Best Outdoor Solar Lights 2023

Apr 12, 2024

There are a lot of options when it comes to choosing outdoor lighting for your home, but solar lights are an increasing favorite. After all, the best outdoor solar lights provide brightness around your home with minimal effort on your end—and best of all, they won’t make a dent in your power bill. Our top choice is the AloftSun Motion Sensor Solar Landscape Spotlights for their versatility and affordability, but there are several other great outdoor solar lights that made our list.

The motion-activated Ring Solar Pathlight offers 80 lumens and is controlled by your phone.

In case you’re not familiar with them, outdoor solar lights use solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity. That electricity is stored in the lights’ batteries and used at night to light your home.

“Outdoor solar lights are low-maintenance, environmentally-friendly and visually appealing, making them a good outdoor light source for most people,” says Mallory Micetich, home expert at Angi. “They’re particularly good for people who want to lower their environmental impact or for people who want a cordless lighting option that they can set up and then forget about.”

When choosing outdoor solar lights for your home, it’s important to consider how much space you’ll need to cover, how bright you want your lights to be, the style you prefer and, of course, your budget. These are the best outdoor solar lights on the market to brighten up your facade, walkways and more. (While you’re at it, check out our lists of the best solar-powered chargers, electric lawn mowers and smokeless fire pits.)

Amazon

The AloftSun motion sensor solar lights do a lot of different things at a price tag that’s affordable for most households. The lights have three different modes to allow you to customize your lighting, giving you the option of choosing dim light or high light when motion is detected, no light and high light when motion is detected or constant medium light. Each light has 30 LED chips to shine a bright path. The lights can sense motion from up to 33 feet away and are waterproof and frost-resistant, so you don’t have to worry about them dying on you after a bad storm. You also have options when installing these lights—they can go in the ground on stakes or mount on a wall. Worth noting: They have a 40,000-hour lifespan, giving you several years of use.

The Home Depot

At $114, you’ll get 10 pretty path lights for under $12 a pop. The lights are easy to install: Simply place them in the ground wherever you want them, and go about your day. The 18-inch lights have a crackle glass lens to create a nice pattern on the ground, and produce 10 lumens for bright lighting. Hampton Bay’s Jefferson lights are truly hands-off: They automatically turn on at dusk and run for eight hours when they’re fully charged. The only time you’ll need to touch them is if you plan to adjust their positioning. While these rust- and weather-resistant lights are not motion-activated, they’ll reliably light a clear, consistent path as needed.

Amazon

Linkind’s StarRay lights give you options around motion sensing. Choose to have your lights flip on for 25 seconds after motion is detected before shutting off, or to stay on at a dimmer setting before brightening for 10 seconds when motion is detected. The waterproof lights can be staked in the ground or mounted on a wall—your choice. They don’t have a separate solar panel (it’s built into the light), giving you a good range for pivoting your light up and down and side to side. The lights automatically turn on at dusk and shut off at dawn to conserve batteries.

Amazon

Vont’s LED outdoor solar lights are fan favorites at Amazon, where they’ve racked up more than 3,100 perfect reviews. The lights can be staked in the ground or mounted on a wall, with a 120-degree pivot to let you shine their spotlight wherever the need strikes. Vont’s lights turn on automatically at night and give you two brightness settings—low and high—to choose from. The lights are crafted from high-impact ABS material and are waterproof to help them stand up to life outside. But, for the just in case, it’s good to know that they also have a lifetime warranty.

Amazon

Ring has path lights with a lot of the bells and whistles that owners of the brand’s smart home security systems have come to appreciate. The lights can be controlled using an app, allowing you to flip between functions like motion sensing or simply turning them on and off at whim. That’s a nice feature to have if you tend to travel and want to ensure your lighting doesn’t give away that you’re not home. Ring’s lights offer an impressive 80 lumens of brightness and even send you alerts when they detect motion. You can group your path lights together with other Ring lights for easy operating or control them separately. If you’re not always in close proximity to your phone, it’s nice to know that you can also control your lights through your Amazon Echo.

Wayfair

By nature, outdoor solar lights are usually pretty affordable. But if you’re looking to splash out, consider these wall lights from Canora Grey. The wall-mounted lights are made from weather-resistant, rustproof resin with a black finish and have the LED panels built into the top, so there’s no massive solar panel interfering with your decor. The light flips on at dusk and provides an impressive 150 lumens of brightness for up to 12 hours. The light is waterproof and it’s also rust-resistant. It even boasts an impressive 50,000-hour bulb life, giving you years of use.

The right outdoor solar lights can transform the appearance of your home at night, along with shine a path to help you navigate around in the dark. To help find the best outdoor solar lights, we consulted with Mallory Micetich, a home expert at Angi, for advice on the best features to look for in these tools. We then looked at the most popular outdoor solar lights on the market and analyzed them for elements like brightness, setup difficulty, durability and value. We also factored in reviews from real owners to see how these lights perform across a range of homes.

Like many home appliances, there’s not necessarily one brand that makes the best outdoor solar lights. This category is also mostly dominated by brands that aren’t necessarily familiar to the average homeowner. Our top choice is the AloftSun Motion Sensor Solar Landscape Spotlights, but Ring, Vont, Hampton Bay and more have reputable products that will help light up the exterior of your home. However, if you feel more comfortable with a brand you may be familiar with, consider the Ring Solar Pathlight. It’s a bit more expensive than your average outdoor light, but it uses Ring technology many homeowners know and love.

It depends on your needs and the type of light you choose. Some outdoor solar lights are mounted on a wall and are meant to provide light outside front door or porch, others are designed to serve as spotlights for the home’s exterior or certain outdoor features. Path lights are also specially created to help light up a walkway or driveway. In generally 40 watts is a great wattage for an outdoor solar light, particularly if you’re looking to brighten up a pathway or landscape element. However, some outdoor solar lights have wattage up to 80 watts, which can be helpful for lights that are intended to cover a broader area. Keep in mind, though, that solar lights are often measured in lumens. There’s also a range here, but anywhere from 10 lumens (for path lights) to 500 lumens and beyond (for spotlights) is great.

There are a few important things to consider before making your purchase. “Before you purchase your outdoor solar lights, make sure your yard gets enough sunlight for them to work,” Micetich says, noting that solar lights work best when they receive around eight hours of direct sunlight per day. “You should also make sure the lights you choose can meet your lighting needs,” Micetich says. “For example, solar string lights are a great decorative choice, but they won’t produce as much light as a motion-activated flood light. Figure out what your lighting requirements are and go from there.”