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Whether these lights are truly “permanent” is up to you, since you can choose to anchor them to your home with either screws or adhesive. Note that they may not be a fit for every home's architecture—you will need eaves, and preferably flat ones, to hide the thick cords. Our favorite options are from Govee ($300, 100 feet) and Eufy ($350, 100 feet); both are great sets you can cut and splice to customize to your home's roofline.
My favorite affordable set is from Cync ($117, 100 feet)—it's easy to use and install and has lots of great color options. No matter which set you choose, these lights are made for year-round enjoyment, though they shine best in the holiday season. WIRED reviewer Kat Merck uses hers in the post-holiday season to display her husband’s favorite sports team colors, while I'm currently using mine to backlight the giant spiderweb spread across my balcony for Halloween.
We're both looking forward to switching over to Christmas color schemes soon, and you can too after picking up one of our favorite sets below. Updated October 2026: I've updated this guide with current pricing as we head into the holiday season, and added a new section about the lights we're testing next. Permanent outdoor lights are exactly what they sound like: outdoor lights meant to be permanently affixed to your home, so you don't have to go up and down a ladder every Halloween and Christmas season.
They're similar to smart Christmas lights like those from Twinkly ($125) and Philips Hue ($220), and other smart lighting options like Philips Hue's smart bulbs ($90), in that they connect to an app and have custom color control. The lights we recommend below are all DIY-friendly, but you can also hire a professional to affix them to your home. Some higher-end brands, like JellyFish and Gemstone, are for professional installation only.
Hiring an installer is recommended either way if you have harder-to-reach eaves or a trickier home design, which may add considerably to the overall cost. The most important thing to check is if your home is even compatible with permanent outdoor string lights. If your home has any of these features, installation should work for you: Accessible roof eaves, often found on one- or two-story homes An outdoor ceiling, like a porch roof Flat, smooth materials, including glass, cement, wood, or metal, under the eaves (or other spots on your home's exterior that would make sense for lights to live permanently, like a porch covering or pergola) Access to an outlet, ideally an outdoor one that's at least partially covered to protect the control box, or the ability to run the cord to one inside a garage or other interior space Most one- and two-story homes can accommodate permanent outdoor lights, since they typically have roof eaves accessible on both levels.
Govee, for example, claims its permanent outdoor lights ($300) will work on everything from cottages and tiny houses to large homes and even mansions. (I'm sad to report that no, I did not have a mansion available for our testing.) Eufy (another set we recommend!) warns that certain paints, including those with texturing, could prevent secure adhesion of its permanent outdoor lights ($350). Most permanent outdoor lights come with multiple options for attaching them to your home, ranging from sticky tabs to more permanent options with screws, though some brands may require you to buy anchors separately. Some of our testers used sticky options with success, while others chose to use the included screws to ensure the lights wouldn't move.
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