Top 3 Best Cheap LED Grow Lights for Houseplants

These are the top 3 best cheap LED grow lights for houseplants in my experience:

You can use Dommia Shelf LED Grow Light for growing smaller to medium-sized houseplants, both succulents, and tropicals. It’s also good for growing larger plants that require low or medium light, but in this case, you will have to hang the light from the ceiling.

For succulents, keep this full-spectrum plant grow light on between 12 and 16 hours, at a distance from 3 to 5 inches. For tropicals, keep it on between 8 and 12 hours, at a distance of 8 to 10 inches. You can use a timer to have the light turn on and off automatically at certain times.

For detailed information for a specific species, visit my Grow Light Finder, type your plant’s name and get precise info.

Here is a short video of the installation process:

I have an even more detailed post with the review of the Dommia shelf grow lights and information on how to set up grow light shelves.

Sansi 15W full spectrum light is best for growing smaller plants – tropicals, and succulents. It’s also good for growing larger plants that require low or medium light.

For succulents and cacti, keep the grow light on for 12 to 16 hours at a distance of 0.5 to 1 feet. For tropical plants keep it on for 12 to 16 hours at a distance of 1 to 2 feet. You can use a timer to have the light turn on and off automatically at certain times. For detailed information for a specific species, visit my Grow Light Finder, type your plant’s name and get precise info.

Dommia 12W grow light covers a small surface area of 1 by 1 foot. Light intensity drops exponentially with distance, so the light that reaches the edge of the coverage area loses a lot of its intensity. This means not a lot of light reaches the leaves at the edge of the coverage area, as you can see in the images below.

You can use Dommia 12W LED Grow Light for growing small tropicals that require low, medium, or bright light or succulents that are of smaller size. I generally wouldn’t recommend it for growing large plants, the light is just not strong enough.

For succulents, keep this full-spectrum LED plant grow light on between 12 and 16 hours, at a distance from 2 to 4 inches. For tropicals, keep it on for up to 8 to 16 hours, at a distance of 3 to 5 inches. Don’t worry, the light doesn’t produce a lot of heat, it won’t burn your plant. You can use a timer to have the light turn on and off automatically at certain times.

For detailed information for a specific species, visit my Grow Light Finder, type your plant’s name and get precise info.

I have been growing houseplants for over 10 years. I have been growing houseplants under grow lights for over 6 years. I owned a venus flytrap production business for several years. During that time, I grew venus flytraps under grow lights. This allowed me to learn about different types of grow lights, how to measure their intensity, how to determine the proper distance between the light and the plant, and other intricacies of growing indoor plants under grow lights.

During my houseplant career, I had the opportunity to use and test many different brands of grow lights – Rousseau, Sansi, GE, Soltech Solutions, Spider Farmer, and many other well-known and less well-known grow lights.

I compiled a list of the Top 3 Best Cheap LED Grow Lights based on my personal tests of the products, my personal experience with grow lights, and the feedback from my community of over half a million people that follow me on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

I identified the key decision making factors for grow lights and tested 15 grow lights to see how they measure for each of the factors. The key decision making factors are: 1) price 2) grow light intensity 3) design 4) coverage area 5) glare 6) features that set it apart from the competition and 7) warranty.

I looked for grow lights that cost less than 20 USD.

I tested 15 grow lights with a PAR meter (a grow light meter) at different distances to determine the light intensity and the coverage area, and how well the lights keep their intensity at different distances. I checked whether the grow lights produce a glare. I’ve had these grow lights for over 3 years and have been using them every single day on my houseplants. I tested how different indoor plants react to each of these lights, at different distances, after exposure of several weeks to several months. I also looked whether the grow lights have features that set them apart from the competition.

Based on the previously mentioned key decision making factors, these 3 grow lights made it to the list of top 3 best cheap LED grow lights.

Please note that using a PAR meter (a grow light meter) is the only reliable way to test grow lights.

Create a Highly Efficient System with Best Cheap Grow Lights for Houseplants

If you’re in doubt and would like to explore more LED grow lights, use my Grow Light Finder, a simple yet incredibly effective system, to select the perfect plant grow light for your houseplants.

In case you need a consultation to set up full spectrum grow lights in your home, or fluorescent lights, or you have any other questions for me, don’t hesitate to schedule a virtual consultation.

I hope this was a helpful guide on the best LED grow lights and now you have all the information you needed to set up a high efficiency system using these cheap grow lights.

If you’d like to explore more lighting options, see the Top 5 Best Grow Lights for Indoor Plants blog post. To learn how grow lights can affect your electricity bill and what you can do to reduce it, take a look at my grow light electricity cost post.