7 Smart Light Bulbs for Perfect Ambiance Anywhere in Your Home

The Nanoleaf Essentials smart light bulb is the best for most consumers, offering a perfect balance between a bright, easily adjustable glow in millions of colors, futureproof connectivity, and eye-catching design, all at an incredible price point. A single light bulb will cost you only $20 before additional discounts.

Like its fantastic predecessor, the product has a distinctive shape, whose geometric patterns make it perfect for exposed light fixtures. Regarding smart home integration, the Nanoleaf Essentials light bulb is the only one on this list to support the cutting-edge Thread protocol.

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This highly-rated LIFX light bulb is a solid alternative to our top pick from Nanoleaf, that’s marginally pricier but capable of producing a lighting glow in more colors. According to its maker, the accessory can deliver billions of color shades and white with an incredible temperature range. The last-mentioned functionality and the low-key design of the product are the main reasons you should consider it.

Compared to the Nanoleaf Essentials, the LIFX product has a lower maximum brightness and no support for the Matter smart home protocol. The Wi-Fi-equipped light bulb is still compatible with the leading virtual assistants.

Believe it or not, you can smarten up the lighting in your home for less than $10 per light bulb with this super affordable set by Sengled — a long-known brand for making cheap and reliable lighting products. Dropping less than $20 will get you two Wi-Fi-equipped light bulbs that don’t need an additional hub to work with voice commands.

A highly-rated app allows you to adjust the glow color of the Sengled Classic smart bulbs, schedule their operation, and control them remotely. An iteration of the budget-friendly product with an adjustable white glow is available, too.

This LIFX light bulb is a value-packed option that deserves your attention. It has a dimmable warm white glow that’s adjustable via an app or a voice command from your preferred virtual assistant. Unlike most rivals in this impulse-buy price range, the LIFX light bulb is also compatible with Apple HomeKit and Siri voice commands.

The broad compatibility mentioned above and the low price are acceptable tradeoffs for the bulb’s lack of more lighting colors. Consider this just-as-affordable GE CYNC offering if those are important and you aren’t a Siri user.

The Philips Hue name has been synonymous with smart lighting for years, and this bulb is the brand’s finest you can buy today. The gadget offers a colorful glow with class-leading maximum brightness and elaborate app controls. A cheaper product version with a white glow is also available.

It’s important to know that the light bulb needs an optional Philips Hue smart hub to deliver its best functionality. This includes support for all virtual assistants, controls for multiple bulbs, and the option to expand your setup with more Hue products. You can control the standalone light bulb with Bluetooth or a Zigbee-compatible device.

These string lights by Govee are the best for an outdoor space like a backyard, a garden, or a patio. Measuring 50 feet long (a 100-foot version is also available), the setup consists of 25 lights, allowing you to control the vibes with a companion app or virtual assistant voice commands. The easy-to-use app includes many custom scenes and music modes, all tailor-made for outdoor entertainment.

The reasonably priced lights are IP65 waterproof and can glow in colors of your choosing. If changing the colors of your outdoor lights is not a priority, Govee offers significantly cheaper smart string lights with a dimmable warm white glow.

The Wyze BR30 color light bulb is our favorite for recessed lighting fixtures (e.g., ceiling, kitchen counter, etc.). The product brings an amalgam of stellar brightness with a massive range, the ability to produce lighting in millions of accurate colors, and an agreeable price. It costs below $20 for a single bulb and even less for a bundle of multiple units.

A feature-packed Wyze companion app makes the light bulb easy to set up and control. You can create custom scenes, enable vacation mode for peace of mind when you aren’t home, and even sync the glow with your music.

Retro-styled light bulbs with visible glowing filament that harks back to the late 19th century when Thomas Edison invented this essential item are all the rage these days — you can frequently encounter them in bars, coffee shops, and restaurants. This Wi-Fi-toting modern take on the iconic product by GE CYNC is the best worth your attention and an excellent option for exposed and clear lighting fixtures.

The ST19 light bulb is effortless to set up and easily controllable via an app and voice commands. This version of the product can deliver glow in millions of colors. GE CYNC offers a product version with a soft white glow as well.