Buying guide for best LED grow lights

Ready to buy now? Shop the best: 

• Best of the Best: MARS HYDRO TS600 LED Grow Light
• Best Bang for the Buck: GooingTop LED Grow Light
• Best for Commercial Coverage: Spider Farmer SF4000 LED Grow Light
• Most Versatile: LEOTER Grow Light for Indoor Plants
• Best LED Grow Light Bulb: GE LED Grow Light for Indoor Plants

If you don't have an outdoor space, or you live in a cool climate with a short growing season, indoor gardening is the way to go. Plants need the right kind of lighting to thrive, however, so you'll probably need to invest in some LED grow lights.

The question is, which ones? You can find hundreds of LED grow lights for sale, and not all are created equal.

Read our full guide to LED lights, and discover how to find the perfect lights to fit your requirements. Or buy with confidence by selecting from our top recommendations, such as our favorite, the MARS HYDRO TS600 LED Grow Light.

One benefit of using LED grow lights is that they reach full brightness as soon as you switch them up. Some other types of bulbs take time to fully illuminate.

Editors’ picks

MARS HYDRO TS600 LED Grow Light

Editors' Favorite

MARS HYDRO

LED Grow Light

Great Coverage

A well-loved system with great surface area coverage.

$59.99 at Amazon

Editors’ Favorite 

Dimensions: 12.2" L x 14" W x 1.4" H | Watts: 100 | Dimming Function: No

The MARS HYDRO TS600 LED Grow Light is the best choice for both beginners and experienced gardeners caring for plants indoors. It works great for seedling, vegetative and flowering stages, and delivers sunlight-like irradiation that promotes germination and boosts yields.

The 120-degree-angle white reflector and uniform light coverage allow plants to receive more energy without burning. The enhanced powder coating promotes more powerful heat dissipation, and advanced LED technology offers a high light output while consuming just 100 watts of power, making it highly energy-efficient.

Its full-stage support and reliable light output make this LED grow light a dependable option for anyone growing indoors. If you want healthier plants, better yields and lower energy costs, this grow light is an excellent pick.

GooingTop LED Grow Light

Great Value

GooingTop

LED Grow Light

Simple Design

This is a basic grow light with twin heads that can provide essential light to several plants.

$21.45 at Amazon

Great Value 

Dimensions: 3" D x 11" W x 26" H | Watts: 49 | Dimming Function: Yes

Indoor gardeners who want an affordable yet reliable LED grow light for caring for their plants will love the GooingTop LED Grow Light. These lights double as lamp and plant lights and offer five levels of brightness to care for plants at different stages in the growth process.

The flexible 360-degree gooseneck design makes it easy to wiggle this lamp around and focus light directly on the plant of your choice. The clamp lets you clip into shelves, tables or desks, and the 84-LED design provides a full spectrum of sunlight irradiation for photosynthesis and photoperiodism.

The GooingTop LED Grow Light is an excellent choice for anyone who wants reliable plant care without overspending. Although it’s not as powerful as some higher-end grow lights, it delivers impressive versatility and full-spectrum performance for everyday indoor gardening.

Spider Farmer SF4000 LED Grow Light

Spider Farmer

SF-4000 LED Grow Light

Commercial-Grade

Packed with loads of features for old and new growers alike.

$259.99 at Amazon

Best for Commercial CoverageDimensions: 25.39" L x 21.1" W x 2.32" H | Watts: 450 | Dimming Function: Yes

The Spider Farmer SF4000 LED Grow Light is worth a look if you’re a professional indoor gardener, as you might be needing something more robust to handle a variety of plants. These grow lights feature cutting-edge LED chips for superior performance you won’t get with many other lights.

They’re equipped with high-efficiency diodes that deliver uniform illumination for indoor plants. It offers excellent coverage with an optional dimming feature that lets you fine-tune light intensity to match seedling, vegetative and flowering stages. Plus, it has a fanless design that lets it run quietly and a sturdy aluminum build that helps manage heat.

Its spectrum includes balanced white, red, blue and infrared lighting that’s ideal for all growth stages. It’s a powerful LED grow light, but it’s also energy-efficient, thanks to its optimized power-supply system, which can help reduce costs.

Why do you need LED grow lights?

LED stands for "light emitting diode" — LED lights aren't light bulbs in the traditional sense, but are rather semiconductors that convert electricity into light.

LED grow lights are specially designed LED lights that emit the right colors of light at a powerful enough intensity to help plants grow indoors. If you don’t have a grow light, most plants won’t get sufficient light to grow indoors, unless placed on a windowsill.

Some LED grow lights produce full-spectrum light, which is best at replicating real sunlight, whereas others produce a more limited spectrum.

Considerations for selecting LED grow lights

Ease of use

Indoor gardening can be challenging enough, without having to contend with complicated equipment. For your own sake, choose an LED grow light that's easy to position and use. It should be very straightforward to switch between different wavelengths and levels of light intensity.

Installation

Installation varies across models based on their design. Some LED panels can be mounted to ceilings, walls or boards, usually with included hardware. Others have a bar-style design that allows them to hang from wires. Installation isn’t overly complicated with either type of light, but if you want the easiest setup possible, you can get a light with a traditional reading-lamp design that you can clamp into a shelf, desk or table with a simple clip.

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Wattage

Wattage is one of the primary concerns when selecting an LED grow light. Plants need plenty of light to grow, but too much light can cause issues with nutrient deficiency, and result in browning or yellowing leaves.

The amount of watts you need from a grow light depends on the type of plant you're growing, and the area you need the light to cover.

High-light flowering plants (like tomatoes) may need up to 32 watts of light per square foot of growing area, whereas low-light plants (like salad leaves or herbs) need more like 10 to 20 watts per square foot of growing area.

If you're not sure about the size of your growing area, get out that measuring tape!

Type of plant

Think about the types of plant you'll grow, and their light requirements. Some require full sun, whereas others may need lower light conditions.

If you're likely to raise a range of plants at different times, with different light requirements, dimmable LED grow lights are a good option, so you can turn down the juice when you're growing plants that need less light.

Blue spectrum light is important for strong plant growth, especially in non-flowering plants (or plants that aren't yet in their flowering phase). Red spectrum light can help to encourage flowering.

Full spectrum lights

Until relatively recently, LED grow lights had limited spectrums, usually offering red, blue, and white light.

Nowadays, you can find full spectrum LED lights, which provide all the colors in the light spectrum.

Since full spectrum lights are the most similar to natural sunlight, they can support plants throughout the full growth cycle, from seed right through to fruiting, flowering, or producing vegetables.

Dimming function 

Plants at different stages of growth require different amounts of light. For example, seedlings are more sensitive to light than mature plants, which require more of it to produce energy for photosynthesis. It’s up to the gardener to determine how much light output to use at any given time for a specific plant.

You can still adjust brightness levels even with lights that don’t have a dimmable function by raising or lowering them. However, a dimming function makes it much more convenient to adjust brightness levels at the touch of a button. Most lamps with this feature can have their brightness adjusted in intervals of 10%, anywhere from 0% to 100%.

Semiconductor chip

The semiconductor chip is the core of your LED grow light and is what converts electricity into light.

Lights with a good-quality semiconductor chip are likely to be long-lasting. The chip itself has a wattage — we recommend purchasing LED grow lights with a semiconductor chip of at least 3 watts in order to provide an adequate amount of light.

How much should you spend on LED grow lights?

LED grow lights aren't the cheapest out there, but they do last a long time, and if you're growing your own vegetables, it will save you money on grocery bills.

Here's what you can expect to pay.

• Budget LED grow lights start around $10 to $30. These tend to have low wattage, usually under 50 watts, and may not provide full spectrum light.

• Mid-range LED grow lights cost roughly $50 to $75. You can find plenty of higher wattage models in this price range (up to 300 watts) with full spectrum light.

• High-end LED grow lights start around $80 and go up to $500 and higher, though you can find some very good models around the $100 mark, which should suffice for the average home gardener.

Tips

• Plants don't need light 24 hours a day; they need darkness, too. Different plants have different light requirements, but if in doubt, 16 hours on and eight hours off produces a reasonable day/night cycle.

• Be careful not to overwater your plants. If you're switching from older HID or incandescent grow lights, you'll find your plants require significantly less water, since LED light run cool and don't dry out the soil so much.

• If your LED lights only point in one direction, you may benefit from a reflector to help disperse the light more evenly, particularly in larger growing areas.

• Don't choose the cheapest one you can find. Some budget LED grow lights might look like a bargain, but if they aren't very durable, they'll break quicker, and cost you more money in the long run.

• You can purchase LED grow lights that come with built-in timers, which is handy if you might not be home at the right time everyday to switch your lights on or off.

• Consider a natural-light option. Some high-end LED grow lights subtly change the spectrum of light produced throughout the day to replicate the way real daylight changes from sunrise to sunset.

• Look for LED grow lights that come with fixtures or hanging hooks. This will help with the installation process and make them easy to position.

You can find some very compact LED grow lights, which are perfect for smaller growing spaces.

FAQ

Q. How long will my LED grow lights last?

A. Assuming a normal amount of usage, quality LED grow lights should last for at least ten years. 

Q. Will LED grow lights increase my electricity bill?

A. This depends — if you're used to running other kinds of grow lights, the LED version will actually reduce your electricity bill. If you're new to the world of grow lights then, yes, you will find a slight increase in power consumption. LED lights are, however, extremely energy efficient, so you'll probably find your electricity bill increases less than you might expect.

Q. What are double-chip LED grow lights?

A. Double-chip grow lights have two semiconductor chips per LED instead of one. This means they're twice as bright as a standard LED. If you only have a small growing space, double-chip LED grow lights are probably overkill, but they're excellent for large growing spaces, as you get a more powerful unit without it being huge and unwieldy.

How we analyzed

We searched for LED grow lights that offer a full spectrum of sunlight irradiation to help gardeners manage all growth stages. We considered some affordable models for beginners that are easy to set up and others with more robust power output that are better suited for experienced gardeners who need more light.