What was the first smart home product? One could argue it was the electric garage door opener. The first such openers with a radio-based remote controls came to market way back in 1931, predating the first TV remote by 20 years. Comfort and convenience were the motivation behind all three technological advances. In the case of the garage door, people were looking for a way to get out of their cars and into their homes while avoiding the weather. Given that history, it’s a wonder that it took so long to bring IoT technology to the biggest door in the house.
Well, the good news is that it’s here now. And the better news is that most existing garage door openers can be integrated with the rest of your smart home, greatly reducing the cost of that convenience. What’s more, these products are rapidly improving in both simplicity and capability. Buy one and you’ll not only be able to open and shut the door from anywhere—letting in guests, relatives, or delivery people—you’ll also know whether the door is open or closed in real time.
Why you should trust us
TechHive’s writers and editors have been reviewing smart home products for decades, and they draw on their deep and wide experience to evaluate every new product that comes to market. We install the products we review in our own homes to gain real-world experience as we evaluate how well they can be integrated into existing systems as well as how they perform on their own.
The best smart garage door opener controllers
Best smart garage door controller — Chamberlain myQ Smart Garage Hub (model MYQ-G0401)
Pros
- Price remains unbeatable
- Attractive styling fits in with the typical garage décor
- Plenty of third-party compatibility
Cons
- Occasional trouble with disconnects
- Still no support for a third garage door (you must buy a second controller)
It’s still a no-brainer: Everything we said about the Chamberlain model MYQ-G0301 myQ Smart Garage Door Hub is now true of the Chamberlain model MYQ-G0401: It’s the easiest smart garage door controller to set up, the most functional controller on the market, and, it’s the least expensive on the market—by a wide margin. That said, there’s little reason to upgrade from the previous model. The myQ app is simple to configure and use, and the system supports a small but growing number of smart home ecosystems, including HomeKit. While it isn’t compatible with every opener—check online before you buy—it’s definitively the one to get.
Best smart garage door controller, runner-up — Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener (model MSG100)
Pros
- Very inexpensive
- Solid performance during our testing
- Lots of extra features to ensure you don’t leave the door open
Cons
- Wired door sensor adds complexity
- Virtually no handholding during installation
Meross smart home products have left us with mixed emotions. They’re all inexpensive, but value is defined by more than a price tag. The Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener is on the better end of that scale. If Chamberlain’s product doesn’t fit your needs, this one is worth your consideration. (Note: This device is not HomeKit compatible, but Meross offers a separate model that is. It wasn’t available at press time, however, for us to evaluate.)
Best security camera for garages — LiftMaster myQ Smart Garage Camera
Pros
- Easy to set up and simple to use
- Magnetic base makes it tailor-made for garage mounting
- Good overall video quality
- Integrates well with other myQ gear
Cons
- No recording features unless you pay for a subscription
- Electrical outlet management can be tricky in a garage setting
We criticized the high price of this effective special-purpose camera when we first reviewed it several years ago, but times have changed and its MSRP–and especially its street price–have dropped substantially. You don’t need to have a myQ smart garage door controller installed (and the myQ camera doesn’t interact with the myQ controller at all); but if you do, your camera feed will appear directly above your garage door controls within the app. It’s a handy way to get one-stop access to everything that’s going on in the least inviting room of your house. Its magnetic base makes it easy to mount on the bottom of any garage door opener with a metal enclosure. The camera also works with the Key by Amazon system and app, which in this case would empower Amazon delivery drivers to open your garage and place your Amazon packages securely inside.
How to pick the right smart garage door controller
While garage door openers come in a vast range of brands, styles, and capabilities, the good news is that you’ll likely be able to find a smart controller that works with your system without much trouble.
As I mentioned above, the Chamberlain myQ is my top pick for a variety of reasons, but because it exclusively relies on wireless technology, it isn’t compatible with every system on the market. To start, visit myQ’s compatibility tool and check whether your existing opener is supported. If it is, and you don’t care that it’s not compatible with Alexa or Samsung SmartThings, your work is done: Get the myQ. If it isn’t, you can either get an all-new opener as Chamberlain suggests (although that won’t resolve the Alexa and SmartThings issues), or delve into the world of wired smart garage door controllers.
The Nexx NXG-200 must be attached to your garage door opener via wires, and space can be tight depending on your ceiling height.
Actually, upgrading your old, incompatible door opener is not a terrible idea, and new models are more secure and less expensive than you might think. Considering that a wired garage door controller can run you about $100, it’s worth thinking hard about whether you want to pour more money into an outdated system that might be close to failure, or just upgrade it from the start. (Many new openers have smart technology built in, obviating the need for an add-on controller.)
But if you do have an opener that’s incompatible with our top pick, and you want to keep it around, you’ll need a wired controller like the Nexx Garage NXG-200 (be sure to read our April 5 story about a security vulnerability associated with Nexx garage door controllers) or the Garadget Wired controllers. These must be connected to the opener via a pair of wires, so you’ll need to be comfortable with some minor electrical work in order to install them. Like myQ, Nexx offers an online compatibility tool, but here you’re likely to find that Nexx is either compatible straight out of the box, or compatible only with an additional adapter. In other words, wired controllers are generally compatible with everything, or, at least, I haven’t found any openers yet that aren’t compatible with them.
The Garadget fires a laser once a second at the door to determine whether it is open or closed.As with the product from NEXX, the Garadget must be hardwired to your opener.
The catch involves the adapter. Generally speaking, if you have an older garage door opener, Nexx and Garadget will work with it straight out of the box. If you have a newer opener, you’ll need their adapter as well. This is because newer openers often have a more complex encryption system built in, and a standard push-button remote—which is what wired smart controllers emulate—won’t work with them. The solution is to place a button that is compatible with this encryption in between the controller and the opener: The controller tells the button to activate, which in turn tells the opener to open or close. It’s a little wonky, but in my testing, these setups work just as well as the wireless alternative.
The problem is that it’s just a lot more expensive to do it this way. Purchasing a Nexx and an adapter will run you $105 at press time, and a Garadget plus adapter costs $98. Compare that to the less than $40 you’ll spend on the myQ and there’s really no choice.
Again, if myQ isn’t compatible, either Nexx or Garadget will make for an acceptable alternative, provided you’re willing to spend a little extra to get the job done. We’ll review new products in this space as they come to market and will update our top pick as warranted.
Author: Christopher Null, Contributor, PCWorld
Christopher Null is an award-winning technology journalist with more than 25 years of experience writing about and reviewing consumer and business tech products. Previously, he served as Executive Editor for PC Computing magazine and was the founder and Editor in Chief of Mobile magazine, the first print publication focused exclusively on mobile tech. In addition to covering a wide range of smart home gear for TechHive, he is a frequent contributor to Wired, This Old House, and AAA’s Via Magazine.