Amazon's Echo is a great first step into crafting a smart home, and it's a popular option as voice control continues to grow. While not insanely expensive, the Echo is too pricey to be an impulse buy, so it makes sense to want to try it out beforehand.

If you don't know anyone who owns an Echo, you can take Alexa for a spin by trying a new online demo of the service. At Echosim.io, you can use Alexa on the web — not a perfect emulation, but a pretty good copy of the virtual assistant.

Just sign in with your Amazon account and agree to let the site use your microphone, and you'll be able to press and hold a button to chat with Alexa.

There are lots of tasks Alexa can handle for you, including unit conversions, looking up facts, and playing music from your Amazon library. Thus, you can't test every feature of the service here, but it should be enough to let you know if you're interested enough to buy the real thing.

If you need more help deciding, check out the best creative uses for the Amazon Echo. Not interested in the Echo? If you have Windows 10, Cortana can already do a whole lot for you!

Did this demo make you want to grab an Echo, or do you think it's not worth the money? Let us know down in the comments!

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