Smart lights are some of the most impactful smart gadgets, thanks to their fantastic look and ease of use. Though getting a HomeKit bulb can help light a room, picking up a HomeKit light strip is the best way of lighting up specific sections of that room. Whether you want to light up behind your TV or want to illuminate a nice piece of furniture, these are a great way of adding a little ambiance.
While you can get a cheap set of LED lights almost anywhere, it's worth looking for one that is specifically HomeKit compatible if you care about your smart home setup. With this, you can create automations around your house, like having the mood lighting turn on at a certain time every night or have it switch to different colors depending on what you are watching or doing.
That said, we have counted up the very best out there, taking into account the budget, use, and look. These are the best HomeKit light strips for the Home App you can get right now.
Quick List
Thread and more
Nanoleaf's Essentials Lightstrip is the brightest HomeKit light strip around, with the ability to output a whopping 2,200 lumens of colorful light. Nanoleaf's Essentials Lightstrip also includes the latest HomeKit features — like Adaptive Lighting — and Thread networking. With Thread, we experienced blazing-fast response times and excellent range when we combined it with a HomePod mini in our recent review.
Customizable colors
The LIFX Color Zones Lightstrip features Polychrome technology, allowing it to display multiple colors across eight distinct color zones. LIFX's strip provides up to 700 lumens of brightness for the base 40-inch strip and can reach up to 2,100 lumens with the 120-inch kit. With a gorgeous range of colors and brightness options, the LIFX Color Zones Lightstrip is a fantastic option for any smart home. If you're looking to have nearly endless color options, this light strip is for you.
Year-round color
The Philips Hue Smart Outdoor Lightstrip Plus stands out for its accurate color reproduction and ability to display up to 16 million different shades. The ability to display this many colors works in tandem with Hue scenes, allowing the strip to function as a wake-up, entertainment, or party light with just a tap. Philips makes some of the best light strips and smart home lighting options on the market and the Smart Outdoor Lightstrip Plus is one of the company's best.
Bright beauty
The Eve Light Strip boasts an insanely bright 1800 lumens of peak brightness and millions of colors. This 6.6-foot light strip connects directly to your iOS device and HomeKit via Wi-Fi, offering a secure and private connection without relying on a cloud server.
Great lengths
As noted in our review, we appreciated how the Meross Smart Wi-Fi LED Light Strip blankets up to 32.8 feet in colorful goodness, thanks to the inclusion of two 16-foot sections in the box. As the name suggests, this incredibly affordable light strip connects with HomeKit over Wi-Fi without a hub.
Dynamic lighting
Like the LIFX Color Zones Lightstrip, the budget-friendly ONVIS Kameleon LED Light Strip supports the ability to display multiple colors at once. With color zones, you can adjust brightness levels and saturation for numerous areas throughout, and they also enable some pretty cool dynamic scenes and effects through the ONVIS app.
Q&A
Which is the best light strip for me?
You can always trust iMore. Our team of Apple experts have years of experience testing all kinds of tech and gadgets, so you can be sure our recommendations and criticisms are accurate and helpful. Find out more about how we test.
As with HomeKit light bulbs, the best HomeKit light strips can brighten your home with just a tap or through voice control via Siri. Scenes can give your room the look of a natural sunset, and HomeKit automation can turn them on or off at set times through custom schedules. They also work great as holiday lighting, with suitable options for the outdoors, enabling some discreet installation options that can be left out all year.
We love the Nanoleaf Essentials Lightstrip, which offers cutting-edge Thread technology and incredible brightness in a wallet-friendly package. Thread makes Nanoleaf's strip incredibly responsive if you have a HomePod mini or Apple TV 4K in your home, and with HomeKit Adaptive Lighting, it automatically adjusts color temperature throughout the day.
The LIFX Color Zones Lightstrip's ability to display multiple colors simultaneously makes it another clear winner. The LIFX light strip is easy to set up, connecting to your Wi-Fi network in seconds. The Philips Hue Outdoor LightStrip Plus is another excellent option if you don't mind hubs. The Hue light strip boasts millions of colors and shades of white and works with pre-built scenes in the Hue app.
Can you connect LED lights to HomeKit?
The short answer is, yes. LED lights are some of the best HomeKit lighting accessories and these light strips will do a fantastic job at brightening up your home.
What light strips work with HomeKit?
There are so many HomeKit-compatible light strips to choose from. The options listed above are the best we've tried, and any of the choices will work a treat in your smart home.
