The Best LED Light Bulb

Mar 02, 2024

We are in the process of revamping this entire guide. In the meantime, we are currently recommending the Feit Electric Dimmable A19 Bulbs in Daylight and Soft White as our top pick.

If you want basic light bulbs that look great and will save you money in the long run, there’s no reason not to choose LED bulbs—they look as good as incandescents and are far more energy-efficient. We recommend the standard dimmable Feit Electric line of A19 bulbs. For general-purpose lighting, look for soft white LED bulbs, available in 60 W and 40 W versions. And for a whiter, cooler light for working, get Feit’s daylight LED bulbs, also in 60 W and 40 W versions. The Feit bulbs also function well with dimmer switches, neither flickering nor buzzing, and their color accuracy brings out the best in your decor, furniture, and food, improving the ambiance of your entire home.

Feit Electric bulbs offer brilliant color quality at an affordable price, and work with a wide range of dimmers. They’re also easy to find in stores, and come with a five-year warranty.

The Feit daylight bulb produces a white, cool light that’s suitable for kitchens or offices, and it stood out in tests for better color accuracy and more-even dimmability than its competitors.

Everything in your home looks great under the light of these Feit bulbs, which have a high color accuracy that make fruits and decor appear natural and realistic. Both the Soft White and Daylight versions performed equally well across all our tests, with some of the best dimming ranges we’ve seen on LED bulbs, although they struggled a bit at the absolute lowest light levels. The Feit’s bulbs typically cost around $3 per bulb (depending on how many you buy), and come with a 5-year warranty, too, making them an affordable way to brighten up your home.

We’ve read countless product reviews and articles about the science and design behind LED bulbs, and have interviewed lighting experts including Sal Cangeloso, author of LED Lighting: A Primer to Lighting the Future; senior lighting designer Geoff Goral, of the architectural lighting design firm Lighting Design Alliance, who assisted us with extensive professional testing; and Dr. Scott Brodie, an ophthalmologist at NYU Langone’s Department of Ophthalmology.

Over the years, we’ve also spoken with engineers and representatives from major lighting companies such as GE, Philips, and Cree, as well as with industry experts from the Illuminating Engineering Society, the California Lighting Technology Center at UC Davis (PDF), and the California Energy Commission.

We generally recommend LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs if you’re shopping for any light bulbs, regardless of whether you’re furnishing a home or replacing a burned-out pantry light. LED bulbs are better for the environment and your budget. They’re significantly more efficient and longer-lasting than CFL, incandescent, or halogen bulbs, so this ultimately saves you money over the life of the bulb. They’re also much less prone to breaking than the fragile filaments that comprise their incandescent counterparts. Many LED bulbs are actually made of plastic, which makes them safer to touch and more durable when you’re screwing them in or accidentally knocking them onto the ground, like we’re constantly doing—oops. (Don’t worry, that’s fine, because they’re LED.)

The Department of Energy estimates that LED bulbs use up to 80 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs, while also lasting up to 25 percent longer—leading to serious savings over time. A Bush-era regulation began the process of phasing out inefficient incandescents in favor of bulbs like LEDs that reached a certain threshold of energy. This process is expected to be completed by the end of 2023, although some states have gone ahead and implemented their own efficiency standards in the meantime, such as California’s Title 20.

Meanwhile, LEDs have entered the mainstream, with more affordable, widely available options in most bulb shapes and base types, and manufacturers have even embraced lighting trends like Edison filament bulbs. The best LED bulbs now have high color accuracy and warmer color temperatures that mimic the effects of incandescents. And as of 2020, the average LED bulb costs around $3—still slightly more than an incandescent, but undoubtedly a better long-term value once you factor in the energy savings and longer lifespan. These products are here to stay, too: According to the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, LED bulbs account for about 70 percent of the shipments in the general service lamp category, as of September 2019.

If you’re making the switch to LED bulbs, you’ll want to make sure your fixtures and switches are compatible. We tested bulbs using several types of dimmers and found that dimmers designed for LEDs really make a difference in a bulb’s performance. With compatible dimmers, our picks dimmed all the way to zero without plateauing and didn’t flicker, buzz, or hum—but with other dimmer styles, the same bulbs didn’t work as well. You can check whether your fixtures are compatible if you know the make and model (this blog from 1000bulbs.com has some helpful tips), or get a dimmer switch (we like Lutron’s in-wall or lamp options).

We set out to recommend a satisfying and reliable LED version of your basic replacement light bulb. There’s no single perfect light bulb for every lighting situation, so we looked for a line with options for color temperatures and brightness levels to offer flexibility for different preferences or applications. We considered these factors when choosing which bulbs to test:

Shape, base, and materials: Light bulbs come in many shapes and sizes, and they have different types of screw-in bases. We narrowed this guide’s focus to the most common type, an A19 shape with an E26 base. This chart shows all of the shape and base styles, ranging from candelabra to trendy globe G-shape bulbs. Bulbs can be made from plastic or glass. GE’s Mathew Sommers said there isn’t much practical difference between the two materials for 40 W or 60 W bulbs, but that plastic bulbs can be better for higher-wattage bulbs. He told us that people (and companies) generally go for whatever is most affordable.

Brightness level options: LED bulbs labeled “60 W–equivalent” are bright yet subtle enough for most scenarios, although many people prefer 40 W–equivalent bulbs for places like a bedroom, where a softer glow helps make the space feel relaxed. Even though we measure LED brightness in lumens, which describe how much light a bulb puts out, people are so used to describing light bulb brightness using watts that most brands categorize bulbs using a wattage equivalency. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) now requires brands to label all LED bulbs with a lighting facts label, which includes the bulb’s brightness in lumens and how much energy it uses in watts. Here’s an estimate of how LED wattage equivalents convert to lumens:

40 W = 450 lumens60 W = 800 lumens75 W = 1,100 lumens100 W = 1,600 lumens

Dimmability: We chose to test only dimmable bulbs, because they offer a better ability to customize lighting to suit your mood, and also to future-proof your purchase. An LED bulb should last for years—manufacturers promise at least 10,000 hours of continuous use per bulb, and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy estimates at least 25,000—so it’s wise to choose dimmable bulbs, in case you change your fixtures, move, or upgrade a lamp or switch (for example, with a Lutron dimmer). Dimmable bulbs work fine in a non-dimmable fixture; the reverse is not true.

Color temperature choices: We sought a bulb line with a range of color temperatures. Color temperature is measured in kelvin, and cooler light has a higher value, ranging from 3,600 to 5,500 K, while warmer light ranges from 2,700 to 3,500 K. Most brands describe 2,700 K temperatures as “soft white,” 3,500 K as “bright white,” and 5,000 K as “daylight,” with some in-betweens. People may prefer cooler light for bathrooms, kitchens, workspaces, and garages, and they may prefer warmer light for bedrooms and sitting areas.

People may prefer cooler light for bathrooms, kitchens, workspaces, and garages, and they may prefer warmer light for bedrooms and sitting areas.

High CRI and R9 values: CRI (Color Rendering Index) measures color accuracy relative to incandescent bulbs, or natural daylight. Although LEDs still can’t match incandescent bulbs, which have a CRI of 100, they’ve improved significantly in recent years. A CRI of 80 is now standard for LED bulbs. Higher is better, and great LED bulbs should accurately render colors. Lighting designer Geoff Goral told us that CRI as a metric has come under fire for measuring bulbs based on how well they portray pastel colors (instead of more saturated colors). Some bulbs now also list an R9 value, which indicates how well a bulb depicts red tones (making art, food, and people look better and less washed-out).

Compatible with enclosed fixtures: Not all LED bulbs will work with enclosed fixtures; we looked for bulbs that do. We limited our search to bulbs meant for indoor use, but some indoor bulbs will have a weather rating that allows them to be used outdoors as well.

Up to current regulations: California adopted Title 20 regulations, effective January 1, 2018, which outline strict energy-efficiency requirements for light bulbs and restrict which bulbs can be purchased in the state. To shop for compliant bulbs, use a search filter at Home Depot or Lowe’s.

Low price: If you’re furnishing a home or even a rental, the price of light bulbs can quickly add up. We calculated costs per bulb and looked for the most affordable options.

Long warranty: Because LED bulbs are designed to last for thousands of hours and many years, we favored bulbs with longer warranties. LED bulbs don’t burn out—as they age, they fade and lose color accuracy.

No noise: Good bulbs shouldn’t flicker, buzz, or hum. GE’s Sommers explained that poor-quality drivers—the electronic part of the bulb that converts power to your home—or incompatible dimmers can cause these effects.

With these criteria in mind, we looked for new and notable bulbs in reviews from Digital Trends, Lifewire, and New York Magazine (many of the reviews were outdated or listed unavailable products). We read about what makes the best LED bulbs, from sources including Energy Star, Popular Mechanics, 1000Bulbs.com, and Lightology.com. We scoured the available bulbs on retailers like Amazon, Home Depot, and Lowe’s; compared offerings from brands like Philips, GE, Feit, Cree, AmazonBasics, Sylvania, and Eco Smart; and also considered bulbs from niche brands like Soraa and Green Creative.

We decided to test 40 W–equivalent and 60 W–equivalent bulbs, in soft white and daylight color temperatures, both in a real-world scenario at home and in a lab setting, with specialized equipment and help from lighting designer Geoff Goral at the Lighting Design Alliance in Long Beach, California.

We mostly wanted to test for color accuracy. That’s because even though a bulb can have a high CRI value, design variations make each bulb show colors differently, and many manufacturers do not include information on a bulb’s R values, which describe how a bulb shows more saturated colors. We also wanted to test for dimmability, because LED bulbs often struggle to dim completely and sometimes won’t work with older dimmers (resulting in unpleasant flickering, buzzing, or humming).

We weren’t as concerned with measuring other specs. The LED light bulb industry is closely regulated by the IES, or Illuminating Engineering Society, and the Department of Energy. The FTC now requires that manufacturers label all bulbs with a lighting facts sheet that outlines a bulb’s lifespan, brightness, and color temperature.

For the apartment tests, we set up a colorful, fruit-and-flower-filled still life scene on a kitchen table. Then, we screwed each bulb into an overhead fixture that was plugged into a Lutron dimmer, noting whether bulbs buzzed or flickered, how well they dimmed, and how well they showed colors. We conducted all tests in the late afternoon and with other lights turned off for consistency. We took photos of the scene under the light of each bulb using a manual white balance to compare colors and brightness levels. Our photo editor adjusted the exposures and white balances for consistency among photos with 60 W and 40 W bulbs, and we compared the photos.

Although these tests were interesting, they were inconclusive and subjective, with observations we couldn’t quantify. So we asked the Lighting Design Alliance’s Geoff Goral for help. Wirecutter editor Tim Barribeau brought 21 bulbs to Long Beach, California, where Goral measured and compared each bulb for color accuracy, dimmability, and relative brightness levels. Goral used an illuminance meter, to measure how much light emanated from a bulb onto a surface, and a spectrometer, to read the spectrum of light from each bulb, to see how much light was in each wavelength and measure color values R1-15. To test for compatibility and to calculate how dim the bulbs could get, Goral tested each bulb in a dimmer box with four styles of dimmers—ones designed for LED, incandescent (TRIAC), MLV, and ELV, all of which Lutron explains in detail.

With Goral helping us interpret the test results, we compared the bulbs’ performance and came away with conclusive results.

Feit Electric bulbs offer brilliant color quality at an affordable price, and work with a wide range of dimmers. They’re also easy to find in stores, and come with a five-year warranty.

The Feit daylight bulb produces a white, cool light that’s suitable for kitchens or offices, and it stood out in tests for better color accuracy and more-even dimmability than its competitors.

Feit’s 60 W Equivalent Dimmable A19 LED Light Bulbs in both Soft White and Daylight versions performed better than any other bulbs in our tests. These bulbs accurately show colors, and have high CRI (Coloring Rendering Index) values, so your bananas will look yellow and your apples red. The Feit LED bulbs also have a great dimming range, although they struggle a bit at the lowest light levels. If anything goes wrong, the Feit bulbs are protected by a five year warranty, too, which beats most other LED light bulb brands.

We wanted to recommend a line of great bulbs from one brand to make outfitting a whole house with lights less complicated, and Feit offers standard LED bulbs in 40 W–, 60 W–, 75 W–, and 100 W—equivalent brightness levels with soft white, bright white, and daylight color temperature options. All of these bulbs are Title 20–compliant and available for purchase in California, while equivalent bulbs from GE and others are not. After observing how well Feit’s 40 W and 60 W bulbs performed in our tests, we feel confident recommending other LED bulbs from this brand as well.

The 40 W and 60 W Feit bulbs have a CRI rating of 90+, one of the highest out of all the bulbs we tested—and far closer than many LEDs come to mimicking that incandescent-quality glow. The improved color fidelity of the Feit bulbs was clear in our tests, too: colors appeared the same way we expected them to.

The still-life fruit scene set up in the apartment looked like we had dialed up the contrast with an Instagram filter without opting for a preset—just slightly enhanced. Colors under the Feit Daylight bulb looked crisp and clean without being too blue-tinged or blown out: The tiny buds on broccoli florets were nicely defined, and white stripes stood out against the fuschia skin on a Graffiti eggplant. Under the Feit Soft White bulb, apples and lemons looked like slightly golden versions of themselves.

In our dimmer tests, the Feit bulbs were some of the only ones that could dim all the way without plateauing, flickering, buzzing, or humming, although there can be jumps and flutters once the bulb gets below 5% brightness. This was still a vast improvement on most of the other bulbs we tested, which displayed various problems such as limited dimming ranges, frustrating flickers, or huge leaps in brightness between dimming degrees. Although the Feit bulbs worked with incandescent dimmers, they performed the best on LED-compatible (or CL) dimmers. The Feit’s superior dimming capabilities were noticeable even in our apartment tests; they dimmed lower than any other bulb using just a Lutron dimmer.

The Feit bulbs are an affordable option for furnishing a home, and prices will likely decrease over time. At the time of writing, prices range from about $2.50 to $3 per bulb, and they’re widely available in a variety of online and in-person retailers. Feit also offers a 5-year warranty in case bulbs fade before their advertised lifespan, which is longer than most other LEDs except for the ones from GE.

In early 2020, we noticed that several manufacturers had released “three-way” LED bulbs that allowed you to choose between different brightness, wattage, or color temperature options. Although we’re typically skeptical of simple products that try to cram in too many features, our early tests of the Feit Electric IntelliBulb Color Choice A800/CCT/LEDI and the GE Basic 100-Watt EQ A21 Daylight 3-Way Bulb LED Light Bulb showed promise. Still, they seemed too much like a novelty for us to review in full.

After a year of being trapped inside our homes, however, it seems these color-changing bulbs are catching on—and might have some real value after all. “People are looking for ways to get the most out of their spaces to transition from work/school to relaxing all using the same spaces, especially with Covid,” Dana Knight, Senior Director of Global Marketing at Feit told us over email. So we decided to take another look at these kinds of bulbs, as well as several other new bulbs that offer smart-like functionality without any actual connectivity.

Some of these were quickly dismissed and added to the Competition; these models either weren’t bright enough, or offered limited color customization options. The models that have stood out to us so far include the aforementioned Feit Intellibulb; the Feit 60-Watt Equivalent Selectable White Dimmable LED A19, which lets you choose between 5 different color temperatures; and the full-spectrum color changing GE LED+ Color Changing 60W Replacement. We’re also taking a closer look at the GE 60W LED+ Speaker Bulb with remote-controlled Bluetooth speaker (yes, you read that right) and the GE LED+ Battery Backup 60W LED Bulb, which automatically charges its backup battery whenever it’s turned on, and also doubles as a flashlight (yes, you also read that right). We plan on continuing to test these bulbs over the next few months, and will update our guide with our full reviews later in the spring.

If you’re interested in Smart LED lighting that can be controlled through your voice assistant, we have more details in a separate guide. If there are any other new LED bulbs that we’ve missed—either from brands you’ve seen in your local stores, or models that boast new features or technologies—please let us know in the comments section.

After testing several new smart LED light bulbs and long-term testing our existing picks, we now recommend the Wyze Bulb Color.

In 2021, we tested and dismissed several LED bulbs with non-smart, non-standard features such as color-switching abilities or built-in speakers.

The Cree 3-Way 40/60/100 Watt Bulb, GE Basic 100-Watt EQ A21 Daylight 3-Way Bulb LED Light Bulb, and Philips 3-way 40/60/100 and 3-way 50/100/150 A19 LED Bulbs didn’t do anything that you couldn’t already accomplish with a 3-way lamp switch, our tests found.

We also dismissed the Feit Motion Sensing 60W-Equivalent LED Bulb and the tinny-sounding Feit Electric LED Speaker Bulb, which sounded intriguing but did not offer much value in firsthand tests.

The Feit A19 Day & Night Circadian Rhythm LED A800 was noticeably less bright than other bulbs we tested, and offered limited color temperature customization options compared to other bulbs, so we dismissed it as well.

Despite what its name implies, the Feit 60-Watt Equivalent A19 Air Purifier Bulb OM60 doesn’t actually “purify” the air. Instead, it functions more like an ionizer. Some people claim there are benefits to negative ion diffusion; the EPA says it’s “relatively ineffective in removing large particles,” and can actually produce some slight ill effects if not used in moderation. Either way: there’s no meaningful air purification going on here, although the bulb itself is otherwise fine.

We previously recommended Philips’s basic, dimmable bulbs—the 60 W Equivalent A19 LED with Warm Glow and the 60 W Equivalent A19 Dimmable Energy Saving LED Light Bulb Daylight, as well as the equivalent 40 W Soft White and 40 W Daylight options—as our runner-up picks. We still think they’re pretty good overall, but they’re not as readily available in stores as the Cree or Feit bulbs. The Soft White bulbs also come with a “Warm Glow” feature, which increases the bulb’s color temperature as it dims. Some people might prefer this aesthetic, but it also causes the bulb to lose color fidelity as it dims, bathing your decorations or the contents of your dinner plate with an exaggerated amber glow.

We didn’t choose the GE Soft White 60 W Replacement LED Light Bulbs General Purpose A19, GE Daylight 60 W Replacement LED Light Bulbs General Purpose A19, GE Soft White 40 W, or GE Daylight 40 W because GE’s bulbs have a lower CRI compared with our picks, they didn’t dim as well in our tests, and they have a shorter, five-year warranty. In apartment tests, we thought these bulbs put out flatter light that didn’t create as much contrast as the Cree bulbs, and they couldn’t dim as low.

GE makes several bulbs with proprietary technology that alter color representation: the Reveal, the Relax, and the Refresh. These bulbs were fine, but they didn’t stand out in our tests, and they’re a little more expensive and have shorter warranties. The GE Reveal has a colored film over the bulb to create more color contrast. It made colors appear more saturated in our tests, which we liked. But it flickered when paired with incandescent or MLV dimmers, and it didn’t dim very low. This bulb also doesn’t meet Title 20 requirements and isn’t available in California. The GE Refresh bulbs use proprietary technology to make colors either warmer or bolder, to create more contrast. They also didn’t dim well in our tests.

We were unable to confirm the CRI on the AmazonBasics 60 Watt Equivalent, Soft White, Dimmable, A19 LED Light Bulb, which isn’t a good sign, and these bulbs aren’t Title 20–compliant. We wanted to try one of the AmazonBasics bulbs to see how it fared. This line of bulbs was incompatible with most dimmers in our tests and even flickered on an LED dimmer.

The Philips SceneSwitch claims to create a dimming effect without a dimmer, by changing between three color temperatures. But in tests it didn’t always switch accurately, and when we placed it on a dimmer, it buzzed audibly (and was the only bulb to do so.) Reviews also mentioned that if you use multiple SceneSwitch bulbs, they sometimes won’t sync up, resulting in different bulbs with different color temperatures.

Geoff Goral, senior lighting designer at Lighting Design Alliance, email and phone interviews, January 14, 2019

Mathew Sommers, Consumer Innovation manager at GE, phone interviews, December 18, 2018

Dr. Scott Brodie, ophthalmologist at NYU Langone Health, phone interview, November 29, 2018

Sal Cangeloso, author, phone interview, October 2, 2018

Amber Beck, public information officer and spokesperson at the California Energy Commission, phone interview, December 21, 2018

LED Lighting: A Primer to Lighting the Future, Sal Cangeloso, July 1, 2012

Thom Dunn

Thom Dunn is an associate staff writer at Wirecutter reporting on HVAC and other home improvement topics. Sometimes his curiosity gets the best of him, such as when he plugged a space heater and a Marshall guitar amp into the same power strip. Pro tip: Don’t do that.

Anna Perling

Anna Perling is a former staff writer covering kitchen gear at Wirecutter. During her time at Wirecutter, she reported on various topics including sports bras, board games, and light bulbs. Previously she wrote food and lifestyle pieces for Saveur and Kinfolk magazines. Anna is a mentor at Girls Write Now and a member of the Online News Association.

by Rachel Cericola

After testing several new smart LED light bulbs and long-term testing our existing picks, we now recommend the Wyze Bulb Color.

by Rachel Cericola

A smart dimmer works like a regular switch but makes it easy to put lights on a schedule, automate them with other devices, and control them remotely.

by Doug Mahoney and Thom Dunn

Our recommendations for indoor, outdoor, LED, and incandescent Christmas lights.

by Rachel Cericola

If you want to make the jump from dull lighting to smart lighting, here are some easy ways to get started.