The best smart lights are an affordable and easy way to make your living space more comfortable and convenient. You can use advanced voice and smart home app controls to operate these lights from anywhere or set a schedule. Multicolor lights even display different hues and effects to transform the aesthetic of any space. For example, you can use the best outdoor smart lights to illuminate your property in a holiday glow or change a smart light strip's color to set the mood for a party.
Smart lighting comes in a variety of different shapes, sizes, and colors which means there’s a lot you’ll need to consider before you buy. For instance, what type of smart light would be best suited for your particular home? Do you want smart lights that connect locally via Bluetooth or would you rather have them connected to a smart home hub? Keep in mind that while their LEDs are a bit pricier upfront, they're cheaper over time compared to power-hungry halogen and incandescent bulbs.
We’ve tried out and tested a wide selection of smart lights and bulbs to help you find the best options to upgrade your smart home. Read on to see our top picks.
Best smart light bulb starter kit
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit
Hub Required: Yes
Lifetime: 25,000 hours
+ Easy setup and intuitive app
+ Extensive third-party integrations
+ Stunning color effects
- Expensive
The Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit is available with two or four dimmable colored bulbs and a hub. It's super simple to setup, easy to use and reliable. You can also use the Hue Sync app to sync your lights with music or even videos and games on your computer.
Read our full Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit review.
Best cheap smart light bulb
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant
Hub Required: No
Lifetime: 25,000 hours
+ Tunable white
+ Works with Alexa and Google Assistant
- Doesn't work with HomeKit
Smart lights can be expensive but the Wyze Bulb is perfect for those on a budget. You can control these affordable lights and any other Wyze products you own right from the Wyze app which also lets you create schedules based on a specific time. Wyze's Vacation mode turns the Wyze Bulb on and off randomly.
Read our full Wyze Bulb review.
Best smart string lights
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit, Matter
Hub Required: No
Lifetime: 25,000 hours
+ Super easy setup without hub
+ OLED-like vibrant colors
+ Durable weatherproof construction
- Limited to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi only
LIFX's LED weatherproof string light bulbs are the most vibrant we've tested yet. That's thanks to their extreme brightness levels and ability to blend colors across three different zones. This forms each hue using different shades for richer, more punchy colors than the competition. For example, our tester could clearly distinguish between a hot or neon pink. In addition to tight controls and scheduling within the LIFX app, these string lights work with all the major smart home platforms. This includes Google Home, Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Matter.
Best smart outdoor floodlight with a motion sensor built-in
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings, IFTTT
Hub Required: Yes
Lifetime: 25,000 hours
+ Built-in motion sensor
+ Integrated daylight sensor
+Weatherproof
- No HomeKit support
With the Sengled Smart LED with Motion Sensor, you're not just limited to using your smart lights indoors. This smart outdoor floodlight can crank out over 1,000 lumens and it also has a motion sensor built in. However, you will need to purchase a Sengled Smart Hub or another compatible smart home hub to control it.
Best smart light for getting you to your door
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT
Hub Required: Yes
Lifetime: One year
+ Nice design
+ Built-in motion sensors
+ Can be linked to other ring products
- Pricey
The Ring Solar Pathlight can be used to illuminate the walk from your driveway to your door when it's dark. This smart light integrates seamlessly with Ring's other device like the new Ring Battery Doorbell Plus and the Ring Alarm system. In the Ring app, you can toggle the light and motion detection on and off.
Read our full Ring Solar Pathlight review.
Best permanent outdoor smart lights
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit
Hub Required: No
Lifetime: 50,000 hours
+ Easy installation
+ Feature-packed app for lots of customization options
+ Durable, weatherproof construction to withstand the elements
- Expensive
At $399, these are some of the most expensive holiday lights you'll put up. However, this one-and-done setup is worth the cost since you can adjust colors to give your home's exterior some pop all year round. Plus you can set the LEDs to basic warm or cool white to serve as standard downlights to give your home some extra security and visibility in the yard.
Read our full Govee Outdoor Permanent Lights Pro review.
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Best smart light bulb for smaller fixtures
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit
Hub Required: No
Lifetime: 200,000 hours
+ Bright
+ Advanced automation options
+No hub needed
- Expensive
If have smaller fixtures, the Lifx Mini is the best choice but not just because it's more compact than the competition. Lifx's app has a great set of features and effects, like a a candle flicker and a strobe, and can sync up to your music or other sounds nearby. As Lifx's smart bulbs connect directly to Wi-Fi, there's no hub needed.
Read our full Lifx Mini review.
Best smart star light projector
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant, Matter
Hub Required: No
+ Realistic dynamic lighting effects with bold colors
+ Deep customization from ripple speed to star size
+ Advanced smart home features and schedule integrations
+ Built-in Bluetooth speaker and white noise machine
- Physical buttons are flat and difficult to tell apart by feel or sight
The Govee Star Light is a smart, projection lighting system that splashes your rooms in customizable colors and effects. Its advanced galaxy patterns produce realistic auroras and stars which can be tuned to your liking from movement speed to size. Govee's projector excels at producing vivid colors that coat your walls and ceiling without breaking the bank.
Read our full Govee Star Light review.
Best smart lightstrip
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit
Hub Required: Yes
Lifetime: 20,000 hours
+ Trimmable
+ Flexible
+ Accommodates 40 inch extensions
- Pricey
The Philips Hue Lightstrip is an 80-inch lightstrip that can display millions of colors while adding a fun accent to cabinets, TVs or other furniture. You can also trim the Philips Hue Lightstrip to fit your needs and extend it by up to 40 inches with an optional extension. Adhesive backing makes it easy to stick to a wall or other surface.
Best inexpensive smart light strip
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant
Hub Required: No
Lifetime: 5 years
+ Low cost
+ Cool music sync feature
+ Highly customizable settings
- Doesn't work with HomeKit
If you want a smart lightstrip on a budget, the Govee LED Light Strips are a great alternative. They even contain a built-in mic that lets their LED lights sync to your music. The Govee app also has a number of presets and automations available for you to mess around with. Like other lightstrips, they come with an adhesive backing but you also get useful support clips too.
Best smart light wall panels
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit
Hub Required: No
Lifetime: 25,000 hours
+ Simple setup
+ Striking color effects
+ Customizable touch commands
- Expensive
If you want to make a statement, you can't beat the Nanoleaf Shapes. At $199, they're fairly expensive but their modular hexagon tiles connect together and can be arranged however you want. The Nanoleaf Shapes also have plenty of brightness settings, color patterns and pulsing music modes to play around with.
Read our full Nanoleaf Shapes review.
How to choose the best smart lights for you
Before you choose the best smart lights for your home, you should first get an idea of where you’re going to put them and the space they will illuminate. You should consider how many smart lights you’re going to need in total and whether or not a bridge will be necessary to connect them. If you only need a few, you might be able to skip using a bridge but the more you need, the more likely you’re going to want to take some of the strain off of your home network. If you’re using smart lights that require a bridge, they are usually more compact as well as less expensive than Wi-Fi enabled smart light bulbs, based on price per bulb.
Looking at the cost overall, smart lights are more expensive than traditional LED lights due to the technology they contain. However, they have come down in price over the years, so they’re more affordable – a good quality smart light or smart light bulb can range from $10 to over $40. If you’re getting one with a fixture, such as a wall panel or outdoor floodlight, the price can be in the $100’s. If you often replace lots of light bulbs in one room, then a smart light switch might be a better investment. To find out more, check out our guide on the best smart light switches.
Here are 9 things you never knew you could do with smart lights in case you want to find out more about some of their other unique qualities when compared to traditional light bulbs. Plus, I turned this smart light into a sunrise alarm clock — and it’s a game changer.
How we test the best smart lights
Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.
We test the best smart lights on a number of criteria, including ease-of-setup, brightness, value and library of features. We compare most smart lights and bulbs against Philips Hue lights, which are pricey but offer everything you could want out of smart lights. Some budget smart lights brag that they have a lot to offer, but we only recommend the ones that live up to their claims.
Smart home compatibility is key to our testing. The smart lights above work with at least two top smart home systems, if not more. You don’t want your smart lights to lock you into a specific virtual assistant when there are plenty of options that work with Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri, SmartThings and IFTTT.
All of the brands we test are trustworthy and feel comfortable adding to our own home networks. Use caution when shopping for smart lights from unknown manufacturers though.
For more information about how we review products in general, please check out the Tom's Guide How We Test page.
