JellyFish Lighting Cost: What the Manufacturer Publishes
JellyFish Lighting publishes its own pricing: $25 to $35 per linear foot installed, with most homeowners spending $3,000 to $6,000 on the street-facing sides of the house and an average around $4,600. The controller and power supply are quoted separately at $650 to $850, and one controller drives up to 263 feet of lights before a second power supply is needed. Those figures come from JellyFish's own pricing article, updated in September 2026.
- Per linear foot, installed
- $25–$35
- Typical project
- $3,000–$6,000
- Stated average
- ~$4,600
- Controller + power supply
- $650–$850
- Feet per controller
- 263 ft (max 2,400 ft)
What the $25 to $35 per foot actually buys
The per-foot rate is the installed rate: the aluminum channel, the addressable diodes seated in it, the mounting, and the labor to put it on the house. It is not a materials price with installation added later, which is why comparing it against a big-box kit price is comparing two different things.
Where inside the range you land is mostly a question of how hard your roofline is to work. A single-story ranch with a continuous front eave sits at the bottom. Steep pitch, multiple gables, three stories, dormers, and anything that puts a technician on a ladder for longer per foot pushes toward the top. JellyFish names complexity, region and time of year as the three drivers, and the seasonal one is the one you can control: quotes taken in spring and summer are competing for a crew that is not yet booked solid.
The controller is a step cost, not a line item to ignore
At $650 to $850, the controller is between two and three percent of an average project, which is easy to wave through. The number that deserves attention is the 263 feet one controller covers, with additional power supplies extending in the same increments up to a system maximum of 2,400 feet, or 3,200 LEDs.
That makes the cost curve step rather than slope. A house measured at 255 feet and a house measured at 275 feet are twenty feet apart in channel and one whole power supply apart in hardware. If your measurement lands near that boundary, it is worth asking whether trimming a short back run, or extending one, changes which side of the step you land on. A good estimator will already have thought about it; it is a fair question to ask the one who has not.
Is JellyFish worth it against hiring seasonal installers?
JellyFish makes the comparison itself, framing the alternative as seasonal installers at $1,000 or more per year. Against the $4,600 average, that is roughly a five-year break-even, and after that the system is running on electricity and nothing else.
The honest caveat is that $1,000 a year is a large seasonal install. If you currently pay in the mid hundreds for a front elevation, the same math stretches past a decade, and at that horizon the payback argument gets weak enough that it should not be the reason you buy. The reasons that survive the arithmetic are the ones that have nothing to do with December: no ladder, no storage bins, no scheduling, and a system that runs orange in October, red white and blue in July, and a single warm accent white on an ordinary Tuesday. If those are worth something to you, say so out loud in the decision instead of reverse-engineering a payback that does not hold.
What to pin down before you sign
Get the warranty in writing on your own quote. JellyFish's public FAQ lists the warranty as a question but does not render the answer as text on the page, and terms quoted by dealers vary, so a comparison article is the wrong place to learn yours. Ask for parts and labor as two separate numbers of years.
Then pin the four things that move a JellyFish quote and are not in the headline rate: the exact linear footage measured and which elevations it covers, how many controllers and power supplies are included, where the power is coming from and whether an electrician is in the price, and who performs a service call in year four and what it costs. Every one of those is answerable in a sentence. A bidder who will not put them on paper has told you something useful.
Looking at alternatives to JellyFish
The nearest published comparison is Trimlight, which starts lower at $18 per linear foot and publishes a lifetime product warranty with specific conditions attached. Gemstone Lights publishes no price at all. EverLights is the only one of the group selling DIY kits at flat published prices, which makes it the natural comparison if you are willing to do the install yourself.
Our own crews install brand-agnostic architectural channel systems, and we are not a JellyFish dealer, so we have nothing invested in talking you out of one. The advice we would give either way is the same: three quotes, each showing footage and rate separately, each with a labor warranty in years.
Common questions
How much does JellyFish Lighting cost per foot?
JellyFish publishes $25 to $35 per linear foot installed, and names complexity, region and time of year as what moves you inside that range. The controller and power supply are separate at $650 to $850. On a typical street-facing roofline the company puts the total at $3,000 to $6,000, averaging about $4,600.
Why is my JellyFish quote higher than the average?
Usually footage, not rate. The published average assumes the street-facing sides of the house; adding gables, a second story, a detached garage or the rear elevation raises the total without changing the per-foot price. The other common cause is a second power supply, since one controller covers 263 feet. Ask for the measured footage and the controller count and the gap almost always explains itself.
Is there a cheaper alternative to JellyFish Lighting?
On published starting prices, yes: Trimlight publishes a range beginning at $18 per linear foot against JellyFish's $25, and EverLights sells DIY kits from $750 for 100 feet of classic white. The ranges overlap enough at the top that the brand matters less than your roofline and your local installer, so price three of them on your actual footage before deciding the cheap one is cheaper for you.
Does JellyFish include the electrical work?
Not necessarily, and it is the omission that surprises people most often. The per-foot rate covers channel, diodes, mounting and labor. Bringing power to the run is a separate question, and whether that means using an existing exterior outlet or having an electrician pull a new circuit can be a meaningful difference. Ask which assumption your quote is built on before you sign it.
Sources
Every figure above is attributed. These are the pages the numbers came from, checked on the dates shown.