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A row of outdoor solar path lights in a park, set against a sunset Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

The Best Outdoor Solar Lights of 2024

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A row of outdoor solar path lights in a park, set against a sunset Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

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Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.

Learn more about our product testing
1
Editor's Choice Product image of Beau Jardin Solar Lights
Best Overall

Beau Jardin Solar Lights

Check Price at Amazon

The Beau Jardin solar lights are a durable, long-lasting way to light up a walkway or accent your yard’s design features. Read More

Pros

  • Good value
  • Durable construction
  • Brightness

Cons

  • Low-quality stake
2
Editor's Choice Product image of Ring Solar Pathlight
Best Upgrade

Ring Solar Pathlight

Check Price at Amazon

Over-sized and bright, these smart solar path lights have a long battery life, are motion activated, and can be controlled by your smartphone. Read More

Pros

  • Sturdy
  • Bright
  • Motion-activated
  • Smart

Cons

  • Added cost of smart elements
3
Product image of Sunnest Stainless Steel Outdoor Solar Lights

Sunnest Stainless Steel Outdoor Solar Lights

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The Sunnset solar lights are a low cost landscape lighting option that could work well in low-impact, temperate environments. Read More

Pros

  • None that we could find

Cons

  • Durability
4
Product image of Maggift Solar Pathway Lights

Maggift Solar Pathway Lights

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The Maggift solar path lights are environmental accent lights that will do best in yards without kids, pets, or cold weather. Read More

Pros

  • None that we could find

Cons

  • Durability
  • Brightness
5
Product image of Gigalumi Solar Outdoor Lights

Gigalumi Solar Outdoor Lights

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The Gigalumi solar lights are a dim landscape accent light best suited to temperate, low-impact yards. Read More

Pros

  • None that we could find

Cons

  • Durability
  • Brightness
  • Best Overall Beau Jardin Solar Lights
  • Best Upgrade Ring Solar Pathlights
  • Other Outdoor Solar Lights We Tested
  • How We Tested Outdoor Solar Lights
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • More Articles You Might Enjoy

Outdoor solar lights can add both beauty and safety to your landscaping. Of all the options to add lighting and ambiance to your outdoor space, one of the simplest and most affordable is solar pathway lights.

Not to be confused with outdoor string lights or fairy lights, solar lights sit on stakes in the ground and charge by sunlight during the day to illuminate your yard all night. Solar landscape spotlights can be used to mark walkways, highlight decorative features, detect movement, or serve as focal design elements in their own right. Plus, their use of solar panels means they don’t require wiring or cost extra money to run.

We put some of the most popular outdoor solar light systems through a series of tests and found the Beau Jardin Solar Lights (available at Amazon) to be the best overall choice for durability and attractive design. If you want to splurge, the Ring Solar Pathlights (available at Amazon) are a truly spectacular smart set that are well worth the cost.

Small solar garden light, lanterns in flower beds, garden design, solar powered lamp
Credit: Jackson Ruckar

These Beau Jardin Solar Lights are durable and did well with even minimal sunlight.

Best Overall
Beau Jardin Solar Lights
  • Number of lights included: 8
  • Dimensions: 16.54 x 4.72 inches
  • Battery type: Rechargeable AA battery (included)
  • Color options: Silver, black, brown

If you’re looking for walkway or garden accent lighting that provides enough illumination to be useful, the Beau Jardin solar path lights are one of the top options. Standing about a foot tall, the glass and metal lantern is quite durable, surviving our impact testing and proving weather resistant during a cold, wet New England winter.

These lights work best under direct sunlight, but also performed quite well in our indirect light testing on cloudy days. What’s more, they held a charge long after our official testing window finished, still shining down in my basement days later.

Aesthetically, these warm white lights are small and simple enough to disappear into the landscape. But their well-considered design can serve as a focal point, as well.

Whether you’re lining a walkway or highlighting different elements in your yard, the Beau Jardin solar lights can illuminate your design.

Pros

  • Good value

  • Durable construction

  • Brightness

Cons

  • Low-quality stake

Buy now at Amazon

$59.99 from Walmart
Credit: Jackson Ruckar

Ring's Solar Pathlight are motion activated which helped extend their battery life.

Best Upgrade
Ring Solar Pathlights
  • Number of lights included: 1
  • Dimensions: 14 x 7 x 7 Inches
  • Battery type: Rechargeable lithium ion battery (included)
  • Color options: Black

The Ring Solar path lights are far and away the most durable, feature-rich lights that we tested. They’re made of the sturdiest plastic, and they were also brighter than all of the other lights—combined.

These motion sensor solar lights only activate when you need them to, so they’re less distracting and have a far longer battery life. One set stayed in my dark basement for three weeks—well after testing completed—and continued to turn on whenever I entered.

Then there’s the Ring lights’ ability to connect with your smartphone, Ring doorbell, and Alexa-enabled devices. Through the Ring app, you can turn the lights on and off, network them together, adjust the brightness, and tweak the motion sensitivity.

Of course, all of those features come with one significant drawback: A set of six Ring lights is much more expensive than any of the others on this list. You can buy the Ring lights in a variety of different packages, including a starter kit with two lights and the Bridge, which enables the smart features for the lights.

Once you own the Bridge, the cost for additional lights comes down significantly. If budget isn’t a concern, and you’re looking for all of those features, then the Ring solar path lights are the absolute best option on the market.

Pros

  • Sturdy

  • Bright

  • Motion-activated

  • Smart

Cons

  • Added cost of smart elements

$89.99 from Amazon

$34.99 from Home Depot

$34.99 from Abt

$34.99 from Best Buy

Other Outdoor Solar Lights We Tested

Product image of Sunnest Stainless Steel Outdoor Solar Lights
Sunnest Solar Lights
  • Number of lights included: 12
  • Dimensions: 2.1 x 2.1 x 14.5 inches
  • Battery type: Rechargeable battery (not included)
  • Color options: Cold white, cool white, multicolor, warm white, white

The Sunnest solar outdoor lights unfortunately performed about as well as their very low price point would suggest. Initially, they seemed fine—their plastic construction didn’t crack during assembly like some of the others. When we placed them outside, they charged right up and started shining. They’re on the dimmer side, but they could theoretically still serve as an accent light.

However, over time and after a lot of tough weather, the Sunnest lights began to fade. While they never stopped working completely, they grew noticeably dimmer, and only functioned sporadically, particularly after the ice storm.

They also cracked under our gentle kicking test, suggesting that they won’t stand up to much day-to-day abuse. These may work in a gentle climate with no pets or kids. However, there are better options for not much more money.

Pros

  • None that we could find

Cons

  • Durability

Buy now at Amazon
Product image of Maggift Solar Pathway Lights
Maggift Solar Lights
  • Number of lights included: 6 or 12
  • Dimensions: 3.3 x 3.3 x 13.4 inches
  • Battery type: AAA battery (included)
  • Color options: Black

The Maggift solar lights are dim environmental accent lights best suited to warm climates. Though they were able to charge and work in the cold New England winter, they did not survive blizzards and ice storms unscathed. Each of these lights that we tested lost brightness over time, and one stopped working entirely.

That’s not the only durability issue. The brittle plastic construction cracked under our kick testing, and I know that I easily could have broken it by squeezing too hard during assembly.

Pros

  • None that we could find

Cons

  • Durability

  • Brightness

Buy now at Amazon
Product image of Gigalumi Solar Outdoor Lights
Gigalumi Solar Lights
  • Number of lights included: 12
  • Dimensions: 2.2 x 13.4 inches
  • Battery type: Rechargeable AAA battery (included)
  • Color options: Cold white, color change, multicolor, warm white, white

The Gigalumi solar lights are another landscape lighting system that could work for some garden applications. The construction is brittle, and they took some damage during our testing. These lights started out very dim and lost brightness over two weeks out in the elements. While they all still worked at the end of testing, they didn’t seem likely to last more than a season or two.

Pros

  • None that we could find

Cons

  • Durability

  • Brightness

Buy now at Amazon

How We Tested Outdoor Solar Lights

The Tester

Hi, I’m Jean Levasseur, a former conveyor mechanic, current property manager, hobbyist woodworker, and writer. I come from a family of tool-users—my grandfather was a carpenter, my father owned an excavation company, and my mother was a mechanic. Between growing up working for my family’s businesses and then moving onto my own projects, I’ve used most tools you’ve heard of and quite a few that you haven’t.

The Tests

We created a series of tests designed to put each of the lights through real-world scenarios to find out how they would hold up.

Our first test for the solar path lights was basic assembly. We found that all of the lights fit together in pretty much the same way, and can be set up in under five minutes. However, some are more durable than others.

During assembly, I checked the sturdiness of the materials. I took note of any that broke or cracked during assembly, even though I wasn’t trying to break any at this point.

Once the lights were assembled, I inserted them into a bucket of sand to find out how well they stood up to being inserted into the ground. We chose to use sand because we tested in the winter when the ground was frozen.

The next test was to find out how well they charged in both direct and indirect sunlight. I placed one of each type of light in my front yard to receive direct sunlight, and another of each in my backyard against the house, which rarely receives sun. I waited for the lights to charge, checking to see if they were able to charge in a day.

I also set up a third batch of lights to fully charge and then placed them in my dark basement, checking every few hours to see how long the fully charged lights lasted.

Finally, we moved into durability testing. First, I gently kicked each of the lights several times, looking to see if it would crack, stop working, or fall over. I then poured water over each of them to simulate wet weather conditions. Mother Nature helped with this test as well, providing both a blizzard and an ice storm as additional tests.

What to Consider Before Buying Outdoor Solar Lights

Type of Solar Lights

There are a variety of solar lights to meet the needs of any space. Pathway lights, like the ones we tested, are excellent for providing safety and visibility to a walkway or driveway. Solar post lights, fence lights, and rope lights can provide the same type of illumination with a slightly different look.

Solar string lights (also known as fairy lights or decorative hanging lights) are typically used more for aesthetics than pure functionality, and can help set the mood of any backyard party.

No matter what form your solar lights take, there are options for motion detection, light colors, and more to truly suit your needs.

Brightness

Light brightness is measured in lumens—the higher the lumens, the brighter the bulb. A 100-watt incandescent light bulb can measure approximately 1,500 lumens, while lights designed for outdoor use are typically much lower. Those we tested ranged from 1 to 80 lumens per bulb.

Special Features

While most outdoor solar lights are pretty straightforward, a few have special features that you may want to consider.

Some have the ability to change colors, giving you more control over the aesthetic of your yard-scape. Others may be smart outdoor lights with wireless features and lighting modes that can be controlled from your smartphone or tablet.

Still others have motion detectors, so they only turn on when needed, rather than shining from dusk to dawn. Whether or not you need any special features can help narrow your decision down.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do Solar Lights Work?

Solar lights have a photovoltaic panel on the top of the light that converts sunlight into electricity that then powers a rechargeable battery inside the lantern.

An internal light sensor recognizes when night has fallen, and the LED light or lights turn on, running off of that rechargeable battery. When the sun comes out again, the battery charges back up to full, ready to power another night.

Do Outdoor Solar Lights Need Direct Sunlight?

Most solar lights function best and charge fastest in direct sunlight. However, all but two of the lights we tested worked in our indirect sunlight tests.

Shade or cloudiness may affect how long it takes the battery to charge. But as long as the battery gets full during the day, a good light should work fine that night.

Do Solar Lights Work In Winter?

From a purely electrical standpoint, solar lights will gather sunlight and charge the battery in the cold. However, not all of the lights that we tested were able to stand up to the environmental rigor of New England winter weather. Several models grew noticeably dimmer and even failed after two weeks of rain, ice, snow, and freezing temperatures.

If you live in a cold environment, consider investing in higher-quality lights.

Three solar lights staked in grass at a park during daylight hours.
Credit: Jackson Ruckar

Most of the outdoor solar lights we tested worked in direct or indirect sunlight.

How Long Do Solar Lights Last?

For single-day performance, some lights we tested lasted 8 to 12 hours, and even far longer in some cases.

For long-term durability, we tested our solar lights over two weeks of a New England winter—a worthy test, but we can’t say definitively how long all of them will last over time.

However, there is a wide range of quality in the market. Some of the lights we tested never really worked, others started to fail after a few weeks, and still others show no signs of wear or slowing down.

I would expect any of our top-ranked lights to last for at least several years, until the rechargeable batteries themselves fail.

Are Outdoor Solar Lights Durable?

In testing, solar light durability came down almost entirely to the materials that the lights were made of. Lights made primarily of plastic crack very easily. The ones made of glass and metal are much more durable, both in terms of their physical durability and their ability to stand up to the weather.

In terms of their ability to slide into the ground, they nearly all use a similar plastic stake. Lights with cylindrical stands are a bit flimsier than the lights with square stands.

How Bright Are Solar Lights?

Some solar path lights are designed to give off a very dim glow, and function more as markers than true light sources. They’d help you see the edge of a walkway, but you probably couldn’t use the lights to find your keys if you dropped them.

Other solar path lights give off a usable amount of illumination, so that you could light up most of your yard with a few of them.

Still others, like the Ring light, are more like spotlights on a stake. A single one lights up my entire walkway area. This may be too much light for some uses. In that case, look for the option to adjust brightness, or simply consider a less-intense light.

Meet the tester

Jean Levasseur

Jean Levasseur

Contributor

Jean Levasseur became a professional writer over a decade-long career in marketing, public relations, and technical writing. After leaving that career to stay home to care for his twin boys, Jean has continued to write in a variety of freelance roles, as well as teaching academic writing at a local university. When he's not reviewing tools or chasing toddlers around the house, he's also an avid fiction writer and a growing woodworker.

See all of Jean Levasseur's reviews

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