Motion sensor vs dusk to dawn

A dusk-to-dawn bulb has a photocell. It switches itself on when the light level drops and off when it comes back, so the fitting is lit for the whole night. That is what you want where the light has a job even when nobody is moving: a front door you arrive at, a house that should look occupied, a set of steps.

A motion bulb has a sensor that looks for movement and heat. It stays off, comes on for a couple of minutes, and goes back off. That is what you want where light matters only when something is there: a driveway, a side gate, a garage, the path to a bin store.

Most houses want both, in different places. Fitting motion to a front porch means arriving home to a dark door and a light that blinks on a second later; fitting dusk-to-dawn to a driveway means lighting an empty driveway all night and a neighbor who mentions it.

1. The delay. A motion light has one - it has to notice you first. On a porch that is the whole objection; on a driveway nobody minds.
2. False triggers. Cars, cats, branches and warm vent air all set off motion sensors. A dusk-to-dawn bulb has exactly one trigger and it happens twice a day.
3. Running cost. Dusk to dawn runs all night. At LED wattages that is small - under 10 watts for an 800 lumen bulb - but it is eleven hours a night against perhaps twenty minutes. Work out your own rate in what a light bulb costs to run.
4. Neighbors and light trespass. A bright motion flood pointed the wrong way is the most common complaint in outdoor lighting. Aim it down at what it is meant to light, not out at a fence line.
5. Sensor placement. Both types put the sensor in the bulb, which means the fitting decides whether it can see anything. Deep lanterns and dark soffits are the usual reason a bulb "does not work".

Feit motion sensor A19 - the motion pick for an ordinary socket. 800 lumens with CRI 90+ and five color temperatures from 2700K to 5000K, in a standard A19 that drops into a porch or garage fitting. CRI 90 on a motion bulb is unusual and it matters if the light is also the one you unlock a door by.
Cons: not dimmable; the sensor sits in the bulb, so a deep fitting can blind it; and a motion bulb at a front door means arriving in the dark for a second.

GE LED+ motion PAR38 - the motion pick for a flood fitting. 1,150 lumens at 3000K with CRI 90 in the PAR38 shape outdoor flood fittings take. Warm white rather than the 5000K most security lighting uses, which is easier to live beside on a house you actually look at.
Cons: not dimmable; 1,150 lm is modest against a dedicated security flood; and like every bulb-based sensor, aiming the fitting aims the sensor too.

GE LED+ dusk to dawn A19 - the simplest all-night light. 800 lumens at 2700K, on at dark and off at dawn with nothing to program. For a porch lantern this is the whole job done for the price of a bulb.
Cons: CRI 80; not dimmable; and the photocell needs to see daylight, so it can misbehave in a deeply shaded fitting.

Feit dusk to dawn PAR38 - all-night light in a flood shape. 1,050 lumens with CRI 90 and selectable 2700K to 5000K, for a flood fitting that should simply be on all night - a driveway entrance, a long approach, a yard corner.
Cons: not dimmable; running a flood all night is the light-trespass risk on this page, so aim it carefully.

Check the fitting is rated for where it is. A sheltered porch is a damp location; an exposed fixture that takes rain is a wet location, and the bulb has to match - wet vs damp rated explains which is which.

Point the sensor, not just the light. On motion bulbs the sensor usually faces the same way as the bulb nose. If that is straight down at a wall, the light will trigger on almost nothing.

Warm light for a house, cool light for security. 2700K to 3000K at a front door looks like a home. 5000K at a gate looks like a warning. Both are right in their place - outdoor color temperature covers the argument.

Keep light out of bedrooms - yours and theirs. Aim down, use the lowest output that does the job, and check from the street and from next door's upstairs window before you call it done.