We started SMARTHIVE in 2024 because every smart home review we trusted came from a Reddit comment, and every review that ranked first on Google seemed sponsored. This is our attempt to fix that, at a small scale.
Mara Whitfield is the lead tester. She's been building and breaking smart home setups since 2018, and runs the security, climate, and lighting testing. She lives in a fully-automated house in Portland — which fails in interesting ways.
Jonas Vela focuses on home automation, hubs, and anything with a protocol underneath. Former network engineer, current smart home obsessive. Tests integrations, edge cases, and what happens when the Wi-Fi goes down.
No review units, no loaners, no partner kits. Every device in our reviews was bought through the same affiliate accounts you'd use, which keeps the incentives clean.
A device has to live in our home for at least 60 days before it's eligible to be written up. Most stay in rotation through a full firmware cycle.
Every guide names the devices that lost. Pros and cons aren't a both-sides ritual — they're notes from real failure modes.
No anonymous reviewers, no rotating contractor pool. Every guide is signed; both testers have been at this for a decade.
Brands cannot pay to appear on this site. Not in a sponsored slot, not as a 'partner spotlight', not bundled with anything.
When a device gets worse — cloud shutdown, subscription paywall added, firmware regression — we say so and re-rank the list. The update date isn't decorative.
Affiliate commissions on the devices we recommend. The retailer pays us — never you. We disclose this everywhere, including on every link.
Accept payment for placement. Run sponsored content disguised as reviews. Take free review units. Recommend things we wouldn't pay for ourselves.
If you want to support us: buy through our links when you'd buy anyway, or subscribe to the dispatch. We've never asked for a tip.