I’ll never live in a house without a great smart lock, and Nuki is the greatest

Eight years ago, smart locks were all the rage in the smart home world, and I really wanted one, but I had huge concerns about privacy and security. After a million and one searches, I landed on Nuki, an Austrian brand that makes secure and audited locks specifically for European cylinders, which is precisely what I had on my door back in Lebanon.

I decided to give it a go and was immediately blown away by how good it was. When I say that I’ve never tested a smart home product that was this good and this complete, I am not exaggerating. Every feature I thought about, every little setting or tweak I might’ve needed was there, and if it wasn’t, it got added in the next update.

What started as a “let’s test and see if we even trust and want this smart lock” discussion with my husband ended up becoming a four-year love affair with Nuki, which saved us from breaking our door once when we forgot our keys, got us out of a few pickles with handymen who didn’t respect schedules, and constantly reminded us when we forgot to lock the door after walking away.

In 2021, though, we left our home and our Nuki lock and moved to France. Our rental had a European lock, but the latch was so rigid and required shoving and pulling to fully open or close the door. It wasn’t a job for Nuki — or any other smart lock for that matter — so we spent more than three years without one. You’d think that we’d have moved on by then, but no, every week or so, we’d have an instance of, “If we had a Nuki we could…” Besides smart curtains, it was the smart home product we missed the most from our old apartment in Lebanon.

That was until we recently moved again to a new house with a door that’s perfect for Nuki. By then, the Nuki Smart Lock Ultra (£309.99 at Manufacturer site) was already announced, and I couldn’t wait to test it out. I’ve had it for several weeks now, and let me tell you: I’m never going back to a home without a smart lock. Here’s why, and why the Nuki Ultra is by far the absolute best smart lock you can get if you live in the UK, EU, Middle East, or anywhere that uses European cylinders. (If you’re in the US, it’s coming there soon.)

In the mid-2010s, the words “smart lock” caused dread in my heart. This is the door to my home, to my family, memories, belongings, and safety — ain’t no way I’m trusting that to an unreliable gizmo!

In a way, I still firmly believe that. You should not trust your home’s door to a random gadget. But if you do your research, talk to your partner and family members, and decide what exactly you want and where you draw the line, then there are lots of benefits to having a smart lock, not the least of which being that it can actually be more secure than a traditional lock. How so?

Besides being audited for security and breaches, the best smart locks out there aren’t any more vulnerable than a regular lock. It is much easier for a thief to pick a lock than to learn how to hack a gadget, and if someone is hellbent on getting into your home, they will find a way to do it, smart lock or not. The safety issues of smart locks are big misconceptions, at least when it comes to the most trustworthy brands out there.

Plus, smart locks provide extra security layers that a regular lock doesn’t. My Nuki auto-locks five minutes after I unlock it, so my forgetful self never leaves the door unlocked, whether I’m at home or away. It warns me if I walk away from home and leave the door unlocked. It can make sure the door is aut0-locked every day at night. It notifies me each time anyone or anything opens the door, whether it’s my husband, a manual button push, or an app integration, and provides detailed logs for every action. A regular lock can’t do that.

Best of all, though, my Nuki saves me from misplacing my keys. I still carry them with me all the time, because this lock allows entry with a regular key from the outside, but they stay in a safe pocket in my backpack. They’re with me, should I need them, but I never misplace them.

And finally, I don’t have to share my physical key with people staying over and worry about them safekeeping it. I just issue a temporary code for them and then revoke it when they no longer need access.

There are different Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Matter, Zigbee, and Z-Wave locks out there, with each protocol offering certain limitations and benefits. Nuki supports the first three and end-to-end encrypts the connection between the lock, phone, smartwatch, or web API. I’ve dismissed Matter for now (my experience with it on Tado was horrid); I’m only using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to control my lock, and I will enable MQTT soon to integrate it locally with my Home Assistant setup as part of my offline smart home.

What I appreciate, though, is that if you want, you can stick to end-to-end encrypted Bluetooth and never even log in with an email address or anything. In this day and age, a company that doesn’t ask you to create an account — what a novelty!

Another misconception around smart locks is that you lose control over your door. You’re giving away part of your power and letting an app and a gadget decide that for you. Once again, this is true, but there are nuances that good smart locks will provide.

The best example is auto-unlock. Most smart locks will auto-unlock when your phone is near the door, and while many of you might be OK with this, I am not. I know that geofencing on phones is not foolproof, and if there’s a 1% or even 0.1% chance that my door will unlock when it shouldn’t, I do not want that feature. With Nuki, I found the best middle ground. The app automatically surfaces a notification each time I’m near my door, but I have to manually tap on my Pixel Watch 3 or Pixel 9 Pro to unlock the door. It won’t open by itself.

Third-party integrations are another example. Nuki has a Web API that lets me integrate the lock with other platforms, but it’s locked behind two-step verification and requires a PIN each time I unlock it with my voice commands or the app on Google Home. If I decide I don’t like this, though, all of it can be disabled.

Nuki also lets me turn off Bluetooth pairing on the lock so that its Bluetooth signal isn’t visible anymore. I can also disable Wi-Fi if I prefer to keep the lock usage local.

There are dozens and dozens of options in the app to choose from, each with its own ramifications. The LED brightness, swipe actions, battery mode, Wi-Fi mode, unlock speed, unlatch duration, schedules, and on and on and on…

It took me over an hour to go through them and talk with my husband, debating the pros and cons of each setting before we decided what we were comfortable allowing and what we didn’t want. Swipes in the app are off for us, for example, because we’re wary of accidental touches; auto-lock is on because we’d rather the door lock when we don’t intend than it stay unlocked when we forget; and we receive notifications for every action to know what’s happening with our door.

You’d be surprised how often I’ve researched a smart lock brand and saw that its app barely had a few settings. That’s a red flag, if there’s ever any. It’s my door; no company should choose how or when it opens or locks.

Beyond software, there are many hardware considerations you can make with a smart lock, too. You should decide whether you want one that mounts on the outside or inside of your door (Nuki is the latter, and I like that because I can still use my key from outside), and whether you want a keypad or some other fast way to unlock (UWB, fob, fingerprint, etc.) or not.

I’ve only researched other smart locks and haven’t installed any, so I can’t speak for those, but I think the best locks don’t force one way of doing things on you. They either offer multiple models or several accessories for the same model, so you can pick what works for you and evolve your setup if you need more options.

Now that I’ve written more than a thousand words defending smart locks, I’ll tell you a bit about how I use the Nuki Smart Lock Ultra in my everyday life and what it brings me.

Unlike previous Nuki locks, which were installed over my existing lock and key, the Ultra comes with its own cylinder and keys. I had to replace my door’s lock to install it, but it only took a few minutes. Thanks to this design change, though, the Ultra is much more compact and fits nicely over my door. The steel finish is sleek, and it comes with two color bands — white and black — to fit any door frame.

I love how much faster, smaller, and quieter the Ultra is. It charges over USB-C, has integrated Wi-Fi, and turns my door faster than I could do it manually with a set of keys, even on the standard setting. The “insane” speed mode is worthy of its name, too. It’s still a bit louder than simply turning keys, but the noise difference is staggering with previous generation locks.

All of these changes mean that I worry less about keeping a set of spare batteries charged up, the noise of locking at night, or having to stare for a few seconds at the lock while it slowly turns to free up my guests to leave. This helps the Ultra integrate better into my life, and I’ve found that most people understand that the middle circle is a button that can be pressed to unlock. With my older Nukis, I had to explain that to any guest.

For now, I haven’t had to use my Nuki to let people in remotely, but my brother-in-law and his wife are soon coming over for 10 days, and I’m not worried about giving them a spare set of keys. I’ll just issue temporary access for them so they’ll be able to come and go as they please, even if they’re not together. With a regular lock, I could only give them the one extra key we have.

What I’ve mostly used Nuki for is to let myself in without having to fish my keys out of my backpack. Each time I’m near the door, the notification pops up on my phone and watch, and I unlock when I have clear visibility to ensure no random stranger is lurking nearby. When I’m in, I don’t have to remember to lock because it’ll do that automatically after five minutes (which is customizable).

I also love the lock-and-go function. I double-press the button when I’m about to leave home, and the door opens, waits twenty seconds (also customizable) to give me time to get out and close, then locks by itself. It’s very satisfying to hear the door locking when I’m turning away, without me having to fiddle with any app or function.

Plus, Nuki always updates me on when my husband gets home or leaves (and vice versa). It makes sure the door is locked at night. And it notifies us if something happens when we’re away.

Perhaps, though, the best — and silliest? — benefit is that I can now go get the mail or meet the delivery person without leaving the door ajar. Our mailbox isn’t near the door, so I used to leave the door open to avoid fiddling with keys and because I was often in a rush. But that meant letting cold air in the winter and insects in the summer. Now, I just close the door, go grab the mail or meet the delivery person, and know I have my phone to let me back in. It’s not the sexiest benefit, but I do use it every day.

For all of these reasons and more, I don’t want to go back to a home without a smart lock. For me, it’s about the extra safety and peace of mind it brings, first and foremost, then the daily convenience, and finally some extra perks like automations or voice commands.

If you live in the UK, EU, Middle East, or anywhere else where Nuki locks are compatible and you’ve been on the fence about getting one, I think you should give it a go. It’s the only product I’ve ever reviewed that I can’t fault at anything. I’ve already recommended it to two friends, and they love it. If you’re in the US, Nuki is coming soon to the US, so keep your eyes peeled for that.