You don't need to make drastic changes to start building out your smart home. The Globe Smart Plug ($15.99) is a single-outlet model that lets you control ordinary devices such as lamps and fans with your phone or via Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri voice commands. It also works with other Globe devices such as smart lights and activity sensors, but it can't generate energy usage reports and it doesn't support the Apple HomeKit and IFTTT platforms. The Wyze Plug is compatible with lots of other smart devices and is much more affordable at $14.99 for a pack of two, making it our Editors' Choice winner for smart plugs.  

Slim, Basic Design

Measuring 1.5 by 2.2 by 1.1 inches (HWD), the Globe plug isn't as wide as the Emporia Smart Plug (1.5 by 3.3 by 1.1 inches) or the Wyze Plug (1.5 by 2.7 by 1.2 inches), but its height and depth are roughly the same. Its small footprint leaves plenty of room for access to the second outlet in a two-outlet receptacle. The front of the plug holds a single, three-prong outlet, while a three-prong plug sits on the back. A backlit power button is on the left side. The button glows blue when the power is on, flashes blue during setup, and shows nothing when the power is off. 

Under the hood are Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios for connecting the plug to your phone and your 2.4GHz home network. After you connect the plug to Wi-Fi, you can control it from your phone or with Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands. You can also use Siri shortcut commands to trigger the plug, add it to a SmartThings home automation system, and create Smart Scenes in the Globe Suite app that allow it to work with other Globe smart devices. The plug doesn't support the Apple HomeKit or IFTTT platforms, however.

App Options

The plug uses the same Globe Suite mobile app (available for Android and iOS) as other Globe products. It appears in a dedicated tab on the home screen, along with other Globe devices you own. At the top of the screen are buttons for any shortcuts you create, and at the bottom are Home, Smart Scene, and Profile buttons. The Home button takes you back to the main screen from wherever you are in the app. The Smart Scene tab enables you to configure the plug to turn on or off based on climate factors (temperature, humidity, and wind speed) or events (sunrise and sunset), your phone’s location, a daily schedule, or a triggering event from another Globe device. Use the Profiles button to set up Alexa, Google Assistant, and SmartThings integrations, and submit support queries.

Back at the home screen, tap the plug’s panel to navigate to a screen with a large power button, a Routine button, and a gear button. Use the Routine button to set a timer, configure power cycles, pick an Auto-Off time, and set up a vacation mode in which the plug randomly turns on and off to give the appearance that someone is home. The gear icon opens a Settings screen with options to configure a child lock that blocks the manual power button function, a Light Mode that gets rid of the LED indicators, and a Restart Status option that instructs the plug to resume its last power status if the electric goes out.

Missing is the ability to generate energy usage reports, a feature you get with the Emporia Smart Plug and the ConnectSense Smart Outlet 2.

Simple Setup and Operation

Installing the Globe Smart Plug is easy. To start, download the mobile app, create an account, plug in the device, and tap Add Device when the app prompts you. Once the power button begins to flash blue, the app immediately recognizes the plug and adds it to the Available Devices screen. Tap Next before entering your Wi-Fi SSID and password to complete the process. In testing, the plug automatically showed up on my Alexa device list as well.

The Globe plug performed well in my tests. It responded instantly to app and voice commands, and had no trouble adhering to the usage schedules I created. A Smart Scene I set up for the plug to trigger a Globe smart light bulb worked as intended, as did my Alexa routine to have the plug turn on when a Ring Floodlight Cam detected motion. 

Good, But a Bit Too Pricey

Turning traditional electronic devices into smart ones is easy with the Globe Wi-Fi Smart Plug. Once you insert the plug into an outlet and pair it with the Globe Suite mobile app, you can control anything that you connect to it with your voice or phone. The app also lets you create usage schedules, integrate the plug into a SmartThings ecosystem, and set up routines that involve other Globe devices. That said, the plug can't tell you how much power you use, nor does it work with the IFTTT or Apple HomeKit platforms. Our Editors’ Choice winner, the Wyze Plug, doesn’t work with HomeKit either, but it enables lots of other third-party integrations and is half the price. The Emporia Smart Plug also doesn't support HomeKit, but provides detailed energy usage reports for $9.99, making it another more cost-effective alternative.