Everytime someone finds out I write about sunrise alarm clocks, they ask me if I’ve tried the Hatch. Specifically, the Hatch Restore 2 ($170), which I’ve seen on gift guides left and right this holiday season. It’s a good device, but personally, I think you can do better.

The Hatch Restore is great for falling asleep, and great if you want a sound machine. But if you really want to wake up easier, it’s not the one I recommend. My favorite sunrise alarm clocks both sell for over $200, which might be a bit more than you’d want to spend. But if you’re looking for something a little cheaper (and cheaper than the Hatch’s $170 price tag!) that can do all the same tricks, look no further than the Lumie Bodyclock Shine 300.

Bedtime Brightside

The way sunrise alarm clocks work is that they slowly brighten over the course of a set amount of time. Both the Lumie and Hatch default to start at around 20 minutes, and you can customize it to be longer or shorter to slowly wake you up. It simulates a sunrise, but right next to your face and at your preferred time rather than whenever the sun will actually be rising. It’s especially handy in these dark winter months, and if you need black-out curtains to fall asleep (or if you have a room with no windows, as I once did in college).

A sunrise alarm clock is supposed to replicate the sunrise, the very thing that makes life possible. So the ability to get nice and bright is a clear necessity. That’s my problem with the Hatch—it doesn’t get bright enough to wake me up in the mornings. I don’t have that problem with the Shine 300, which gets bright enough not only to wake me up, but to double as my bedside lamp in the evenings.

It just has one range of sunrise-like shades of yellow and white that it can perform, while the Hatch can do a full rainbow of lights like a smart bulb, but I found I really didn’t need green or purple mood lights on a daily basis. What I needed was something bright enough to wake me up, especially as a non-morning person.

It also has a wind-down routine, letting you customize a routine with sounds and dimming the light over your preferred course of time to help you get nice and sleepy. It’s one of my favorite features as someone who has just as much trouble falling asleep as she does waking up. I also like that I can click a button and activate the routine on the Shine 300 whenever I’m ready.

Little Quirks

Photograph: Lumie; Getty Images

The main downside to not getting a Hatch is losing out on Hatch’s larger library of sounds. The Hatch Restore 2 gives you access to 13 wake-up sounds and 24 sleep sounds, plus you can get extra content if you subscribe to Hatch+ ($5 a month). Everything with Hatch is set up through its app, which is easy to use.