The Best Landscape Lights to Stylishly Illuminate Your Home at Night

Jessica Bennett
·8 min read

The right outdoor lighting can boost home security, increase safety when walking around at night, and allow you to enjoy your outdoor spaces long after the sunsets. That's where landscape lighting comes into play. These fixtures are ideal for homeowners looking to illuminate poorly lit sections of their yard, whether in the garden or along the driveway. Below, explore the best landscape lighting options that have earned a seal of approval from reviewers, no matter your outdoor lighting needs.

Marty Baldwin

The Best Landscape Lighting in 2021

What to Consider When Buying Landscape Lighting

Before embarking on a landscape lighting project, plan to incorporate a variety of fixtures and lighting types. Different exterior features, such as trees or shrubs, pathways, and architectural details, are best suited for certain outdoor light fixtures. Consider using a combination of spotlights, underground well lights, wide-angled floodlights, and pathway lighting to illuminate your home and landscaping at night. When choosing outdoor light fixtures, consider the power source and bulb type that best fits your lighting needs.

For long-lasting, energy-efficient landscape lights, first look for fixtures that use LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs, which are both long-lasting and consume less energy than CFL bulbs. Another option is solar landscape lights that use the sun's rays and a rechargeable battery for power, which makes for easy setup and eco-friendly energy use. However, note that these fixtures require direct sunlight during the day to recharge and don't offer as much illumination as wired landscape lighting. For increased brightness (or areas where the sun doesn't shine directly), low-voltage landscape lighting provides another energy-efficient option with DIY installation. This type of outdoor lighting connects to a transformer through wires, which can be buried underground or sit on top of the soil. Because of the low voltage (12 volts compared to your home's usual 120-volt system), these lights have a low risk of electrical shock and require less energy to run.

Create the ultimate outdoor lighting system with these picks for the best landscape lights, including solar-powered and low-voltage options. These sleek, energy-efficient fixtures will keep your home illuminated from dusk to dawn.

Best Flood Lights: Hampton Bay Outdoor LED Landscape Flood Light

Illuminate large areas of your yard and help increase home security with this set of 4.5-watt wide-angled floodlights, which mount in the ground and connect to a transformer. The small (about 3-inch-wide) color-changing bulbs offer three levels of light, including warm white, soft white, and daylight. The LED landscape lighting system, which includes four flood lights, is hard-wired and maintenance-free, so you can enjoy up to 50,000 hours of light without changing any bulbs.

"These lights are amazingly bright and I love that I have the option to change the brightness," shared one reviewer, who noted that they used the set to replace their existing landscape lights. "Absolutely love them. They light up my large backyard. Easy to install and I like that the ground stake is metal."

Best Kit: Kichler Low-Voltage Hardwired Landscape Lighting Kit

Combining pathway lights and spotlights, this landscape lighting kit helps illuminate your entire yard. The low-voltage fixtures, which must be hardwired to a transformer, are made of cast aluminum and feature a textured brass finish. They're safe to use in wet locations, so rain or snow shouldn't be an issue. As one reviewer writes, "I have these lights in my front and back following my sidewalk and walkway. They provide a very elegant fixture, quite a bit of light, and very sturdy for winter weather." The path lights measure 23 inches tall and the spotlights are 5 inches in length.

Best Solar Spotlight: Lerekam Solar Spotlights

Place one of these solar-powered spotlights in your yard to highlight garden beds, trees or shrubs, and other exterior features. They can be easily installed wherever the sun shines: Simply stake in the ground in a spot where direct light can hit the solar panel and recharge the included battery. The automatic system turns on when the sun sets and shuts off at sunrise. A best-seller on Amazon, the light offers 360-degree rotation and comes with three brightness modes to best suit your yard.

"They are nice and solid, feel like they will be durable," wrote one shopper. "Once you put them in, they stay in place. We had a lot of rain and they did not move one bit. The light is nice and bright (I have one in a far corner of the yard) and it does the job nicely. The charge easily lasts for the entire night. [I'm] very happy that I decided to go with these."

Best Well Light: Sunriver Low Voltage Landscape Well Lights

This low-profile hard-wired landscape lighting, which measures 2.6 inches across, sits mostly underground, so it blends seamlessly into your outdoor setting. The LED well light uses low-voltage power to project soft white light upward, highlighting trees or your home's architectural features (the power pack and low-voltage cable are sold separately). The metal and plastic design is waterproof and stands up to most weather conditions.

"Five-month update: All lights continue to work flawlessly," reported one Amazon customer. "Purchased another six light sets for a five-tree uplighting project. Great lighting for a 1-watt [of] light."

Best Pathway Lights: Balhvit Solar Pathway Lights

Line the pathway to your front door with these landscape lights to increase nighttime safety and curb appeal. The solar-powered LED lights, which come in a two-pack and add an elegant flair with their ornate design, provide bright, long-lasting, energy-efficient lighting. Measuring nearly 17 inches tall, they're held in place with rust-resistant stainless steel stakes and have a strong waterproof rating that allows them to withstand most weather conditions.

"When I received these new lights I knew immediately that they were a quality product," a shopper shared in their review. "The glass on these lights is gorgeous and has a good weight to them. Most importantly the light created by the bulbs is very bright and creates a beautiful effect when it shines through the glass."

Best Kit with Timer: Hampton Bay LED Landscape Path Light Kit

​​This landscape lighting kit includes a transformer with a timer and 50 feet of cable, so you have everything you need to outfit your outdoor spaces with low-voltage path lights. The durable aluminum design, which is just under 20 inches tall and 5 inches wide, is suited for all weather conditions, and the LED lights have an estimated lifespan of 50,000 hours (more than five years if run continuously). The DIY installation should take about two hours with just one person needed.

"These are the best-kept secret for my garden," said one reviewer. "They are thin and sleek, and so easy to install. Super bright, we get so many compliments!"

Best Value: Sunpo Solar Pathway Lights

Priced under $30, this budget-friendly set from Sunpo comes equipped with 12 solar-powered pathway lights (working out to under $2.50 a light). The lights' sleek 13.5-inch length and 2.5-inch width allow them to fit seamlessly into your yard, whether they're positioned by your garden, trees, or walkway. They are built with waterproof, corrosion-resistant plastic materials for durability against the elements and deliver eight-plus hours of illumination when fully charged.

"We were looking for lights that were aesthetically pleasing but also affordable," one Amazon shopper said of their search criteria. "They look so great, worked right out of the box. Our neighbors love them too and have already asked where we got them. [I'm] looking forward to putting more in the backyard. These are the best most affordable lights you will find."

Best Bullet Lights: Newhouse Lighting LED Bullet Spotlight

This accent light from Newhouse Lighting emits 1,400 lumens of light and makes the perfect fixture for illuminating trees, walls, flag poles, and other notable outdoor details due to its adjustable mounting bracket. It offers 50,000 hours of soft white light and is built in a corrosion-resistant, waterproof aluminum shell. For added security, you can opt to have motion sensors installed.

"Purchased and installed one light to make sure LED was sufficient to illuminate one of our palm tree clusters and quality was acceptable," shared one customer. "Works great. Well made and straightforward to install." Another added that choosing this light fixture, "made the lighting project for my house much more cost-effective" and that it delivers the "right amount of light for the house."