Video Comparison
TruLight vs Trimlight: The Full Breakdown
The names are close, so people mix them up. The lights are not close at all. Trimlight has been installing permanent lights for over a decade, but every product they sell is still RGB with no white light, runs at 12V, and is controlled by an app their own customers rate below 3 stars. Here is the full side by side.
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Here's the Bottom Line
Trimlight can put a clean set of color-changing lights on your house, and for basic holiday color that may be enough. But the technology has not kept up. Every product they sell is RGB with no white light, runs at 12V with frequent power injection, and is controlled by an app their own customers rate below 3 stars. TruLight gives you true white light, one simple 48V system, motion sensors, and an app with 144+ patterns.
No White Light at All
Every Trimlight product is RGB only, so there is no true warm white and no pure white anywhere in the lineup. TruLight has 6 LEDs per node, 3 RGB plus 3 dedicated warm white, for real white light. White is the color homeowners use most.
48V vs 12V
TruLight runs one box on one data line at 48V and needs a power injection only about every 400 lights. Trimlight's 12V system injects power every 10 to 30 lights and usually needs a separate box for the front and back of the house.
A 2.9-Star App
Trimlight's own customers rate their app 2.9 stars on Apple and 2.8 on Google Play. The lights get praised, the app gets panned. TruLight's app sits at 4.6 stars with 144+ patterns and an animated preview.
Full Side-by-Side Specs
| Feature | TruLight | Trimlight |
|---|---|---|
| LED Chip | UCS7604 (RGBW) | WS2811 (RGB) |
| LEDs Per Node | 6 (3 RGB + 3 warm white) | 1 (Classic) / 3 (3L & Commercial) |
| True Warm White | ||
| True Pure White | ||
| System Voltage | 48V | 12V (5V on legacy) |
| Wiring System | 4-wire (redundant data) | 3-wire |
| Wire Gauge | 16 gauge | ~20 gauge (very thin) |
| Expected Lifespan | 100,000 hours | 50,000 hours |
| Power Injection | Roughly every 400 lights | Roughly every 10-30 lights |
| Whole-Home Wiring | One box, one data line | Usually a separate box per area |
| Motion Patterns | 144+ | 10-12 |
| App Presets | Thousands (72 for Christmas alone) | 60 max |
| Animated App Preview | ||
| True Global Zoning | ||
| Motion Sensors | ||
| Music Sync | Built in, music manager, by zone | Whole house only, no manager |
| Landscape Integration | Same app, box, and data | Separate 24V and 12V boxes |
| App Store Rating | 4.6 stars | 2.9 Apple / 2.8 Google Play |
*True Warm White: Every Trimlight product is red, green, and blue only. There is no dedicated warm white LED, so warm white is approximated by mixing RGB.
*True Pure White: Without a white LED in the fixture, no Trimlight product can produce a true pure white. This is a hardware limit, not a software one.
*Power Injection: Lower voltage cannot carry power as far on a single run, so Trimlight installs add power injection points far more often.
*Whole-Home Wiring: Because a 12V run cannot make big jumps, most Trimlight dealers run a separate controller for the front and the back of the house.
*Animated App Preview: The TruLight app shows each pattern animated on a sample house. The Trimlight app has no animations.
*True Global Zoning: Trimlight uses a numbering system: you type a light count into a single field and drop a color onto it. There is no true global zoning. TruLight and JellyFish are the two systems that do real zoning.
*Landscape Integration: Trimlight landscape lighting runs on its own 24V box, separate from the 12V eve box. TruLight zones landscape lighting on the same system.
*App Store Rating: Ratings shown in the video at time of recording. App ratings change over time.
The Three Trimlight Products, Explained
Trimlight sells three main product lines, and it helps to know the difference before you get a quote. There is the original Classic bulb, the newer 3L bulb, and the Commercial puck light.
The Classic is the oldest. It has a single LED per bulb, a very thin 3-wire system around 20 gauge, and it sticks out from the track. The 3L is the update, with three LEDs per bulb instead of one. The Commercial is a puck-style disc that looks almost identical to the Gemstone and Bosso pucks, since most companies share that same housing.
Here is the key point: all three use the same WS2811 chip, all three are rated at 50,000 hours, and all three are RGB with no white LED. So no matter which Trimlight product you pick, you are getting an RGB-only light. TruLight uses a single product line with 6 LEDs per node, the UCS7604 chip, and 100,000 hours.
See the three product lines starting at 1:33 in the videoWS2811 vs UCS7604: Which Chip Is Better?
Every Trimlight light runs on the WS2811 chip. It is a well known chip and it was the best on the market when it came out years ago. But it is a 3-channel RGB chip, which is why none of their lights have a real white. It is also why they are rated at 50,000 hours.
TruLight uses the UCS7604, a 4-in-1 RGBW chip with a dedicated warm white channel built in. That gives you real white light, smoother dimming, and a 100,000 hour rating. Double the lifespan, plus a white light the WS2811 simply cannot produce.
Do not take our word for it. Google “WS2811 vs UCS7604” yourself and read what comes up. In the video, we run that exact search live on camera.
See the chip comparison at 4:13 in the videoWhy No Trimlight Product Has a Pure White
This is the biggest gap. Trimlight has only red, green, and blue LEDs in every product, including the newer 3L and the Commercial puck. When you ask for white, the system blends RGB together, which reads cool and a little blue. There is no warm white channel and no pure white. Even Gemstone, which has been around a long time, has added an RGBW option. Trimlight has not.
TruLight has 3 dedicated warm white LEDs per node in addition to the 3 RGB LEDs. That gives you a real warm white that flatters stone and stucco, plus a true pure white when all 6 LEDs blend together. White is the color homeowners use most, every single night, for everyday lighting, security lighting, and lighting up walkways and backyards. If the white is off, you notice it constantly.
See the white light discussion at 13:51 in the video12V vs 48V: Why It Changes the Whole Install
Trimlight runs at 12V, and the legacy Classic light is even lower. TruLight runs at 48V. This matters for install complexity, not brightness. A lower voltage system cannot carry power as far on a single run, so installers have to splice in a new power injection every 10 to 30 lights.
It goes further than that. A 12V run cannot make big jumps, so most Trimlight dealers cannot do a whole house from one controller. They run one box for the front of the house and a separate box for the back. They also pull only one line of data per controller, so covering different areas means more boxes and more wiring.
TruLight covers about 400 lights per injection on a single 48V run, from one box with one data source. Every injection point and every extra box is one more splice and one more potential fail point down the road. Fewer points means fewer things to go wrong.
See the power injection breakdown at 12:12 in the videoLandscape Lighting: Two Boxes vs One System
Trimlight does offer landscape lighting, but it is a whole separate system. The landscape lights run at 24V on their own box, and the eve lighting runs at 12V on a different box. To control your landscape lights you open the app, select that box, and adjust it. To control the house you select the other box and start over.
TruLight runs landscape and roofline on the same app, the same box, and the same data source. You simply zone a section as landscape. One system, one place to control everything.
See the landscape lighting breakdown at 13:00 in the videoThe App: 10-12 Patterns vs 144+, and 60 Presets vs Thousands
By Trimlight's own customer reviews, the app is their weakest area. It has roughly 10 to 12 motion patterns, things like chase forward and chase reverse, and it is capped at 60 presets total. There are no animations in the app, so you cannot see what a pattern looks like without walking outside.
TruLight's app has 144+ motion patterns and thousands of presets. We have 72 presets just for Christmas, which is more than Trimlight has for every holiday combined. Every pattern shows an animated preview on a sample house right inside the app, so you can see it before you turn the lights on.
TruLight App
- 144+ motion patterns
- Thousands of presets
- Animated house preview
- True global zoning
- Motion sensor zones
- Music manager by zone
- 4.6-star rating
Trimlight App
- 10-12 motion patterns
- 60 presets max
- Animated house preview
- True global zoning
- Motion sensor zones
- Music sync by zone
- 2.9 Apple / 2.8 Google Play
Numbering vs True Zoning
Zoning is one of the most misunderstood features in permanent lighting, and Trimlight does not really have it. Instead of selecting lights or building zones, you type a number into a single field. If you want the first 22 lights to be red, you put 22 in the bubble and drop the color red onto it. You have to know the light numbers on your house, and there is no master or global zoning.
TruLight has true global zoning. You can tell the system that lights 87 through 122 should reverse direction every single time, on any pattern, and assign motion sensors per zone. In the whole industry, TruLight and JellyFish are really the only two doing real global zoning. Trimlight is doing numbering, which is an older and more limited way to handle your lights.
See the zoning breakdown at 25:39 in the video15 Years In, Still No White Light and No Motion Sensors
Trimlight has been around for well over a decade, which is plenty of time to move the product forward. Yet they still sell the same RGB light with no white, and they still have no motion sensors. That tells you something about how fast a company listens and updates.
TruLight has been around a couple of years and already ships motion sensors, true white light, and a music manager. Motion sensors are not just a nice extra. They turn permanent lighting into a real security feature, which is exactly the kind of thing an HOA is more likely to approve, since it can replace a big ugly flood light with something clean and built in.
See the app and technology discussion starting at 17:39 in the videoStraight From the Video
“The fact that they don't have an RGBW, that they've had the same light for the last 15 years, really is a red flag for me.”
“Is RGBW important? Yes. Then you could literally stop this video right now, because RGBW does not happen in Trimlight.”
“Majority of the complaints in all of their app stores is the app. That's what most people are complaining about, how outdated it is.”
Ready to See the Difference?
Get your instant quote, then use our free preview tool to draw your roofline and see what TruLight looks like on your home. True white light, one simple 48V system, motion sensors, and an app with 144+ patterns.