Ring Smart Lock: Should You Wait for It or Buy Now?

Ring built its name on doorbells and cameras. Now it is building the lock those cameras watch. The Ring Smart Lock has no keyhole in it at all. That means no spare key under a pot, and nothing for us to copy if you want a second one.
Nobody can buy one yet. The lock goes on sale early next year. If you wait for it, the lock on your front door has to hold up for another 3 months at least.
Short answer: wait for this one only if you already run Ring or Alexa at home, because that is the house it suits.
Three questions decide whether it is worth the wait. Does it fit the lock already in your door? Does it open for the app and the speaker you use at home? And what do you do on the morning the battery is flat and there is no key to fall back on?
I am Eli Itzhaki, and I run Keyzoo. My locksmiths fit, swap and open locks all day. We also fit the locks that already work with Ring, so we hear what people actually want from one. So we will walk you through it step by step, and by the end you will know what the Ring Smart Lock costs, whether it fits the deadbolt you already have, which apps and speakers it opens for, what happens when the battery dies, and whether to wait for it or buy a lock now.

• What does the Ring Smart Lock cost, and when can you buy one? (jump link to #what-it-costs)

• Step one: check which deadbolt is on your door (jump link to #step-one)

• Step two: check what it opens for before you buy (jump link to #step-two)

• Step three: plan for the day the battery dies (jump link to #step-three)

• So should you wait for it, or buy a lock now? (jump link to #wait-or-buy)

What does the Ring Smart Lock cost, and when can you buy one?

The Ring Smart Lock costs $249.99, and Ring says it goes on sale in the United States in early 2027. Ring's own product page shows that price today. It collects email addresses instead of orders, because nobody can buy one yet.

• Finishes: black, silver or brass, on Ring's own store page.

• On sale: early 2027 in the United States. That is two months away at the very best.

• Four ways in: your fingerprint, a code on the lit keypad, the Ring app, or Alexa.

Where that comes from: Ring's Smart Lock product page carries the $249.99 price. Ring's own announcement carries the on-sale window and the three finishes. It also carries a line most write-ups skipped: "The Smart Lock has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission."

That line is the law talking, not Ring hedging. The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, is the agency that approves the radios inside home gear. Federal law says nobody may sell or advertise such a device until the FCC approves it. Taking orders counts as advertising.

So Ring can show you the lock and take your email address. That is as far as it can go for now. Here is what it costs you to wait: two or three more months on the lock you already have. If that lock sticks, or the last tenant still has keys to it, waiting is the expensive choice.

Before any of that matters, though, your own door has to take the thing. That is where I would start.

Step one: check which deadbolt is on your door

The Ring Smart Lock replaces one kind of lock, and Ring names it: a standard single cylinder deadbolt, with no extra wiring needed. That is the common one on American front doors. A keyhole on the outside, and a knob you turn by hand on the inside.

So go and look at the inside of your front door before you think about the price again. One look tells you whether this lock is an option for you at all.

If you see a knob you can turn with your fingers, your door takes it. If you see a second keyhole instead, you have a double keyed deadbolt, and the Ring lock does not go on that door. Some cities and some insurers have rules about those, which we covered in single vs double cylinder deadbolts.

The checklist below ticks the one front door that takes this lock and crosses the three that do not.

Checklist of the four front doors we see most. Source: Ring

Two more doors get a no from me. A lock built into the edge of the door, with the handle and the keyhole on one long plate, takes a different lock entirely. An apartment door tied into the building's buzzer or fob system belongs to the building, so ask the manager before you buy anything.

If your door passes, the job itself is small. My guys swap a deadbolt in about 15 minutes with a screwdriver, and Ring says this one needs no wiring run to it. The next question is which apps and speakers the lock opens for.

Step two: check what it opens for before you buy

The Ring Smart Lock opens for Alexa and for your Ring gear. At the time of writing it does not work with Google Home, with Apple Home, or with Matter. Matter is the shared standard that lets one lock work in several different apps, so a Matter house gets nothing from this lock today.

That one fact settles the purchase for a lot of people. If your speakers are Echoes and your doorbell is a Ring, this lock drops into the app you already open. If you run the house from Google, or from the Home app on an iPhone, the lock will not show up where you look for it.

Now the second catch, and it gets left out of most write-ups. The lock does not join your Wi-Fi. Ring connects it over Amazon Sidewalk instead, which is a small shared network that runs between Amazon devices in and around your home.

So one of those devices has to relay the lock to the internet. Ring calls them bridges and publishes the list. An Echo from the fourth generation on counts, and so do an Echo Show, an Echo Hub, a Ring Alarm Pro base station, a wired Ring doorbell and a wired floodlight camera.

Own none of those and that is another box to buy. You use that connection to lock the door from your office, to check it from the airport, and to send a code to a cleaner. The lock still opens at the door without it.

Say your app and your door both check out. The next question is the one this lock was built to answer.

Step three: plan for the day the battery dies

Ring's answer to a flat battery is a dial on the front of the lock. If you turn that dial by hand a few times, the lock gets enough power to take your code. Ring built the whole product around it, and the founder put it plainly in the announcement: "no backup key or battery to carry, no locksmith to call."

Here is the part I would want a customer to think about: every keypad deadbolt my locksmiths fit has a keyhole hidden under the keypad, and this one has no keyhole at all. The photo below shows that backup keyhole on a keypad lock we see on doors every week.

A keypad deadbolt with its backup keyhole under the numbers. Photo by TaurusEmerald, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

So what happens if the dial fails, or the lock jams with the metal bar still out? That bar is the bolt, the piece that slides out of the lock into the door frame and holds the door shut.

On a lock with a keyhole we pick it open, and you keep the door and the lock you have. On a keyless lock we have nothing to pick. We drill that bolt out or take the whole lock off the door, so you pay 2 bills that day instead of 1.

That is rare, and I am not telling you to avoid keyless locks. Just go in knowing your backup is a dial on the front door rather than a key in your pocket, and read how to unlock a door without a key before you need it.

Two habits make the question go away. Charge the battery the week the app asks for it, and give one more person a code of their own. So here is the call itself.

So should you wait for it, or buy a lock now?

Wait for it only if three things are true. You already run Ring or Alexa at home. Your door takes a deadbolt with a knob on the inside, and the lock on that door is working fine today. For everybody else, buy now and stop thinking about it.

Say you are in the first group. Put your email on Ring's page and keep the lock you have. Look again in the spring.

Google and Apple houses have the easier decision, because waiting for a version that suits them means waiting on a promise nobody has made. Buy something that works with your app this month instead. We keep a list of locks that already work with Ring and another for Apple home key.

Say your lock is the problem right now. It sticks, or the last tenant's keys are unaccounted for, or you just closed on the house. That is not a waiting situation.

A rekey costs a fraction of a new smart lock. If you put it off, the same keys are still out there in the spring, 3 months from now.

Here is the door once it is handled: you come up the path with shopping in both hands and touch the reader. The cleaner's code works on Tuesday morning and stops working on Tuesday night. Nobody keeps a key under the pot, and nobody drives across town to let your sister in. You get a front door you stop thinking about, which is the whole point of spending anything on one.

What we do at your door

We fit these locks for a living, so you get an answer about your own door instead of a general one. A locksmith tells you whether the lock you want goes on your door, and fits it that visit if it does. You end up with a door that opens for the people you choose and nobody else.

If you are keeping the lock you have, ask for a rekey instead. We change the small parts inside it so every old key stops working, and you get new keys the same day. That is the fix after a move, a break-up or a tenant leaving.

If a keyless lock has already shut you out, call at any hour. Keyzoo runs mobile locksmiths and self-service key kiosks in 11 states, so the van and the spare key are both near you.

Questions people ask before they buy one

Does Ring make a door lock now?

Yes. Until this announcement Ring sold doorbells, cameras and alarms, and the Ring Smart Lock is the first lock with its name on it. Older "works with Ring" locks are made by other companies and talk to the Ring app.

Can I keep using my old key after this lock goes on?

Not on that door. The key for your old deadbolt opens nothing once that lock comes off, because the new one has nowhere to put it. Check what else that key opens first. One key often opens the front door and the side door, and you may want those rekeyed to match something you still carry.

Can a renter put one on?

Ask your landlord in writing first, and keep the old lock in a drawer. Most leases make you put the original lock back when you leave. A lock the landlord cannot open with their own key also takes away their way in, which is usually what the objection is about.

Does it still open in a power cut?

Yes, at the door. The lock runs on its own battery and no wiring reaches it, so the keypad still works. The Amazon device that relays it to the internet is plugged into the wall, so expect locking it from your phone to stop until the power comes back.

Key takeaways

• The Ring Smart Lock is not on sale yet, which means three more months on the lock you already have.

• The Ring Smart Lock replaces a deadbolt with a knob on the inside, which means a door with a keyhole on both sides is out.

• The Ring Smart Lock opens for Alexa and Ring gear, which means a Google Home or Apple house gets nothing from it at the time of writing.

• The dial on the front of the Ring Smart Lock is your backup when the battery dies, instead of a key.

Ready to sort your front door out?

You do not have to wait until 2027 to stop worrying about your front door. Tell us what is on it now. A Keyzoo locksmith will fit a lock that suits the way you live. We also rekey the lock you already have, and we open doors for people standing outside them.

Book now and put in your zip code, or call us at 888-539-9660