The best smart plugs for lamps

The default assumption is that making a lamp smart means changing its bulb. For most lamps that is the more expensive, more compromised option.

A smart bulb replaces the light source, so you are choosing between app control and light quality - smart bulbs rarely publish a CRI figure, and color models are dimmer in plain white than an equivalent white bulb. A smart plug leaves the light source entirely alone. You keep the CRI 95 bulb you chose deliberately and add scheduling and voice control around it.

The integrated-LED row is the one that decides a lot of cases. A modern floor lamp or desk lamp with a built-in LED has no bulb to swap, so a smart plug is the only route to app control at all.

• Matter support. Same argument as bulbs - it stops the plug being tied to one ecosystem. Both picks here are Matter native. See Matter explained.
• Energy monitoring. Genuinely useful rather than a gimmick, because it lets you check a running-cost figure instead of accepting one. The Kasa EP25 and Tapo P115 both include it.
• Physical size. A fat plug blocks the second socket on a duplex outlet, which matters behind furniture. Slim bodies are worth preferring.
• A manual button. So the lamp still works for a guest who does not have your app.
• Local control. Whether schedules keep running when the internet is down. Frequently unstated, worth checking.

Three cases, and they are real:

1. You want dimming and the lamp has no dimmer. A plug cannot dim. A smart bulb dims in its own driver with nothing in the wall - which is also the renter workaround for an incompatible dimmer, per why dimmable LED bulbs flicker.
2. You want color. Obviously not something a plug can do.
3. The fitting is a ceiling light, not a lamp. There is no plug in the circuit to intercept, so the bulb is the only option short of changing the switch - which is electrical work.

Outside those three, buy the plug. It is cheaper, it keeps your bulb, and it works with lamps that have no bulb at all.