Shopping permanent lighting
Permanent Lighting Brands Compared
You are going to get more than one quote. These pages are the comparison we would want if we were the ones buying, sourced to each company's own published pages, including the parts where they beat us.
We are going to tell you where they beat us
Most comparison pages exist to make one product look obvious. These do not.
The professional systems in this category have more in common than anyone selling them wants to admit. Each fits a track under the roofline that is color-matched to the house and meant to go unnoticed in daylight. Each offers warm white for ordinary nights and color for the holidays. All are professionally installed, and none of them publish a flat price, because every roofline is different.
They are not identical, though, and the differences are more specific than the brochures suggest. Gemstone and JellyFish both advertise 16 million colors; Trimlight instead publishes showing up to 30 colors at a time. Gemstone and Trimlight both state a 50,000 hour lamp life; we could not find an hour rating published for JellyFish at all. Those are the kinds of details worth pinning down, and each page below does it one brand at a time.
So here is the part most companies save for the bottom in small type. Gemstone's published warranty is longer than ours. JellyFish integrates with Alexa and we do not. Both of those are true, both are in the tables below, and neither is hidden.
What we will not do is invent a difference to win a click. Every claim on these brand comparison pages is quoted from the other company's own published page, with the date we checked it. Specifications change between product generations, so check the date and go look at the current page before you decide anything on it. Get one of us out to your house in Trinity or Odessa or Palm Harbor, get one of them out too, and judge the two written prices and the two people standing in your driveway. That is the only comparison that has ever actually mattered.
Compared to a specific brand
JellyFish Lighting
Strong system, and they beat us outright on smart home integration. The honest side by side, including where they win.
Read the comparison →
Gemstone Lights
Closer to us on the hardware than any comparison page usually admits. Their warranty is longer than ours and we say so.
Read the comparison →
Trimlight
Their own FAQ describes an RGB system and says HQ is not responsible for installation, support or repairs.
Read the comparison →
Govee
Not really the same category. Govee sell theirs as DIY, mounted with glue and clips, and in Florida heat that is the whole problem.
Read the comparison →
The questions that actually decide it
Once you have two or three quotes in hand, these are the three things worth pinning down.
RGB vs RGBW: why some warm white looks blue
Every brand claims warm white. Some use a dedicated diode, some mix it from red, green and blue. What each one actually documents.
Read it →
What a lifetime warranty actually covers
Two brands publish a lifetime warranty. A third calls that an illusion. The parts-versus-labor line decides which is worth more.
Read it →
Who fixes it when it breaks
Almost none of these brands install their own product. What each company states about who shows up in year three.
Read it →
What we install, and what we do not
We are not a dealer for any of the brands above. We install our own manufacturer's system, which uses RGBW with a diode dedicated to warm white, a track finished to match your soffit or fascia, and app control for color, zones and schedules. What that involves is on the permanent architectural lighting page.
We are also a young company, two owners working out of Tarpon Springs, and we are not going to claim a track record we have not earned yet. What we can tell you is exactly who will be on your roof, because it is the same two people who quote it.
If you want the wider background rather than a brand-by-brand comparison, the after dark guide covers how these systems work, what they cost to run and how long they last.
Questions people ask
Which permanent lighting brand is best?
There is no single answer, and any company that gives you one is selling rather than advising. On hardware the professional systems in this category are closer than the marketing suggests: a color-matched track, warm white for everyday use, color for the holidays, and app control. The differences that actually change your experience are who installs it, what the warranty covers in labor rather than parts, and whether the white looks right on your own house at night. That last one is worth seeing in person, because the brands do not all make white the same way.
Why would you write comparison pages that admit competitors are good?
Because you are going to get more than one quote anyway, and if we tell you a competitor is bad at something they are demonstrably good at, you will find out and stop trusting anything else we said. Every claim on these pages is sourced to that company’s own published page, with the date we checked it. If we ever get one wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
Do you install any of these brands?
No. We install our own manufacturer’s system, and these pages exist to compare it honestly against the alternatives you are likely to be quoted. We are not a dealer for Gemstone, JellyFish or Trimlight, and we do not sell Govee.
Can you service a system another company installed?
Sometimes. Tell us what it is doing. Some faults are generic to any low-voltage track system and we can help. Some are tied to a specific manufacturer's parts and warranty, where you are better off with your installing dealer, and we will tell you that rather than take the job. Call (727) 222-3111.
Get ours alongside the others
Have us out, have them out, and compare the written prices and the people. Ours is free and there is no obligation either way.