Lutron vs Control4 Lighting: Which Lighting Control System Should You Choose?

Lutron and Control4 are two of the names homeowners hear most when they start looking at lighting control. They overlap, but they are not the same kind of product, and for many homes the answer is not one or the other but both.

What Lutron is

Lutron is a lighting control company first. Its systems, from Caséta through RadioRA and HomeWorks, are built around dimmers, keypads, scenes and schedules, and Lutron also makes motorized shades. Lutron owns Ketra, whose tunable light sources change color temperature and intensity through the day.

Lutron's strengths are the quality and feel of the dimming, a wide range of keypad finishes, and lighting and shades on one system.

What Control4 is

Control4 is a whole-home automation platform. It controls lighting, but also audio, video, climate, security, cameras and door locks from one app, one remote or a touch screen. Control4 makes its own lighting dimmers and keypads, and it also integrates with Lutron lighting.

Control4's strength is breadth: one interface for the whole house, with lighting as one part of it.

How they compare

	Lutron	Control4
Focus	Lighting and shades	The whole home
Dimming and keypads	Its core business	Available, alongside other systems
Tunable lighting	Ketra	Through integration
Audio, video, climate, security	Through integration	Built into the platform
Works with the other	Yes	Yes

When to choose which

• Lighting is the priority. If the goal is beautiful, reliable lighting and shades, with dimming and scenes that just work, start with Lutron, and with Ketra if you want lighting that follows the time of day.
• You want one app for everything. If you also want music, TVs, climate and security on one system, Control4 is the platform, and lighting becomes one of the things it runs.
• You want both. Many of the homes we design use Lutron for lighting and shades and Control4 to tie lighting together with the rest of the house. You get Lutron's lighting quality and a single interface for everything else.

What lighting control costs

Whole-home lighting control from Livewire typically runs $10,000 to $60,000 or more. What moves the number:

• how many rooms, circuits and keypads are included;
• whether you add Ketra tunable fixtures;
• motorized shades on the same system;
• new construction, where wiring is easy, versus a retrofit, which usually means wireless dimmers.

For whole-home automation with Control4 or Savant, see what a smart home costs, and for a head-to-head of the two platforms, read Control4 vs. Savant.

See it before you decide

The easiest way to choose is to see and feel the difference. Visit our Ketra Experience Center on West Clay Street, or learn more about lighting control and book a consultation.