If you're thinking of investing in a smart lighting setup, Philips Hue and Govee are both brands that should be on your shortlist, but how can you choose between the two? You may be aware that Hue lights are more expensive, but that's certainly not the only factor to consider, and we'll run through all the key differences so you can make the right choice for your home.
Philips Hue smart lights are made by a company called Signify - which was formerly known as Philips Lighting. To avoid confusion, we'll just be using the name Philips Hue throughout this guide.
Smart lights often get significant discounts during events like Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday, making it much more affordable to kit out our home. We'll be updating our guide to the best Black Friday deals with the biggest savings, so keep it bookmarked to make sure you don't miss out.
Philips Hue vs Govee: price
Philips Hue products are some of the best smart lights around, but also the most expensive - though the price of bulbs in particular which type you choose. If you want benefits like automations, app control, and smooth dimming but you don't want bulbs that change colors, you can pick up a four-pack of A19 smart bulbs for a very reasonable $49.99. However, if you like the idea of using custom scenes to set the mood, you'll pay $49.99 for just one Light & Color Ambiance bulb.
Philips Hue lamps and LED strips also tend to be expensive. For example, the recently released Philips Hue Twilight is one of the best wake-up lamps we've tested, but also the most expensive at $279.
If you're on a budget, Govee offers some much more affordable options. For example, a four-pack of Govee A19 RGB bulbs is just $51.98 (discounted to $39.99 at the time of writing). That's a fraction of the price of the equivalent bulbs from Philips Hue. However, there's more to consider than just price...
Philips Hue vs Govee: product range
The Philips Hue ecosystem is enormous, including smart bulbs for just about every light fitting you can think of, LED strips, string lights, lamps, wall fixtures, floor lamps, outdoor lights, and more. It's not limited to lights, either. The system also includes some of the best smart switches and best smart plugs around, plus contact sensors for controlling your devices, and even smart home security cameras. You should have no trouble at all equipping your whole home with Hue devices if you have the budget for it.
Govee's selection of smart lights is smaller, and has a focus on fun. The brand offers smart bulbs for the most common light fittings (including spots) but the real stars of the show are products like the Govee Curtain Lights, Govee Glide Hexagon Light Panels Ultra, and the super bright Govee LED Strip Light M1.
If you're looking for a smart lighting system to make TV and gaming more immersive, both brands offer Ambilight alternatives that are worth considering. The Philips Hue Play Sync Box connects to your TV via HDMI, and allows your smart lights (bought separately) to extend the colors at the edge of the screen.
The Govee Immersion WiFi TV Backlights produce a similar result, but use a camera to capture what's happening on the screen rather than HDMI. The Govee system is cheaper, but the use of a camera for input means color reproduction isn't always as accurate (it can be affected by reflections, for example) and there may be some latency you wouldn't get with the Philips Hue system.
Govee also produces smart plugs, motion sensors, water sensors, and digital thermometers - plus a wide array of smart devices for your kitchen, including air purifiers, fans, ice makers, and even a rice cooker. The Govee Smart Kettle is particularly good, and earned four stars out of five from our reviewer.
Philips Hue vs Govee: features
Each Govee smart light connects directly to your home Wi-Fi network, and your lights are controlled via the Govee Home app (available for Android and iOS). Here you can switch your bulbs on and off, dim them, change their color, apply themed 'scenes' to set a particular mood, sync them to music, and create routines so they come on and turn off at specific times. You can also link them to other Govee smart devices, such as water sensors, so they can alert you if there's a leak in your home.
The Govee app is compatible with Alexa and Google Home, so you can also use a smart speaker to operate your lights if you prefer (see our roundup of the best smart speakers for some good options).
Many Philips Hue lights can be used on their own and controlled from your phone via Bluetooth, or linked to a Google Home or Alexa device so you can control them with voice commands. Exactly which options are available will vary depending on which lights you have.
This works fine, but to get the most out of your bulbs, strips and lamps, you'll want to pick up a Philips Hue Bridge. This plugs into your router and connects to all your Hue bulbs and devices, essentially creating a Zigbee mesh network.
Once the lights are connected to the Bridge, you can control them remotely, set up automations and schedules, select and create scenes, sync them to music, connect them to Hue switches, sensors and cameras, and link them to third-party platforms and services such as Razer Chroma, IFTTT, Yale, Spotify, Google Home, Alexa, and Siri. You can find a complete list on the Philips Hue website.
You're not limited to using Philips Hue branded products either. iConnectHue maintains an extensive list of Hue-compatible lights and accessories that can integrate into your system.
Using a Hue Bridge also lets you control many more lights than using Bluetooth (up to 50 with the Bridge, compared to 10 with Bluetooth). If you have more than 50 lights, you can use a second Hue Bridge. For more details, see our guide Philips Hue Bridge: what is it and how important is it for your Hue smart lights?
