The convenience of being able to control the lighting in your home is undoubtedly a cool feature. When the topic of smart home lighting comes up, many people think of Philips Hue—rightly so, as the brand offers a wide selection of smart light solutions.
However, investing in smart lighting for your home can get expensive. Luckily, there are plenty of great Philips Hue alternatives to consider when upgrading your home to smart lighting.
1. Lifx
Arguably one of the best alternatives to Philips Hue smart lighting is Lifx. To operate Lifx smart lights, you don't need to invest in a hub. This means you can purchase any of the company's bulbs and start lighting up your home right away.
There's a range of standard fitting bulbs available, including BR30, E12, E26, and GU10. In terms of brightness, the Lifx White smart bulb offers 650 Lumens at 8.5W—sufficient for most hallways, kitchens, and bedrooms. In comparison, The Philips Hue White smart bulb has 1,100 Lumens, using 10.5 watts. While the Philips Hue does offer a brighter light, most homes wouldn't require this.
The Lifx smart bulbs are impressively customizable. You can choose from over 16 million colors via the smartphone app, or adjust your preferred white color temperature for an ambient setting. Compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit, Lifx smart lighting feels effortless.
From intricate schedules to individual mood settings, you can capture individual light settings via the Lifx app. Forgot to turn off the lights before you went to work or on vacation? No problem. Lifx allows you to turn on and off your smart lights with the flick of your finger.
2. Kasa
From smart light strips to multicolor Wi-Fi light bulbs, Kasa smart lighting allows you to create the perfect ambiance around your home. At half the price of similar offerings from Philips Hue, the Kasa Smart Light Bulb boasts one of the largest color temperature ranges for white color settings—between 2500K-6500K. for comparison, the Philips Hue White bulb's maximum color temperature is 2700K.
This feature ties in nicely with Kasa's Auto White functionality which adjusts the color temperature of your smart lighting to complement natural light patterns. Pair this with Kasa's on/off scheduling, you can save time and money using smart home lighting.
Similar to the Lifx smart bulbs, Kasa bulbs can be controlled from anywhere using the Kasa Smart app with no hub required. Kasa bulbs are also compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, allowing you to initiate voice commands with ease.
You can group your smart lights into customized categories, or control them separately. With more than 16 million colors, it's straightforward to decorate your interior lighting to match your mood or environment.
3. Ring
If you're already invested in Ring's smart products, connecting Ring's smart lighting is an easy choice.
Unlike the Lifx and Kasa smart lighting solutions, Ring lights need to be connected to the Ring Bridge. Once connected, you can control your Ring lights from the Ring app, allowing you to set bulbs to react to motion sensors or cameras within your home.
While Ring lighting sports many useful smart features like scheduling and grouping, arguably the best functionality is being able to link them to your existing Ring system as a security measure. From path lights and floodlights to spotlights and step lights, the moment someone presses your Ring doorbell, you can light up the outdoor or indoor of your home.
The Ring A19 Smart LED Bulb can be used indoors and outdoors, providing sufficient cover is provided against rain. Boasting 800 Lumens and a color temperature of up to 3500K, Ring's smart lighting is a great investment if you're looking for an alternative to Philips Hue. It works with Amazon Alexa, too, offering plenty of ways to control your smart lighting.
4. IKEA
IKEA Home Smart is a smart home solution that allows you to control your smart products from one place. Using the IKEA Home smart remote control, you can switch your lights on and off, dim the lights, and even change colors.
Beyond this, you can connect to the IKEA Home smart app which allows you to manage all of your smart products from one location. Connect the TRÅDFRI gateway to your router to unlock a wealth of features, including voice control via Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit.
IKEA's smart lighting allows you to customize all of the rooms in your home, from children's play areas to cabinet lights, kitchen light strips to LED panels. While more accessories are required for dedicated IKEA products, the smart lighting certainly rivals Philips Hue by offering a versatile range for every budget.
The Trådfri Remote Control can schedule and change up to 10 LED light bulbs at any given time and can be connected to the app to create multiple groups. Set your lights to come on when you get home or program IKEA's smart lighting to dim at a lower brightness during the evenings.
5. Sengled
Control your smart lights with or without a hub. Sengled makes it easy for everyone to upgrade their homes using your existing home Wi-Fi network. It's a truly effortless process, with an abundance of smart lighting to choose from, including daylight bulbs and TV light strips.
What's more, if you already have a smart hub like Samsung SmartThings or Amazon Echo, you can leverage Sengled's smart lighting without splashing out more cash.
Using the Sengled Home app, you can adjust the lighting in your home to suit your mood, environment, or time of day. You can set schedules via the app, changeable with the touch of your finger, ensuring your home is well-lit when you return from work.
Sengled smart lighting definitely has a family-friendly vibe. You can set different scenes, represented by icons in the app. Here you can adjust multiple smart light bulbs to ensure the brightness, color, and color temperature are right for playtime, dinner time, sleep, and more
Light Your Own Way
Philips Hue smart lighting may be the brand consumers flock to due to familiarity, but there are plenty of Philips Hue alternatives out there.
From fancy colors to intelligent sensors, smart lighting can transform the feel of your home in an instant. And most of the time, you don't need to spend more on a hub to get started.