The 6 Best Smart Sensors of 2025

The 6 Best Smart Sensors of 2025

If you have an expansive home and don’t mind a larger sensor: Consider the YoLink YS7804 motion sensor, the YoLink YS8003 temperature sensor, or the YoLink YS7704 door sensor. YoLink’s sensors were highly responsive throughout our testing, and in our measurements we found their advertised quarter-mile range to be accurate: We brought all our sensors to a nearby park to test their maximum range, and YoLink’s models were the only ones able to maintain a clear connection at such a vast distance. They’re an excellent fit if you need sensor coverage across a large property, or in a separate area such as a detached garage.

We decided not to name any of them as picks because they rely on relatively large AAA batteries rather than smaller, button-style batteries and are thus substantially bulkier and liable to stand out more when mounted on a wall or a door frame.

If you’re looking for HomeKit support and need only basic sensor coverage: IKEA updated its smart-home lineup with a trio of new sensors: the Vallhorn motion sensor, the Parasoll window/door sensor, and the Badring water sensor, which is slated to reach the US later this summer. The two currently available sensors are extremely affordable, as they retail for less than $12 each.

However, IKEA’s Home Smart app lacks common features such as sensitivity adjustment and customizable cooldown intervals, so it isn’t a great fit for advanced smart-home owners—the app is mainly designed to manage devices within IKEA’s smart-home ecosystem. Also, the sensors are bulkier than competitors because of their AAA batteries, and in my tests I needed to carefully position the Vallhorn to prevent false positives. During my testing, I had initially placed the sensor in the corner of a bedroom, but it still managed to catch a sliver of hallway traffic through a doorway that was 20 feet away.

But thankfully, IKEA’s sensors don’t occupy a closed ecosystem. They’re standard Zigbee sensors, so they don’t necessarily require an IKEA-branded hub—I had no problems directly pairing them with an Echo speaker. But if you pair them with IKEA’s Dirigera hub, you’ll also be able to connect them to Apple, Google, and Alexa systems.

If you’re an advanced smart-home user who wants to tinker: Presence sensors are a subset of motion sensors that detect whether someone is actively moving around within a room. While Govee’s Presence Sensor is essentially a slightly smarter motion sensor, Aqara’s FP2 Presence Sensor has some impressive features for a smart-home sensor.

Within the Aqara app, you can use the FP2 to plot out a room (within its 33-foot detection range) onto a grid and create Routines based on specific zones. For instance, we created a Routine during our tests that would have our Alexa speaker greet people whenever they sat on the living room couch; the FP2 consistently triggered the Routine without hangups.

Presence sensors definitely aren’t a fit for every household. The Govee and Aqara sensors both require a power cord, and the FP2 is hamstrung by an $80 price tag plus occasional false positives. But they can be interesting additions to your smart home if you don’t mind troubleshooting to be an early adopter.

If you’re on a budget: Tapo’s T100 motion sensor and T110 contact sensor were excellent performers during our testing, but they generally landed a hair behind Aqara’s sensors. The T110 was slightly bulkier than Aqara’s contact sensor, while the T100 couldn’t stack up to the Aqara P1 and its deluxe battery life. However, Tapo’s sensors are typically a few dollars cheaper than Aqara’s models—they can be a great deal if you’re building out an affordable smart home.

If you need a multitasking sensor: SwitchBot’s Contact Sensor packs a number of functions into a single unit: In addition to a standard contact sensor for doors or windows, it includes a physical button for triggering actions, as well as an ambient-light sensor. All three functions performed as we expected in our testing, but note that you can create Routines with them only in IFTTT or the SwitchBot app. Within Google Home or Amazon Alexa, the sensor merely displays as a standard contact sensor.

If you need a motion sensor with maximum battery life: When it comes to sensors and batteries, we typically consider compactness to be more important than battery capacity—most sensors can stretch a single battery for more than a year. But motion sensors can be a potential exception if you place them in a high-traffic area. The YoLink YS7804 motion sensor and SwitchBot Motion Sensor sport dual AAA batteries and detection calibration settings, so they can potentially go for years without needing a battery swap.

If you need to track temperatures near a window: Get the Meross MS100FHHK. This circular temperature sensor is solar-powered, so you can install it in an open room without having to worry about battery replacement. But Meross’s installation and reset process on this model requires you to keep a SIM-card-tray pin tool around to press the sensor’s pinhole-sized button.

If you need to track temperatures in a greenhouse or outdoors: The SwitchBot Indoor/Outdoor Thermo-Hygrometer temperature sensor is waterproof with an IP65 rating, so it’s more suitable for tougher conditions than other sensors. It also comes with a handy string loop so you can hang it on an awning or wall hook. It’s slightly longer than our top temperature sensor picks, but it performed equally well and also completed our freezer stress test within two minutes.

If you’re all-in on Matter: The Aqara Door and Window Sensor P2 and Motion Sensor P2 come with caveats. With a width of nearly 3 inches due to its CR123A battery, the Door and Window Sensor P2 is significantly bulkier than the competition.

As for the Motion Sensor P2, it’s a refresh identical to the Aqara Motion Sensor P1 with some notable downgrades. The Motion Sensor P2 performed identically to the P1 when we placed both sensors in a detached garage to trigger some exterior lights. But the P2’s advertised battery life has been cut in half from five to two years, and it has also lost its sensitivity calibration features within the Aqara app.

However, both sensors feature built-in Matter over Thread support. As a result, they don’t require the purchase of an Aqara hub, which removes a huge price barrier in comparison with competing contact sensors. Both sensors aren’t without their blemishes, but if you can live with their downsides and have an existing Matter setup, you can save a lot on these Aqara models versus other contact sensors.

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