Locks

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Two questions decide which HomeKit smart lock you buy, and neither of them is about the app.

Does it fit your door? A smart lock is a mechanical product first. Locks built for a North American deadbolt do not fit a British door with a euro cylinder and a multipoint mechanism, and no amount of HomeKit support changes that. Retrofit locks sidestep the problem entirely by driving the cylinder you already have.

Does it support Apple Home Key? This is the feature worth paying for. Home Key puts a key on your iPhone and your Apple Watch, and you open the door by tapping the lock — no app, no phone unlock, and it keeps working for hours after the phone’s battery dies. The hero above counts how many locks here support it, and the “Apple Home Key” filter below narrows the list to exactly those.

Whatever you buy, Siri asks you to authenticate before it will unlock a door. That is the correct behaviour and it is not configurable.

HomeKit smart locks we would buy

Keep your door as it is: Aqara Smart Lock U200

The Aqara Smart Lock U200 fits over the cylinder of your existing door. The outside of the door does not change, your old keys still work, and you gain Apple Home Key, a fingerprint reader, PIN codes and NFC cards. It joins over Thread with Bluetooth for setup and needs no hub of its own.

For most British doors this is the right shape of product: nothing is replaced, nothing is drilled, and a housemate who has never installed an app can still use a key.

Check price on Amazon UK

Built for Apple Home: Avia Smart Deadbolt+

The Avia Smart Deadbolt+ was designed for iOS first, so Apple Home Key, the Home app and Siri are the interface rather than an afterthought over a manufacturer’s own app. It is Matter over Thread, and it carries an ANSI A156.40-2020 AAA rating — the top forced-entry grade in that standard, which is rare in a smart lock and worth weighing against the plastic-fronted competition.

Check price on Amazon UK

The mainstream deadbolt: Yale Assure Lock 2 Plus

The Yale Assure Lock 2 Plus is the model in the Assure Lock 2 family built around Home Key, with a keypad for guests who do not have a phone. Yale is the name most people already trust on a front door, which counts for something when the rest of the household has opinions.

Check price on Amazon UK

The plain Assure Lock 2 (Amazon UK) and the Touch (Amazon UK) are the cheaper models in the same family, and the Yale Wi-Fi Smart Module (Amazon UK) adds Wi-Fi to an Assure lock you already own. Our Assure Lock 2 Plus vs Touch comparison covers the difference.

Wi-Fi inside the lock: Schlage Encode Plus

The Schlage Encode Plus carries Wi-Fi, Thread and Bluetooth and supports Home Key, so remote access needs no bridge on the router. A North American deadbolt — check your door before you fall for it.

Check price on Amazon UK

The one to be careful with: ULTRALOQ Bolt Fingerprint

The ULTRALOQ Bolt Fingerprint is a good Wi-Fi deadbolt with the fingerprint reader in the thumb turn and no bridge to plug in — but it does not support Apple Home Key. In ULTRALOQ’s range that feature belongs to the separate Bolt NFC. The two look alike and the names differ by one word, which makes it an easy and expensive mistake.

Check price on Amazon UK

Bluetooth-only, and what that costs you

The Yale Linus is Bluetooth only and does not do Home Key. Bluetooth is fine standing at your own door; it means the lock cannot be reached from outside the house at all without a home hub relaying for it. Worth knowing before you buy rather than after.

Check price on Amazon UK

What to check before you buy

The door. Measure the backset, the thickness and the cylinder before anything else. A euro-profile multipoint door and an American deadbolt are different products, and a lock that does not fit is a lock that goes back.

Home Key, specifically by model. Manufacturers ship near-identical locks where one has it and one does not, and the difference is a single word in the name. Use the “Apple Home Key” filter below rather than trusting the range.

Whether it needs a hub of its own. The Aqara Smart Door Lock P100, for instance, is Zigbee and requires an Aqara hub. The comparison table below has a “hub required” column; check it before you budget.

Thread, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Thread locks last longest on a set of batteries and need a HomePod or Apple TV to route for them. Wi-Fi locks reach the internet on their own and eat batteries faster. Bluetooth locks need a home hub for anything remote.

Batteries, and what happens when they die. Every smart lock runs on cells, and every sensible one has an emergency power contact or a key override. Find out which yours has before you are standing outside in the rain.

Renting. A retrofit lock that leaves the outside of the door untouched is usually acceptable to a landlord where a replacement is not. That alone rules out most of this list for a lot of people.

The full list of HomeKit-compatible smart locks is below, filterable by connectivity, brand and Apple Home Key support.