This is why I chose Ikea smart lights over Philips Hue
It would be ridiculous to say that I recently had a eureka moment when I tested Ikea’s smart bulbs, so I won’t. But it was a revelation to learn that there are perfectly good smart bulbs that cost 25% less than Philips Hue. Ikea may not be known for its smart lighting, but maybe that needs to change.
Ikea delivers a solid quartet of smart lighting: affordability, local control, excellent remote controls, and a ton of lighting products to create countless combinations. Even if you don’t end up going with Ikea smart bulbs, they should be on your radar.
Ikea holds its own against other budget smart home brands
The simple design makes the Ikea Home Smart app easy to use.
My smart home philosophy has always been to buy cheap and reliable. There’s almost no point in buying a $200 smart light switch when you can get the same basic features for under $30. The fancy software tricks on the more expensive model are worthless if few people use them.
Ikea’s smart home products meet these demands, and at prices that would make Philips Hue blush, especially when it comes to remotes and sensors:
Ikea Smart Lights vs. Philips Hue
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| Remote control | Motion sensor | Contact sensor |
|---|---|---|
| Ikea Styrbar ($14) | Ikea Vallhorn ($9) | Ikea Umbrella ($12) |
| Philips Hue Tap Switch Mini ($50) | Philips Hue motion sensor ($45) | Philips Hue Secure ($40) |
I won’t go into the many smart lighting products from either brand. But I will note that Ikea has the edge in terms of pricing, while Hue’s selection is larger. smart hubs for Ikea ($70) and Philips Hue ($60) offer similar features, but the price difference isn’t nearly as great. In fact, Ikea’s sensor prices are better than most budget brands like Aqara, Sonoff, and Thirdreality.
Ikea excels in local control of smart homes
The Ikea Dirigera smart hub is a useful – but optional – part of an Ikea smart lighting system.
Ikea’s secret sauce is that most of its smart lighting devices use the Zigbee smart home protocol, meaning they can work without a Wi-Fi connection. Zigbee also makes it possible to connect up to 10 smart bulbs to a single Ikea remote (or sensor) without a hub. It’s perfect for beginners, as you can always add a hub later for smart home controls like scheduling, remote access, and automation.
Local control is also available for Ikea’s smart hub, Dirigera. This plugs into your router and anyone registered with the Ikea Home Smart app on your Wi-Fi network can use the controls, even without an internet connection. It’s also possible to set up remote access via the internet, but that’s normal on a smart hub.
Ikea’s wall remote control is sleek and simple, in keeping with the brand’s minimalist Scandinavian aesthetic.
Ikea’s Zigbee connections also help extend the battery life of remote controls and sensors. Unlike a constant connection with Wi-Fi, Zigbee only communicates with a hub when sending and receiving commands. In other words, Zigbee devices are essentially on standby until they’re needed. They won’t slowly drain the battery like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
The other advantage of Zigbee is its smart home compatibility. This means that Ikea’s Zigbee devices will work with most other smart hubs that support Zigbee: Amazon Echo, SmartThings, Philips Hue, and so on.
My Favorite Smart Home Remotes
I’ve been using Ikea remotes in my smart home for years.
I use Ikea Tradfri remotes with my Samsung SmartThings smart hub, which controls various Zigbee and WiFi devices. As a tenant, I don’t want to get in trouble with my property manager by swapping out my wired light switches, so Ikea’s remotes are an ideal setup for my smart home.
Ikea remotes control my Sengled smart bulbs and Kasa smart plugs with frequent scenes and commands, so I don’t have to reach for my phone or ask a voice assistant. Plus, remotes are a great option for preventing guests from accidentally turning off my light switches—schedules and scenes won’t work if a smart bulb is off. I also love magnetic mounting plates, which I strategically place over my light switches. (It’s not the most elegant solution, but at least it’s practical.)
That said, Ikea’s remotes aren’t perfect. The older Tradfri models in my smart home have terrible battery life due to their use of a small coin cell battery. Ikea seems to have learned from this by switching to larger AAA batteries in newer models like the Rodret and Styrbar. AAAs are a great upgrade, as you can find rechargeable versions and reduce e-waste.
The AAA batteries in Ikea’s newer remote controls are a big improvement over button cell batteries.
Please note that my SmartThings hub does not support the dimming function on Ikea remotes and the newer remotes required some work behind the scenes. SmartThings Forum to get started. If you want a remote option with less programming, I recommend using the Dirigera hub.
Luckily, the Dirigera hub supports Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Home — you can easily connect to these smart home setups. There’s also beta support for Matter. I successfully paired Dirigera with SmartThings via Matter — all of my connected Ikea bulbs were ready to go with the rest of my system.
You can connect the Dirigera smart hub to other Matter-compatible systems, such as SmartThings.
Numerous smart lighting variants
At the time of writing, Ikea sells over 150 smart lighting options online — most of which are smart lighting kits that include various LED bulbs, fixtures, remotes, and accessories. Still, there are a surprising number of smart lighting options for standard (E26), candle holder (E12) and track lighting (GU10) fixtures. Similarly, many of Ikea’s custom-made light fixtures, light panels and light strips can be connected to the Dirigera hub.
That said, there aren’t as many options for multi-color bulbs as Philips Hue and other competing brands. Ikea sells a lot of models with adjustable color temperature, which is a feature I use all the time at home: soft whites for relaxing and daylight tones for working.
Ikea’s smart lighting range includes various light strips, such as the Silverglans.
Ikea sells a few other types of smart home devices besides smart lighting, but the one that stands out is its selection of motorized blinds. The biggest limitation of Ikea smart shades is finding the right size for your window, so it’s harder for me to recommend them.
All in all, it’s worth considering Ikea smart lighting products, especially if you’re on a budget. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s practical enough for most people.
