Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Lutron sits at the high end of the smart home ecosystem, with pricey but effective smart lighting and shades. But take a gander at our Best Smart Shades guide and you’ll see it’s a thriving category with options as low as $70. Lutron’s new entry into the budget market is the Caseta Smart Shades—$399 roller curtains that work nearly as well as the $1,000 Serena smart shades it currently sells.

I’ve had a pair of Serena shades in my home for more than a year and they’re incredibly quiet, and in my limited time demoing the Caseta shades, they hardly make much noise when they roll up and down—slightly audible if it’s a quiet room, but not so if the TV’s on. You can schedule them to open and close at specific times and control them via the company’s Pico remote or an app.

Unlike the higher-end shades that can last for four to five years if not longer, these use fewer D batteries and will only last two years, and there’s no plug-in option. Generally, you have fewer options in the type of shade you want with Caseta—Honeycomb or Roller, white or gray, light filtering or blackout fabric (though the latter comes with a slight upcharge). They stay affixed to your window frame via four screws.

The $399 model covers windows up to 48 inches wide and 80 inches high (you have to input your window measurements when ordering), though larger sizes are available at a slightly higher cost. The whole system works with Lutron’s existing Caseta system, so if you already have Lutron’s hub and have several connected smart lights and switches, setup will be even simpler. It also supports Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, and other platforms, though the company did not say whether it plans to add Matter support for universal connectivity in the future (Lutron is a part of the alliance developing Matter).

The Caseta smart shades are available for order now through Lutron’s Caseta website and will start shipping in February. They have a 5-year warranty.