The best face recognition smart lock of 2026

Hands-free unlocking is the future of smart locks. The best smart home tech removes the hassle, and getting your door unlocked as you walk up is super easy – no passcodes to remember, no need to have a free hand to wave, press, or poke at the lock. Another way to achieve this nirvana is to see the face. You already unlock your phone with your face; why aren’t you at home?

Hands-free unlocking using geofencing has been around for a while, but it can be slow and unreliable, and requires an app running in the background on your phone. The new feature – facial recognition and unlocking using ultrawideband (UWB) radio – is even better. In my testing, UWB is the best experience. All you need is your phone or a point of view towards you to point you as you approach, and it’s fast and reliable. But today, UWB antenna locks are expensive, and very few are available.

It was while reviewing one of them, the Schlage Sense Pro, that I found a real use case for unlocking facial recognition, a technology I had dismissed as a miracle solution to a largely solved problem. My husband often leaves his phone at home when he’s working outside or in the garage, which means he doesn’t have hands-free access. If you’re like him and don’t want a device-bound unlocking experience, but want the speed and convenience of hands-free unlocking, face unlock might be for you.

Facial recognition in smart locks uses infrared sensors to create a three-dimensional map of your face. Different companies use different methods – such as programmed light, stereo infrared cameras, or time-of-flight sensors – but they are all designed to do the same thing. The 3D aspect is key as it captures depth, so holding the image normally won’t fool you.

I tested four locks that you can buy today with facial recognition – the $300 Eufy FamiLock E40, the $350 Lockly Visage Zeno, Lockin’s $199 Veno Solar Face, and Switchbot’s $230 Lock Vision Pro. There’s also one on Kickstarter launching next month, and the Switchbot has a few variations.

A smart facial recognition lock that I can buy

The best of the bunch is the Eufy FamiLock E40 from Anker. When I walk this high technology to my door, I walk all the way, and the FamiLock E40 is the complete package. Along with the excellent face unlock features, it also has a fingerprint reader, keypad, and physical key, and doubles as a doorbell. Stick this on your front door, and you’re good to go.

Of all the four locks, the E40 was the fastest to unlock using my face – it did it in less than a second; I had to hesitate before opening. It was the only one that worked consistently when I wore the sunglasses. Some do well with hats, but struggle with sunglasses. The E40 also includes a backup battery that keeps the keypad running even if the main battery dies and the biometrics don’t work — a nice touch.

The locking component supports the Smart Home Standard Matter, so it can work in your ecosystem of choice, and watching recorded videos from the built-in 2K doorbell is unregistered. I also appreciate that Eufy added a touch of style to this key; it looks more like a traditional lock than any of its competitors.

The downside is that the Eufy is big and expensive, and its lithium-ion battery takes nine hours to fully charge, though you can still use the lock while it’s charging. The main battery drains quickly; dropped by 40 percent the week of the test. Overall, while expensive, the Eufy E40 offers great value, looks great, and works well — as long as you’re willing to charge it regularly.

There is also a good option for the Apple ecosystem

Another thing I like is the more expensive Lockly Visage Zeno. This is the only key that can do both Apple Home Key and facial recognition. The Home Key is a great backup if face unlock is too slow, as it’s much easier to tap your phone or watch to unlock it. If I’m in a hurry and my hands aren’t full, I just push my watch into it; otherwise, I let the face scan do the work.

Lockly was slower to unlock than Eufy, taking about 2 seconds. It also struggled with sunglasses; it finally opened, but it took a long time. Lockly is also the oldest model I’ve tested, launched in 2024. Although it supports Home Key, it won’t work with Home Key UWB activation; tap to unlock only.

I really like the style of Lockly; it is very beautiful and very small, with the best build quality. Its battery life was amazing, lasting about nine months (I’ve been testing this lock for a year; the rest a little over a week). It’s the only model that includes a backup battery, which helps with sticker shock.

However, it’s the most expensive keyboard I’ve tested, and while the facial recognition was good, its keypad is very attractive. Lockly’s PIN system shuffles the digit pattern every time you use it, and talking to my dad about how to open it while I was trying to relax by the pool, and he was struggling to get into my house to feed my dog, was a frustrating exercise. Thankfully, there’s now a version that lets you switch to a regular keyboard layout.

The section is still developing

The other two locks I’ve tried have a lot of room for improvement, but they’re also a little expensive. The main selling point of the Lockin Veno Solar Face is its built-in solar panel for extended battery life, and it performed well during my limited testing time. But its face opening was slow and didn’t work with sunglasses. This lock has the worst addition I’ve ever seen in a smart lock — an animated emoji that dances when you unlock it. I could happily live my whole life without an emoji on my front door.

The SwitchBot Lock Vision Pro version was terrible and slow to unlock – sometimes I had to peek at the reader for a few seconds before it recognized me. Its fingerprint and palm vein unlocking were very reliable, but it didn’t like sunglasses at all and kept seeing people who weren’t there.

One night, I was sitting alone in my living room watching Widow’s Bay when the lock suddenly said, “Please stand by the door and try again.” I understandably panicked, thinking someone was trying to break in. There was no one, but it continued to act. I finally had to turn off the sounds in the app to stop it.

After trying these locks, I still think facial recognition is more technology than you need for your front door. Even if you don’t want to pay the premium for UWB, buttons and fingerprints are very efficient, widely available, and relatively inexpensive. They are a little touchy, though, and require you to use your hands.

There are other trade-offs for speed and a nice feature face unlock offer. The locks they support are not as expensive as current UWB locks, but they are still expensive. And while there are more facial recognition keys available than UWB keys, they still aren’t that many. And I don’t think we’ll see much once UWB, the lighter technology, takes off – something the smart lock standard Aliro should help with.

These locks look very high-tech and require you to get all your family members to stand in front of the lock to register their faces (I’m still trying to assemble one of mine).

Finally, not everyone will be comfortable with storing their facial biometrics in a door lock, although for some it may sound more secure than using your phone as a key — only Nicolas Cage has successfully stolen someone’s face. The good news here is all the locks I tested want to store and process data locally instead of in the cloud, which improves both privacy and performance.

Facial recognition felt weird at first, but it works and has that cool sci-fi element. After living with both technologies, I prefer UWB. “Slow unlock” feels more magical because the door is already unlocked when I reach for the handle instead of waiting a second or two for the lock to register that it’s me. But until more companies adopt UWB and prices come down, facial recognition is a great option for people looking for hands-free access today.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge