With the emergence of the different light-emitting diode (LED) packaging materials, the thermal analysis of LED device packaging with different materials has become urgent. The thermal performance of LED packaging with a poly(1,4-cyclohexylenedimethylene terephthalate) frame (PCT-LED) and LED packaging with an epoxy moulding compound frame (EMC-LED) were measured and simulated. The results show that compared with EMC-LED, PCT-LED has better optical and thermal performance. The luminous efficiency of PCT-LED and EMC-LED is 177.31 and 167.42 lm/W, respectively, under 150 mA at 25°C. PCT-LED devices have a lower thermal resistance of 15.64°C/W compared with that of EMC-LED, and under the different temperature and drive current conditions, the excellent thermal characteristic of PCT-LED devices is significant. Moreover, all simulation results agree well with the experimental results, and the maximum temperature of PCT-LED falls faster than that of EMC-LED with a fluid flow rate by thermal simulation. However, EMC-LED has better antiageing performance. These results are important to guide the application of PCT-LEDs and EMC-LEDs.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.