Outdoor string lights
String lights hang between two anchors rather than mounting to the house, which is why a patio or a pergola is where they live. The decisions are length, bulb brightness, whether you want colour, and whether there is an outlet within reach.
Every one we cover, in order
The order is the catalogue's. Rank is never printed.
-
Govee S14 Outdoor String Lights 2, 48 ft48 FT · 15 BULBS · IP66
Hung, not mounted: a cable of individually addressable S14 bulbs strung between two anchors. RGBICWW, so each bulb carries a dedicated warm-white die rather than faking 2700K out of red, green and blue — which is the difference between a patio you can sit under and a coloured decoration. The controller is the weak point: the string is IP66 but the adapter is not, and it has to go indoors or inside a weatherproof enclosure. Most of the failures reported on the listing are that step skipped.
-
Govee Smart Outdoor String Lights H7015, 48 ft48 FT · 15 BULBS · IP65
The cheap way into addressable string lighting, and the compromise is the white: it is mixed from red, green and blue rather than lit by its own die.
-
Govee S14 Outdoor String Lights 2, 96 ft96 FT · 30 BULBS · IP66
The 48 ft string at double the length, for a run that crosses a yard or goes back and forth over a patio. Same bulb, same brightness, one controller — but it arrives as two 48 ft strands you join, not as one continuous reel, which catches people out. The adapter still has to be kept dry.
-
addlon Outdoor String Lights, 48 ft48 FT · 24 BULBS · ETL, WEATHERPROOF
The default patio string, and the safe answer if you just want one that works. Warm white only, and when it fails it fails one cheap bulb at a time.
-
Banord Outdoor String Lights, 51 ft51 FT · 17 BULBS · UL, WATERPROOF
The cheapest string here that we would actually buy. Buy the plain one, not the smart one — the Banord failures are all on the app-controlled SKUs.
-
Brightech Ambience Pro, 48 ft48 FT · 15 BULBS · 2 W EACH · UL, WEATHERPROOF
The commercial-grade one: a rubberised cord rated to 50 mph wind, at about the price of the budget strings. The bulbs are the weak point, and replacement bulbs are not cheap.
Price tiers are our own rough budget bands, not live prices. Check the listing for today’s price.
The same house, switched on.
Same camera, same minute, same sky. Only the lights changed.
The pergola sample, unlit and then with the S14 48 on it — 15 placed by the product's own count. See what was placed.
Same house, same dusk, each product.
Count and spacing come from each product's own listing; the dusk is our own render, generated by us rather than photographed.
The listing's numbers, our pictures.
Each product page carries what the listing and the maker's sheet say, on the date we looked, and a render placed by those numbers. We do not print prices, rank numbers, star ratings or review counts: a figure typed onto this page is stale the week after it is typed, and we would rather show you what the thing looks like on a house than what strangers typed about it.
We have not mounted any of them. Every product page has a section headed "What we could not check".
The questions that decide it.
How many feet do I need?
Measure post to post and add a fifth for sag. A 12 by 16 ft patio zig-zagged three times is about 60 ft. Under-buying is the common mistake, not over.
Plug-in or solar?
Plug-in if there is an outdoor outlet within a cable’s reach. Solar only where there is none, and only if the panel gets six hours of direct sun, which a north-facing fence does not.
Do I want colour?
If the honest answer is “for two weeks in December”, a warm-white string and a cheap set of seasonal lights cost less together than an addressable string, and look better the other fifty weeks.
Buying the wrong length is the expensive mistake.
Not the wrong brand. Measure the run first, then pick from the list above.
Work out how many feet