Best Indoor Garden Systems: We've Been Testing All Year (2025)

Featured in this article

• Best Overall

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    Photograph: Kat Merck

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    Photograph: Kat Merck

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    Courtesy of Gardyn

  Gardyn

  Indoor Hydroponic Garden

  Gardyn Home 4.0 (read our full review here) had one of the easiest assemblies and setups out of the box and the most dramatic success of any of the brands I tried. Flowers, kohlrabi, thyme, even a whole cauliflower—all thrived in this pipe-based system with the lights in front to allow for taller plant growth.

  Part of the success is due to the subscription app add-on, “Kelby,” which monitors your plants (which grow in proprietary pods called yCubes) via attached sensors and cameras and delivers customized watering and lighting schedules, as well as maintenance suggestions. This subscription adds an additional $408 a year to the base purchase price (this includes 10 “credits” per month with which to buy yCube refills). While you can use the Gardyn without Kelby, if you want an indoor garden that's totally foolproof for beginners, it might be worth at least signing up for the free 30-day trial.

  Each Gardyn purchase comes with your choice of yCube sets: “Salad Lover,” “Budding Florist,” or “Chef Faves.” I chose “Chef Faves,” which had an interesting variety of everything from breen and Toyko bekana greens to Thai basil and miniature sunflowers. Though Gardyn recommends starting the yCubes in the company's add-on $80 nursery, I've germinated plenty of yCubes right in the system just fine. The seeds arrive tucked in mineral wool, snug in their little yCubes that slot into larger cups ("yPods") that fit into the pipes. When the Gardyn waters the plants, the yPods fill with nutrient-infused water, and the roots grow right into the water.

  Every few weeks, the roots need to be checked for root rot and growth outside the yPod, examined for whether it's time to prune, and/or tucked back in if they've wandered too far. This maintenance is admittedly a bit laborious, but if you do not do it consistently, you will be very sorry when it's time to clean the Gardyn and prepare it for its next planning. (Ask me how I know!)

  I've had no complaints with the Gardyn over the five or so months I've been using it, and I especially like that Gardyn offers a Vacation Mode, and has users completely empty out and clean the water tank every month with baking soda to prevent algae growth and/or bacteria. Note that the smaller Gardyn Studio 2 is a new model for fall 2025 and now features the same upgraded camera, columns, and sunrise-sunset lighting as the Home 4.

  Light Cycle	14-16 hours
  Pump Cycle	5 minutes, 3 times a day (varies with Kelby)
  Spots for Plants	16 (Studio) or 30 (Home)
  Nutrients Included	7-inch-tall bottle of 7-3-11 plant food (plenty for one cycle)
  Plants to Choose From	100+
  Maintenance Needs	(Varies with Kelby.) Clean tank and replace water with new nutrients every four weeks, check and reroute roots every three or so weeks, top off tank with water and nutrients as needed.
  Ease of Resetting After Each Planting (Out of 10)	2/10 (each column section and yPod will need to be scrubbed; if you fail to check and reroute roots every two weeks, this could rise to a 9/10)
  Can You Grow Your Own?	Yes; Gardyn sells yCubes for your own seeds for $5 each. (Or you can just get creative.)
  Dimensions	Approx. 24" H x 16" W x 7" D
  Power Consumption	40 watts
  Warranty	2 years

  WIRED

  • Foolproof for black thumbs, especially with the subscription
  • Lights mounted on the front allow for unlimited plant height
  • Rockwool growing medium prevents fungus gnats and other pests
  • Gardyn offers a huge variety of seeds
  • Has vacation mode

  TIRED

  • Requires a subscription to access all features
  • Difficult to clean and reset in between “seasons”
  • Maintenance can be finicky

• Most Dramatic-Looking

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    Photograph: Kat Merck

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    Photograph: Kat Merck

  I was not aware until I opened the box that Lettuce Grow was founded by Zooey Deschanel and her ex-husband, Jacob Pelenchik, and that despite their divorce they continue to work together promoting it. Lettuce Grown's Farmstand (read our full review here) is certainly a unique-looking structure, with a bulbous, water-filled base topped by tiers set in between rings of full-spectrum LED lights. The whole setup looks not unlike an old-school strawberry planter redesigned as a set piece for 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are models for indoor and outdoor use (the latter is the same, just sans the light rings).

  I found the Farmstand to be on the easy end to assemble and set up; everything snaps and clicks together fairly intuitively. It's also important to note that this system is very modular—though Lettuce Grow recommends no more than six levels for stability, if you buy a Small Farmstand (18) and decide later on that you want to make it a Medium (24) or a Large (36 plants), you can buy extra levels and light rings that snap on in less than a minute.

  The biggest issue I had with the Farmstand is that, at the outset, the company sends grown seedlings (each Farmstand comes with credits for users to pick the plants they want), which is helpful in terms of success, but in my case resulted in a massive whitefly and aphid outbreak. A search through Lettuce Grow's Farmstand Community Facebook group revealed pest-infested seedlings to be an extremely common issue. It's also worth noting that the 20-gallon reservoir renders the unit immobile once it's full, and this makes it difficult to empty and refill—Lettuce Grow sells a dolly for $60, but I wish it were included.

  Otherwise, I highly recommend the add-on smart timer plug ($25), as without it, your pump and light timer options are limited to the dial-style timers that come with the growing system. My smart plug kept disconnecting from the Lettuce Grow app (which I didn't find necessary in using the Farmstand), but the ability to set the timing for the lights and pump was well worth the price.

  We haven't tested it yet, but if you're looking for something simpler, Lettuce Grow recently released the Counterstand Set ($149), a trio of amber vases that relies on the Kratky method, a set-it-and-forget-it hydroponic system that doesn't require pumps or electricity.

  Light Cycle	Customizable, 14 to 17 hours recommended
  Pump Cycle	Customizable, 15 minutes every hour recommended
  Spots for Plants	18 to 36, depending on model
  Nutrients Included	Two 1-pound bags of Jack’s plant food: 5-12-26 and 15-0-0.
  Plants to Choose From	100+
  Maintenance Needs	Top off tank and check/rebalance pH once a week.
  Ease of Resetting After Each Planting (Out of 10)	4/10 (roots all grow into the center, so you'll only need to clean the rings where the pods are, though getting the water out of the indoor model is a challenge without a hose, and refilling takes forever)
  Can You Grow Your Own?	You'll have to get creative; no option offered by Lettuce Grow.
  Dimensions	22-inch diameter base, 62 inches tall (requires 4 square feet)
  Power Consumption	96 watts
  Warranty	3 years

  WIRED

  • Unique space-age vibe
  • Roots grow into the center, so it's easy to clean
  • Maintenance is relatively simple

  TIRED

  • Lettuce Grow's proprietary seedlings could introduce pests
  • Twenty-gallon water reservoir makes it difficult to move, empty, and refill
  • No vacation mode

• Best for Growing Herbs Only

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    Courtesy of Auk

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    Photograph: Kat Merck

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    Photograph: Kat Merck

  The Auk Mini is arguably one of the best-looking tabletop hydroponic gardens on the market, available in two wood finishes (walnut or oak) and featuring a contemporary Nordic flair (read our full review here). Setup and operation are about as simple as it gets—plant whatever you'd like in the four pots, which are designed to work with coco coir (provided), fill the reservoir, add pumps of the provided nutrients, and plug it in. The lights will be on for the next 17.5 hours while the coco coir absorbs the enriched water through slots in the pot bottoms. Sprouting took just days, and I had fully harvestable cilantro, parsley, and basil—enough for pesto, even—within a few weeks. In fact, it's been almost three months since I first set up the Mini, and I am still harvesting these same herbs. They look worse for wear at this point, with floppy, dead stems and leggy parsley sprigs stretching every which way, detracting from the aesthetic, but I share some of the blame for not keeping up on my harvests.

  Unlike other systems, the Auk requires no pH tests, pumps, tubing, timers, or futzing with an app. The only downside is the price compared to similar-sized tabletop systems like the LetPot (below), which have more plant slots, as well as the limitations of the light bar height. There is a light program for tomatoes and peppers (tap the button three times to activate), and Auk does sell seeds for these, but in my experience, fruiting plants like these will grow well past a 17-inch light bar before they have a chance to flower. So it's probably best to stick to herbs only.

  Light Cycle	17.5 hours
  Pump Cycle	No pump
  Spots for Plants	4
  Nutrients Included	2 bottles; 6 months' worth
  Plants to Choose From	Any; comes with basil and parsley, but Auk offers most popular herbs, as well as seeds for lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers.
  Maintenance Needs	Refill tank w/water and nutrients whenever the dial is on the red dot
  Ease of Resetting After Each Planting (Out of 10)	8/10 (just dump out pots, take apart, clean, and refill)
  Can You Grow Your Own?	Yes
  Dimensions	17.5 x 8.5 x 14.5
  Power Consumption	Approx. 9W per day
  Warranty	100 days

  WIRED

  • Stylish Nordic design
  • Easy to maintain and clean
  • Grow whatever you want

  TIRED

  • Not ideal for fruiting plants
  • Out-of-control herbs will detract from the planter's stylish design
  • No Vacation Mode

• Best Budget Option

  

  Photograph: Kat Merck

  LetPot

  LPH-SE Senior Hydroponic Growing System

  A bounty of Aerogarden dupes litter the “hydroponic garden” search pages on Amazon (Full disclosure: I have used multiple Aerogardens in the past, but not the most recent models), but LetPot is by far the most established. Instead of Aerogarden's max-size nine-pod tabletop models, LetPot's “Senior” features 12 holes for pods, and you can grow whatever you want, though the 16-inch light height will likely be limiting for tomatoes, peppers, or other fruiting plants. I used a packet of rainbow chard seeds, also from Amazon, and had immediate and sustained success. Even though the Senior is LetPot's second-largest model (the “Max” has 21 pod slots), I like that it's still about the size of a breadbox. In fact, I keep it right on my dining room table so it's easy to snip off a small bowl of baby chard for salads. (It would also be great for starting seedlings for other gardens, like the Lettuce Grow, above.)

  To start, just fill the 5.5-liter reservoir with water and add 15 milliliters of each of the included nutrients, which come dehydrated but reconstitute to 100 ml; enough for six or so water fills. A water-level gauge on the top sticks up like a thermometer and is easy to view from across the room. There is an accompanying app in which you can set the 16-hour window you want for the 24-watt lights, but this feature did not work with my test model, despite my syncing and resetting it multiple times—I ended up having to turn the whole system off when I went to bed and on when I woke up, which admittedly wasn't ideal. However, this was the only issue I've had so far in the two months I've been testing the LetPot, which is otherwise exceedingly easy to use and maintain.

  The LetPot comes with a pack of plastic inserts, peat plugs, and germination stickers, but they're not proprietary—many vendors offer the same kind for as little as 5 cents each. This, combined with the LetPot's already low price, makes this garden one of the few that is likely to pay for itself in a reasonable amount of time.

  Light Cycle	16 hours (cutomizable in app)
  Pump Cycle	Every 30 minutes when system is on
  Spots for Plants	12
  Nutrients Included	Two bottles of “A” and “B” plant nutrients; reconstitutable to 100 ml each
  Plants to Choose From	Exclusively grow your own
  Maintenance Needs	Refill water and nutrients when needed
  Ease of Resetting After Each Planting (Out of 10)	7/10 (just remove the pods and clean the holes, top, and reservoir)
  Can You Grow Your Own?	Yes
  Dimensions	Approx. 16 x 7 x 9.8 inches
  Power Consumption	0.424 kWh/day
  Warranty	1 year

  WIRED

  • Easy to clean and maintain
  • Pod refills are inexpensive and easy to find
  • Grow whatever you want

  TIRED

  • App is unreliable
  • Light height is limiting for fruiting plants

• Biggest Harvests

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    Photograph: Kat Merck

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    Photograph: Kat Merck

  There are multiple sizes of the Rise 3 garden, but all of them follow the same design playbook: A metal frame with a cabinet hiding a water tank, multiple levels of shallow reservoirs, and an LED-light “roof" above each level. I tested the three-level version; each level's reservoir had a lid with varied numbers of pod slots adding up to 48 for the whole system, but you can buy lids with more slots to allow your garden to hold up to 108 plants. The water is pumped from the tank in the bottom cabinet and flows through each level's reservoir. The plant roots just spread out inside the reservoir.

  The Rise has far and away the biggest capacity of any non-DIY indoor garden I’ve seen and would be more than enough to keep a large family in nightly salads for months. Overall, it's a pretty traditional form factor—in fact, I'm pretty sure I saw one of these in the corner of my college biology class. Since it's so large, assembly was a bit tricky, and vague instructions weren't helpful. However, Rise does come with a smart plug for the lights and pump, as well as an app that offers reminders on when and how to add water and nutrients and balance the pH.

  Unfortunately, I didn't find out until after I had already set it up that the peat pods need to germinate first in plastic-lidded “nurseries.” My test unit didn't come with enough nurseries for the number of seed pods I had, so I had to improvise with shallow plastic containers, with the pods weighted to keep them upright in water. After a few days, I noticed the containers—all of them, including the provided nurseries—had begun to grow algae, and the black-plastic surface of the Rise trays was noticeably warm. I brought out my infrared temperature gun to test—the 195-watt LEDs paired with the black plastic had brought the surface up to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. For reference, all of the other indoor gardening systems were room temperature, in the mid-70s.

  Once the plants were grown, the temperature came down to something warmer than “normal” but more reasonable: 83 degrees Fahrenheit. Still, this is something to consider in terms of room placement and what plants might thrive. Over time, I noticed herbs and lettuce bolted faster in the Rise 3 than in other gardens, likely due to this heat, which also puts plants at risk for cases of root rot. I'm still a big fan of the Rise's form factor and its capacity, and I think it would be a first choice for heat-tolerant crops like tomatoes and peppers. In fact, the tomatoes I did grow in the Rise were notably bigger and better tasting than the ones grown in other systems. Also note that, unlike other gardens, the Rise 3's pump runs continuously, resulting in an audible splashing noise—if this bothers you, it may not be the best choice for small spaces.

  Light Cycle	16 hours
  Pump Cycle	Continuous
  Spots for Plants	36 to 108
  Nutrients Included	1 bottle pH balance solution and 1-ounce sample bag of Sprout, enough for one application. You will need to purchase nutrients.
  Plants to Choose From	100+
  Maintenance Needs	Top off water reservoir once a week, check/rebalance pH once a week.
  Ease of Resetting After Each Planting (Out of 10)	2/10 (even after draining, each level will still have some water in its reservoir that's difficult to remove, and roots have a tendency to grow down the tubes to the next level)
  Can You Grow Your Own?	Yes; rise offers pouches of seedless pods; 12 for $13.
  Dimensions	Approx. 65" H x 36" W x 16" D
  Power Consumption	195 watts (for 3-level)
  Warranty	3 years

  WIRED

  • Huge yields possible
  • Cabinet is handy for storing nutrients and supplies
  • Despite the height limit imposed by the roof, tomatoes and peppers had sizable harvests and tasted great

  TIRED

  • Lights can run hot
  • Continuous pump is noisy

• Easiest to Maintain

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    Photograph: Kat Merck

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    Photograph: Kat Merck

  “Like a coffee capsule machine, but for plants,” reads Click & Grow’s marketing copy. Sure enough, the Click & Grow Smart Garden's seed pods come in a Nespresso-evoking plastic three-pack with a tear-off cover. (Pods run about $3 to $5 each.) Put a nutrient-packed “smart soil” seed pod in one of the Click & Grow’s cups with the wicking bottom, fill the reservoir, and that’s it. In what was the most simple watering system I tried, a wick at the bottom of the cup will bring water up to the pods, and the roots stay in the cups. Plug it in, and the LED grow lights will stay on for the next 16 hours.

  I tested the Smart Garden 9 with three pods each of lettuce, basil, and tomato plants. Overall, there are about 75 pods to choose from, including herbs, flowers, leafy greens like arugula, and vegetables. There is a Smart Garden Pro that connects to Wi-Fi and has app control, but despite the “smart” in the name, this is not that—there's no app needed or required for the non-Pro version.

  All in all, this garden was refreshingly low-maintenance. A little bobber on one end tells you when the water level is low and needs a top-off simply by floating lower than the growing surface. That’s it. No adding nutrients or checking pH or worrying about pumps. It's also small, so you can plop it on a shelf or countertop.

  At the same time, this was also the slowest-growing garden I tested. I had it set up the same week as the Gardyn, above, and had already been harvesting months’ worth of greens and vegetables by the time I got one Click & Grow lettuce leaf. One of my lettuce pods didn’t even sprout at all. After two months, I had harvested a handful of basil and lettuce leaves (literally, one handful), and the cherry tomatoes had grown past the lights without making a single flower. Meanwhile, the Lettuce Grow, which was started after the Click & Grow, had at least 15 visible tomatoes by that time. Still, this isn't a bad garden by any stretch, and it’s a viable option for busy people who are interested in growing something like flowers, where yields aren't a concern.

  Light Cycle	16 hours
  Pump Cycle	No pump
  Spots for Plants	3-9 (for Smart Garden)
  Nutrients Included	Already in the pods; no applications necessary
  Plants to Choose From	75+
  Maintenance Needs	Top off reservoir as needed
  Ease of Resetting After Each Planting (Out of 10)	9/10 (just dump out water and dispose of cups; roots grow fully inside the cups)
  Can You Grow Your Own Plants?	Yes; Click & Grow offers “Grow Anything” pods for $2-$3 each.
  Dimensions	Approx. 24" W x 16" H x 7" D
  Power Consumption	13 watts
  Warranty	1 year

  WIRED

  • No pH tests, pump maintenance, or nutrients needed
  • Very easy to clean and reset
  • Proprietary pods make the process clean and simple

  TIRED

  • Growth rate is unimpressive
  • Cost of proprietary pods can add up
  • No Vacation Mode

• Best for Growing Mushrooms

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    Photograph: Kat Merck

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    Photograph: Kat Merck

  North Spore

  Boomr Bin Automated Mushroom Monotub

  If you're looking to get in on the functional mushroom trend, or just like to eat and learn about fungi, this is an easy, out-of-the-box way to start your own indoor mushroom farming operation. In the vein of the other hydroponic gardening systems, this setup isn't for those who already know how to build a monotub/fruiting chamber with spare parts from the hardware store. However, if you've never grown mushrooms indoors before, especially harder-to-cultivate varieties like enoki or shiitake, the Boomr Bin takes out some of the guesswork. And yes, I did say “some,” as it doesn't come with paper instructions for the whole setup, just the mechanical components. There's a tub with a lid, filters, a hygrometer, a humidifier, and a fan to maintain airflow. Luckily, North Spore has a well-curated YouTube channel detailing just about anything you'd need to know, from setting up the bin (with substrate) to prepping fruiting blocks.

  I've run the Boomr Bin through several harvests now, both times with fruiting blocks (North Spore sells them, but you can use any brands’). In a little over one week, I had more oyster mushrooms and lion's mane than I knew what to do with, and to my surprise, the blocks continued to fruit over and over and over again—friends and neighbors began avoiding me on the street or the grocery store, lest I stick them with another bag of fungus. The only periodic maintenance I performed on the Boomr Bin was making sure the humidifier didn't have a water plug blocking the fog, and that it hadn't run empty, though I only had to refill once a month or so. Note that water plugs can be avoided entirely by placing the humidifier below the bin.

  Another pro tip: If you'd rather not deal with an automated setup, North Spore sells individual-block spray-and-grow kits ($30) that are also quite prolific, though the mushrooms will not be as large or as plentiful as in the bin.

  Light Cycle	None needed
  Pump Cycle	Included humidistat keeps humidity at 80 to 85 percent
  Spots for Plants	Holds up to 25 lbs. of substrate or 3 fruiting blocks
  Nutrients Included	None needed
  Plants to Choose From	Any
  Maintenance Needs	Make sure humidifier is clear and full, turn up or down fan if needed, clean between
  Ease of Resetting After Each Planting (Out of 10)	7/10 (just disassemble, wash, and sanitize, though the filters that stick on the sides may eventually discolor and need to be replaced)
  Can You Grow Your Own?	Yes
  Dimensions	22”(W) x 15”(D) x 11”(H)
  Power Consumption	Uses a small computer-type fan, humidifier, and humidity conroller
  Warranty	None

  WIRED

  • Bountiful harvests
  • Easy to maintain

  TIRED

  • No paper instructions, and there's a learning curve with setting up

• Interesting but Not Recommended

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    Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro

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    Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro

  Plantaform

  Smart Indoor Garden

  Plantaform is “the world's first smart indoor garden that uses fog to grow plants,” according to the company's press release, and it has definitely garnered attention, winning an Innovation Award at 2025's CES. The “fogponics" technology, ostensibly building on NASA-developed aeroponics, delivers water and nutrients to plants' roots via an ultrafine mist.

  We were certainly captivated by the futuristic look of the egg-shaped planter, but contributor Lisa Wood Shapiro tested it to grow lettuce (read our full review here) and found that not only can different types of plants not be combined (i.e., you can only grow lettuce at one time, or tomatoes, or herbs), the machine degraded her indoor air quality, as tested with an air quality monitor. Users are to add an included fertilizer mix to the water, with the resulting concoction being what's aerosolized in the container. Which, as Wood Shapiro found, was not airtight. She suggested the Plantaform's use in a basement or other space where air quality wasn't as much of a concern, but it's probably best to hold off on this one until Plantaform can work out some more kinks.

  Light Cycle	14 hours
  Pump Cycle	15 minutes on, 45 minutes off
  Spots for Plants	15
  Nutrients Included	6-month supply of 10-7-20 plant food
  Plants to Choose From	6 plant mixes
  Maintenance Needs	Refill tank w/nutrients every 2-3 weeks
  Can You Grow Your Own?	No
  Dimensions	Approx. 24" H x 24" W x 24" D
  Power Consumption	60 watts
  Warranty	2 years

  WIRED

  • Fascinating design

  TIRED

  • Degrades your home indoor air quality