I’m working on improving my HA setup & I need to sort out bringing devices into HomeKit. This includes many Zigbee devices, Z-Wave, Robovac, & others that can’t directly interface with HomeKit. I have some devices setup with the HomeKit Bridge integration but need to clean things up anyway so will have to delete and re-add. In the process, I’ve run across MatterBridge (and also MatterHub w/ a new fork that users have liked).
I’ve tried to search for the benefits/differences in using one vs the other but no threads come up & I’ve not found info on web searches. Could anyone help me understand the benefits of using Matterbridge vs HomeKit Bridge or even Matter Hub? Are there any additional features, stability, integrations, etc either way? I’d love to learn more. If there are links that I’ve missed, please feel free to point me to them.
I’ve used MatterBridge with a Flic Hub to use a Flic Twist and while it worked… the response time for actions was less than desirable and those actions weren’t always translated to HA’s interface.
Apple, on the other hand, has made HomeKit super quick and reliable. My wife prefers their interface, so I’ve been using HomeKit bridge for years. It’s very responsive to actions and translates near instantaneously to HA.
I think these 3 links explains the differences pretty well, i think the tldr is they all export devices in HA to other ecosystems as either matter devices or homekit devices. I’d read the links for limitations.
They’re all protocol converters translators. They make a device that was never designed to “talk” Homekit/Matter able to do it via translation.
Which one you choose depends on your requirements.
For example, I wanted my devices to be voice-controllable via both Alexa and Siri. I chose Matter because it’s supported by both.
Initially I tried Matter Bridge but encountered problems with its ability to detect individual entities. I switched to Matter Hub and it was simpler to configure and manage. Response time is excellent.
FWIW, Matter Hub’s developer (t0bst4r) eventually abandoned it but it was picked up by a new person (RiDDiX) who has made hundreds of bug fixes and improvements.
I use all the above, matter is quite terrible not willing to invest in fixing it till i come across some good read. Zigbee is must but you have to build your network by using secondary zigbee routers else its gonna be a pain as you can simply restart device as easily as restarting your wifi and hope devices connect lol zigbee is its own wizard with its own wizard ways. I came to forum today to investigate the topic of making my esphome devices double as zigbee router if im successful this is the perfect setup as i have presence sensors all over the home that would be prefect for them to double as zigbee routers
Thanks for those. I’ll definitely take a look at those links. I really appreciate your help. FWIW, I did use DuckDuckGo. Don’t know why I didn’t get more info…
Yeah, it’s the Zigbee devices that I’m having the most issues with. I moved from a mix of Philips Hue and other Zigbee devices that were on different bridges over to an SMLight POE Zigbee controller, thinking it would improve the overall stability as it’s now a single mesh network instead of I think 3 or more separate mesh networks. It’s kind of been a low key disaster. I was awakened at 4am today because my spouse couldn’t get the lights to turn off. It was fair game…they wouldn’t and I have no idea why. I’ve followed all the instructions for a strong Zigbee mesh, I have powered Zigbee repeaters all over in every room, and it’s just an apartment so it’s super frustrating. I can’t figure out why a Zigbee device will choose to bind to a unit across the apartment instead of the coordinator that’s a few feet away - even when I try to force it to connect to the coordinator or the closest powered repeater. Anyway, I’m working to clean all of this up and bring it into HomeKit as it’s the easiest for family members to use. That’s when I ran across MatterBridge & Matter Hub & was wondering if there were reasons that they might be preferable to the HomeKit Bridge integration.
I hope you’re able to get the esphome zigbee presence sensors working. That would be great.
Beware that there might still be an unmaintained and a maintained version of Matterbridge.
The unmaintained is probably still the one putting up in searches and on HACS, because it has been out there for much longer.
I might have already sent this to you and apologies if i have. Apartment living in the 2020’s means you probably have a complicated RF environment with you and your neighbors wifi, zigbee, thread, bluetooth devices are all competing to use the same 2.4ghz spectrum.
While you are rearchitecting your zigbee network for better stability, selecting frequencies with good separation from other radios can also help. I use wifi 2.4ghz channel 1, with thread channel 25 (Apple default) and zigbee channel 26. (Thread and zigbee use the same channels) Not all zigbee devices support channel 26, but most newer ones do. I tossed 3 very old zigbee devices in the trash when i moved to zigbee 26, so YMMV and different channel selections may work better in your environment, but the goal is… “ya gotta keep separated”
