A smart lock can be a valuable addition to your smart home. It allows you to open your door without the need to carry your keys, but also enables remote access to your door wherever you are. You can give access to your home to friends or family when you’re not there yet, either via remote control or the use of a keypad. With a keypad, you enable access via NFC, a code or fingerprint. With the latest locks you can also use Ultra-wideband (UWB) to unlock the door when you’re walking towards it from the outside, without the need for any manual actions. You can fully lock the door when it’s night time, and with most smart locks, you can still use a regular key in case of emergency. Plenty of reasons to consider a smart lock, but which one should you choose? We’ve listed several interesting options for both users from Europe and North-America with this list of the best smart locks in 2026.
Aqara U400 Smart Lock
For the North-American users, the Aqara U400 Smart Lock is a very interesting option. It’s one of the first locks to support the new UWB feature with Apple Home, and in the future also with Android phones. Using an iPhone with a UWB chip, the lock exactly knows your location and distance relative to the lock. This allows the lock to detect when you’re approaching your door from the outside, and unlocks the door automatically, without the need to take the phone out of your pocket. This works very well and removes the need for any manual action to open your door: it just happens automatically when you need it. Next to UWB, you can still use your fingerprint, a pincode, Apple Home Key or the Aqara app to open the lock. With Matter over Thread support, you can directly connect it to Smart Home platforms like Apple Home, Google Home or Home Assistant, without the need for a brand-specific hub. The Aqara U400 is available in silver and black and priced at $269,99.
Nuki Smart Lock Pro 5 & Nuki Smart Lock Ultra
In Europe, Nuki is an established brand when it comes to Smart Locks. With their latest Nuki Smart Lock Ultra and the Nuki Smart Lock Pro 5, they offer a smart lock in a very compact format. Both versions are very similar: the Ultra comes with a Universal cilinder, while the Pro uses your existing cilinder. As the Nuki Smart Lock Ultra works optimally with the cilinder, it’s 12mm shorter compared to the pro. All other features and looks are the same. It supports Matter over Thread and has a button to lock or unlock the door. You can opt for 3 different speeds, with the fastest one significantly faster than earlier versions of the smart lock. A separate keypad offers access via a code, fingerprint, NFC card or Apple Home Key. Aliro is supported, which means you can add a pass to your Apple, Google or Samsung wallet to unlock the door with a tap of your phone. Installation of the Nuki Smart Lock takes a few minutes and is very straight forward. With the build-in geofence option, you can also unlock the device when you walk towards to door. This works quite well with Nuki, but is not on par with the UWB option Aqara offers in the U400. Unfortunately, UWB is not supported yet on any European smart lock. This hopefully changes soon and will probably need an updated keypad. The Nuki Smart Lock Pro is priced at €349 including cilinder, while the Nuki Smart Lock Pro costs €279. There are regular promo’s which brings down the price significantly.
Aqara U200 Smart Lock
The Nuki Keypad 2 NFCAqara U200 Smart Lock is also focussed on Europe, as it’s a retrofit option. It has a bigger form factor compared to the latest Nuki Smart Locks, but also comes at a significantly lower price point, especially given the included keypad, It supports Matter over Thread, and unlocks via a code, NFC card, fingerprint or Apple Home Key. Given the price point, it’s an interesting option in Europe if you like a smart lock with Apple Home Key support. A UWB update is not yet available, this will likely be featured in a full new version of the Aqara U200 Smart Lock.
How to choose the best Smart Lock
. We’ve listed three smart locks which are all a great option. This is mainly based on our own experience with these locks, but also the features they offer. With Matter over Thread support, they are future proof, and with Apple Home Key, Aliro and/or UWB support, they are easy to control. If you don’t care about Matter over Thread, the SwitchBot Lock Ultra is also a good option at a good price point. We recommend to include the SwitchBot Vision Pro, to enable unlocking your door with facial or hand recognition. This lock works over Bluetooth and needs to connect with a SwitchBot Hub, which also allows you to add it to a Smart Home platform of choice via Matter.
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