The 10 Best Home Thermostats in 2027

If you want one thermostat that will almost certainly run the system in your basement, this is the one we'd buy. It handles conventional furnaces and AC up to two stages each, heat pumps with two stages plus two stages of aux heat, boilers, PTACs and fan coils. Its 12-terminal plate also leaves more room for dual-fuel and accessory wiring than the cheaper ecobees.

Picture a mild November afternoon. Your two-stage furnace used to blast on and off, and now it can lean on the low stage instead. The SmartSensor in the box helps it heat the room you're actually in, and the Power Extender Kit covers homes with no C-wire. It works with Apple Home, Alexa, Google and SmartThings with no plan required.

But the real downside shows up on heat pumps. Owners keep mentioning heat pump and dual-fuel staging delays, plus built-in readings a few degrees off, and on Apple's forum 42 people flagged the same fault: it goes unresponsive in the Home app while the ecobee app keeps working. Still, nothing else here covers as many systems with a sensor included. Our call? For a two-stage or dual-fuel home, buy it. Running a three-stage furnace or AC? The Google Nest Learning Thermostat (#2) is your pick.

Three-stage equipment narrows your choices fast, and this Nest is where we'd send you. It runs up to three stages of heat and three of cooling, heat pumps with aux or emergency heat, plus humidifiers, dehumidifiers and ventilation. It's designed to work without a C-wire, and Google says fewer than 1% of homes need one or its Nest Power Connector.

So say an alert lands on your phone a week before the first hard freeze, telling you the furnace is struggling. You get time to book a tune-up. Day to day, it learns your routine and builds its own schedule, and the sensor in the box keeps a chosen bedroom on target. Matter brings it into Apple Home, Alexa and SmartThings, though the room sensors don't show up in Apple Home.

Still, the trade-offs are physical. You press and turn the ring rather than tapping a screen, the new base has tiny wire connectors, and older Nest bases won't fit. And the screen is the gripe owners raise most: it's dim, and no setting turns it up. Is it the one for you? With three-stage equipment, yes. On two stages and want more terminals and a longer warranty? Go with the ecobee Premium (#1).

Here's the thing about heat pumps: the painful part of a winter bill is often the backup heat, not the pump. That's why this Sensi earns our heat pump spot. With its outdoor sensor, sold separately, you can set a balance point and lock out aux heat, and it controls heat pumps up to four heat and two cool stages.

Say a 20-degree morning arrives. With the outdoor reading on hand, you can judge when backup heat should kick in. It also runs a humidifier or dehumidifier, schedules allow up to eight periods a day, and you can pair a room sensor right from the 4.3-inch touchscreen. It works with Alexa, Google and SmartThings, and carries a 3-year warranty.

But it asks more of your wiring and your wallet. It needs a C-wire, and the kit, wall plate, room sensors and outdoor sensor are all extras. There's no Apple Home or Matter, and Home Assistant owners describe touchy pairing that can take a reset. So would we buy it? For a heat pump in an Alexa or Google home, yes. On a tight budget with a C-wire? The Honeywell X2S (#7) runs heat pumps with electric backup for much less.

Most homes have a plain furnace and AC, and for them this middle ecobee is the sensible buy. It handles up to two heat and two cool stages, heat pumps up to two stages with one aux stage, and one accessory wire. A Power Extender Kit in the box covers most homes with no C-wire.

Think about your first winter on a new heat pump. Each Monday you open the runtime report and watch the aux heat hours shrink, which matches what owners switching from Nest describe as it adapts. Accuracy holds up too: it read dead-on from 55 to 78°F against Reviewed's calibrated thermometer, though TechGearLab saw up to 3.5°F of drift, which you can offset. Install takes 15 to 45 minutes with photo-guided wiring steps in the app, and you get a 3-year warranty.

What you give up is the Premium's room sensor, built-in Alexa and extra terminals for dual fuel or several accessories. It also won't run a 2-wire heat-only system. Worth it? For a standard furnace and AC, yes, and add a SmartSensor later if one room runs cold. Wiring dual fuel or more than one accessory? Step up to the ecobee Premium (#1).

If your thermostat hangs somewhere everyone walks past, the X8S makes the strongest case for itself. Its 5-inch touchscreen is the biggest here, with custom idle themes. Underneath, it runs conventional systems up to two heat and two cool stages, heat pumps up to three heat stages, and one humidifier, dehumidifier or ventilator.

So say you're away for a winter week. Freeze protection keeps the house from dropping low enough to put your pipes at risk. When you're home, the feels-like humidity comfort setting and optional room sensors, up to 20, help warm an office or bedroom far from the hallway. It's Matter certified, works with Alexa, Google and Apple Home, and shows Ring or First Alert doorbell video with two-way talk.

Still, two limits matter for system fit. Heat pump backup has to be electric strips, so dual fuel is out, and it needs a C-wire, though Honeywell offers a free adapter. Matter also needs the First Alert app and account to start, and it shares only basic controls. Bottom line? For a furnace and AC where looks count, it's our pick. Want a C-wire kit in the box and more platforms? The ecobee Enhanced (#4) fits better.

Not every multi-stage home needs a premium thermostat, and the ST55 shows why. It controls conventional systems up to two heat and two cool stages and heat pumps up to four heat and two cool, plus humidifiers and dehumidifiers. So you can replace a worn thermostat on a two-stage gas furnace and keep both stages working.

And on forced-air gas and AC, it usually goes in without a C-wire, running on power stealing and two AA batteries that last up to two years. If your Wi-Fi drops during a storm, it carries on as a normal thermostat. Schedules allow up to eight periods a day with Early Start, and it works with Alexa, Google, HomeKit and SmartThings. Add filter reminders and a 3-year warranty.

The no-C-wire promise has limits, though. Heat pumps and heat-only systems need one, as boiler owners on Heating Help point out, and some features, like the continuous backlight, only work when it's hardwired. The screen is small, monochrome and dated, with no room sensors. Should you get it? For a two-stage furnace on a budget, yes. Want a touchscreen and an outdoor sensor for a heat pump? The Sensi Touch 2 (#3) is the upgrade.

Say spring pollen clogs your heat pump's filter by May. The X2S sends a filter change alert, and a separate heat pump failure alert tells you if the system quits. It runs conventional systems up to two heat and two cool stages, and heat pumps up to two heat and one cool with electric backup. It also replaces the RTH6580 Wi-Fi model in Honeywell's line.

That's a lot of system for a budget thermostat. You also get geofenced auto-away and 5-1-1, 5-2 or 7-day schedules you can set on the buttons with no app. Matter brings it into Alexa, Google and Apple Home, it connects on 2.4 or 5GHz Wi-Fi, and it carries a 2-year warranty.

Where it falls short is wiring and setup. It needs a C-wire, though Honeywell offers a free adapter, and there's no room sensor support. Home Assistant owners found Matter needs a Resideo account and app first, early units couldn't do Matter at all, and humidity isn't shared. With newer firmware, Matter works. Would we buy it? For a single-zone heat pump on a budget, yes. Want aux heat lockout from an outdoor sensor? The Sensi Touch 2 (#3) is worth the step up.

If your heat comes from a boiler or an old gas wall heater, a dependable schedule may matter more to you than an app, and that's what the TX9600TS delivers. It works with 3-wire hydronic zone valves, gas millivolt heaters, conventional heat and AC, and heat pumps up to two heat stages and one cool.

Take that gas wall heater running on millivolt, with no C-wire anywhere. Two AA batteries power the Lux, so it can still put the heater on a schedule: seven days, each with two or four periods. The touchscreen lights up when you touch it and is easy to read, and you get a filter reminder, keypad lock, smart recovery and a 3-year warranty. The box has wire labels and a heat pump jumper, but no batteries.

But it's old-school. There's no Wi-Fi, app or voice control, cooling is single stage, and setup means flipping DIP switches on the back, which can trip up a beginner. It won't run line-voltage baseboards either. Our verdict? For a boiler or millivolt heater, it's the one. Want app control on a forced-air system? The Sensi ST55 (#6) adds it, usually without a C-wire on a gas furnace.

Electric baseboards run on 120 or 240 volts, and the low-voltage smart thermostats above can't switch that load at all. The Mysa LITE can. It handles baseboards, convectors, fan-forced wall heaters and radiant ceilings up to 16A, which works out to 1,900W at 120V or 3,800W at 240V, on a 20A breaker.

So before you buy, run the compatibility check in the Mysa app and confirm your 240V baseboard sits within that 16A rating. The app then walks you through a photo-based wiring guide, and Mysa puts the install at about 15 minutes. Once it's up, you get schedules and geofencing from HomeKit, Alexa or Google Home, with no hub and no subscription, plus a 5-year warranty.

But there's a catch, and it's noise. It switches with a relay, not a silent TRIAC, and owners on RedFlagDeals say it clicks on every cycle; one returned four units over it, while others running five to eight are happy. There's also no Matter or humidity sensor. Is it for you? In a family room or a home office, yes. For a bedroom where a click would wake you, the silent Honeywell RLV4305A (#10) is the better choice.

A clicking bedroom baseboard can wake you at 3 a.m., and the RLV4305A's silent TRIAC switching is the fix. It runs baseboards, convectors, two-wire radiant ceilings and fan-forced heaters up to 3,500W at 240V, and Honeywell says it holds within 0.5°F of your setpoint.

And the swap is about as simple as wiring gets. With the breaker off, two non-polarized leads replace your old dial, and the programming steps are printed inside the cover. You set separate weekday and weekend schedules with four periods each (wake, leave, return, sleep), and the program survives a power cut without batteries. Owners on Honeywell's own store praise the easy install and say rooms hold a steadier temperature.

But keep your expectations simple. There's no Wi-Fi or app, it shares two temperatures across the four periods, it must mount horizontally, and some owners find the display text small. Honeywell's site now marks this model discontinued, though it's still sold new. Should you buy it? For a bedroom where quiet matters most, yes. Want phone and voice control instead? The Mysa LITE (#9) is the smart choice.