Home apps are a wonderful thing. They allow you to easily control things inside your home, via your phone, while you’re away from home. Here are some of our favorites:

1. Nest. Nest is flexible and works with a variety of devices including: Nest Learning Thermostat, Nest Cam, Drop Cam and Nest Protect. You can control the temperature while keeping an eye on what is going on inside your home so you’ll always feel secure. For your convenience, every member of the family can have their own account so you won’t have to share passwords. Best of all, it’s free!

2. Stringify. Extremely user-friendly, it controls locks, lights, temperature and a whole lot more. How many times have you worried whether or not you locked the door or switched off the lights? Well, with Stringify, you’ll worry no more. And, like Nest, it’s free.

3. Kasa. You can control all of your connected TP-Link Smart devices from home or while on vacation with Kasa. You can also set appliances to turn off and on 24/7, 365 days a year with this app. There’s also an option to turn off lights using a countdown which kids absolutely love. Kasa is extremely easy to use and, like Nest and Stringify, the app is free.

4. Vivint Smart Home. Vivint helps you control a variety of devices including: security cameras, smart thermostats, smoke detectors, doors and window sensors. It sends you notices if you forget to lock the front door or the garage. How cool is that? You can even speak with a visitor from anywhere via the Vivint Doorbell Camera. And, like the others, this app is free.5. Thington. This app can be connected to all of your smart devices and can be controlled when you leave home. This is a very versatile app which allows you to chat with your home the way you talk to friends. It even makes suggestions about ways to make your devices work even better!

Home automation has been around a long time but smartphones and Wi-Fi have made the technology even better and more affordable. You can feel more secure than ever about leaving your precious home, whether at work or on vacation, when you find the right app for you!