The best smart lights and smart light bulbs not only make it easy to illuminate your home but they also transform any room and help set whatever atmosphere you're looking for.
The best smart lights are easy to use while also being intuitive and with rising energy prices, smart light bulbs are cheaper to run. In the long term, they can save you money as they use LEDs rather than more expensive incandescent and halogen light bulbs.
If you enjoy the smart home lifestyle, you can pair the best smart lights with your other smart home devices like your security system and even your TV. You can also have your smart lights automatically switch on when they detect motion or schedule them to turn on at certain times of the day, so even if you’re away from home, your house will still be lit.
Smart lights and bulbs come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and styles, so there are plenty of things to consider before you buy. What type of smart light will suit your home and lifestyle? Do you want smart lights that require a hub or would you rather they connect via Bluetooth? We’ve tried and tested a wide selection of smart lights and bulbs to help you find the right ones for your needs.
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 it 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 affordable Wi-Fi smart bulb
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant
Hub Required: No
Lifetime: 25,000 hours
+ Super easy setup
+ No hub required
+ App tracks energy consumption
- Lacks more advanced automation features
The Sengled Smart Wi-Fi LED bulb is another affordable option starting at $12. Another great thing is that the company's bulbs connect to your Wi-Fi router and you don't need a hub. There are three options to get choose from: a $12 soft white bulb, a $15 daylight bulb, and a $25 multicolor bulb. The company also sells a hub to take some strain off your home network.
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 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 filament-style smart light bulb
Works with: Alexa, Google Assistant
Hub Required: No
Lifetime: 25,000 hours
+ Dimmable
+ Tracks energy usage
+ lots of smart automation options
- No HomeKit support
Filament or "Edison"-style lights cast a warm, old-timey glow that great at setting the mood. The TP-Link Kasa Filament WiFi Light Bulb (KL50) is a smart, filament-style bulb that connects directly to your Wi-Fi that you can control with TP-Link's Kasa app. At $15 a pop, this bulb is a bit more expensive but still quite reasonable for this market.
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
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.
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
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.
