The best outdoor wall lanterns

A wall lantern beside a door is asked to do two things. It should make the entrance look welcoming from the street, and it should let you see the lock, the step and the face of whoever is standing there.

Both need less light than most people fit. Published guidance puts accent and ambient wall lighting around 100 to 200 lumens, and a lantern doing both the welcoming and the practical job usually sits somewhere around 400 to 700. Above that, a porch light starts to dazzle the person under it and darken everything beyond its pool.

The other thing that matters is warmth. A warm 2700K to 3000K lantern reads as a home; a cool one reads as a service entrance. That single choice changes how a facade looks more than the fixture's shape does.

Maxxima LED porch lantern, 650 lm - the pick. 650 published lumens at a warm 3000K for 9.5 watts, with a dusk-to-dawn photocell. It lands in the right range for an entrance, publishes its output, and switches itself on and off. The integrated LED also avoids the sealed-lantern problem that cooks ordinary bulbs.
Cons: hardwired, so replacing a lantern needs permission and usually an electrician; the integrated LED fixes the color temperature for life; no CRI published.

Maxxima lantern, water glass, 600 lm - the diffused version. 600 lumens at 3000K behind textured water glass with a dusk-to-dawn sensor. The glass hides the source, which is kinder to anyone standing at the door.
Cons: draws more watts than the clear version for less light, and hardwired.

Feit enclosed-rated A19 - if you keep the lantern you have. About 1,500 lumens at 2700K and CRI 90+, rated for enclosed fixtures. Most existing lanterns are sealed, and an ordinary bulb in one dies early. This is the fix, and it needs no permission.
Cons: 1,500 lm is more than an entrance needs - a lower-output enclosed-rated bulb suits a small porch better.

Luxrite E12 - for candle-style lanterns. 500 lumens, dimmable, rated for enclosed fixtures and wet locations - the rare candelabra bulb that suits an outdoor sealed lantern.
Cons: no published CRI.

Most people live with the lantern that came with the house, and in a rental you generally cannot change it. That is less limiting than it sounds, because the bulb is where most of the improvement lives.

Use an enclosed-rated bulb. A sealed lantern traps the heat an LED driver produces, and that is what makes porch bulbs fail constantly. The rating is the fix - covered in best LED bulbs for enclosed fixtures.

Go warm. 2700K to 3000K at an entrance is the single change that most improves how a house looks at night.

Check the location rating. A lantern under a deep porch is a damp location; one on an exposed wall is wet. They are different specifications - see wet rated vs damp rated.

The full entrance plan, including the permission side, is in porch and entry lighting.