I have tried Phillips Hue, Sengled and LIFX lights and I like them in that order.
The Hue and Sengled lights use Zigbee. I'd say that Hue switches are clearly superior to Sengled switches, particularly when we have a power outage the Sengled switches seem to go crazy trying to connect to the hub and they run their batteries out very quickly.
The LIFX lights use WiFi and have the basic problem that they take a noticeable time to boot and be controllable whereas the Zigbee-based switches connect to the hub immediately. I think the LIFX lights can make more pure colors than the other lights but I think the quality of the white light they make is less good for making fine sensory distinctions.
I have Python scripts to control the lights that run on a tower PC. I've written things like "turn the lights on in the bedroom slowly with sunrise hues over the course of 10 minutes when it is time to wake up, then play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrX0z6i5Yp8" also I have scripts that can pass events between the sengled, hue, and smartthings system so I can turn on Hue lights with a sengled switch.
