What are they and how do they differ?
To ensure all of your smart home gadgets can remain in sync with one another, wireless protocols exist for hubs – and the two biggest names behind this magic are Zigbee and Z-Wave.
Zigbee and Z-Wave have been powering smart homes since before people even started calling them smart homes.
Wireless connection is at the heart of these two standards, but there are important differences between the pair to understand before you dive in. Essentially, think of them as two different ways to bypass Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and connect devices, like smart home hubs to lights, and more.
In-depth help: Zigbee guide | Z-Wave guide
Below, we’ll go through the big smart home devices compatible with both standards, as well as comparing the benefits of both in action, and helping you decide which is best for your smart home.
Zigbee vs. Z-Wave: The differences
Before we dive into the devices, we’ll take a look at how Zigbee and Z-Wave differ. Yes, they’re both mesh networks, but ones that operate quite differently. Here’s what you need to know.
Zigbee can connect more devices
Zigbee can support way more devices at a given time – 65,000+ devices, or nodes on the mesh network, in fact.
However, while Zigbee theoretically supports thousands of devices, in a typical home network, the practical limit will be much lower due to hub capabilities and network traffic.
You can have up to 232 nodes on a standard Z-Wave mesh network but Z-Wave LR bumps this up to over 4,000 nodes on a network though, so it’s heading in the right direction.
Both standards are now open
Zigbee is an open standard run by the Zigbee Alliance (actually now known as the Connectivity Standards Alliance), whereas Z-Wave was run by Silicon Labs, which had stricter controls to make sure every Z-Wave device works with every Z-Wave controller.
However, in late 2019 there was big news that Z-Wave was set to open up the standard “as a ratified, multi-source wireless standard available to all silicon and stack vendors for development”.
Alternative: What is Thread
That openness has continued in the past few years and Z-Wave is now no longer proprietary to Silicon Labs. It’s managed by the Z-Wave Alliance, which is an independent organization.
Zigbee has seen some pretty big changes too. In 2019 Apple, Google and Amazon announced, alongside the Zigbee Alliance, the creation of the Connected Home over IP project (Project CHIP); an initiative to simplify development for manufacturers and increase compatibility for consumers in the smart home world.
Project now exists as the Matter smart home ecosystem and the Zigbee Alliance is now known as the Connectivity Standards Alliance.
The Matter moniker and logo now appears on all compatible smart home devices, with the plan being it will be easier for consumers to identify devices that will work within their smart home ecosystem; whether that be Alexa, HomeKit, Google’s Assistant, SmartThings, as well as others.
It’s important to understand though, that while Zigbee is right behind Matter, Zigbee as a protocol won’t be used for the devices; at least not for the foreseeable future.
Zigbee allows for more hopping
Zigbee and Z-Wave are both mesh networks – meaning the signals can hop from gadget to gadget around the home and each device or sensor doesn’t need to connect to Wi-Fi – but they usually have a central hub which connects to the internet.
Z-Wave allows up to four ‘hops’ between the controller and the device, whereas Zigbee doesn’t have a limit.
Zigbee and Z-Wave are equal on security
Both Zigbee and Z-Wave use the same AES-128 symmetric encryption and claim that they are safe and secure from hacking.
Well, nothing is 100% secure, but it’s worth knowing that these two big standards are taking the same robust approach.
Unified devices
Zigbee operates on the 915MHz frequency in the US and the 2.4GHz frequency in the UK, which might look familiar, as that’s a major frequency for Wi-Fi, too.
Z-Wave operates at the low frequency 918/960 MHz band, meaning interference is minimal for Z-Wave and possible on Zigbee. Still, Zigbee is faster with data rates at 40-250 kbps, versus Z-Wave’s 9.6-100kbps.
Because Zigbee uses the 2.4GHz band, it’s more susceptible to interference from other devices that use the same band, such as Wi-Fi routers and microwave ovens. Z-Wave, operating at lower frequencies, is generally less prone to such interference.
Z-Wave vs. Zigbee: The devices
With Zigbee there are more than 4,700 products from 400 certified members.
We’re told that there are more than 100 million Z-Wave devices in smart homes worldwide, with over 4,500 certified Z-Wave enabled devices to choose from.
Essential reading: Get started with the smart home
When considering the popular, premium smart home brands and products, we’d say Zigbee slightly has the edge – but which one is best for you depends on what smart home kit you already own and what you’re looking to add.
Devices that work with Zigbee
Some well known smart home brands and devices that support Zigbee (otherwise known as Zigbee certified products) include:
- Philips Hue
- Samsung SmartThings
- Amazon Echo
- Hive Active Heating and accessories
- Honeywell thermostats
- Ikea Tradfri
- Innr
- Belkin WeMo Link
- Yale smart locks
- Sengled smart lights
- ADT Security Hub
- Somfy blinds and drapery motors
- GE Appliances
- LG SmartThinQ
- Lux Konoz
Devices that work with Z-Wave
Many big name brands also support the Z-Wave standard – and you can see all the certified products on the official website. Here are some of the highlights:
- Samsung SmartThings
- Honeywell thermostats
- Aeotec SmartThings Hub
- Hogar Milo (with Google Assistant for voice controls)
- ADT Security Hub
- August smart locks
- Fibaro smart sensors
- Yale smart locks
- Logitech Home Harmony Hub Extender
- Somfy
- GE Appliances
- LG SmartThinQ
- Kwikset smart locks
Matter vs Zigbee vs Z-Wave
While it’s true that the Connectivity Standards Alliance (formerly the Zigbee Alliance) is involved in Matter, it’s important to note that Matter is a separate protocol.
Zigbee devices do not use Matter. Matter can run over Wi-Fi, Thread, and Ethernet. Zigbee and Matter are distinct, even if they share some underlying organizational overlap.
Matter is an an application layer. Think of it as a set of communication rules (protocols) that define how smart home devices communicate and understand each other. It’s built on IP, and uses familiar network technologies like Wi-Fi, Thread, and Ethernet.
Z-Wave and Zigbee, on the other hand, are complete protocols, covering the physical layer to the application layer.
Because Matter is an application-level protocol and Zigbee/Z-Wave are lower-level network protocols, a bridge is required to translate between them.
You can, using a bridge/gateway device, incorporate Zigbee devices into a Matter setup. That’s available with the likes of SwitchBot, Aqara and Philips Hue.
You can’t do that, yet, with Z-Wave. There’s no native Z-Wave to Matter bridges at the time of writing but you can use multi-radio smart home hubs such as those from Homey or SmartThings, to use Z-Wave and Matter together.
Zigbee vs Z-Wave: Which is best?
It’s still not clear whether Zigbee and Z-Wave will grow side by side, or whether one will eventually win out. It’s certainly a quieter battle than the one going on between Google and Amazon.
We’re only just starting to see smart speakers with Zigbee built in, but expect to see more. For now, home hubs like the Homey Pro and Samsung SmartThings support both standards.
You don’t actually have to pick either Zigbee and Z-Wave, then, but if you’re trying to keep things simple and reliable, you might want to choose a side.
If you’re planning to stick to the big names in smart home (perhaps you already have some) and you want a faster connection, Zigbee might be worth considering.
For a larger range, potentially more reliable connections and a better chance that all the compatible devices will work with each other, go for Z-Wave.
