Need help to understand the differences/benefits of a Zigbee Coordinator vs “hub”

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Hi, I’m new to HA & still working to get all my devices pulled in. I’ve read through HA docs, blogs, watched videos, searched web/forums/reddit but I still could use some help trying to understand the differences & benefits to using a Zigbee Coordinator vs a “hub”.

In trying to figure out the best way to bring in some of my Aqara & other Zigbee devices, I went down a rabbit hole. I didn’t realize that there was a such a thing as a Zigbee Coordinator (also termed gateway, apparently, for confusion of the newbie such as myself) and a hub (though I’m still not sure I could fully articulate the differences…other than perhaps the cloud & proprietary lock-in). My Aqara Zigbee devices are water sensors & a wireless switch/button and I also have some older Zigbee sensors, too.

Am I correct that a Zigbee Coordinator will act as a sort of “brand-agnostic, universal Zigbee connector”, for lack of a better term…basically allowing one to connect (most) any Zigbee devices directly into Home Assistant? I assume this would mean no more worrying about purchasing “brand X’s” hub in order to use “brand X’s” device. This seems to be a worthwhile investment for the long term.

I have a Hubitat C7, and older SmartThings hub V2. Both appear to have integrations available for Home Assistant. However, I assume there would be benefits to having the universal Zigbee Coordinator, instead of using one of the above. Am I correct? Could anyone please help me understand the differences of using a Zigbee Coordinator vs one of the two hubs? Currently looking at a hybrid POE device (ZigStar UZG-01 or SMLight), if I go with a Zigbee Coordinator. Would either of those be capable of upgrading the Zigbee “child devices” to their latest firmware? I read that’s possible, if the Z Coordinator itself offers that capability. Thanks in advance for any info you could share. I’m hoping to “unscramble” the questions about all this in my head. :wink:

EDIT: Additional question came up: am I correct that one benefit to running the Zigbee Coordinator is that all the Zigbee devices would become one network? Whereas if I run say, the Aqara devices on their G3 hub, those devices would make up their own network, while other Zigbee devices would make up another, while my Hue lights, are yet another? I would guess this would potentially cause issues and instead of the overall network getting stronger as more devices are added, the separate networks might actually cause more issues. Am I right on this or do I not understand how this works yet?

My HA setup is full HAOS on Proxmox. Currently running V15 (not yet updated to 15.1).

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Words like “hub”, “gateway”, “dongle”, or “adapter” are mostly just marketing terms that are considered more approachable than the technical terms… they do not have a consistent meaning from one brand to the next.

All devices in a Zigbee mesh fall into one of three roles:

  • Coordinator:
    • There is only one Coordinator for a given mesh.
  • Router:
    • Routers are the backbone of the mesh and relay messages between the coordinator and end devices.
    • Routers are normally mains-powered devices like smart bulbs or smart switches.
  • End Device:
    • Most stand-alone, battery-powered sensors are end devices that do not route messages from other nodes in the mesh.

The two “hubs” you have are coordinators. They may be restricted by the firmware the manufacturer installed or by a lack of updates to their device handlers, but they still fulfill the Coordinator role in their meshes.

For most people, a single mesh is going to be a better fit than having multiple meshes. Zigbee works best with a dense mesh of routers so that there are multiple paths available to relay messages along. If you have multiple meshes running in the same location you may find it difficult to get the desired density in either mesh.

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