What do you guys find works better Zigbee or Wifi Plugs Switchs in HA

so i been using TP Link Light switchs, and plugs it works well minus if the router needs a reboot or no power big deal… plus it works out of the box pair it with the phone then to the wifi and HA finds it… no need for this tuya app as the costco plugs switchs is a pain…

but i was looking at zigbee devices like Levition uses… and i wanted to stay away from costco plugs i cant desolder this stuff… and wanted to work out of the box… but what do you guys recommend

stick with Wifi? or if you got zigbee… what you guys find pros and cons? is it better to go zigbee way… i dont have a hub… and is there one better over the other…

all input is great… as i like the Easy Use of the TPLink devices i do find sometimes it looses connection and my plug will show off line… so i wanted to to try other routes too…
so i not soly stuck with TP-Link… and dont get me wrong they work great with HA

Zigbee. Many devices, same protocol, one integration

The main benefit of ZigBee is that it does not have internet access.
It will keep working the exact same way in 10 years.
Wifi, you never know if they push out an update.

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is there a better range with zigbee? is there 1 hub better then another i saw a couple on amazon
plus home depots zigbee hub was like 100 bucks when i was there the other day… one reason i never went that way…

i know for my tplinks i block internet to them with pfsense… so it cant use internet… but i have updated there firmware currently…

and is there a a good brand of zigbee light switchs and long range so you could go outside of the home… or least 100 feet or through a steel building…

and is there a good brand zigbee hub?

You have to think of Zigbee, ZWave and other mesh networks like Thread / Matter fundamentally differently than you do Wi-Fi.

It’s a mesh - the more powered (and therefore usually) repeating nodes make the mesh stronger. Up to 4 hops. The spec SAYS 100 but walls and things exist - cut it in half. Interference is a real thing. It (Zigbee and ZWave networks) also doesn’t run ‘IP’ meaning it doesn’t natively speak Internet.

The ability to run on its own completely without the Internet - and not impacting your normal ‘production’ IP network are only some of the benefits. But as you can see above - it takes some planning to make your network functional.

Wi-Fi was never optimized to run things like smart switches. People used it because it was convenient - led to no standard and everybody and their uncle having a cloud you need to connect your stuff to - and those clouds connecting to your home automation controller. Local Tasmota and such are efforts at making this better- but IMHO they’re not substitutions for a real honest to goodness standard which right now Wi-Fi devices simply don’t have.

It’s REALLY easy to overrun your consumer-grade home network with a bunch of TP-Link switches or the like and when you do (trust me, it’ll run fine until it suddenly doesn’t) it makes your other stuff - like Netflix run like crap. With Zigbee and ZWave - if they’re running poorly, it doesn’t take the network down with them. There are things oyu can do to prevent this that involve making sure you’re running WiFi6 or better on your IP network gear.

Basically, it’s really a matter of using the stuff as it was designed.

This stuff changes probably next year - when Matter ships. But that’s a completely different discussion.

Who is this they you speak of updating my Tasmota plugs…?

Your neighbours hacking in to your devices and sending updates over the air.

Obviously that was meant as stock wifi plugs with stock firmware.

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I would also recommend ZigBee since I’m also using it :smiley: .
Recently I got these ZigBee Plugs which work really well.

oh ok cuz i wanted to run a single hub then center of house to cover everything… or i was thinking of using 2 wifi routers as i got couple and you can pick up a used one off amazon for 20 bucks sometimes… so i figured 1 wifi for plugs 1 for like cell phones… as most of my stuff i do wired… less issues when you hard wire your computer… etc

is there a better hub to get?

i dont have any fancy routers like wifi6 just older asus ones that maybe do 300mbps if your lucky over the air thats what they rated for… but majority of my stuff is all wired only thing that uses wifi is actually just the plugs and switchs and maybe 1 tablet and odd time laptop for updates or i perfer to just plug a cable in… as i always found cable more reliable may not be as fast now with faster routers like those that look like a damn spider with multiple extra legs and cost 600 bucks

and what is this “Matter” is that something to look into too?

and these are the ones i run
https://www.amazon.ca/TP-Link-Required-Requires-Assistant-HS200/dp/B01EZV35QU/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=tplink%2Bkasa&qid=1642713969&sprefix=tpli%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-2&th=1

https://www.amazon.ca/Smart-TP-Link-Neutral-Assistant-HS103P3/dp/B07S57PQSM/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=tplink%2Bkasa&qid=1642714010&sprefix=tpli%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-3&th=1

https://www.amazon.ca/TP-Link-Kasa-KP400-Smart-Outdoor/dp/B07M6RS2LC/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=tplink%2Bkasa&qid=1642714010&sprefix=tpli%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-5&th=1

and with the zebee… do you guys loose connection with the device every so often? or is it 100% connected… as i think the tplink loose connection for whatever reason even when clear line of sight… so wanted to know if the zebees have same issue?

so if you have an outdoor light to come on and if it fails to connect it wont turn on…
as i looking to add a better setup… but so far these tplinks have worked well… i like to expand but better option more reliable

but that was i was thinking also have 2 routers… 1 for just the wifi plugs and 1 for say netflix or what nots but i watched video of the Home Assitant Yellow has built in zeebee and guy was using it on there… but i run HA in Unraid as a VM… but was looking at these zeebee stuff

if your stuff is falling off the network something is wrong with the network. I have about 180 devices evenly spread between ZWave and Zigbee. Stuff doesn’t ‘just fall off’ unless there’s an underlying problem.

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I will swap my zigbee setup with bluetooth and wifi.
The past 5 years zigbee constantly bothered me. Never reliable.
~40 Philips Hue Lamps, strips, DimSwitches and PIRs in each of the 10 rooms. Aqara temperature sensors, window contact, dual relay. Tuya Strips outdoors, MOER IR Remote and 4-gang Button. Silvercrest plugs and multiswitches.
~150 total. The mesh should be quite reliable.
The only thing working reliably are the window contacts. I added extra zigbee routers for more stability, didn’t work.
Also, running round the house changing batteries is crazy.

I added some Shelly’s last year, ThermoPro sensors. This works reliably. The ThermoPros with AAA > PSU adapters, no more battery madness… 2kg of battery waste per year… Lights will become WLED in time.

So I decided to go for Bluetooth and Wifi. With Unifi APs and ESPHome Bluetooth proxies a much better choise.

I would say a lot depends on environment, interferences, coverage (wifi or zigbee) and much more.

For battery devices, the ZigBee is better than wifi since it has lower power requirements and quicker reactions.
But… I can feel, that batteries still have to be changed too often IMO.

One thing is pretty neat when using Zigbee: you can link switches (buttons) with lights (bulbs) making them independent on your network or home automation systems. So their major functionality is not impacted by other systems outages. it works as long as a bulb remains AC powered.

Although some wifi devices can communicate with each other too, they are still dependent on Wifi. Which is not the zigbee case.

I use both wifi and zigbee. In my setup both are very reliable.
But recently I’ve been leaning towards Wifi + BLE.

Initially, I was refusing BT devices. But Shelly did an ingenious thing: all gen2 and gen3 devices can act like BLE routers.
Since this, and the fact I have Shelly AC-powered relays (WiFi) everywhere, adding BLE devices as door or temperature sensors just fits this puzzle.

BLE is even quicker than Zigbee and should be even more battery-friendly.

note, I’m just sharing my current thoughts. Still have no enough experience with BLE.