Best Smart Garage Door Opener Options

How many times have you driven away from your garage wondering if you shut the door?  Fortunately for us (I am just as guilty), there are many different options out there to help.

All of these smart garage door openers come with their own unique features.  Some replace your entire not-smart garage door opener.  Others just replace your push-button opener.  I’ll go through the ones I consider the best bang for buck so you can find which one works for you.  I also have some here that I’m not the biggest fan of, but I think they have potential.

My Choice – Garadget

Garadget is a smart garage door opener that was actually crowd-funded on Kickstarter.  The founder wanted a simple to install, low maintenance opener that didn’t require any additional smart home pieces to work.  That means that you don’t need a hub like SmartThings or Wink.  You just need a WiFi router to get it up and running.

What differentiates it from the other openers is how it detects whether your door is open or not.  While most openers will have some kind of sensor that you attach to your door, Garadget actually has a laser that it points at your garage door.  If your door is open, that laser does not hit the reflective tape (that comes included) and reports your door as closed.

Setup is pretty simple and integration with Samsung SmartThings and Amazon Echo is excellent.  Due to the ease of use, awesome community, and simple setup, Garadget is my current #1 Smart Garage Door Opener.

Read More:  Garadget: An Awesome and Open Approach to a Smart Garage Door Opener

SmartThings: Yes, Wink Hub: No, Amazon Echo: Yes, Own App: Yes, Protocol: WiFi

2nd Place – Linear GoControl

The Linear GoControl is a very straight forward and easy to install smart garage door opener.  It speaks on Z-Wave, so you will need a hub such as the Samsung SmartThings to control it.

Read More: Best Smart Home Hubs for 2017

It also comes with an open/close sensor that you will have to install.  This will let you remotely know whether or not you left the door open.

Unfortunately, Alexa support isn’t great.  There are some threads on the forums that describe how to hook it up, but it involves extra work outside of the regular app.  You’ll have to use your SmartThings app primarily to control it for now.

The reason I made this my 2nd place choice is its lack of compatibility with anything but SmartThings and the fact that it’s a little bit harder to install than Garadget.  The additional sensor that now has a battery I have to keep track of make it not as easy to get set up and maintain going forward.

Read More:  GoControl/Linear Z-Wave Smart Garage Door Opener Review and Install

SmartThings: Yes, Wink Hub: Yes, Amazon Echo: Kinda, Own App: No, Protocol: Z-Wave

Close 3rd – Nexx

This is a simple opener similar to the Linear GoControl.  Install is very straight forward and it supports many different types of garage door openers.  This opener uses Wifi.

Where it lacks is in its connectivity.  It does connect to Amazon Echo natively, but it does not have Samsung SmartThings, Wink or IFTTT support.  It does have its own native app, similar to other openers, but it would be nice if you could just integrate it into your SmartThings or Wink hub so you could just use 1 app.

This is a close 3rd due to its native ability to work with my Amazon Echo Dot.

SmartThings: No, Wink Hub: No, Amazon Echo: Yes, Own App: Yes, Protocol: WiFi

GarageIO

GarageIO is another easy to install smart garage door opener.  What I like most about it is that with 1 device, you can control up to 3 garage doors.

It comes with tilt sensors, so you will know if your door is open or closed.  It also has its own app for you to open and close the door.  More importantly, it can also connect to Alexa.  By saying Alexa, tell GarageIO to close my door, you can open and close your garage door.

The lack of SmartThings integration is a downside.  That means you will need a 2nd app to control this.

The only reason it wasn’t my 3rd choice is cost.  If you only want to control 1 door, it is almost 2x as expensive as the others.  If you are looking for 2 doors, I would pick it over the Nexx due to only needing 1 GarageIO for both doors.  I still wouldn’t pick it over the Linear GoControl or Garadget though.

SmartThings: No, Wink Hub: No, Amazon Echo: Yes, Own App: Yes, Protocol: WiFi

Chamberlain WD1000WF

The Chamberlain WD1000WF is a replacement for your entire garage door opener.  It is a fully integrated smart garage door opener that you can control with your phone via Wifi.  This means that you don’t have to worry about whether or not your current opener is compatible.

Some of the bonus features it has are battery backup, so you can still open your door when your power is out.  It also comes with a wall-mount LCD screen so you can change settings and control it without your phone.

To open and close it with your phone or tablet, you will need the MyQ app.  It runs on wifi, so you can do it from anywhere.

Unfortunately, it does not connect to your Amazon Echo or SmartThings hub, but it does connect to Wink Hub.  If you’re using Wink as your home hub, this allows you to control it alongside your other devices in the same app.

SmartThings: No, Wink Hub: Yes, Amazon Echo: No, Own App: Yes, Protocol: WiFi

Chamberlain MyQ

The Chamberlain MyQ is just the smart remote part of the previous garage door opener.  It is a lot simpler to install, but it does come with the downsides of not having any SmartThings or Amazon Echo integration.  Wink support seems to work well though, so if you use that hub this option might work for you.

SmartThings: No, Wink Hub: Yes, Amazon Echo: No, Own App: Yes, Protocol: WiFi

Read More:  Garadget: An Awesome and Open Approach to a Smart Garage Door Opener