Hi,
Started using home assistant a few weeks ago and loving it. I have a lot of Sonoff lights and sensors with a Sonoff ZigBee hub but there is a lack of devices available for this hub (E.G light sensor)
Wondering what hub / system I should buy next that has the most available devices compatible with it?
Thanks
Esphome works on various wifi based devices (with esp for example) and with itâs native api (local push) has a superior way of communication than most other solutions. Also no hub required at all and always 100% compatibility with HA (unlike random zigbee devices which often only work partially with HA and need quirks and what not).
You can buy devices pre-installed with esphome or buy compatible devices and install it yourself.
Thanks for quick answer.
Do I plug this into my Raspberry Pi or what?
No, itâs hubless. Esphome devices are connected over wifi (some also support ethernet) to your home assistant server.
OK, but this looks like a circuit board to me
Whereas Iâm expecting to buy something more like this
Iâm not an electrical expert
You can build your own or buy pre made like written.
You can check the link I posted, they have devices like
That motion sensor you linked is zigbee so it will / should work with your Sonoff zigbee hub.
I heard this so often and first went the route with zigbee, waisted lots of money and even more time to find out that this is only theory. Some zigbee devices pair indeed with (random) hubs but for example donât expose any sensors to HA. Then the long research begins in search for custom quriks and what not.
Long story short: âAll zigbee just worksâ isnât the real truth and maybe more marketing speech then reality. For myself I got rid of all my zigbee devices (the unreliable ones and even the few more reliable ones) and completely switched to wifi devices with esphome. While not actively advertised they do actually all work a 100% with HA and even offer superior connection (local push) with high update frequency and other goodies like on device automations.
I have a sonoff zigbee dongle 3.0 and i have not found any issues pairing zigbee devices, from many vendors. All the 25 I have tried work without issue.
Has anyone ever said that? 
More likely it was âStandard compliant Zigbee just worksâ, which is pretty accurate. Custom quirks in ZHA were intended to allow manufacturers to make innovative extensions to their devices. Instead theyâve been hijacked by people looking for fixes for cheap, buggy Chinese gadgets.
The key thing is to research before you buy. Just because it says Zigbee on the box, doesnât mean the manufacturer has implemented the standard properly.
Welcome!
If you decide to continue to expand your setup using zigbee devices, based on my experiences (and deep abandoned electronics stuff drawer 
) I would get a Zigbee USB coordinator device based on the Texas Instruments CC2652P chip and pair it with the Zigbee2MQTT software. Ideally, if you are willing to do some Linux work, run Zigbee2MQTT and a MQTT broker in Docker containers in parallel with however you are running your Home Assistant setup. While you can run both of these services directly within some types of Home Assistant configurations, I have found having them running independently gives me the most stability and flexibility.
You will find a number of good experts here on this forum with first hand experiences and I also recommend using the github based Zigbee2MQTT forum and bug report area for good reference material regardless of what Zigbee route you take.
You will probably end up with a mixed âmuttâ bag of types of wireless interfaces, Zigbee, WiFi, Matter, Thread, Bluetooth, âDixie Cups with Stringsâ and more as you venture down this rabbit hole of home automation. Itâs just the reality, Something you want/need will only be available on âpick whatever you donât haveâ
Iâve have found a vast number of useful, quality and cost effect Zigbee devices that run very will with the Zigbee2MQTT system. IMHO, it is the leading open system for local only controlled devices that work with Home Assisstant (and other systems). ESPHome and Tasmota are both fine systems as well in the WiFi domain for local only control of devices.
The link below is a good reference to Zigbee devices, where they are supported and links to purchase and system experiences :
Good hunting and success with home automation in 2024!
Zwave.
With ESPHome you will need to DIY most stuff. Even stuff that comes pre-assembled from the manufacturer will need you to know how to replace the firmware on the device with the ESPHome firmware. If you donât want to do that then you will need to stay away from most anything WiFi based. Shelly products are the only exception that I know of since they can work pretty well with HA straight out of the box.
Donât buy anything! If youâve only been at it for a few weeks thereâs plenty to learn without adding new stuff. 
I checked that one out after zigbee was failing hard for me despite buying more and more router devices to even get little coverage. On paper zwave should have a little advantage regarding the range but the prices just werenât in the right ball park for me. I decided on esphome wifi devices (which their are plenty of premade) instead and cost wise I get around 5 of them for the price of only 1 (one) zwave counterpart.
Biggest advantage about wifi for me is that I had a wifi router already (like probably most of the people in this community) and it is/was not necessary to build a new infrastructure/mesh and invest in a lot devices to get started.
I agree that zwave is more expensive (most of the time) but there are times that you canât get what you need in other protocols. So itâs nice having options.
What kind of âpre-made ESPHomeâ devices are you finding that you donât need to flash/etc?
I started with zwave 5+ years ago. I just installed my first esphome device (the ratgdo after the myq mess) a few weeks ago. I like esphome but I could not imagine trying to start out with it new when i first started buying devices- there is definitely a learning curve.
Ive used zigbee for awhile now too, adding a lot more devices after moving to home assistant and zigbee2mqtt. Davidâs advice above about zigbee2mqtt is very good and I agree. My zigbee devices and network, using zigbee2mqtt in docker and the zzh cc2652 usb coordinator probably cause me the least problems in my smarthome setup, and there is a huge selection of devices. For sensors, zigbee is low power vs wifi and batteries last awhile.
But at this point I like both zwave and zigbee. For both I have multple devices in each that make nice âmeshâ networks. I just buy whichever device is the best price and has the best features at this point.
Like all one could imagen. Check the link in the second post for a small selection of what is offered.
I did this when I still invested (had) zigbee and it fell on my feet. While a $5 esphome compatible plug for example works a 100% with HA no matter the manufacture a $5 zigbee plug is pure gamble imho. It can work but it also can be very limited or doesnât even work at all. The hardware can then only be binned as the software running on the plug isnât user replaceable.
The thing about zigbee is the standard is open. Any device can claim its âzigbeeâ. If you get the wrong devices or use the wrong controller with the wrong program, yeah, you will have issues. So, i always check the zigbee2mqtt database before buying something to see if it is compatible or has issues listed.
Zwave has this problem less because every zwave device requires certification from the zwave alliance- but you generally pay more because of that certification/licensing fee.
The problem i have with wifi devices are the more you add, the more it puts a strain on your wifi network. You need a very good wifi router going down that path. Where with zwave or zigbee, because they are mesh networks and devices can piggy back of eachother, adding more devices generally makes the network stronger.
Every option has its tradeoffs and advantages/disadvantages.
I heard many users claiming this (often the same shouting loud âzigbee just worksâ) but my almost 8 year old (home use) router which I got gifted from a friend and that can even be bought used in my country for only $15 has no problems with my 60+ wifi devices. Maybe people donât have enough DHCP leases configured?
Also people tend to forget what load/traffic streaming some video (HD/4k) on their phones puts on their wifi and on the other hand what little stress a esphome node with itâs highly optimized native api can put on your router (spoiler: probably not even 100 esphome nodes come close to a phone streaming even low quality video).
Again theory. I had my mileage with zigbee and not all devices work as routers relaying packages or making the âmeshâ stronger. Just entering the zigbee category of this forum gives a preview of what can possible go wrongâŚ
âmy almost 8 year old (home use) routerâŚhas no problems with my 60+ wifi devicesâ
Just asking for a friend, if you have a 2 or 3 neb-u-lon kids gaming and streaming against that router, howâs the Home Assistant and espHome performance? 