Amazon Alexa compatible sockets and switches

Hi all,

My girlfriend and I are getting lazy and therefore would rather switch lights off using the Amazon Echo in the living room or bedroom.

We have two lamps in the living room which we need to wire up, as well as a pair of lamps in the bedroom. These would need either faceplate sockets or a passthrough socket which can halt the power.
We're also looking at replacing some switches for the hallway, kitchen and living room roof lighting. The hallway would need a two gang, for top and bottom of the stairs, whereas the living room and kitchen are single switches.

My question is, do you guys have much experience with these devices? And if so, which would you recommend?

I don't have a budget in mind, but I've seen prices vary massively! Is it worth spending the extra for something that just does on and off?

I've looked at these, but the problem with most of them is that they are just receivers, they don't give any feedback as to the actual state of the switch.

For lamps I use Philips Hue - expensive but they work with Alexa and Homekit. They are Zigbee devices, and the Hue Hub will work with other non-Philips Zigbee lamps - and can be controlled by Alexa, but the non-Hue cant be controlled by Homekit (something to do with the security protocol).

Zigbee seems to be the most common protocol for home automation, and is open, so it is probably better to use one of those. However most mfrs seem to have their own apps, so you need to find a make that does all you want and stick to that.

Sorry no definitive experience - I thought they weren't worth it for the cost involved. (I do like my Hue lighting though :) and a useful application for RGB! )

rather than replace the lamps, depending on the bulbs used, you could potentially get wifi/alexa LED bulbs such as the yeelight ones. i've got these in all my light sockets apart from an old metal lamp in the bedroom. i've also got a yeelight strip and 2x5m wifi strips. the benefit of the yeelight ones is they all tie into the same app so i can change all the lights to the same colour at the same time. works with alexa too

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I ended up going for these. Will see how they go, if they're terrible I'll call it a lesson learned and splurge some proper cash for the decent stuff.