# Shelly smart relay

24 Hacker News commenters recommended Shelly smart relay and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Cheap Wi-Fi relays and plugs that fit in wall boxes, with a local API and power monitoring that works with Home Assistant. Critics question build quality.

## Why people recommend it

- Fits inside existing wall boxes (4 comments): "Thank goodness the Shelly relay can get a wifi signal while stuffed into that electrical box in the basement ceiling." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505456)) "actuators (e.g. Shelly) in the wall behind actual switches were the exception for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46388833)) "I put the Shelly relay in a pre-existing junction box in the basement." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45894647))
- Power monitoring and plug control (3 comments): "I also have some cheap shelley power plugs that I can use to cycle my PC's power state if needed." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49898744)) "for a current monitor you could look at e.g. Shelly devices" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47560818)) "Power monitoring is surprisingly effective." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48715613))
- Easy to automate and script (3 comments): "It is quite nice to use those apis and the resulting client code is surprisingly light weight and robust." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46248999)) "makes it easy to automate navigation lights and other circuits" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46646259)) "I like Shelly's doodads. They are easy to work with" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45835954))
- Works locally without a hub (2 comments): "Wi-Fi devices that either have an official local API like Shelly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46019734)) "It works without networking or HA or anything else." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45895271))

## What people warn about

- Build quality concerns and failures (2 comments): "died due to a low quality capacitor" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49343748)) "Shelly is anything but quality and also a niche product" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48070700))

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Shelly+smart+relay+Wi-Fi&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://www.shelly.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Shelly smart relay", https://hackerapproved.com/p/shelly/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).