Level Lock+ Review

Who the Level Lock+ is for

The Level Lock+ is for the person who wants a smart lock that nobody can tell is a smart lock. Every other lock on our best smart locks list announces itself with a chunky keypad or an oversized escutcheon on the outside of your door. Level goes the opposite way: all of the electronics live inside the door, tucked into your existing deadbolt, so from the street the door looks completely untouched. If that design restraint is the thing you care about most, nothing else really competes.

It’s also, squarely, a lock for an Apple household. Its best trick is Apple Home Key — tap a compatible iPhone or Apple Watch to the door and it unlocks, no app and no code — and its remote access runs through Apple Home. So the ideal buyer is design-first and already living in Apple’s ecosystem: someone who wants the convenience of tap-to-enter without a single visible sign that the door is any different from a plain deadbolt. If you love the invisible idea but you’re on Android, know going in that you’ll be leaving most of the value on the table.

There’s a second, quieter audience too: anyone who simply doesn’t want to change how their front door looks. Some people bristle at bolting a black plastic keypad onto a nicely finished entryway, and a lock that leaves the exterior exactly as the builder or the previous owner intended is a real draw. If preserving the look of the door is a hard requirement — not a nice-to-have — the Level Lock+ is close to the only serious smart lock that respects it.

What it gets right

The headline is the completely concealed hardware. The Level Lock+ replaces the interior mechanism of your deadbolt while keeping your existing exterior and your existing physical keys, so the door looks and feels exactly as it did before — there is no keypad, no bulky housing, no tell. That is a genuinely different design philosophy from every keypad lock we cover, and for a certain kind of buyer it’s the whole reason to spend the money. A smart lock that disappears is a rare thing.

The second win is Apple Home Key tap-to-unlock. Home Key is one of the most satisfying features in the whole category: you walk up, tap your iPhone or Watch to the door, and it opens — no fumbling for a code, no waiting on an app. The Level Lock+ is one of the few locks that support it, and pairing that convenience with hardware you can’t even see is a neat combination. The other premium Home Key option, the Schlage Encode Plus, does the same tap trick but wears its keypad proudly on the outside; Level does it invisibly.

Third, and easy to overlook: it keeps your existing keys and exterior. Because you’re only swapping the inside of the deadbolt, the keys you already carry still work, and there’s a normal physical keyway on the door as a fallback. That matters more than it sounds — it means an out-of-town guest with a spare key, or a phone with a dead battery, is never locked out. And there’s no subscription: control is through the free Level app and Apple Home, so once you’ve bought it, the ongoing cost is just a battery. That no-fee stance is exactly the kind of running cost this site likes to see.

Where it falls short

The first catch is price: you are paying a real premium, and much of it is for the design rather than for extra capability. A hidden lock costs more than a visible one that does the same jobs, and if invisibility isn’t the feature you’re chasing, that math is hard to justify. Plenty of locks on our best smart locks roundup do more, for less, as long as you can live with hardware you can see.

The second is that its best features assume Apple Home. Home Key and the smoothest remote access are Apple-side; the lock talks over Bluetooth and the Level app otherwise, but the experience that sells the lock is the Apple one. If your household isn’t on iPhones, you’re paying premium money for a lock whose signature trick you can’t use.

Third is a practical, unglamorous one: it runs on a CR2 battery, not the AA cellsthat nearly every other smart lock uses. AAs are cheap and sitting in a drawer in most homes; a CR2 is a photography-style cell you probably don’t have spares of, so plan to keep one on hand. And fourth, by design, there’s no keypad. That’s the trade you make for the invisible look: no one on the outside can enter a code, which is great for aesthetics but means you can’t hand a cleaner or a dog-walker a simple PIN. If code or fingerprint entry is on your must-have list, our keypad & fingerprint locks guide is the better place to start.

How it fits a smart home

The honest one-liner is that the Level Lock+ is an Apple Home lock first and foremost. It works with Apple Home for remote status and control, uses Home Key for tap-to-unlock, and leans on Bluetooth for local operation through the Level app. In an Apple-centric home — iPhones in every pocket, maybe a HomePod or Apple TV acting as a home hub for remote access — it slots in beautifully and does exactly what you’d hope: the door looks normal, and it opens when you tap it.

Outside that world, the picture gets weaker. The lock isn’t built around Alexa or Google Home the way some rivals are, so if your smart home is centered on those assistants, or on Android phones, you won’t get the same seamless experience. In that case Level itself effectively points you elsewhere, and so do we: on Android, look at Yale or August instead, which offer more cross-platform smarts and, usually, a keypad for guests. Think of the Level Lock+ as a specialist — superb for the buyer it’s built for, an awkward fit for everyone else. If you want tap-to-unlock but also want the flexibility of a visible keypad and broader ecosystem support, the Schlage Encode Plus is the more versatile premium pick.

One practical setup note worth planning for: because the lock talks over Bluetooth locally and routes remote access through Apple Home, controlling the door while you’re away depends on having an Apple home hub — a HomePod or an Apple TV left at home — on your network. Standing at the door, Bluetooth and Home Key handle everything; from the office or on vacation, that hub is what lets you check whether you locked up or let a guest in. If you don’t already have one, factor it into the decision, because remote features are a big part of why anyone buys a smart lock in the first place. It’s not a hidden fee — there’s no subscription here — but it is a hidden assumption, and it reinforces just how Apple-shaped this lock really is.

Whatever lock you land on, treat it like the internet-connected device it is. A strong, unique account password, two-factor authentication where it’s offered, current firmware, and any digital access shared narrowly and revoked promptly — the same basic hygiene CISA and NIST recommend for any connected device in the home. A smart lock is only as trustworthy as the account behind it, and that’s true whether the hardware is on show or hidden inside the door.

The verdict

The Level Lock+ is a genuinely special product with a narrow, well-defined audience. If you are design-first, live in Apple’s ecosystem, and the idea of a smart lock that’s completely invisible from outside makes you smile, this is the one to buy — nothing else disappears into your door the way it does, and Home Key tap-to-unlock with no subscription is a lovely way to live. You’re paying a premium for the aesthetic, you’ll want a spare CR2 battery in the drawer, and you’ll be giving up a keypad, but for the right buyer those are easy trades.

For everyone else, be honest with yourself about why you want it. If you’re on Android, or you want a code for guests, or you simply don’t care whether the hardware shows, the premium stops making sense and better all-rounders await. See where it stacks up on our best smart locks roundup, compare it against the other Home Key option in our Schlage Encode Plus review, and if a keypad or fingerprint is really what you’re after, start with the keypad & fingerprint locks instead.