Best Mid-Market Smart Locks 2022

Home security is important to everyone, so a good lock on the front door of your house or apartment is important. While the good old-fashioned standard lock may have been enough for literal millennia, modern technology has added some extra convenience in the form of smart locks. Smart locks offer a range of ways to unlock your door and can even allow you to check it’s closed properly, track who uses the lock and when, and even control it remotely.

Of course, you could spend a lot of money to get the best smart lock with all of the features, but that comes with a high price tag and may include a number of features you don’t want. Budget tier options often don’t include as many features and are generally less reliable and well built. To get the best value, the mid-market is often the place to look, as you can get well-priced and feature-rich products.

To help you find the best smart lock for your money, we’ve drawn up a list of the best mid-market smart locks in 2022.

The Ultraloq U-Bolt Pro is a full deadbolt replacement lock and offers a broad range of unlocking methods. It features a keypad, a fingerprint reader, voice control via Alexa and Google Home, and a physical key. The lock itself can be controlled directly via Bluetooth, or remotely via Wi-Fi, if you use the included Wi-Fi bridge. Without the Wi-Fi bridge, the range will be limited to your Bluetooth connection range.

It is powered by four AA batteries, of which a set comes included. In case you ever run the battery completely dead, there is a microUSB port on the underside to provide a backup power source. Alternatively, you can still use a classic key to simply unluck the door manually. The lack of HomeKit support may vex Apple fans, though the IFTTT support is an excellent feature. The advertised auto lock and unlock features are reportedly unreliable in the real world, but it is always good practice to make sure your door is locked.

The Wyze lock is a simple interior deadbolt replacement style lock, meaning you can keep using your existing key while also adding the convenience of a smart lock. The lock uses a gyroscope to determine if the door is open or closed, it can also determine if the lock failed to properly engage and notify you.

It can use Bluetooth to automatically unlock the door when you come home, and then conveniently locks the door behind you. A number of users report the auto-unlock feature to be unreliable. Alexa and Google Assistant integration allow you to lock and unlock your door with your voice. There are no other integrations, however, unusually, even Wyze’s other products can’t interact with the Wyze lock which feels like an opportunity missed.

The Yale Assure Lock slightly pushes the definition of a smart lock by default, given that it doesn’t offer any connectivity. Instead, you’ve got the option of the keypad and a physical key. Mobile connectivity can be added If you purchase the Yale Access Upgrade Kit separately. This allows you to integrate the lock with smart home ecosystems and monitor the access logs.

The lock is available in four different colours, to better fit the styling of your door and home. It can be configured with multiple PINs so you can have a unique PIN for each member of your family. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to set one-use PIN codes for deliveries or visitors. The lock automatically locks behind you as well, so you don’t need to do so manually.

The Hornbill Smart Lock offers a range of high-end features with a mid-range price tag. It features a fingerprint reader, a PIN pad, a keyhole, a mobile app for remote control, and a contactless key fob system. The PIN pad has an anti-peep feature that allows you to add any combination of numbers on the start or end of your passcode so anyone watching can’t tell what your actual code is. The contactless key fobs act like a contactless payment card, simply wave by the lock and it will unlock.

Alexa and Google Assistant integrations allow you to lock and unlock your door with your voice. Annoyingly the locking process is a little cumbersome, requiring you to press and hold the “#” key for two seconds on press and hold the lock symbol in the app rather than requiring a simple tap or double-tap. Thankfully, you can configure the auto-lock feature so you don’t have to worry about manually locking it at all. The brand is relatively unknown, though it isn’t quite a letter soup, single product, Chinese brand. At the time of writing, there is only one Amazon review, so it’s hard to say what the user experience might be.

The SimpliSafe Smart Lock is a slightly tricky sell as it barely has any third-party integrations and requires a monthly subscription for most of the features. If you’ve already chosen to configure a SimpliSafe security system, however, it does make sense to stick with the theme. The door can be unlocked remotely via the mobile app, or with the wireless PIN pad.

The door sensor is a nice feature that is used to ensure that the lock doesn’t engage while the door is open, preventing any damage to the door frame if the door slams with the deadbolt extended. Alexa and Google Assistant integrations are somewhat indirect, you can’t just lock your door, you have to activate or deactivate the whole security system. There aren’t many configuration options either, you can only set four PIN codes and have no options for temporary or scheduled access.

That was our roundup of the best mid-market smart locks in 2022. Have you recently bought a mid-market smart lock? What sold you on it and what has your experience been with it so far? Let us know down below.