Top 5 Best Indoor Plant Lights (2023 Updated!)

I love using indoor plant lights and I use several kinds for my indoor jungle. But the fact is I didn’t nail the best ones right away. A comprehensive trial and error process, as well as thorough research and testing, helped me choose the best grow lights for indoor plants. Each and every one of these best grow lights were carefully selected and measured to make sure that they are strong enough to keep your plants not just alive but healthy and beautiful.

Based on my firsthand experience I can recommend to you these products that will help your indoor plants live their best life.

Based on my experience and testing, you can grow any plant, succulent or tropical.

For succulents, keep the light on between 12 and 16 hours, at a distance from 1 to 1.5 feet. For tropicals, keep between 8 and 16 hours, at a distance of 1.5 to 2.5 feet. For detailed information for a specific species, visit my Grow Light Finder, type your plant’s name and get precise info. You can read my other article for a more detailed review of the Rousseau grow light.

Based on my firsthand experience, you can use this type of light for growing smaller to medium-sized houseplants, both succulents, and tropicals.

For succulents, keep the 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.

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

You can grow both succulents and tropicals under Sansi 36W Grow Bulb.

For growing succulents, cacti, and ficuses keep this source of light on for 12 to 16 hours at a distance from 1 to 1.5 feet. Growing ferns and dracaena plants require this light to stay on for 8 to 16 hours (or 8 to 12 hours) at a distance from 1.5 to 2.5 feet. For detailed information for a specific species, visit my Grow Light Finder, type your plant’s name and get precise info.

You can grow both succulents and tropicals in any stage of growth.

Succulents, cacti, and ficuses need this grow light on for 12 to 16 hours at a distance of 1 to 1.5 feet, while tropicals need it on for about 8 to 12 hours at 2 feet. For detailed information for a specific species, visit my Grow Light Finder, type your plant’s name and get precise info.

It’s best for growing smaller-sized plants, tropicals, and succulents.

For succulents and cacti, keep it on for 12 to 16 hours at a distance of 0.5 to 1 feet. Tropical plants need it on for 12 to 16 hours at a distance of 1 to 2 feet. 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 house plants for over 10 years. I have been growing house plants under full spectrum LED lights for over 6 years. 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. I owned a venus flytrap production business for several years. And during that time, I grew venus flytraps under fluorescent lights, which helped me significantly expand my knowledge about grow lights.

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

I compiled the list of the Top 5 Best Indoor Plant Lights based on my personal tests of the products, my personal experience with grow lights, and the feedback of my community of over half a million people that follow me on social media.

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 were: 1) grow light intensity 2) design 3) price 4) coverage area 5) glare 6) features that set it apart from the competition and 7) warranty

I tested 15 grow lights with a PAR meter (a grow light meter) at different distances to determine the full spectrum 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 key decision making factors previously mentioned, I determined the top 5 best indoor plant lights.

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

As a plant lover, you already know that light is plant food and that plants cannot live, let alone thrive without it. The more light you provide, the happier and healthier your plants will be. More light provided by grow lights helps your plants to photosynthesize more, grow faster, and produce bigger leaves and more sugars for their development.

The good thing is that you can achieve the equivalent of bright indirect light or even direct sun with grow lights if you’re not lucky enough to have large windows with an unobstructed view of the sky, especially if you use good, tested grow lights.

To get great results with best grow lights for indoor plants, you need to be aware of the importance of selecting a good grow light that produces enough light of sufficient intensity to keep your plants alive. I see people buying lights that are very weak and only useful at very close distances of 2 to 4 inches away from the plant.

Measuring an indoor plant light requires a relatively expensive device called a PAR meter. The price of a PAR meter is usually around 500 USD or more. But you can occasionally find a more affordable PAR meter.

To save you from the hassle of buying a PAR meter and learning how to test grow lights, I tested dozens of different indoor plant lights and selected the best ones for you.

Grow lights are used by both houseplant lovers and professional plant nurseries for supplementing natural light or fully replacing it, for growing plants of good quality and plant propagation. These lights stimulate photosynthesis and provide the right color spectrum for the plants to grow and thrive.

Whether you will use grow lights depends on the amount of natural light available in an apartment you live in and your plant’s needs for light.

If you grow plants in an apartment that has small windows or north-facing windows (if you’re living in the northern hemisphere), or in a basement apartment with minimum or no light for most of the day, you will need to use an indoor plant light to supplement or fully replace natural light. If you’re living in the southern hemisphere (South America, Australia, part of Africa) and have south-facing windows, they receive the least amount of light, so in that case, you might need to consider grow lights.

Seasonal changes and not enough light during wintertime can also nudge you to use grow lights to supplement the amount of light your houseplants usually receive during other seasons.

I love using indoor plant lights and I use several kinds for my indoor jungle. But the fact is I didn’t nail the best ones right away. A comprehensive trial and error process, as well as independent research and testing, helped me choose the best grow lights for indoor plants. And I’m so happy I can recommend to you these products that will help your indoor plants live their best life.

Each and every one of these grow lights were carefully selected and measured to make sure that they are strong enough to keep your plants not just alive but healthy and beautiful. I measured their intensity with a PAR meter (a light meter that measures light useful for plants, light between 400 and 700 um). I have also been using these grow lights on my houseplants for a while, and some of them for several years.

If you’re in doubt and would like to explore more lights, use my Grow Light Finder, a simple yet incredibly effective system, to select the perfect plant grow light for your houseplants. Whether you’re a plant enthusiast or a professional, you’ll find it very useful.

In case you need a consultation to set up best grow lights at your home or you have more questions for me, please, don’t hesitate to book a personal consultation with me.

I hope you have all the information you needed to set up a highly efficient grow light system for your houseplants and enjoy them regardless of the amount of natural light you have in your home.