The Best Smart Bulbs of 2021

Smart bulbs and lights are a great way to automate your home. As technology progresses, the latest and greatest smart bulb is just around the corner at an affordable price. This post will explore some of the best smart bulbs on the market so you can find out which is right for you.

We’ve tested over 50 bulbs from cheap Chinese brands all the way through to the big company brands like Philips Hue and LIFX, covering various aspects such as compatibility, range, build quality and even ease of installation.

Every one of these Smart Light Bulbs is LED as they use less energy than an incandescent and halogen light bulb which we explain further in our LED light bulbs guide.

One of the best parts about Smart Bulbs is their connectivity to your Smart Home and the levels of control you have via your smartphone or voice assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant & Siri.

If you’re big into routines like ourselves, your Smart bulbs can be set up to work with other Smart Home Devices like your TV or Streaming Stick. For example, when we tell Alexa “Good Night”, she turns off the lights, turns off the TV and closes our blinds!

What is the Best Smart Light Bulb?

This is incredibly difficult to answer, each bulb has its pros and cons, however, there is one clear winner for the overall general usage of a Smart Bulb and that goes to the Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance bulb. Yes, Philips Hue Lights are considerably more expensive than other competitors like LIFX but their app is incredibly intuitive and they work with pretty much every other Smart Home Product available on the market.

Another great thing with newer Philips Hue bulbs is that they no longer require the Philips Hue Bridge / Hub if you have a Zigbee Hub (Like the Amazon Echo 4th Generation). This means you can purchase bulbs on their own and connect them directly to your Alexa Voice Assistant Smart Hub.

If you’re looking for a runner up, you’ll be stuck between the Sengled Wi-Fi bulbs and the LIFX Colour, both of which are fantastic options with the Sengled Bulbs being the considerably cheaper price with very few downsides. Sengled can connect directly to your Wi-Fi network or make use of the Sengled Smart Hub if you wish to control them all on a separate network.

If you’re looking to add motion sensors, Sengled is the better option for a cheaper configuration.

Our Picks

Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Works With: Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit
Brightness: 800 Lumens
Bulb Type: A19
Price: $79.99 / £84.99

Whilst expensive, the Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance Bulbs are a fantastic option, if you grab the Starter Kit it will include two to four of your choice dimmable colored bulbs and a hub. If you’ve not seen the Philips Hue bulbs in action you’re going to be in for a surprise.

The Philips Hue App which can be controlled via your Smart Phone or Tablet is incredibly in-depth, it allows for routines, time and sunrise/sunset automation, geofencing, and even a vacation mode to make it look like people are in your home whilst you’re away.

As Philips Hue is considered by many the king of Smart Bulbs it’s no shocker that it’s compatible with pretty much every other Smart Home Brand on the market, including Alexa, Google Home (& Nest), SmartThings, IFTTT, Yonomi, and more!

Read our Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance Starter Kit Review.

LIFX Color

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Works With: Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit
Brightness: 800-1000 Lumens
Bulb Type: E27
Price: $34.99 / £34.00

LIFX is another higher-end priced product, but they have some of the best color quality on any bulbs I’ve seen on the market, whilst boasting a lumen count of up to 1000, they also offer color temperatures of 1500K to 9000K. The depth of these colors is incredibly vast.

If you choose to go down the LIFX Mini range it will be considerably more expensive than the standard bulbs, although there doesn’t seem to be any specific reason behind this.

This doesn’t mean the white colors are dull though, the LIFX White is a cheaper alternative that lacks the extra facilities the LIFX Color offers but still boasts a great natural warm white color with a fantastic Wide range.

Read our LIFX Color & LIFX White Review.

Sengled Smart Wi-Fi LED

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Works With: Alexa, Google Assistant
Brightness: 800 Lumens
Bulb Type: A19
Price: $14.99 / £15.99

Whilst expensive, the Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance Bulbs are a fantastic option, if you grab the Starter Kit it will include two to four of your choice dimmable colored bulbs and a hub. If you’ve not seen the Philips Hue bulbs in action you’re going to be in for a surprise.

The Philips Hue App which can be controlled via your Smart Phone or Tablet is incredibly in-depth, it allows for routines, time and sunrise/sunset automation, geofencing, and even a vacation mode to make it look like people are in your home whilst you’re away.

As Philips Hue is considered by many the king of Smart Bulbs it’s no shocker that it’s compatible with pretty much every other Smart Home Brand on the market, including Alexa, Google Home (& Nest), SmartThings, IFTTT, Yonomi, and more!

Read our Sengled Smart Wi-Fi LED Review.

Yeelight Smart LED Bulb

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Works With: Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri
Brightness: 800 Lumens
Bulb Type: E26
Price: $24.99 / £24

The Yeelight bulb is a considerably cheaper option that offers a lot of cool integrations, for example, it integrates seamlessly with Razer Chroma. Pair this with the ability to control your bulb with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Aoetec SmartThings and you have the perfect gaming room bulb.

The app to control your Yeelight Bulb is available on Android and iOS and has your typical features from controlling brightness levels, temperature, and color. However, it’s an incredibly simple layout and not one that competes with the likes of Philips Hue or LIFX. If simple is what you want, then the app is perfect.

Unfortunately one of the downsides is that there is no Geofencing service within the Yeelight bulb system, as such you would need to control that via your Smart Hub if you have one. Alternatively, if you utilize IFTTT then this can be used for geofencing with varying control options.

Read our Yeelight Smart LED Review.

Wyze Bulb

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Works With: Alexa, Google Assistant
Brightness: 800 Lumens
Bulb Type: A19
Price: $8

Wyze Labs who also do a wide range of other products wanted to create an affordable smart bulb that has temperature control, timers, and varying levels of dimming. If you’re new to smart homes this is quite possibly the best bulb on the market due to the features it offers at its price point.

The design of this bulb is perfect for anyone who doesn’t want to have any of the odd-shaped bulbs like LIFX offers, there is however a matte white shell covering the bottom which is designed to cover the internal circuitry which no one wants to see.

Setting up the Wyze Bulb is extremely easy and another reason we think this is perfect for any Smart Home beginner. Simply connect to your Wyze Bulb via the Wi-Fi connect it offers and use that to input the Wi-Fi credentials of your home network, it really is as simple as that, no hub required.

Overall, the best thing you can take away from this bulb is that it simply works almost out of the box, there’s no fancy perks or configurations needed, the app is extremely easy to navigate and it looks great for the price tag.

Read our Wyze Bulb LED Review.

Conclusion

It can be tough to decide which Smart Bulb is the right one for you. We’re here to help! In our research and testing, we found these seven were some of the best out there; they offer a wide range of price points and features that will fit your needs.

If none of these options sounds like what you need or if you have any other questions about how this technology works, feel free to reach out with any questions at all on Twitter @Smarthomebit.

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