WLED
Ranked 2 of 3 smart home firmware by recommenders
Free open-source firmware that runs on an ESP32 to drive addressable LED strips, including music-synced and audio-reactive effects.
Free open-source firmware that runs on an ESP32 to drive addressable LED strips, including music-synced and audio-reactive effects.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Audio reactive and music-synced LEDs
“Install wleds, sync them to the music or use them as visual notification for things you care about”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: Any Interesting Niche Hobbies?” “The WLED firmware with an ESP-S3 and a MEMS microphone can even do audio reactivity.”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Making a flexible "neon" t-shirt with LED filaments” Runs on cheap ESP32 hardware
“WLED is a system that runs on the ESP32 for some cool capabilities to drive the ws2812s”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “ESP32-S31” “WLED does everything on the ESP32.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Audio Reactive LED Strips Are Diabolically Hard”
Other smart home firmware people recommend
The two most recommended other smart home firmware, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESPHome | 54 | 5 | 92% | 11 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| WLEDThis page | 8 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Tasmota firmware | 5 | 1 | 83% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The WLED firmware with an ESP-S3 and a MEMS microphone can even do audio reactivity.”
“WLED on that would be awesome”
“WLED is a system that runs on the ESP32 for some cool capabilities to drive the ws2812s”
“the open source community continues to amaze me”
“Install wleds, sync them to the music or use them as visual notification for things you care about”
“WLED is decent but tbh the lag is very noticeable”
“WLED does it fine, I've built a few and it works well.”
“WLED does everything on the ESP32.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.