The best smart lights in 2024

The best smart lights make your living space more customizable and convenient. You can use a smart home app or voice commands to control these lights remotely or schedule the times they should turn on or off. Plus if they’re multicolor lights you can instantly transform the aesthetic of any space. For example, you can use outdoor lights to illuminate your property or change a smart bulb’s color to set the mood for a party.

Smart lighting is one of the easiest and most affordable upgrades any home can make. Beyond their convenience, smart lights can save you some serious cash despite rising energy prices. Their LEDs are cheaper to run over time (compared to power-hungry halogen and incandescent bulbs) and you can check their status or turn them off from anywhere with an internet connection.

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? We’ve tried out and tested a wide selection of smart lights and bulbs to help you find the best options for your smart home.

Philips Hue White and Color Starter Kit

1. Philips Hue White And Color Ambiance

Wyze Bulb

LIFX outdoor string lights hanging

3. LIFX SuperColor Outdoor String Lights

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 a high 600-lumen brightness paired with color blending from three different zones. This forms each color using different shades and hues. Each of the 12 bulbs creates richer, more punchy colors than the competition so you can see the difference between shades such as 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.

Sengled Smart LED with Motion Sensor

4. Sengled Smart LED with Motion Sensor

Ring Solar Pathlight

Govee permanent outdoor lights pro

6. Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro

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Lifx Mini

8. TP-LINK Kasa Filament WiFi Light Bulb

Philips Hue Light Strip

9. Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Lightstrip

Govee LED Light Strip

10. Govee LED Light Strips

Nanoleaf Shapes

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How to choose the best smart lights for you

A lamp with two smart light bulbs inside

(Image credit: Future)

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

A TV with a lightstrip mounted to the back of it

(Image credit: Future)

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.

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