You do not need any proprietary hubs/bridges/gateways for devices that use standard Zigbee products made for home automation and lighting (including Philips Hue which mainly use Zigbee in their products), so for those you only buy the actual Zigbee, but be aware that with Zigbee compatibility can be a bit tricky if buying. Good to know is that almost the same also goes for standard Z-Wave devices.
To be able to add such devices to Home Assistant directly recommend that you start with the built-in ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation) integration that is fully embedded in Home Assistant to get the best native user exerience from the beginning. And the same goes for the Z-Wave (ZWave JS) integration if want to also add the ability to use those devices too. Recommend that you at least skim through their documentation here:
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Note that before you can install those you first need compatible USB radio adapters for each to act as dedicated “Zigbee Coordinator” and “Z-Wave Controller” radios respectively (plus buy some long USB extension cables for them too). Good thing is that those kinds of USB radio adapters are inexpensive and relatively easy to replace later if you ever want to upgrade to a newer/other model:
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As a recommended Zigbee Coordinator USB radio I can personally recommend the Sonoff ZBDongle-P (based on CC2652P), however, you could also just get the official Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1 (previously known as Home Assistant SkyConnect USB radio adapter, which is based on EFR32MG21.
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As a Z-Wave Controller USB radio I can right now personally recommend the brand new Zooz Z-Wave Stick 800LR adapter even though it is not yet listed as recommended (because it also supports the latest cutting-edge Z-Wave 800 Long Range standard so is more future-proof).
I think the great thing about Zigbee and Z-Wave is maybe not only that they are standards (meaning you can in theory add any devices from any brand that follow those standard) but that they will each create a totally local and secure private network using mesh networking via low-power radios. So while they only have a single-point-of-entry to Home Assistant you just add loads of mains-powered Zigbee and Z-Wave devices to those networks and they will expand the network mesh to increase the range and coverage of the overall network, (though downside to this is that you must add many mains-powered Zigbee and Z-Wave devices or else you will get crappy range and coverage).
Otherwise the main difference when using the native ZHA integration in Home Assiant compared to using any proprietary or commercial hubs/bridges/gateways (like the Philips Hue Bridge) is that you do not get any pre-configured automations and special device customization that they simply added to their own brand of hub/bridge/gateway instead of to the firmware of the device itself, like example adaptive lightning functions and out-of-the-box button-mapping for their own brand of remotes (as the “smarts” for those are in the proprietary or commercial hub/bridge/gateway software an not on the device itself).
This means that if you want to achieve those features in Home Assistant then will need to either create your own automations that replicate the parts of those functions, or easier if available is to find existing Blueprints that others created and posted the Blueprint Exchange (blueprint community forum) where Blueprints are shared by the community. I find Blurprnts especially helpful when adding a Zigbee or Z-Wave remote/button.
A tip is you can faster become a more advanced user is if you can learn not only take advantage of existing Blueprints, but also to combine creating “helpers” such as groups (under “Devices & Services” in settings ), as well as scenes (under “Automations & Scenes” in settings), as beginning to simply create a bunch of groups and scenes that you can then activate via your own automation on on-demand via the dashboard and voice can be powerful way to think more the bigger picture instead of individual devices.
Even if you do not already have a Zigbee hub/bridge I highly recommend that you check out this community migration guide as it covers not only the basics but also how-to replicating some of features from Philips Hue Bridge when added the devices to the native ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation) integration instead.
As already mentioned, also suggest checking out all the linked guides in this cookbook collection, and epecially the Zigbee and Z-Wave
PS: Here are some other brands and devices to look out for (noting they do not exclusively use Zigbee):
- Aeotec
- Aqara
- Bosch Security Systems
- Innr
- Inovelli
- IKEA Trådfri
- Ledvance (OSRAM)
- Leviton
- Philips Hue (Signify)
- Phoscon
- Sonoff (ITead)
- Leedarson
- SmartThings (Samsung)
- Third Reality
- Tuya (Warning! Tuya devices do not follow the Zigbee standard so require custom device handlers. Also be aware Tuya manfufacture white label products that other companies rebrand as their own).