Smart Home Assistant

Innr Smart Bulbs UK Review: Zigbee Quality at a Lower Price

SepehrBy Sepehr· 26 May 2026· 7 min read
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Innr Smart Bulbs UK Review: Zigbee Quality at a Lower Price

Not yet hands-on tested.This review is compiled from manufacturer specifications, official documentation, and independent testing from other reviewers — we have not tested this product ourselves. We're working on getting a review unit to publish an updated, hands-on version.

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If you already own a Philips Hue Bridge or run Home Assistant, Innr smart bulbs are one of the smartest ways to expand your lighting without paying Hue prices. Innr is a Dutch brand that builds Zigbee 3.0 bulbs designed to slot straight into your existing setup — no proprietary hub, no separate app required if you already have one of the major hubs.

Innr has become a widely recommended option in the Home Assistant and Zigbee community for anyone who wants dependable lighting at a sensible price.

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Innr Smart Bulb Range

Innr's line-up spans four fittings — GU10, E27, E14 and B22 bayonet — with warm-white-only, tunable-white and full-colour options at different price points. Innr's own web shop lists 17 bulbs; the B22 range sits outside it, which is worth understanding before you buy.

FittingBulbs in rangeExampleFrom (direct from Innr)
GU103 spots — White, Comfort, ColourSmart Spot Colour GU10~£17
E279, including tunable filament stylesSmart Bulb Colour 1200lm~£17
E145 — 3 candles, 2 golf-ball mini bulbsSmart Candle Colour (RB 252 C)~£12
B22 bayonet3 — BY 265, BY 278 T, BY 285 CSmart Bulb Colour B22 (BY 285 C)Amazon only — see below

Those are Innr’s own direct prices, converted from euro at roughly €1 = £0.86 as of September 2026. UK retailers tend to carry previous-generation Innr models instead, often noticeably cheaper — which is where the per-bulb figures below come from — so it is worth checking both.

GU10 Spot Bulb (Warm White)

Best for downlights and spotlights. The GU10 warm white bulb delivers around 350 lumens at 4.8W, replacing a standard 50W halogen spot. At roughly £9.99 per bulb (prices vary by retailer), it undercuts Philips Hue's GU10 by a significant margin. Colour temperature sits at 2,700K — a warm, natural white that suits living rooms and bedrooms well.

E27 Bulb (Warm White and RGBW)

Versatile screw-cap bulb for table lamps and pendants. The E27 warm white produces around 806 lumens at 8.5W — bright enough for most room lighting tasks. RGBW versions, which add full colour alongside a dedicated warm-white channel, are available for around £14.99. The RGBW models deliver more natural-looking whites than standard RGB bulbs, because the white channel is separate from the colour LEDs.

E14 Candles and Mini Bulbs

Best for chandeliers, wall sconces and bedside lamps. The E14 range runs to five products: three candle shapes (white, tunable "Comfort" and full colour) and two golf-ball mini bulbs in tunable white and colour. The colour candle (RB 252 C) puts out 500 lumens at 4.9W, with the same 16 million colours and 1,000K–20,000K white range as the larger E27 models, at about £21 direct from Innr. The white-only candle starts at about £12 — the point in the range where Innr's price advantage over Hue is widest.

B22 Bayonet: Available, but Not from Innr Directly

Innr does make bayonet bulbs — the warm-white BY 265, the tunable-white BY 278 T and the full-colour BY 285 C, all Zigbee 3.0 certified and rated 806 lumens. That matters in the UK, where B22 remains common in older properties and ceiling pendants. The catch is finding them. They no longer appear anywhere in Innr's own web shop, which returns nothing at all for "B22" or "bayonet", and several UK retailers that once carried them now list them as discontinued. The warm-white two-pack is still sold on Amazon.co.uk by Innr Lighting directly; the colour and tunable versions are harder to track down. If bayonet is what you need, check availability before committing to Innr across a whole house.

If colour changing matters to you, we have a broader look at your options in our guide to the best colour changing smart bulbs in the UK.

Beyond Bulbs: Plugs, Strips and the Outdoor Range

Innr's Zigbee range extends well past bulbs, which matters when you're building out a mesh — every mains-powered Innr device acts as a router and strengthens the network for everything else on it.

Indoors that means smart plugs, ceiling lights, a Zigbee button and remote, and the Lightstrip Colour, which we've tested separately in our Innr FL 250 C LED strip review.

Outdoors, Innr runs a low-voltage 24V system along the same lines as Hue's outdoor range. The Outdoor Smart Spot Colour ships as a three-spot set with its control box and power supply for about £103, each spot rated 410 lumens at 4.7W, and expands to five or ten units. Alongside it sit a larger Spot XL, a Globe Light, a decorative light string, a 16A outdoor smart plug with power metering, a 48W power supply and 2-pin and 5-pin extension cables for longer runs. That is a more complete outdoor system than most Zigbee brands offer at this price.

Compatibility: Which Hubs Work?

This is where Innr earns its reputation. Because the bulbs are certified Zigbee 3.0, they work with any Zigbee coordinator — you do not need an Innr hub.

  • Philips Hue Bridge — Innr bulbs pair instantly and appear as third-party lights. You get full on/off and dimming control via the Hue app; colour temperature and RGBW control also work. Scenes and automations function as expected.
  • Home Assistant (via Zigbee2MQTT or ZHA) — full integration with all attributes exposed. If you are setting up a Home Assistant Zigbee network, Innr is one of the most widely tested brands in the community.
  • Amazon Echo (4th gen and later) — the 4th-generation Echo has a built-in Zigbee hub, so Innr bulbs pair directly without any additional hardware.
  • Samsung SmartThings — compatible as a standard Zigbee light.
  • IKEA Dirigera and older TRADFRI hub — Innr bulbs pair reliably with IKEA hubs. For a comparison of the IKEA ecosystem, see our IKEA TRÅDFRI review.

The Innr app is available on iOS and Android and works as a standalone option if you have no existing hub. In practice, however, it offers fewer automation features than Home Assistant or even the Hue app. Most users with an existing smart home ecosystem will never open it.

Performance: Dimming, Brightness, and Reliability

Dimming is one of Innr's genuine strengths. The bulbs dim smoothly from full brightness down to around 1–2% without flicker or the sudden drop-off that cheaper Zigbee bulbs can suffer. Low-level dimming is particularly impressive — at 5% the warm white GU10 gives a good nightlight glow without any visible stutter.

Zigbee range and mesh performance are widely reported as solid, with multi-room installs described as reliable and free of drop-outs or delayed responses. Innr bulbs are known to act as good Zigbee repeaters, strengthening the mesh for other devices.

For RGBW models, colour accuracy is reasonable for consumer smart lighting. Reds and blues are vivid; greens are slightly less saturated than Hue's Colour Ambiance range at similar brightness levels. For most use cases — accent lighting, evening scenes, mood lighting — the difference is not meaningful.

Startup time after a power cut is fast: bulbs return to their last state within two to three seconds.

Energy Use and Running Costs

At 4.8W for the GU10 and 8.5W for the E27, Innr bulbs are efficient replacements for older halogens. A GU10 running eight hours a day uses roughly 14kWh per year — at current Ofgem price cap unit rates, that works out to around £3.50 per year per bulb. Replacing four 50W halogens in a downlight fitting could save around £50 a year in electricity alone.

Value vs Philips Hue

Philips Hue GU10 bulbs cost around £25–£30 each; Innr GU10s cost roughly £9.99. For a four-bulb downlight fitting, the saving is over £60. Given that both brands are Zigbee 3.0 and both work perfectly on a Hue Bridge, the main trade-offs are subtle colour accuracy differences and the Hue-exclusive features like Entertainment mode and out-of-home control via the Hue app (which requires the Hue Bridge regardless).

For a broader picture of where Innr sits in the market, see our roundup of the best smart bulbs in the UK.

If budget is the priority and you do not need Hue's premium features, Innr is the more sensible choice for bulb-for-bulb replacement. If you want deep Hue integration — sync with entertainment, precise Circadian Rhythm schedules, or the Hue gradient range — the Hue premium is more justified.

Verdict

Innr smart bulbs are the best-value Zigbee bulbs available in the UK for anyone who already owns a compatible hub. The Zigbee 3.0 standard means they slot into Hue, Home Assistant, SmartThings, and Amazon Echo setups without friction. Dimming performance is excellent, the mesh is reliable, and the price per bulb is hard to beat.

The Innr app is not a reason to buy; this is a brand for people already invested in a smart home ecosystem. If you are starting from scratch, a Philips Hue starter kit gives you the bridge, app, and bulbs in one package — but for anyone expanding an existing Zigbee network, Innr is the smarter buy.

Related: best smart bulbs UK, Zigbee2MQTT setup guide, Philips Hue vs LIFX comparison, and our Innr FL 250 C LED strip review.

Frequently asked questions

Do Innr smart bulbs work with Philips Hue Bridge?
Yes. Innr bulbs are Zigbee 3.0 certified and pair directly with the Philips Hue Bridge. They appear as third-party lights in the Hue app, with full on/off, dimming, and colour temperature control. You won't get access to Hue-exclusive features like Entertainment mode, but everyday automation and scene control works as expected.
Do Innr bulbs work with Home Assistant?
Yes. Innr bulbs are fully supported in Home Assistant via both Zigbee2MQTT and the ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation) integration. They are one of the most widely tested Zigbee bulb brands in the Home Assistant community, and all attributes — brightness, colour temperature, RGBW colour — are exposed as controllable entities.
Are Innr smart bulbs any good?
Innr bulbs offer excellent Zigbee reliability, smooth dimming down to very low levels, and strong mesh performance. They are not quite at Philips Hue's level for colour accuracy on RGBW models, but for warm-white dimming they are comparable. At around £9.99 per bulb versus £25–£30 for Hue, they represent strong value for anyone with an existing Zigbee hub.
Do Innr bulbs need their own hub?
No. Innr bulbs use the Zigbee 3.0 standard, so they work with any compatible Zigbee hub — including Philips Hue Bridge, Amazon Echo (4th gen+), Samsung SmartThings, IKEA Dirigera, and Home Assistant with a Zigbee dongle. The Innr app and a direct Wi-Fi pairing option are available if you have no existing hub, but most smart home users won't need them.

Sources

Sources verified 2026-09-07

  1. Innr — Innr Smart Bulb GU10 — Product Page
  2. Innr — Innr Smart Bulb E27 — Product Page
  3. Philips Hue — Works with Hue — Compatible Products
  4. Home Assistant Community — Innr Zigbee Devices — Community Forum
  5. Amazon UK — Innr Smart Bulbs — Amazon.co.uk
  6. Which? — Smart Lighting Reviews
  7. Ofgem — Energy Price Cap — Current Rates
  8. Innr — Smart bulbs collection — full range and fittings
  9. Innr — Outdoor lighting collection
  10. Innr — Smart Candle Colour E14 (RB 252 C) product page
  11. CSA (Connectivity Standards Alliance) — Innr Zigbee 3.0 B22 Bulb RGBW — certification listing
How we researched this

Claims in this article are checked against primary sources — manufacturer specifications, official documentation, Which? research, Ofgem guidance, or gov.uk — rather than forum threads or video reviews. Where the author has direct hands-on experience with a product (most Home Assistant, Zigbee, and home-networking gear is running in his own homelab), that is stated explicitly in the text.

For categories outside that personal setup — such as boilers, heat pumps, and other areas that are traditionally a heating engineer's domain — verdicts are built from cross-referenced manufacturer data, published lab results, and vetted expert and owner reviews rather than a claim of personal hands-on testing. See the editorial policy for the full methodology.

Sepehr

Written by

Sepehr

10+ years hands-on with Home Assistant & networking · Research-backed elsewhere · No brand deals

Smart home specialist with 10+ years running a self-hosted Home Assistant setup — Zigbee2MQTT, Frigate NVR, and local-first automations. Independent coverage for UK homes, no brand deals.

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