While the smart home is packed with handy devices, not all are as easy to start with as the humble smart plug. These mainstays of the smart home are inexpensive, provide smarts to dumb appliances, and can be controlled from your smartphone or sometimes from a voice a**istant. While many plug into your existing sockets, they sometimes come as socket replacements for a more streamlined look. The better models offer power monitoring, API access, and the ability to trigger automations. And yes, they cansave you money on your power bill, but that’s a happy by-product in my eyes, because they can do so much more.