Smart Bulbs and Plugs recommendations

[Compact]

I currently have Hive bulbs and plugs, speak to Alexa and Google.
I am looking to get more bulbs, plugs, maybe camera and locks in the future.
From the top level in cost I am looking at; Hive, Hue, Ikea, TPlink
I have also looked at the cheap chinese stuff, but wasn't impressed e.g. Smart Plugs only 10Amp

Even with Black Friday, it is expensive to buy more bulbs and plugs, thus open to suggestions.

Thanks

[Jon1606]

I currently use the energenie MiHome platform (hub, 4 sockets, 2 light switches) and a TP plug and a Weinstein plug.

All work brilliantly via the ios app, alexa can be a smidge slow and annoying when she does not hear me properly.

I really like the idea of smartbulbs and would be interested in any comments

[asianrocker]

Just got a hue starter kit with 2 bulbs for what I thought was a great deal 2 days ago. Until today, 2 more bulbs for extra $10! On both Amazon and best buy so I will see if I can exchange mine and if there are still left or the deal is available tomorrow. Ugh.

Commands are simpler. I can speak for hue lights and nest. I don't know about other brands. You don't need long complete sentences anymore. Just to turn on lights. LOL.

[Twitcher]

I use tplink bulbs. No hub needed and working well. I did find it a bit tricky getting Alexa to control them, but finally found that using 'group' worked well. This is a problem with Alexa, not the bulb. Akexa doesnt seem to like changes of device name, so plan what you are going to call each group or bulb and stick to it.

[Sengadog]

I currently have Hive bulbs and plugs, speak to Alexa and Google.
I am looking to get more bulbs, plugs, maybe camera and locks in the future.
From the top level in cost I am looking at; Hive, Hue, Ikea, TPlink
I have also looked at the cheap chinese stuff, but wasn't impressed e.g. Smart Plugs only 10Amp

Even with Black Friday, it is expensive to buy more bulbs and plugs, thus open to suggestions.

Thanks

I have an Echo plus and I use TP Link sockets, I have recently bought some Ikea Tradfi bulbs which work brillianty too and a lot cheaoer than Hue bulbs.

[superspy]

Little bit late to the party on this one but I've just bought a substantial Hue setup and absolutely love it. Unfortunately this is my first set of smart bulbs so I have no frame of reference to compare with other brands, but as an experience using Hue stuff has been great so far.

I've currently got the following:

*Kitchen spotlights and hallway\landing lights on Hue motion sensors. The nerd in me just thinks having the lights turn on when walking into the kitchen or going up the stairs is really cool.
*Colour bulbs in the living room\dining room with a lightstrip behind the TV.
*White spots and colour lightstrip in the master bedroom - lightstrip at the back of the headboard to light up the wall.
*Colour bulb in my little girl's room with one of the hue remote dimmers being fitted shortly so she can change the colours herself.

Creating new scenes is an breeze, so I've created a couple of different relaxing ones for the bedroom, one called "The Usual" in the living room to suit our normal needs, and one called "Movie Night" which turns off the overheads and ramps the brightness up on the one behind the TV to act as a bias light.

Finally I've created a routine in Alexa called "Make the room Christmassy" which turns on the Christmas Tree lights with a TP-Link smart plug, and sets the 2 bulbs and lightstrip to green, red and light blue - just for fun.

The Hue Disco app is also a fun one to add some music-reaction to the lights.

[Jon1606]

bought some

 Smart Bulbs, FEYG WiFi Led Light Bulbs E27 RGB colour Dimmable Hue Works with Amazon Alexa Echo Compatible Devices, Intelligent Remote Control by Smartphone,Party Lights Screw in Bulb (E27-1pack)  [Energy Class A+]
from amazon as they were the cheapest internet bulbs (no hub) that I could see and they are really good even if Chinese.

Work well with Alexa and much quicker reaction then energenie hub

[dragon123]

I had hue already so I use those, and some INNR lights which also work fine with hue and alexa.

For plugs, I tried a couple brands and I prefer osram smartplugs. TPlink also worked fine but I didn't like the look of them as much they take up too much room so I sold mine.

If you want a way to control 12V appliances I would go with belkin wemo, they also work ok with hue and alexa.

I ended up with just the osrams because they don't need a separate app, they are ok price-wise, they work, they have a manual button as well, and I like their look. I try to not need a bunch of different apps...

If you need a plug that's also a dimmer, see if you can find some (2nd hand) philips lightify plugs (on ebay for instance).

My parents have xiaomi lightbulbs, they also work fine with alexa, but the color spectrum is different from european (very very white mainly). Pricewise very good of course.

I also have some sonoff plugs, still have to try those and if they work good I'll install them at my parent's.