Everyone has their preferences.
Basically, use the one that supports the devices you have. All three options support majority of devices.
All three have good development and get new devices added.
All three work well when setup.
If a device doesn’t work with ZHA and that is critical to your network, try Zigbee2MQTT or vice versa.
What is best is what works fro you. I have used all three and all three have the quirks. ZHA is great as it is the official integration with no third party add-on. Zigbee2Mqtt is great because it has a fast development pace, great if you have bleeding edge or slightly unusually implemented devices. DeConz is great because it has a really pretty interface.
It all depends what you want.
We all have our favourites.
ZHA supports multiple sticks, but if you are just starting out, you buy the stick that works for your preferred solution.
DeConz is limited to Conbee and Raspbee. Both of these are solid devices with good range and both will also work with ZHA.
Read the support pages and just go for the one that suits your installation best. There really is no good, better, best. All three are equally great in their own ways
Edit: The main question on this was answered a lot earlier, so looks like this has turned into a general discussion now
I’m still torn on what is better to use between deconz and zigbee2mqtt
I’m currently looking to make some changes in my home network since I got an ancient HA installation and I’m looking at a better zigbee solution.
Currently I’m using xiaomi sensors (various buttons, temp sensors, windows sensors etc) with their own gateway and a bunch of different brands bulbs with hue.
I want to get rid of the xiaomi gateway and use my own, at least for sensors (hue bulbs works fine where they are for the moment*)
So, the zigbee CC2531 dongle from itead finally arrived (dirty cheap 4$) it should be already flashed to go with zigbee2mqtt and I have a raspbee premium already setup as hassio addon.
I never used zigbee2mqtt but I tried deconz and phonon ui and it seems too much geared towards bulbs with switches IMHO so I think that in the next few days I’ll gather some devices and start using zigbee2mqtt to see how it behaves (I don’t know it a pi3 can handle both antennas at the same time)
*Hue works fine for me and I want to keep it, still there is this project https://diyhue.org/ that seems interesting but I don’t understand if I can use it as a second bridge in the same hue zigbee network and pair only some devices with it and keep original hue bulbs with the philips bridge and at the same time pair other devices to the diy bridge
EDIT stil don’t understand the number of devices managed (without any router on the network)
I’ve read 25 for zigbee2mqtt and 200 for deconz but I don’t understand if routers attached to different bridge (my hue bulbs) can relay the messages overcoming this limit… otherwise my zigbee2mqtt setup will be already fairly limited (I will mostly add battery powered switches and sensors that cannot be router, and I already have more than 10)
Well you need to repair your stuff to zigbee2mqtt, but if you go back to deCONZ it still has all your devices.
With zigbee the software keeps the devices, with zwave it’s the Hardware Stick.
Question: Even with the range issues on the CC2531, would that be fixed with nearby repeaters - for instance in the room that the CC2531 is going (I am trying it out) I have 3 Hue lights, and I can add a zigbee smart plug into my set up as well. Given the proximity to the always powered items, which would repeat the zigbee connections (and my use of other hue bulbs around my apartment) would this be an issue still? What do you think?
in theory that is true. in my case i wanted to reduce the number of hops from end devices to coordinator, so i upgraded to a cc2530 with cc2591 with external antenna for $15. It works well.
I’m pretty new to Home Assistant and bought a CC2531 a few months ago. I got it working with zigbee2mqtt along with a few bulbs and Hue dimmers. Zigbee2MQTT was a bit of a learning curve but worked well.
I have since moved house and started with a fresh HomeAssistant install. I tried ZHA and really liked how easy to use it was. I always got in a mess with the entity names in Zigbee2MQTT.
My new house is bigger and the CC2531 is struggling with range so I have ordered a CC2652RB. It does not have a PA but I have heard reports the range is still a lot better than the CC2531.
So, I really can’t decide whether to go with ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT. I only have a few devices at the moment but want to expand. I prefer the usability of ZHA it may limit hardware choices due to compatibility. Does anyone know how accurate this compatibility list is?
Does the CC2652RB have an external antenna?
I use the CC2530+CC2591 ($15, eBay) and power it with a variable-voltage USB power supply. it covers the whole house and has been very reliable.
I agree the cc2531 range was basically useless.
Not that I had any issue with ZHA, I first just wanted to try but then it works well and I’m lazy to migrate everything back, and I like the "future-proof side of MQTT-ing my home setup.
If you want to install it as an HA addon, you can follow the instructions from the addon’s page. The full documentation can be found on the official ZigBee2MQTT website.
The only ConBee specific config is in the adapter settings, where you’ll need to have something along those lines :
Thanks. Noted, it will be useful in case I test zigbee2mtqq later.
When I started zigbee, zigbee2mtqq was first considered. However either need flash or buy pre-flashed CC2531, and also read that the antenna wasn’t that great, conbee wasn’t supported at that time (or I didn’t know). So I started with conbee II and deconz, worked great, but noticed deconz process constantly uses over 5% of CPU despite I only have 2 bulbs and 4 buttons, which keep my laptop very warm.
I migrated to ZHA sometime ago, it works and that extra 5% cpu is gone.
Maybe I will try zigbee2mtqq in the future, since I already have mqtt container used for many tasmota devices.
I have been running z2m for a while, at the beginning with a CC2531 and now with CC2652R1.
I was wondering how you deal with light-bulb update ? I haven’t been finding any good way, but re-pairing with their original hub. I was thinking about getting a conbee II, just for that purpose. Do you have any other solution ?
