Smart home gadgets are pretty cool, and smart lights are always the first thing most people think about when it comes to smart home gadgets. Which makes sense. As they are easy to install and add to your home, and relatively cheap too. But there are thousands of them available on the market right now. From pretty cheap, to pretty pricey – we’re talking hundreds of dollars. So which ones are the best for your new smart home?
We’ve rounded up the very best smart lights that you can buy for your home.
Top 10 Best Smart Lights
As mentioned, you can pick up a smart light bulb for as low as $10. But you can also spend upwards of $50 per bulb. There are also other smart lights out there, like wall lights, lamps, and even outdoor lights. The majority of these lights are compatible with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can also use your voice to control them.
Here we have rounded up the best smart lights that you can buy in 2020.
| Cost | Where to Buy | |
| Philips Hue Econic | $163 | Amazon |
| C by GE Smart LED Bulbs + Smart Plug Bundle | $39 | Amazon |
| Nanoleaf Canvas Starter Kit | $199 | Amazon |
| LIFX Z LED Strip Starter Kit | $89 | Amazon |
| Philips Hue Go | $79 | Amazon |
| Ring Solar Pathlight | $25 | Amazon |
| LIFX A19 Mini Day and Dusk White | $25 | Amazon |
| Kasa Smart Light Switch | $26 | Amazon |
| LIFX Beam | $239 | Amazon |
Philips Hue Econic
- Price: $163.49
- Buy: Amazon
- Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri/Homekit, IFTTT
The Philips Hue Econic is one of the cooler looking outdoor smart lights on the market today. It’s a light that you can put outside on your porch and control it with your smartphone or your voice. You can also use something like IFTTT to automate when this light turns on. Like when you arrive home, or when the sun goes down, etc.
This does need the Philips Hue Bridge to work, since it does not use Bluetooth.
Additionally, since this is a colored light, you can do different colors outside, including blue, red, orange, purple, etc. And it’ll help light up your home for the holidays. From Halloween to Thanksgiving and even Christmas.
C by GE Smart LED Bulbs + Smart Plug Bundle
- Price: $39
- Buy: Amazon
- Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri/Homekit, IFTTT
This is a great bundle to get started with actually. It’s pretty inexpensive, and also comes with a smart plug, which is always a nice added bonus.
These bulbs from GE (it’s C by GE brand does the smart home products) are pretty basic. These are soft white bulbs, hence the much lower price here. They offer up the ability to use Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and even Apple’s Siri or Homekit for voice control.
Smart control here isn’t as robust as on Philips Hue lights, since you can’t change the color. It’s on or off, you can schedule them, and dim them. And that’s about it. That makes these great for ceiling lights in your home.
C by GE Smart LED Bulbs + Smart Plug Bundle – Amazon
Nanoleaf Canvas Starter Kit
- Price: $199
- Buy: Amazon
- Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri/Homekit, IFTTT
These are decorative lights that you can add to your home. Whether it’s in your office, in your bedroom or in the living room. The Nanoleaf Canvas lights can make all sorts of different designs. They also have the ability to dance to different music that you’re playing and so forth. They are a really cool addition to any room.
Nanoleaf makes it super simple to attach these to your wall, simply by using some 3M adhesive.
Much like the other smart lights on this list, the Nanoleaf Canvas work with Amazon Alexa, Siri/Homekit and Google Assistant. So you can use voice control. But you can also control them and make scenes using the Nanoleaf app.
Nanoleaf Canvas Starter Kit – Amazon
LIFX Z LED Strip Starter Kit
- Price: $89
- Buy: Amazon
- Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri/Homekit, IFTTT
The LIFX Z LED Strip is a really great light to pick up and add to the back of your TV, underneath your cupboards in the kitchen, or really anywhere you need some accent lighting.
It’s really great to use on a TV, since it can bounce light off of the wall, and make it a bit more enjoyable to watch TV at night in the dark. And since there are different zones on the LIFX Z, you can use different colors, and have it match the team you’re watching play and so forth.
It also works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant as well as Siri and Homekit.
LIFX Z LED Strip Starter Kit – Amazon
Philips Hue Go
- Price: $79.97
- Buy: Amazon
- Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri/Homekit, IFTTT
The Philips Hue Go is another really cool light that you can add to your setup. Many people refer to it as a “bowl of light” which is technically true. The Philips Hue Go is also portable, meaning that it does not need to stay plugged in. So you can put it anywhere. Bounce the light off of the wall and so forth. Which is another way to add some cool accent lighting to your home.
This is a multi-colored light, with up to 16 million colors available to use here.
Much like the other Philips Hue products, the Go works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri/Homekit. It is also a newer model, so it works with Bluetooth too. Meaning it is not required to have the bridge.
Ring Solar Pathlight
- Price: $24.99
- Buy: Amazon
- Works with: Amazon Alexa
If you have a nice pathway from the curb or sideway, to your front door, then you’ll want to grab the Ring Solar Pathlight. These are pretty inexpensive at $25 each, and also are smart. So they can turn on whenever you need them too. Whether that is when you get home from work, or when the sun goes down.
But perhaps the best part of this light is the fact that it is solar-powered. So you won’t need to worry about paying electricity for leaving these on all night long. That is really nice.
If you own other Ring products, like the doorbell, or floodlights, then this is the route to go. As it does also work with your other Ring products, all within the same app.
LIFX A19 Mini Day and Dusk White
- Price: $24.99
- Buy: Amazon
- Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri/Homekit, IFTTT
For those that want to conserve energy and go green, the LIFX A19 Mini is a great light bulb to grab. Not only is it cheaper, but it’s also smaller and uses less energy.
That doesn’t mean that the LIFX A19 Mini is less bright, quite the contrary. It’s equivalent to a 60W bulb, and has 800 lumens. So it’s still plenty bright for most rooms. This is the Day and Dusk White color, that will mimick the colors you see in the day and at dusk. So it’s not white, but more of a yellow-ish color.
LIFX doesn’t use a hub, each bulb has WiFi and Bluetooth built into them. Which is why the bulbs are a bit more expensive. But it also makes it easier to pick up a few for your home. You can still group them per room or per light fixture if you wish. They also still work with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and even Siri/Homekit.
Kasa Smart Light Switch
- Price: $26
- Buy: Amazon
- Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri/Homekit, IFTTT
Instead of replacing all of the lights in your home, to make them “smart”, you can just get a smart light switch. And you can get three from Kasa for under $30, which is very affordable. Kasa is the smart home brand of TP-Link, the router company.
These smart switches are great because you can control them from your smartphone or using your voice with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Instead of spending $20+ per bulb for a kitchen where you may have 10 bulbs on the same switch, you can just replace the switch for around $10 and make them smart. Definitely the smart choice – pun intended.
The only downside with a switch versus a smart bulb, is you miss out on the colors that some lights offer.
Kasa Smart Light Switch – Amazon
LIFX Beam Seamless Light Module
- Price: $239
- Buy: Amazon
- Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri/Homekit, IFTTT
LIFX Beam is another one of our favorite smart accent lighting pieces that you can pick up. These can be placed anywhere really, but honestly, it’s great to put on the wall behind a TV, or around a door frame. Giving you a really cool look.
The LIFX Beam is super simple to setup. Beams click together end to end. Included command strips allow you to place them exactly where you want. Simply download the app, connect to Wi-Fi and you’re ready to go.
Connected Lighting and scenes for your space, time of day, and mood. Choose from 16 million colors with flexibility to dim. And it works with your favorite digital assistants, no matter what platform you use.
2022-02-19 15:05:22