Amazon Alexa vs SmartThings
Amazon Alexa and SmartThings are both home automation software. Amazon Alexa is a commercial product from Amazon. SmartThings is a commercial product from Samsung Electronics.
Which to pick
- Pick Amazon Alexa when
- You want cheap voice-controlled speakers and the widest range of compatible smart home devices.
- Pick SmartThings when
- You own Samsung appliances or TVs and want broad device support from a mainstream app.
Side by side
Amazon's voice assistant on Echo devices, controlling smart home gear, routines, music and shopping, now upgraded to the generative Alexa+.
Samsung's smart home platform and app for controlling and automating Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter and Wi-Fi devices, often via Samsung TVs and hubs.
Voice recordings are processed in Amazon's cloud with no local option, and it pushes shopping and Prime.
Most automations rely on Samsung's cloud, and past platform changes broke custom integrations.
Production-ready (both)
Cloud service and mobile app (both)
Not published (both)
Closed source, sold by Amazon
Closed source, sold by Samsung Electronics
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code. (both)
6.3k Wikipedia readers a month on phones
486 Wikipedia readers a month on phones
Other comparisons
More home automation platforms
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.