The ecosystem of smart home tech that works with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant is vast, and one of the most popular categories is smart lighting. With these bulbs, you can turn on and adjust your lighting, including color and brightness, from anywhere you can talk to Alexa. Store shelves are filled with affordable smart bulbs, and with so many options out there, how are you supposed to know which ones are the best Alexa-controlled light bulbs?
Our top pick is the Philips Hue A21 1,600 Lumen Bulb because it comes from an industry-leading brand, has a massive ecosystem of other Hue products it works with, and plays well with Alexa. Plus, it’s super bright and dimmable, so you can use it in any part of the house, from hallways to the living room.
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At a glance
Best overall
Philips is a market leader for smart bulbs with an extensive ecosystem of other Hue products available. This A21 bulb can deliver up to 1600 lumens, so you get plenty of light in any room of your house.
Best runner-up
The Wyze Bulb Color is a more affordable option with no hub required making it cheaper to get started. With 16 million colors available, these bulbs can be connected to Wi-Fi and controlled with a voice assistant.
3. Ring A19 Smart LED Bulb
Best for security set-ups
The Amazon-owned security company, Ring, has a wide range of smart products for your home. If you’ve already got a Ring hub, this white LED bulb will integrate well with your other Ring products.
Best out-of-the-box setup
The LIFX requires no bridge and works with most smart assistants out of the box. This Wi-Fi bulb has bright and vibrant colors, so you can set the right mood for any room or activity.
5. Govee RGBIC LED Strip Lights
Best light strips
Govee makes a lot of value smart devices, and this light strip is an excellent addition to that ecosystem. You can stick with a preset effect or create a custom color to help you get the most out of your ambient lighting.
6. WiZ Connected Color Smart WiFi Light Bulb
Best value
This WiZ bulb is another hub-free color bulb that not only saves you money per bulb but makes your entire smart home setup cheaper since you don’t need a hub. With this bulb, you can set it to display white or a range of other colors.
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7. Nanoleaf Essentials light bulb
Best for desk lamps
Nanoleaf keeps things simple with Bluetooth connections for its lights, so you don’t need a hub. This bulb can display 16 million colors with 806 lumens of brightness, which is about what you’d get from a 60W incandescent bulb.
8. Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance
Best for smart homes
This A19 Hue bulb can produce 16 million colors with peak brightness equivalent to a 60W incandescent bulb. If you’ve already got a Hue hub, you can easily integrate many of these white and color ambiance bulbs.
Best for beginners
Like it does with Wi-Fi routers, TP-Link offers strong performance for a low price. Despite that, this bulb works with most smart assistants, requires no hub, and is easy to set up with Wi-Fi.
Best overall
Chances are that when you think about smart lights, the brand that comes to mind first is Philips Hue. The product line was introduced way back in 2012 and has arguably maintained its status as the dominant brand in the smart lighting space to this day.
Even though Philips Hue makes a lot of different smart lighting devices like bulbs, light strips, and even lamps, this bulb is an easy entry point into this rather expansive ecosystem. You can get the Philips Hue A211,600 Lumen Bulb for a reasonable price and put it pretty much anywhere in your home. You can adjust from thousands of shades of white light and control it by voice using Alexa (or Google Assistant) with a compatible smart speaker.
While you need the Hue Hub (sold separately) to control the bulb remotely from the app, you can still control up to 10 lights in a room when in range, thanks to built-in Bluetooth technology. This means you can get a feel for smart lighting before deciding to opt for the Hue Hub to extend the experience. With the app and voice, you can create/activate scenes, use preset light recipes, dim the lights, and more. With a Hub, you can even control up to 50 lights at once!
But what sets this bulb apart is the ultra-bright 1,600 lumens that can light up any room to the max, whether it’s for applying makeup or shaving in the bathroom, or making cooking videos in the kitchen.
Best runner-up
If you’re just getting started with smart lighting and want to dip your toes in the water with an easy-to-use, inexpensive bulb that is pretty much just plug-and-play, then I recommend you take a look at the Wyze Bulb. Wyze is a smart device company that has made a name for itself by providing quality products at low prices that work well with Alexa and the other smart assistants and protocols out there.
What’s great about Wyze Bulbs is that they’re affordable, well-made enough that they won’t die on you in three months, and easy to use and install. All you have to do is screw it into a lamp or light fixture, connect it to your Wi-Fi through the free app, and ask Alexa to discover new devices. Once found, you can add that device to a room group, create routines, or control the brightness or on/off status with your voice.
If you are a creature of habit and want to put the same brand of bulbs throughout your house, you might be out of luck here. Wyze offers both standard bulbs in two varieties — white and color — along with an LED light strip. In our Wyze Color Bulb review, we were impressed with the color saturation even at high brightness. These are excellent bulbs to check out, especially when trying to keep costs down.
Best for security set-ups
Ring is a trusted, smart home brand known more for its easy-to-setup security cameras and video doorbells versus lighting. However, the brand offers a range of smart lights, too, including this affordable A19 replacement bulb that offers 800 lumens (60-watt equivalent) of brightness for your room.
Since Ring is owned by Amazon, it’s no surprise that it works with Alexa for voice control. Still, it requires the purchase of the Ring Bridge separately if you want to enjoy smart features like mobile notifications, setting schedules, turning lights on and off remotely, and more using the app. Luckily, if you have an Amazon Echo 4th gen or Echo Show 10 3rd gen, those will work as a bridge. You can even get a bundle with an Echo 4th gen when you buy from Amazon.
What’s particularly great about this bulb is that it can be grouped with other Ring lights to create what the company calls a “Ring of Security” in your home. So if you place them in covered outdoor fixtures around the perimeter of your home, for example, you can keep an eye on everywhere from the backyard to the front door and driveway and control all the lights together. It’s also compatible with other Ring devices so that you can control the lights alongside the security camera at your front door.
Best out-of-the-box setup
The best feature of this bright and vibrant bulb is how you don’t need a hub of any kind to connect it to your home’s Wi-Fi network: it connects directly so that you can get going right out of the box. However, you are paying a premium for that convenience.
The 1,100-lumen (75-watt) equivalent bulb provides dimmable light in up to 16 million different colors to set the mood based on your activity, whether you’re reading a book, having a casual dinner party, or dancing the night away. The lights are dimmable as well, so you can get the right color or shade of white and at the right level to meet your needs.
Suitable for use both indoors and out, thanks to the weather-resistant design, the bulb is an excellent option if you want color options and to get going right away. I’ve been using LIFX bulbs for years because I love how bright and saturated the colors can be, but I have consistently had periods of time where the bulbs go offline and I have to reconnect them.
Best light strips
Just like with smart light bulbs, it is easy to become overwhelmed by options for smart LED strips when searching on Amazon. Despite this, we keep coming back to these bulbs from Govee. They’re affordable, easy to install, and work great with Alexa.
These LED strip lights can be used indoors, in an office, or in a kid’s room, and while these particular strips aren’t weatherproof enough for use outside on the porch — Govee does offer outdoor options. This LED light strip uses RGBIC technology which allows you even further control over what colors are displayed via the excellent Govee app. Pick a single color for the whole strip, change sections to different colors, pick an exciting pre-made theme in the app, and much more.
These energy-efficient LED strip lights can adhere to just about any smooth surface with the included adhesive tape. You can control the lights and set up to 16 million different color combinations via the app or your voice with Alexa by enabling the Govee Alexa Skill.
Best value
WiZ may not be familiar to you, but its parent company, Philips, is. Fill your home with color with these bulbs that can display more than 16 million colors and shades of white, from candlelight to daylight, you can set the mood for any occasion with ease.
Another great thing about this bulb is that you don’t need a hub — it connects directly to your home Wi-Fi network. While these bulbs are compatible with Amazon Alexa (and Google Assistant), the WiZ companion app is fantastic and full of great features to get the light just how you want it. You can turn the lights on and off, dim or brighten them via vocal commands or by the app, set scenes and routines, put lights on a schedule, and more.
The WiZ is a standard A19 size, so it can replace most bulbs in your home, but it’s best for lamps and fixtures. You’ll get 800 lumens of brightness which will be perfect for most situations. Plus, with these bulbs being one of the best budget smart lights, you can put smart lights in more places.
Best for desk lamps
This uniquely-shaped light bulb, Rhombicosidodecahedron (a near-spherical shape made up of squares, triangles, and pentagons) as Nanoleaf calls it, is the perfect one for your desk or table lamp, providing 806 lumens of brightness to replace a standard 60-watt incandescent bulb. Plus, it offers the added benefit of 16+ million colors when you want the lighting to match your mood and a range of whites.
Thanks to Bluetooth, you don’t need a hub — just connect these lights directly with the Nanoleaf app to your compatible Android or iOS device, and you’re off to the races. You can control lights from the app, either individually or in groups, turning them on and off, changing colors, dimming, and more. While it’s great, you don’t need a hub to use these bulbs; you won’t be able to control them when you are out of Bluetooth range.
The light bulb is super easy to set up, and if you have an Alexa-enabled smart speaker, you can control it by voice, too. It also works with Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant. Another great thing about these bulbs is they’re Thread-enabled making them even more futureproof.
Best for smart homes
While we rate the Philips Hue A211,600 Lumen Bulb the best overall pick, when you’re ready to step up your smart home, this bulb is a solid choice. It provides 16 million colors and different shades and temperatures of white. While you need the Hue Hub to control them remotely, they do work with Bluetooth for app control while you are within range. You can control up to 10 Hue Bluetooth/Zigbee bulbs from the app or up to 50 lights with the Hub.
When you’re ready to set up a fully smart home, these bulbs can integrate with other Hue products, including other types of lights, as well as accessories like motion sensors and smart switches. In addition to controlling everything in the app, including turning lights on and off, dimming, creating scenes and routines, and grouping lights together, you can also control them by voice using Alexa with a compatible smart speaker.
The A19-sized bulb is also Energy Star-qualified, making it far more energy-efficient than old incandescent bulbs — as you’d expect from one of the best smart lights out there.
Best for beginners
It doesn’t get much easier than this simple soft white A19 bulb that you simply screw into the socket of your light, download the app, connect to Wi-Fi, and go — no hub needed. You can control it from the Kasa app, including turning it on and off, dimming, creating scenes, and setting schedules.
Offering 800 lumens of brightness for the equivalent of a 60-watt bulb, it can also be controlled by voice via Alexa (with a compatible smart speaker) as well as Google and Microsoft Cortana.
It’s a simple bulb from a trusted brand that won’t break the bank. So, while it might not be the ideal option to outfit an entire house, if you just want to update one or two bulbs in the home, it’s a good choice.
How to choose
There are so many great options when it comes to the best Alexa-controlled light bulbs and setting up your smart home lighting. Some of the lights are better suited for indoor use, while some will work better outdoors. Some are more general-purpose lighting solutions, while other lights may be best suited for very dark spaces, specific rooms, or festivities.
For me, when it comes down to balancing the expandability of a smart lighting solution with the overall functionality, the best option to get started with is the Philips Hue A21. Philips Hue set the standard for what a quality smart light should be, and the company has always been interested in making sure that its products work with smart assistants like Alexa. And this bulb comes with a comprehensive ecosystem of products it can work with once you decide to expand your home. Plus, it’s literally the brightest of the bunch.
But examine your specific needs to find the right bulb for you. There are also some great Philips Hue alternatives to consider. Decide if you’re willing to pay extra for a hub or bridge or some kind or if you’d prefer to get going right out of the box, though you’ll likely be paying more in this case. Whatever you choose, it’s wise to start with one or two bulbs and go from there, opting for an easily expandable brand so if you find you love the idea of smart lighting, you can add it to every room of your home, little by little. Maybe even consider adding more compatible smart products to the equation over time as you build up your smart home, from sensors to doorbells.