Zigbee devices on external Hub or move to HA

Configuration Zigbee
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I started my smart home on Hubitat, then moved to HA on RPi4, but kept the Hubitat hub as a secondary device for my zigbee devices.

I’m interested in Z2MQTT for stability, but haven’t had any issues with my current setup on the extenal hub(itat)

Looking for opinions on what option is best?

  • keep a hub specifically for Zigbee devices.
    Starting to think the separation could make the zigbee network stronger
    less load/traffic on HA, independent, fall back if HA is down (hubitat is very low maintenance)

  • Merge everything into HA
    would make it Z2M. but then need hardware for Pi
    Latency has never been an issue talking between hubs

  • or is Z2MQTT much better I should do that regardless

This is prompted because I am about to greatly expand my Zigbee network
to add new zigbee all Bedroom Dimmer lights/ Fans to Zigbee switches
And adding battery sensors around the house.

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Don’t know about Hubitat, but Zigbee2MQTT is great in supporting new devices.

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3

Agree with @francisp 100%

I moved away from all ZigBee hubs with Z2M to include Hue, Sengled, Sonoff and ThirdReality

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I was using SmartThings as a hub for more than 5+ year, but recent problems pushed me to migration to Z2M with SLZB-06M

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I’m curious. You mention moving to Z2M for stability. Yet for me, ZHA has been the most (one might say only) stable piece of my HA implementation. Every device I’ve bought works out of the box. Plug and play. No breaking changes. No deprecated configurations. No failed updates. It just works.

Since I don’t already use MQTT, adding that would add another layer of software, another component to learn, maintain and update, another point of failure, more load on the CPU, more memory utilization, etc.

I ask because I’ve heard that Z2M supports more devices. I love tinkering with new stuff. I’ve just had a real hard time justifying making the change.

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6

If it works, don’t fix it. :grin:

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7

Exactly. But I keep reading about how great Z2M is, and how ZHA sucks. But it’s been rock-solid for me. I’m curious what I’m missing.

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I think it’s just that Z2M has a very partisan bunch of users.

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If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

If you’re curious, testing z2m side by side is just the cost of a dongle (that could be re-deployed as a router).

I started with ZHA. Had device issues and tested z2m. I liked z2m more and pretty quickly moved most everything to z2m. A lot of subjective reasons, a few objective reasons - mostly concerning device support.

I still run a much smaller but functional ZHA net, but mostly just for testing new devices.

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I, too, started on Hubitat. Had everything you can imagine on there (Zigbee, Zwave, Kasa integration, Govee integration, Matter, Ecobee, Weatherflow, and stuff I’ve forgotten by now). I’ve move everything over to HA except Zigbee and Zwave. Taking an if it ain’t broke, don’t fixt it approach with that. I actually have 2 Hubitats (C8 and C8 Pro) and can place them strategically to cover my home better). All they do now is provide a Zigbee network and like one or two Zwave devices. I’m not changing until something is broke.

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Thanks for the replies, all have been very helpful and answered my question. Which is I dont think there is a wrong answer.

I do use MQTT . So i could migrate over to Z2M. But it sounds like I don’t need too.

I feel I am aligned with @CaptTom and @BCFL22. Zha has never really faulted for me so I don’t need to change. There was a feeling that Z2M offers more. I see the valid points but Im not likely to come across a unsupportable device in Zha, just from my level of tinker.

Whats even better is it not one or the other. If i get stuck I’ll install Z2M for that device and future me can contemplate repearing everything, or not!

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