Best LED Grow Light Under $100 (Reviewed And Compared)

A few years ago, finding a decent LED grow light under $100 would have been impossible.

Even $500 or $1000 was hard.

Don’t get me wrong: there were always tons of lights in this price range.

The problem was that none of them were any good. Few would do much of anything and none were able to flower effectively.

Most lights under a hundred dollars are still worthless.

But a few of the Chinese manufacturers have stepped up their game and are now making good quality lights. And their lower wattage light cost less than $100.

[Disclaimer: the lights on this page were under $100 at the time of the last update, but it is not guaranteed that their price will always be less than $100.]

We’ve researched the hundreds of lights in this range and found the ones that are actually worth getting. The fixtures below are the best LEDs you’ll find under $100.

 

Best LED Grow Lights Under $100 Compared

03/22/2023 06:46 pm GMT

If you prefer to buy directly from the brands themselves, you can do that with Viparspectra. They are trustworthy and have a good website which you can find here. They also sometimes have discounts on some of their lights.

Wit the other brands, I’d just buy from Amazon. That gives you protection in case you get a faulty light and need to return it.

 

Best Cheap LED Grow Lights

We tried to include at least one light of each different type: quantum, COB, and blurple. We were not able to include a bar style light, because we could not find a good one under $100.

That’s unfortunate since these are currently the best and most popular lights on the market. If you’re looking for the cheapest bar style light that is still good, Aglex is your best bet. You can see our Aglex review here. Their bar lights start at around $140.

 

Best Cheap LED Overall: Viparspectra Pro Series P1000

The Viparspectra Pro Series P1000 LED plant light uses 350 Samsung LM281B+ chips and a Sosen driver. Obviously, these are not top-of-the-line components, bt they are still very good and they are the reason this fixture costs less than comparable ones using Samsung LM301B chips.

Viparspectra uses 4 different colors in this fixture: 3000K white, 5000K white, 660 nm deep red and 730 nm infrared. This combines to give you the full spectrum of light in a ratio that is great for any stage of growth and especially good for flowering.

This light uses 100 watts and is equivalent to 200 watts of HID power. Since a 200w HID system actually uses more than 200 watts (the ballast also consumes electricity), you save more than half on your electric bill. And that’s without considering the heat.

This fixture does not contain any cooling fans. Like all quantum boards, the spreading out of the small diodes over the entire board, which doubles as a heat sink, is sufficient to keep the chips cool enough to prevent damage.

But this light does not just have the aluminum board double as a heat sink. It has a true heat sink attached to further help keep the chips cool. This helps them last longer. and is a reason for the rated lifespan of 100,000 hours (around 10 years of use).

The Viparspectra P1000 can cover an area of 2 by 2 for flowering (2.5 by 2.5 for vegging). You’ll need to hang it 14 inches from the canopy for bloom and 18 inches for veg.

It gives you a PPFD value of 797 µmol/m²/s dead-center at 14 inches height. The PPFD values in the four corners range from 464 to 483.

This relatively even light spread, where plants on the outside still get plenty of light, is one of the biggest advantages of these quantum board style LED grow lights.

Another big advantage is the dimmer. You can turn down the intensity and save on electricity when you don’t need full power, for example during vegging.

The light ships with a 6 foot power cord, adjustable rope hangers, and a hanging kit. If you are unhappy with it, you can return it for free within 30 days of purchase. It is also covered for 3 years by a factory warranty. Our full Viparspectra review has more.

The Viparspectra P1000 is easily our favorite option in this price range, especially if you are going to use it for all grow cycles. It gives you a similar performance t the other lights on this list, in terms of output, but it has the most even light spread and the best color spectrum.

That said, the other lights below also have a great spectrum and the Phlizon has a much deeper canopy penetration. If that is more important to you than an even light spread (for example, if you only have a single plant), then it may be the better light for your needs.

 

Best COB LED Under $100: Phlizon COB Series 1000 Watt LED Grow Light

As the name might suggest, the Phlizon COB 1000 Watt Indoor Grow Light used powerful chip-on-board (COB) LEDs. It uses COBs from CREE and surrounds them with Samsung diodes in a variety of colors.

Specifically, one COB emits 3000K warm white light and the other 6000K cool white light. Then there are 40 diodes with a color temperature of 630 to 660 nm (red) 6 at 470 nm (blue), 5 at 6500K (cool white), 3 at 3000K (warm white), 2 at 410 nm (UV) and 2 at 740 nm (IR).

They all combine to give you the perfect spectrum for plants. You can’t dim the diodes, but you can switch off either the COBs or the supplemental diodes, meaning you can run it at lower power during vegging.

The light spectrum contains all colors, just like the Viparspectra spectrum. But the Phlizon fixture has larger peaks on red and blue and it contains UV light.

This light uses 245 watts, but is equivalent to a 400 watt HID system. As is expected from Chinese brands, the 1000 watt label is a huge exaggeration.

This light has an output of 1911 umol/m²/s dead center at 12 inches from the canopy. Around the outside of the coverage area, it gives you 17 to 23 umol/m²/s. You can see how the light spread is nowhere near as good as the quantum style light from Viparspectra.

If you back the light off to 24 inches, you get 867 umol/m²/s dead center and 131 to 197 umol/m²/s in the corners. That’s better, but still uneven. Again, if you are only growing a single plant that sits in the middle, this works great. You get a much deeper canopy penetration.

This Phlizon light  gives you a coverage area of 2.5 by 2.5 feet during flowering and 3 by 3 feet during vegging. It has a rated lifespan of 50,000 hours. It is backed by a 2-year warranty and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Overall, the Phlizon is an excellent light, as long as you don’t need as much power on the outside of the coverage area, or you add some supplemental lighting. Or use several of these fixtures close together.

It has a great spectrum for all stages, but especially for flowering. And it gets a deeper canopy penetration than any other light on this list, thanks to the powerful COB lights. It’s not even close.

 

Best Blurple LED Under $100: BestVA Double Chip Series 1000 Watt LED Fixture

Blurple LED grow lights (those using a mix of mostly red and blue diodes and emitting a pinkish, bluish, purplish light) were once all the rage. But these days most growers prefer the mostly all-white quantum board style lights or bar style lights.

We agree and also prefer full spectrum white lights. But that does not mean blurple lights don’t work. They do, and quite well, in fact. More importantly, they are always a bit cheaper than the equivalent quantum or bar style of light.

The big problem was always that so many cheap lights flooded the market from China and it was hard to know which ones actually worked (very few of them). These days, those same brands make cheap quantum board lights, so we still have that problem.

Over the years, certain brands rose to the top among all the Chinese brands. BestVA is number one on that list, with KingLED (see below) being a close second. They are the most reliable Chinese brands.

And the BestVA DC 1000 watt LED grow light is our favorite blurple light under $100. Of course, it is not a 1000 watt light. Not even close. We’re still talking about a Chinese brand here, after all.

The light actually consumes 145 watts and is more or less equivalent to a 200 watt HID light. Like the equivalent HID fixture, it covers an area of 2 by 2 feet during flowering and slightly larger during veg.

The ‘DC’ in the name stands for ‘Double Chip’. It refers to the use of two chips per little light reflector, which gives you a higher output and a better canopy penetration.

They recently upgraded these lights to use the ever-popular Samsung LM301B chips. This has made them more efficient, meaning more output per watt consumed.

Specifically, it delivers 2.7 umol per joule, which is among the most efficient on the market (the reason everyone is switching to the LM301B chips). The DC 1000W gives you an output of 1300 umol/m²/s dead center.

The spectrum is great here too. The light has diodes in many different colors. White diodes ensure there is light present in all wavelengths. Then there are diodes in various shades of red and blue, along with a few orange and yellow and some UV and IR.

There is a veg/bloom switch that boosts output for bloom and also changes the spectrum. For veg, it is heavy in blue. For bloom, it is much heavier in red.

These days, most growers prefer to use the same spectrum for both veg and bloom. Switching mid grow gives your plants a bit of a shock and can delay things by a few days. Not a huge deal, but as a whole, the industry has been moving away from switching the spectrum when going from veg to bloom.

When you buy a BestVA LED grow light, you also get adjustable rope hangers, a hanging kit, a power cord (I would hope so!) and grow glasses. BestVA guarantee their lights for 3 years and have a generous 90 day return policy.

 

Quantum Board Runner-Up: Mars Hydro TS600 LED Plant Light

Mars Hydro is perhaps the best-known of the Chinese brands. They have a long history of making cheaper versions of the more popular lights on the market. They also have long history of dishonesty, but again, that is par for the course with Chinese brands.

Mars Hydro’s TS600 is another quantum style light. As such, it is quite similar to the Viparspectra one above. You can see the biggest difference at first glance. This one has a little reflector, while the Viparspectra has a real heat sink.

I’m not sure what, if any, effect that reflector has, but the heat sink does have a useful function. That is the main reason we recommend the P1000 over this one. The other reason is that we simply prefer Viparspectra to Mars Hydro.

There’s not much difference, but it’s a personal preference, based on some of the tactics Mars has used in the past (and hopefully not anymore) on growing forums.

The TS600 consumes 100 watts and is equivalent to around 200 HID watts. I’m not sure where the number 600 in the title comes from, but given that the other lights call themselves a ‘1000’, I suppose 600 is a smaller lie.

Mars uses Epistar chips instead of Samsung on these fixtures, which is why they cost less than the top quantum style lights. The majority of the diodes are white light, with a mix of warm 3000K and cooler 5000K white. Supplemental diodes add in some deep red (660 nm) and infrared (730 nm).

This spectrum is very similar to the Viparsepctra one. This light also has the same even light spread, since it is also a quantum, board type of light. It gives you 660 umol/m²/s dead center at 14 inches and numbers ranging from 424 to 437 umol/m²/s in the corners.

It covers a 2 by 2 area for flowering and 2.5 by 2.5 for vegging. It is dimmable, so you can dial down the power when you don’t need it all.

Like the other lights here, this one also ships with adjustable rope hangers and a hanging kit. But it does not come with free glasses. Mars warranties this light for 5 years and lets you return it for 30 days.

 

Blurple Runner-Up: KingLED Newest 1000 Watt LED Grow Light

This 1000 watt fixture is part of the KingLED Newest Series, which consists of 7 panels, ranging from 600 watts to 4000 watts and a 600 watt UFO. (Note: the UFO has been discontinued, at least for the time being).

The 1000w version actually uses 145 watts and is supposedly equivalent to a 400 watt HID light. They used to claim it was equivalent to a 1000 watt HID, so I suppose that’s an improvement. The exaggeration is getting less ridiculous.

In actuality, this light is more or less equivalent to around 200 HID watts.

The King Plus series are full spectrum lights that also include UV and IR diodes. Their spectrum of light is very similar to sunlight, which makes them ideal for every stage of plant growth. They have recently upgrades to the Samsung LM301B diodes, which have quickly become the industry standard.

To me, this and the optical condenser are this light’s biggest strengths. What is the optical condenser? It is basically a lens King LED puts over the diodes to boost their strength by a factor of 10.

The result is a much higher intensity and deeper canopy penetration. Naturally, there is a drawback.

The increased focus reduces the light spread considerably. It is all focused downward, meaning there is an incredibly intense light directly below the fixture, but much less light around the edges of the coverage area.

In other words, the light spread is not even, like you get from a quantum or bar style light. Is this bad?

It depends on your needs. If you only have a single plant directly below the light, or if you use multiple lights close to each other, then this is a great thing. You have a much higher output.

But if you have plants around the outside of the coverage area, it is bad, because those plants get much less light.

Of course, as we already alluded to, this light is a bit under-powered (or over-labeled, depending on your viewpoint) all around. It is NOT a 1000w light, or even a 400 watt equivalent.

But as a 200 watt equivalent light, it is very good. It delivers a PPFD of 2000 umol in the center at 8 inches from the canopy. If you move it back to 18 inches, you get 1300 umol. But again, the output drops off considerably around the outside of the coverage area.

Speaking of, you can realistically expect this light to cover an area of around 2 by 2 feet. That’s for flowering. You can easily back the light off during vegging and get a coverage area of 3 by 3, or perhaps even 4 by 4, feet.

A big drawback of these types of contained fixtures is heat, but the efficient cooling system takes care of that. The light has upgraded aluminum radiators and cooling fans that keep the operating temperatures down.

That ensures the LED diodes last longer. They are rated for 50,000 hours, which is around 4 to 5 years of use. You get a 3-year warranty and KingLED throws in everything you need to get started, meaning adjustable rope hangers, a hanging kit, and even grow glasses.

The KingLED 1000W LED grow light is a great light at a very low cost. That said, calling it a 400 watt light is an exaggeration. It basically gives you the same performance as a 200 watt HID light.

The one big difference between this light and others on this page are the 10x optical condensers. They give you better penetration. It is because of those 10x condensers that this light made our list over the many similar offerings.

It is not for everyone, but if you need a intense light over a smaller area, then this one may be perfect for you. The KingLED series originally also made my list of the best overall LED grow lights, but it has since been replaced by more modern lights.

King lights still get the job done, though, and they do so at a very low price.

 

Best All-White Light: Roleadro 1200 Watt White LED Plant Light

Roleadro’s 2nd Generation 1200 Watt Full-Spectrum White LED light has been redesigned with an improved spectrum. It uses warmer 3500K light that is even better for flowering.

The light includes wavelengths from 420 nm to 780 nm, i.e. purple, blue, green, yellow and red light.

One big advantage of all-white LEDs is that each diode emits the full-spectrum. This makes for a much more uniform light than a fixture that has a blue diode here, a red diode there, etc.

Overall, the light this fixture emits is very close to natural sunlight, so you know your plants will love it.

The 1200w Roleadro this plant light has a mixture of 90 degree and 120 degree lenses. The 90 degree lenses focus their diodes’ light down onto the canopy for deeper penetration, while the 120 degree lenses spread their light out more for a larger coverage area.

Overall, the coverage when flowering is around 2 by 2 feet and you can stretch it to 2.5 by 2.5. For vegging you can back the light off a bit and get a coverage area of 3 by 3 feet or even 4 by 4 feet.

The light uses one hundred twenty 10w chips. 10 watt chips are more powerful and give you deeper penetration, but they also emit more heat. With 2 fans for cooling, this light is able to deal with that.

It maintains a low working temperature which gives it a longer lifespan. It is rated for 50,000+ hours of use.

There are two negatives. First, the fans are a bit noisy. Second, like every other Chinese manufacturer, Roleadro is mislabeling this light.

Funnily enough, they actually used to call it a 600w light, but changed it to 1200w, without actually changing anything about the light. I guess they felt they had to keep up with all the other brands that mislabel their lights.

The light actually uses 252 watts and is roughly equivalent to 350 watts of HID power. A far cry from 1200 watts.

Some people love white LEDs, others prefer fixtures with diodes in multiple colors. If you fall on the “white light” side of the fence, the Roleadro 1200 is by far the best fixture available in this price range.

 

Best LED Grow Light Under $100: Final Thoughts

The price of LED grow lights has come down so much in recent years that you can now get some fixtures for under $100 that will even bloom cannabis effectively. Granted, they will only grow a plant or two at most, but even that was unheard of a few years ago.

It is to the point that there is no real reason to go with any other type of light anymore. HPS actually costs more now, and it uses more electricity, generates more heat, and has a worse spectrum. The same goes for MH.

Ceramic metal halide has a great spectrum and is wonderful for growing marijuana all around, but it costs far more than LED grow lights. Plus you have to keep replacing the bulbs. And while fluorescent is still good for small grows, one of these cheap LED grow lights on this page is far better.