Level Bolt vs Level Lock vs Level Lock+

All three hide the technology in the door

Level puts the motor and the electronics inside the bolt itself. The outside of the door keeps its existing hardware, and nothing on it tells a visitor that the lock is smart.

That invisibility is the reason to buy a Level at all. It suits a period front door, a shared entrance with fixed appearance rules, or anywhere a keypad and a large escutcheon would look wrong.

The Bolt is a different job from the other two

This is the distinction the model names hide, and it decides the choice before any feature does.

• Level Bolt goes in behind the deadbolt you already have. The handle, the thumbturn, the escutcheon and the keys on your door all stay exactly as they are — Level’s own description is that you keep your matched home design and your keys. Nothing about the door changes visually, because none of the visible parts are replaced.
• Level Lock and Level Lock+ replace the deadbolt, including the parts you can see. You get Level’s hardware and Level’s keys.

So if your door has hardware that matches the rest of the house, or a letterplate and knocker set you are not willing to break up, the Bolt is the only one of the three that leaves it alone. If you are happy to change the visible hardware, the Lock and the Lock+ are the better-specified locks.

What the Plus adds

Only the Lock+ does Apple Home Key — tap an iPhone or an Apple Watch on the door and it opens. Neither the Bolt nor the standard Lock can do this.

The Lock+ is also the only one of the three that speaks Matter, so it joins Apple Home without a Level bridge. The Bolt and the Lock are Bluetooth, which means they work in the Home app but respond over a short range and need a home hub for anything remote.

None of the three needs a Level hub, which is what the “Hub required” row above means. Bluetooth and Matter both reach Apple Home directly. What Matter gets you is a faster and more reliable connection than Bluetooth alone.

Check the name before you order

Level’s range as the company currently lists it is Lock Pro, Lock and Bolt — and the Lock Pro is the one described as having Apple home keys and door status detection. The “Lock+” name this page uses is the one the lock was sold under, and the one people still search for, but it is not a name on Level’s current line-up.

So if you are buying new, check which of those you are actually being sold. If you are buying old stock or second-hand, a Lock+ is the Home Key model and the listing will probably still call it that.

The keypad question

None of these locks has a keypad on it. Access comes from the app, a key card, your mechanical key where one is fitted, and — on the Lock+ — Home Key.

That is a clean set of options for a household where everyone carries a phone. It gets harder the moment somebody needs a code: a cleaner, a dog walker, a builder, a teenager who has lost their phone.

Level does sell a separate Level Keypad accessory, so this is not the dead end it first looks like. But it is a second purchase, it mounts beside the door rather than on the lock, and which locks it pairs with depends on the model. Confirm the keypad works with the exact lock you are buying before you count on handing out codes, rather than assuming it does.

Which to buy

Buy the Bolt if the existing door hardware has to stay, or if you want the cheapest way into Level. You give up Home Key and Matter.

Buy the Lock+ — or whatever Level currently calls the Home Key model — if you are replacing the hardware anyway and everyone in the house has a phone. Home Key and Matter are both worth the difference over the standard Lock.

Buy the standard Level Lock only if you find one cheaply and genuinely do not want tap-to-unlock.

And if somebody in the household will regularly need a code, price the Level Keypad in from the start, or buy a lock with a keypad built in and accept that it will be visible on the door.