleek, compact design delivers crisp vocals and balanced bass for full sound.
- Voice control your entertainment: Stream songs from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Sirius XM, and others. Play music, audiobooks, and podcasts throughout your home with multi-room music.
- Ready to help: Ask Alexa to tell a joke, play music, answer questions, play the news, check the weather, set alarms, and more.
- Control your smart home: Use your voice to to turn on lights, adjust thermostats, and lock doors with compatible devices.
- Connect with others: Call almost anyone hands-free. Instantly drop in on other rooms or announce to the whole house that dinner’s ready.
- Designed to protect your privacy: Built with multiple layers of privacy protections and controls, including a microphone off button that electronically disconnects the microphones.
Google Assistant
- Better sound, all around: Music sounds bigger and richer on Nest Mini, with more power and bass. Ask your Google Assistant to play your favorite songs from Spotify, YouTube Music, and more. Or stream music from your phone to Nest Mini.
- A little help with the Google Assistant: Just ask and get the best of Google – weather, news, or almost anything. Set timers and alarms. And with Voice Match, you can hear your personalized schedule, commute times, reminders, and more. So your day gets off to a good start.
- Control your home with just your voice: Dim the lights, pause the TV, or turn up the heat – all with your voice. Nest Mini works with thousands of compatible smart devices, like lights, thermostats, and TVs, from your favorite brands. Just say “Hey Google.”
- Thoughtfully designed for every room: Nest Mini blends right into your home. It looks great on a nightstand, shelf, or countertop – even on the wall. Each color complements the entryway, living room, bedroom, or kitchen.
Under $100
If $100 is you budget, you’re in luck! All three smart assistant companies have release fantastic speakers that retail at $100 within the last five months.
Amazon Alexa
- New look, new sound: Echo delivers clear highs, dynamic mids, and deep bass for rich, detailed sound that automatically adapts to any room.
- Voice control your entertainment: Stream songs from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Sirius XM, and more. Plus listen to radio stations, podcasts, and Audible audiobooks.
- Ready to help: Ask Alexa to play music, answer questions, play the news, check the weather, set alarms, control compatible smart home devices, and more.
- Smart home made simple: With the built-in hub, easily set up compatible Zigbee devices or Ring Smart Lighting products (coming soon) to voice control lights, locks, and sensors.
- Fill your home with sound: With multi-room music, play synchronized music across Echo devices in different rooms. Or pair your Echo with Fire TV to feel scenes come to life with home theater audio.
- Connect with others: Call almost anyone hands-free. Instantly drop in on other rooms or announce to the whole house that dinner’s ready.
- Designed to protect your privacy: Built with multiple layers of privacy protections and controls, including a microphone off button that electronically disconnects the microphones.
Google Assistant
- Designed to protect your privacy: Nest Audio comes with privacy built in. You can delete your Assistant history by saying, “Hey Google, delete what I just said.” Or to turn off the mic, just use the switch on the back.
- It’s all about sound: Just say, “Hey Google, play some music,” and crisp vocals and powerful bass fill the room. Nest Audio adapts to your environment and whatever you’re listening to, so music sounds better.
- Music here. Music there. Music everywhere: Create a home audio system that fills your home with sound. Nest Audio works together with your other Nest speakers and displays, Chromecast-enabled devices, or compatible speakers. And it’s easy to set up.
- Connect with family and friends: Nest Audio helps you stay in touch. Just say, “Hey Google” to broadcast messages on every Nest speaker and display in the house. Use your Nest speakers as an intercom and chat from room to room. And make audio calls with Duo.
- Huge help around the house: You can say things like, “Hey Google, what’s the weather this weekend?” Ask Google about the news or sports scores. Hear your schedule. Make calls. And set timers and alarms. Even turn on the lights or turn up the heat. All with your voice.
- Thoughtfully designed. Environmentally sound: Inspired by your home, Nest Audio’s colors, size, and shape fit beautifully into any room. It’s also designed with the environment in mind.
Apple Siri
- Fills the entire room with rich 360-degree audio
- Siri is your do-it-all intelligent assistant, helping with everyday tasks
- Easily control your smart home
- Designed to keep your data private and secure
- Place multiple HomePod mini speakers around the house for a connected sound system
- Intercom messages to every room
- Pair two HomePod mini speakers together for immersive stereo sound
- Voice recognition gives each family member a personalized experience
- Seamlessly hand off audio by bringing your iPhone close to HomePod
Under $200
Amazon Alexa
- Immersive sound: 5 speakers produce powerful bass, dynamic mid-range, and crisp high tones. The Dolby Atmos technology adds space, clarity, and depth.
- Ready to help: Ask Alexa to play music, read the news, and answer questions.
- Voice control your music: Stream songs from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, Tidal and more. Play a growing library of music mastered in 3D from Amazon Music HD.
- Adapts to any room: Automatically senses the acoustics of your space, fine-tuning playback for optimal sound.
- Built-in smart home hub: Ask Alexa to control Zigbee-compatible devices.
- Keep your family in sync: Use your Alexa devices like an intercom, and talk to any room in the house with Drop In and Announcements.
- Designed to protect your privacy: Built with multiple layers of privacy controls, including a microphone off button that electronically disconnects the microphones.
Amazon Alexa & Google Assistant
- Enjoy the music your love in one place: The Sonos app works with 80 streaming services, including Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Amazon Music and YouTube Music to make listening to music as simple as possible.
- Brilliant clear sound in any room: With Sonos, you can create a wireless multiroom audio system with simple control and wide functionality. Pair two speakers in the same room for stereo separation and more detailed sound.
- Manage your sound system from any device: The Sonos app is compatible with iOS, Android, Mac, or Windows devices.
- Smart speaker with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant: Allows you to start and control your music with your voice.
- Make your life easier with Alexa and Google skills: You can check traffic, find a recipe for dinner, play games, or make announcements for a whole home.
- Wireless connection: Connects to your home Wi-Fi network with any 802.11b/g, 2.4GHz broadcast-capable router for uninterrupted wireless streaming.
- Apple AirPlay support: With AirPlay, stream directly from your Apple devices or ask Siri to play your favorites from Apple Music throughout your home.
- Two Class-D digital amplifiers: Tuned to match the speaker drivers and acoustic architecture.
- Compact speaker combines woofer and tweeter: Ensures rich sound with high-frequency response, faithful playback of mid-range vocal frequencies and deep bass.
- Four far-field microphones: Provide advanced beamforming and echo cancellation.
- Convenient top panel: Use capacitive touch controls for volume up/down, previous/next track, play/pause, microphone mute. The LED indicates the status, mute status, and voice feedback.
Amazon Alexa & Google Assistant
- Bose Home Speaker 300 Wireless Smart Speaker With Built-In Alexa and Google Assistant Voice Control: Play music in multiple rooms at once.
- Control your music from the palm of your hand: With the Bose Music app, you can easily browse through all your music in one place and seamlessly jump between stations, playlists, and services.
- Add more sound around the house: Listen to the same music in different rooms at the same time by grouping two or more Bose Home Speakers together – or with Bose SimpleSync technology. You can also group a Bose Home Speaker with a Bose SoundLink Bluetooth speaker and play them both in perfect sync. Compatible Bose Smart Home speakers are Home Speaker 500, Home Speaker 300, and Portable Home Speaker. Compatible Bose Soundlink speakers are Soundlink Revolve, Revolve+, Mini, Mini II, Color, Color II, and Micro.
- Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Apple AirPlay 2 compatibility: Play integrated music services, such as Spotify, Amazon Music, or Apple Music, or play anything from your phone or tablet.
- Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa built-in: Instant access to millions of songs and playlists – hands free. Just ask to check the weather, hear the news, control your smart home and more.
- Room-rocking bass and 360-degree sound: Lifelike sound in a compact size.
- Control comes easy: Three different ways to manage what you hear: voice, a tap on the top presets, or the Bose Music app.
- Experience superior voice pickup: A custom-designed, six-microphone array hears you over loud music or from across the room.
- Get one-touch access: With six customizable presets, access playlists, Internet radio stations and more.
- Multiple users: Can personalize their experience and control their content with the easy-to-use Bose Music app.
Under $300
Unfortunately Google recently discontinued their three years old Google Home Max. It’s still unclear whether they’ll update the speaker, but at this point it’s more likely they’re pushing buyers to their smart displays for premium audio.
Amazon Alexa & Google Assistant
- Bose Smart Speaker 500 – Multi-room compatible Wireless Smart Speaker: Play music in multiple rooms at once. With a soundstage wider than any other smart speaker, you’ll be able to fill any room with astonishing stereo performance.
- Control your music from the palm of your hand: With the Bose Music app, you can easily browse through all your music in one place and seamlessly jump between stations, playlists, and services.
- More ways to connect with the music you love: Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capability for pairing wireless devices.
- Add more sound around the house: Listen to the same music in different rooms at the same time by grouping two or more Bose Smart Home Speakers together – or with Bose SimpleSync technology. You can also group a Bose Smart Home Speaker with a Bose SoundLink Bluetooth speaker and play them both in perfect sync. Compatible Bose Smart Home speakers are Smart Speaker 500, Home Speaker 300, and Portable Smart Speaker. Compatible Bose Soundlink speakers are Soundlink Revolve, Revolve+, Mini, Mini II, Color, Color II, and Micro.
- Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice control built right in: Get access to weather, timers, or use the Smart Speaker 500 as a smart home hub to control your existing smart devices with built-in Amazon Alexa and Google Voice Assistants.
- Two custom drivers point in opposite directions: Wall-to-wall stereo from a single speaker.
- Six preset buttons for one-touch access to music: Play your favorite music services over a home Wi-Fi network, like Spotify or Amazon Music, at the touch of a button.