LightShow®SmartLights vs WLED
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
LightShow®SmartLights
Control your holiday light displays directly from your smartphone. This app allows you to customize effects, colors, and themes for your lighting products, making holiday decorating easy and personalized.
- Smartphone control
- Dozens of effects and colors
- Multiple holiday themes
- Customizable lighting options
- Easy setup and management
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Put on a dazzling holiday light display–and control it all from your smartphone. The SmartLights® app works exclusively with SmartLights® holiday lighting products to control dozens of effects and colors directly from your smartphone. It’s super easy to set up and manage. Choose from multiple holiday themes, lighting technologies and color options for each lighting product. Perfect for outdoor or indoor holiday decorating, SmartLights® delivers the latest in holiday decorating technology for a custom look that’s a breeze to manage.Please make the below changes to the pages on the app stores
WLED
Control your smart LED lights directly from your iPhone or iPad. This app automatically discovers your WLED devices on Wi-Fi, allowing you to manage power, brightness, colors, and effects. It also supports voice commands and one-tap software updates for your controllers.
- Automatic Wi-Fi Discovery
- Live Status & Controls
- Home Screen Widgets
- Siri & Shortcuts Integration
- One-Tap Device Updates
- Customizable Device Organization
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Take full control of your WLED light devices from your iPhone or iPad. This is the official companion app for devices running the free and open-source WLED firmware (such as ESP32 and ESP8266 controllers). The WLED app automatically finds your lights on your home Wi-Fi and brings them together in one simple, fast dashboard. Toggle power, adjust brightness, pick colors and effects, or keep your lights up to date in just a few taps. Key Features: • Automatic Wi-Fi Discovery: Finds your WLED lights on your local network automatically with no complicated setup required. • Live Status & Controls: See your lights' current colors, brightness, and online status update instantly right from the device list. • Home Screen Widgets: Turn lights on or off, see their current state at a glance, or jump straight to a device from your Home Screen. • Siri, Shortcuts & Action Button: Toggle your lights or set their brightness using Siri voice commands, the Shortcuts app, or your iPhone's Action button. • One-Tap Device Updates: Get notified when new WLED software is available and update your controllers directly from the app (supports official WLED, QuinLED, and MoonModules). • Made for iPhone & iPad: Adapts cleanly to any screen size with a split-screen layout on iPad, plus Light and Dark modes. • Easy Organization: Give your lights custom names and hide seasonal or offline controllers until you need them again. Completely free and open-source.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: WLED at 3.5 against LightShow®SmartLights's 2.0. WLED also leads on review sentiment (51% vs 23%) and ratings volume (12 vs 4). LightShow®SmartLights's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 4 months) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
WLED holds the better App Store score, 3.5 against 2.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 12 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 23% of LightShow®SmartLights's written reviews are positive against 51% of WLED's.
LightShow®SmartLights ships an update every 2 months, WLED every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | LightShow®SmartLights | WLED |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.0 (4 ratings) | 3.5 (12 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 23.1% of reviews | 50.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 12 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Gemmy Industries Corporation | Christophe Gagnier |
Customer experience
LightShow®SmartLights
WLED
Bugs and requests
LightShow®SmartLights
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
WLED
Reported bugs
42 issues- Unable to connect to LEDs
- Lights randomly turn on
- Connectivity issues, needs re-pairing
- App doesn't work, glitchy
- Brightness control issues
Show 37 moreShow fewer
- Lights flicker after update
- Cannot find discover lights option
- Not connected to iPhone, setup issues
- App won't load, vanishes
- None of my devices show up
- Shows up blank, manual add only
- No longer finds WLED devices
- App doesn't work, no devices showing
- Confusing app, turns off
- App is unusable after update, errors
- App stopped picking up signal
- Only connects when at home
- Doesn't pick up esp8266
- Sound react option missing
- Time and macros section not working
- Update won't update
- Goes offline from time to time
- Update breaks app, beta works
- Drops connection, cannot adjust lights
- Latest release freezes, unstable wifi
- Loading WLED UI stuck
- Inconsistent connection after new update
- Lost all config after update
- Lost all presets after update
- Devices missing and disappearing
- Update ruined everything, random disconnects
- App constantly crashes, won't load
- Stopped working after update
- New upgrade feature killed device
- Inconsistent, can't find boards
- Cannot connect lights, IP address doesn't work
- Missing schedule function
- App doesn't work at all
- Doesn't work properly with WLED 0.14
- App won't allow changing anything, freezes
- Hidden devices reappear
- App goes offline and never connects again
Requested features
6 requests- User-friendly interface
- Simple interface with advanced option
- Widget features for Home Screen
- Sound react option
- Remote control when away from WiFi
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Timer or schedule function
In-app purchases
LightShow®SmartLights
No in-app purchases
WLED
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is LightShow®SmartLights free?
Is WLED free?
Which has better reviews, LightShow®SmartLights or WLED?
Do LightShow®SmartLights or WLED have ads?
Which is updated more often, LightShow®SmartLights or WLED?
Other comparisons
