Best outdoor smart lights in 2024

If you’re new to the world of smart home devices, smart lighting is one of the best products to invest in. web-connected bulbs and light strips put automated deliverables front and center, with brightness and color-changing actions returning very visible results in seconds flat. And once you’re cozy with indoor illumination, you can move into the great outdoors with these products, too.

Outdoor smart lights require a bit more research upfront, but once installed, these incredible bulbs, floodlights, and light strips are a blast to use. Not to mention the added home security you’ll be bringing to your property.

As you can probably guess, everyone and their grandma is making outdoor smart lights these days. To help you determine which brand and model is best, this list includes the best options available.

Top outdoor smart lights

Govee makes a wide variety of colorful, fun smart lighting, including the novel (and stimulating) Govee Curtain Light as well as the first Matter-supporting light strip. Since its early success with indoor light bars and decorative, almost cyberpunk fixtures, it’s released several types of outdoor lighting. Its string lights are arguably the most versatile, and of those string lights, the H7021 (and H7020, which is half as long) is the best.

Each of the 50 bulbs can reach up to 50 lumens using an “Illumination Mode” that activates all the different LEDs inside at the same time. It offers 47 preset themes, or you can set different colors for each of the 30 bulbs on the 96-foot bundle. There are even four music modes that let the lights change color and brightness according to ambient noise. Just take care to string them up carefully (and bring your own small zip ties for secure mounting) to ensure they maintain their water resistance.

Whether you’re looking to add illumination to a walking path, entrance, or garden, the Philips Hue Lily spotlights are one of the best outdoor smart light bundles for exterior ambiance. First and foremost, you’ll want to make sure you have outdoor plugs, though. (That’s how these bad boys are powered.)

Philips Hue is renowned for its versatile lighting options, and the Lily spotlight kit aligns with the company’s stellar reputation. Choose from millions of colors and brightness levels in the Philips Hue app, or integrate the bulbs with your existing smart home ecosystem. (The Lily kit is compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant.) This works particularly well if you’re using home security products, too, as you’ll be able to set up routines to trigger the lights when motion is detected by a camera or sensor.

Engineered to last for 25,000 hours, these 1,770-lumen spotlights are also IP65 rated, so you won’t have to worry about placing them on the ground. You also won’t need to fret about water damage, unless you’re tossing them in a swimming pool.

Stake lights are a great way to brighten pathways you use to enter and exit your home. They’re also a great way to add multicolored panache to your property. And when it comes to budget-friendly outdoor bulbs, Govee provides yet another great lighting produst with their awesome Outdoor Ground Lights. The onboard RGBICW tech lets each bulb shine a different color, and there are millions of hues to choose from.

Additionally, a rock-solid IP67 rating ensures you won’t have to worry about dirt, debris, or water wrecking your light show. Control-wise, you’ll be able to manage and customize these Govee bulbs through the companion app. Choose from 43 different lighting scenes, and even bop your head to the incredible Music Sync Mode, which makes the lights pulsate to whatever beats you’re blasting.

The Govee Outdoor Ground Lights are also compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant, so you’ll be able to tie them into all kinds of home automations.

If you want to accent a garden, water feature, deck, or just the front of your well-kept home with the colors of your choice, you can’t do so for cheaper than Ligency’s landscape spotlights. Unlike others in their price range, they’re real smart devices that can interact seamlessly with Alexa or Google Assistant, letting you manage them from anywhere in the world. They’re also brighter than you might expect for less than $20 per light, and offer the extensive color and brightness settings that smart lighting demands.

Ligency’s landscape lights are perfect if you want to illuminate an entire wall, or multiple walls or yard features as long as they’re near each other. They’re not perfect, though. Each spotlight’s separated by an 8-foot cord that can’t be altered, so don’t expect to put pairs of them on opposite sides of your yard. Also make sure to put the transformer in a weatherproof fixture of some kind, as it’s (inexplicably) the only part of the whole package that’s not waterproof.

PAR38 bulbs, meant for recessed or other downward-facing fixtures, emit more light than a typical A19, in a considerably more focused beam than the more common BR30 floodlight bulb. This makes it the perfect addition to a custom, piecemeal security system, since it not only adds the safety of a security light, but can also easily tie into any existing smart home setup.

Sengled’s stands out because it’s one of the rare models to combine both integrated motion sensing and wide-ranging smart home support. Whether you’re using Alexa, Google, or Siri over WI-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, or SmartThings, you won’t run into any compatibility issues.

Philips Hue offers only a couple of dedicated pathway lights. We’ve highlighted the classically styled Econic pedestal light here, but the Calla pillar lights are also fantastic. You can also opt for the Lily spotlights, which look great as facade or garden accent lights, or as pathway lights when they’re directed and dimmed properly.

Since these are designed for use in yards, they all offer extensions that let you expand your landscape accents considerably. If you can afford them, nothing can outshine Philips Hue landscape lights.

Govee makes sensible smart lighting that competes with the high-end brands, but usually costs a lot less, which is exactly the case with this set of outdoor floodlights. They’re super compact, so they’re easy to install, and you’ll barely notice them when they’re off, but they’re bright enough to highlight the best features of your property and provide a little ambient path lighting.

Even more so than most other Govee lighting, these floodlights deliver just about the best bang for your buck we’ve seen. Just make sure to plan your setup before ordering, since they come in hardwired sets of two, four, or six that can’t be extended, cut, or rearranged.

Developed by the same folks behind Philips Hue lighting, the Wiz Elpas wall lamp is one of the best permanent outdoor light fixtures that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. It’s designed for mains voltage, so it doesn’t need a controller (like accent and landscape lights usually do) and the installation process is exactly the same as if you were installing a standard wall sconce.

A more refined and user-friendly app than most makes this a good choice regardless of your preferred smart ecosystem (although Siri voice support is questionable).

A different beast from the rest, Amico’s security light doesn’t improve ambiance or add classy path lighting, but it can make a huge difference in an emergency. Its 4,000-lumen output lights up your yard, driveway, or garage and illuminates yards, driveways, and dark corners with ease.

You can adjust the range of the dependable motion sensor up to 70 feet, and the motion detection activation delay from 5 to 60 seconds. A group of these, connected together via the app, can bathe your entire home in bright light at a moment’s notice, while also sending you a notification. While it’s not the best-looking option, at least it’s available in either white or black.

A lot of night vision cameras use IR sensors to pick up clear visual details at night, but the camera’s built-in infrared lighting needs a boost sometimes.

The Nightvision version of LIFX’s popular BR30 floodlight adds infrared output wherever you have a down-facing light socket, which can increase the range and clarity on a lot of night vision cameras. Take note that it only works with black-and-white night vision, since the most advanced color night vision uses the visible light spectrum.

Important outdoor smart light features

Choosing the best outdoor smart lights isn’t just a matter of making sure the bulbs or light strips are waterproof in some way — although that is important, too. There are several other criteria you should be considering.

Power source

Not all outdoor smart lights simply plug into an outlet (even though many of them do). Certain lighting products may go the video doorbell or security camera route, by way of rechargeable battery packs for exterior power. If the device you’re looking to purchase runs off a battery, it’s a good idea to see how long it will last before needing a recharge.

Some outdoor smart lights require a hardwired connection to your home’s electricity. This is usually the case for bigger, floodlight-equipped products that can push a ton of brightness though.

IP rating

The ingress protection (IP) rating is a great tool for understanding how much dirt and moisture your lighting product can withstand. Presented as a figure like IP67, where the “6” represents dirt protection, and the “7” is the device’s water durability. The higher these values are, the more protected your lights are going to be.

When you see an “X” where a number should be, this means the product isn’t protected against dirt or moisture (depending on its placement).

Compatibility

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are some basic must-haves for remotely controlling your outdoor smart lights. Generally speaking, you’ll probably see more Bluetooth devices than Wi-Fi-capable products, probably because companies know that most folks are limited to indoor Wi-Fi coverage that may not stretch far beyond exterior doorways.

If you’re rocking Alexa or Google Assistant smart speaker and displays, it’s probably a good idea to make sure your outdoor smart lights are compatible with these automation ecosystems. Siri and IFTTT support doesn’t hurt either.

Anti-theft features

Your lighting product will be out in the open, which automatically puts it at a greater risk of being stolen. Fortunately, many of these devices are designed to be integrated with home security systems, so if a motion detector picks up movement, you can create a routine that will turn the lights on super-bright to ward off an intruder.

You’ll also want to know what safeguards you’re working with on the device itself. While something like LED light strips may not have much in the way of physical deterrents, more advanced, hardwired floodlights may have built-in locks and anchors to prevent thievery.

Which outdoor smart lighting is best for you

Outdoor smart lights can be a dazzling addition to the exterior of your home or business. Many of these devices are easy to install, simple to control, and offer enough features and customizations to entertain you for weeks and months on end. That’s why most users love the Govee H7021 String Lights.

As the best overall pick, these 50-lumen bulbs are individually customizable, allowing you to choose from an array of engaging colors and animations. You can even choose from a few music presets for the bulbs to pulse along to. Of course, there’s always our premium pick, for those willing to go the extra mile in the name of illumination.

Enter the Philips Hue Lily Spotlights. Yes, they’re pricey, but this triple spotlight kit is a breeze to install, and delivers brilliant colors and patterns to your backyard, patio, garden, or walking path. But the best version of the kit comes with the Hue Bridge, though, especially if you plan on adding more Philips Hue devices to your home down the line.

To add some ambiance on the cheap, the best value pick is sure to satisfy. Another Govee offering, the Outdoor Ground Lights work with Alexa and Google Assistant and feature a terrific companion app. Use it to adjust brightness, change colors, create lighting automations, and more.