Lighting type shouldn't be a determining factor between growing autos and photos. If it will grow healthy photo plants it will grow healthy auto plants. With that being said, I would only recommend a real quality LED over something such as CMH lighting, as the cheaper blurple LED's are very prone to burning out diodes, having internal fans fail, and producing an overall less than ideal spectrum. There ARE quality chinese LED's out there, in that they are reliable, but they will still underperform compared to CMH and many HPS fixtures. If you're growing short term and do not plan on growing much, go with a cheap blurple led, but if not then compare and contrast high quality LED's with CMH and HPS technology to find the best balance of price, life span, and spectrum quality. Good luck.