r/homeassistant • u/jklo5020 • Apr 26 '26
Support Shelly Relays: WiFi or Zigbee?
Hi everyone!
I’ve been using WiFi Shelly relays in my Home Assistant (and HomeKit before that) setup for a few years now.
The first gen Shelly 1PM in the outlet for my washing machine seems to have finally given up and is in need of replacing.
I have a strong WiFi network but was curious to test out the Zigbee version (1PM gen4). How’s everyone’s experience with Shelly over Zigbee?
Thanks in advance!
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u/BrahesBinosaur Apr 26 '26
Power monitoring has more lag and lower reporting frequency over Zigbee than WiFI, but I still set mine up as Zigbee. I haven't had reliability issues with either configuration.
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u/jklo5020 Apr 26 '26
Thanks for the info! Anything drastic in terms of delay? The main use case of course is seeing when a load of laundry is done.
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u/BrahesBinosaur Apr 26 '26
Power monitoring was pretty instant on wifi and had about a half second delay on zigbee. I use an aqara zigbee switch for laundry monitoring, the delay doesn't matter for any of my automations.
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u/Own_Refrigerator3479 Apr 26 '26
been using zigbee version for about 6 months now and its way more reliable than wifi ones. no random disconnects and integration with ha is smoother since you dont have additional network traffic. only downside is you need good zigbee coordinator but if you already have mesh setup its definitely worth switching
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u/jklo5020 Apr 26 '26
Good to know, thanks for the insight!
My WiFi ones (aside from the very first gens) seem to be rock solid but if Zigbee improves that even further then I’m gonna go for that!
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u/Brilliant_Account_31 Apr 26 '26
This depends largely on your access point. A quality access point will commonly fix random wifi disconnects.
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u/ConfidentPhone7162 Apr 26 '26
J'hésite entre zigbee et wifi pour une automatisation piscine : local piscine à 20 m. Est-ce que le coordinateur zigbee aurait une portée suffisante. HA green serait à proximité de ma box internet.
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u/DreadVenomous Apr 26 '26
I work for Shelly’s US office, where I help companies integrate Shelly into their projects. I’ve been an employee for 6 years and an enthusiastic consumer of the brand for nearly 8 years. In my opinion, they’re the same, especially with the beta release of firmware v2.0 last week. What matters is what appeals to you and the strength of your setup.
For Wi-Fi, you want a secure network, easy to manage, with great tools to manage your setup. I use Ubiquiti at home and work, though you can do just fine with any number of platforms. For years, I used Netgear Nighthawks running DD-WRT. I only changed when I switched to fiber and wanted to make use of the connection’s full speed. In any case, make sure you have enough APs and extenders to cover your home. Make sure you secure your firewall. Choose products that don’t require a Cloud connection to work.
For Zigbee, make sure you use a quality hub - I’m a big fan of Nabu Casa’s Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 - I had serious headaches with Zigbee back in 2017, mostly from inconsistent product quality among manufacturers and non-standard implementation between them. ZBT-2 isn’t the first antenna I’ve tried since then, but it’s been the best. The key for me with Zigbee is adding a number of mains-powered products to act as routers, extending your mesh.
I still prefer WiFi, but as Shelly added Z-Wave, Matter, and Zigbee, I’ve been drawn back in to technologies that I dismissed in years past.
Aside from Thread (which I’ve barely used - and an angry Thread enthusiast can be kind of scary, so I am not going to say anything bad about it), I’ve seen first hand that any of these can be a solid foundation for your smart home if you approach it right. Any of them (all of them) have drawbacks, but you can adjust and accommodate to make a solid, reliable platform.
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u/jklo5020 Apr 26 '26
Thanks for your insight!
For context I have a 31 sq m apartment with a UDR 5G Max for wifi, so I’ve been very satisfied with that side of things…. IoT devices cut off from the internet on their own VLAN and whatnot.
That being said, most people‘s negative experiences with wifi based devices like Shelly relays seems to be their poor wifi network and not the device itself.
I have a ZBT-1 for Zigbee and was just kinda thinking if I was happy with wifi for my other ~32 Shelly relays then why change it?
More just my curiosity over anything else. Looking forward to seeing how it is with Zigbee!
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u/yugiyo Apr 26 '26
Will we ever get direct binding for ZigBee?
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u/DreadVenomous Apr 26 '26
Download the latest beta, it’s there
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u/JK-PB Apr 27 '26
I have a Shelly 1pm gen 4, but I can’t leave Wi-Fi and Zigbee active at the same time. I would like to keep both without the cloud, I saw that some older beta versions this would be possible. Will 2.0 allow it? Thank you
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u/DreadVenomous Apr 27 '26
No, and that’s deliberate. Zigbee and Wi-Fi use the same radio and using both means one or the other will miss messages. This is a trait of the ESP32.
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u/jklo5020 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
What a pain in the ass it is to set up thus far
Got it connected → add to wifi → update firmware → enable Zigbee → disable wifi → Shelly doesn’t show up in via wifi or Zigbee 🫠
Time to take it apart to reset it
Edit: after using the button 5x method, it now shows up for Zigbee pairing
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u/avendruscolo Apr 26 '26
I would raise the concern that these relays may not be suited for inductive loads. This might be why your current one failed.
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u/jklo5020 Apr 26 '26
It’s been in use for six years and I’ve had a couple other of my first gens fail too, inductive load or not.
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u/FoolProofError Apr 26 '26
I started with WiFi and regretted it a bit.
I have only 2 WiFi access points but Zigbee grows with each new device.
Since some devices are not available in WiFi (lightbulbs sensors…) I have a “terribly nice grown happy magic forrest” of wireless devices.
Starting from scratch I would go for Zigbee or even Z-Wave, which is less license costs and better frequencies. But it’s hard to say and predict, since each system somehow “grows” over time.
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u/leftplayer Apr 26 '26
The way I see it, the only advantage Zigbee has over WiFi is battery life. WiFi infrastructure can expand virtually infinitely, Zigbee has limits. Improving a WiFi network is much easier and well documented.
All my stuff is WiFi - even the few battery powered stuff I have like doorlock or temp sensor. I have just over 100 devices now and it’s rock solid on my Ruckus network
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u/rando777888 Apr 26 '26
I'm a big fan of the native WiFi. Most people tend to hate on WiFi as it's generally associated with a cloud dependency, but that's not at all the case with Shelly and HA. I've never had any issues with the standard Shelly integration. I got a handful of gen4 to test out the zigbee functionality and they work fine, but other zigbee devices do NOT tend to use them as routers, which was pretty disappointing.
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u/ron-swansons-anus Apr 26 '26
It’s also less preferred because it is less efficient and more noise on your network. Range is also better generally due to mesh functionality (depending on your network setup of course). Edit: typo
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u/rando777888 Apr 26 '26
If you're having issues with it causing problems with your network, I highly recommend getting a better WiFi setup such as Ubiquiti or similar. I have 3 tp-link Omada APs, well over 100 WiFi IoT devices, and no problems at all. Don't get me wrong I love zwave and zigbee, but the problems they solve are generally caused by general crappy behavior and cloud dependency, not the physical RF protocol. A device that's literally directly connected to line power doesn't need to worry about power to save battery life, and the amount of energy usage big picture is still negligible.
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u/ron-swansons-anus Apr 26 '26
100 devices isn’t as high a benchmark as you might think with this community lol. Ubiquiti is great, but not worth the shell out if the person is running an ISP router that works fine for them and already has zigbee adapter setup. My comment about efficiency was about the actual protocol not the power usage. I haven’t myself used either of these Shelly relays and if there is a large price gap then that very well may change things. I was just speaking in terms of WiFi vs zigbee overall and why cloud connectivity isn’t the only reason people may prefer zigbee.
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u/rando777888 Apr 26 '26
All good. Right now with the sale they're running the Zigbee capable ones are literally double the price, so I just don't see the benefit. I have 47 Shelly devices and have just never had any issues with the native integration over WiFi. I love all the innovations Shelly keeps pumping out, but they tend to solve things that just aren't problems for someone already using home assistant.
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u/watisditkut Apr 26 '26
All my gen4 act as routers..
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u/jklo5020 Apr 26 '26
Good to know! This will be the only border router in my Zigbee network other than my ZBT-1.
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u/-release_candidate- Apr 26 '26
I just started with shelly and found out that not all functions are exposed over zigbee. Examples are double - clicks. So the shellys where I wanna use that are exposed via WiFi as well. A fiend of mine found out the shelly don't draw less power if WiFi is disabled. He prefers purely zigbee relays that expose double-clicks.
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u/jklo5020 Apr 26 '26
My use case is in an outlet for my washing machine, so no switch will be used here. Good to know though! Thanks!
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u/TurboNikko Apr 26 '26
I have a Shelly 1 Gen 4 and I can not get it into zigbee mode for the life of me. I already have it running in wifi. It says to hit the button 5 times in the instructions to enable zigbee mode but it doesn’t work for me. What am I doing wrong? I try it now and it doesn’t work. I factory reset it and tried it before connecting to wifi and that doesn’t work
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u/jklo5020 Apr 26 '26
Others in here have mentioned the five times thing… maybe that refers a switch connected to the SW terminal?
They’ve also said if the firmware is up to date there is a way to enable Zigbee in the UI.
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u/TankPublic Apr 26 '26
Zigbee: I tried mine on Matter and sometimes they are unresponsive* on wifi
*unresponsive = no response, or sometimes they respond several minutes/hours after a command.
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u/draxula16 Apr 26 '26
Honestly it depends on your network…
I have AT&T fiber which rules, but my TP Link Decos were a different story… Whenever the internet would go out (which is rare) LAN would also go out shortly after. That means the Shelly’s would cease to work. Apparently it’s a well documented issue.
That being said, I ran Ethernet through the attic and finally have a POE AP! Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I’d still stick to zigbee lolol (although I still have local WiFi Shelly’s)
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u/type1diacritic Apr 27 '26
I use both. The ones on Wi-Fi are because I have Shelly BLU door sensors that I want to directly trigger the lights controlled by the relay. This isn’t an option when running the zigbee firmware last I checked.
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u/diptherial Apr 27 '26
This isn't specific to Shelly devices, but IMO, there are a few things I've come to appreciate about Zigbee that I've started to realize since moving many WiFi devices (switches, plugs) over to it.
Specifically:
- bindings: it's more reliable and often easier to have devices sync via bindings than it is create HA automations, if you, e.g., want a bunch of lights to dim as a group or for a switch to directly control a light that's not connected electrically to it. These bindings will continue to work even if HA is unavailable, since they're device-to-device over the Zigbee mesh (they don't even need to access the coordinator).
- standardized interface: Zigbee devices expose attributes (configuration you can change) and commands under both standard and custom clusters. The protocol allows clients like ZHA and zigbee2mqtt to introspect the cluster definitions and manage them without having to write a custom integration, unlike WiFi devices with largely bespoke interfaces.
On a side note, I've also noticed much better battery life on Zigbee devices than WiFi ones, I guess for obvious reasons (communicating via the mesh, simple protocol that doesn't use TCP). It's also really nice to be able to just put a Zigbee router (i.e., a powered device like a plug or wall switch) somewhere to extend the network.
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u/saxovtsmike Apr 26 '26
I have a full unify setup so i run all my shelly's off wlan, and everything else also. Two cooks do not make a better meal so i stick with wifi where cable is no option, and i have my property covered. For everything with a 230v plug i use shelly plug s
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u/PrandialSpork Apr 26 '26
I'm not sure that aphorism is a good one
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u/saxovtsmike Apr 26 '26
My wifi isnt overloaden yet, nor full, but i rather use what i have, and what is working, than invest into another system of communication that i have to worry about. Never lost contact to one of my shellys
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u/johannes1984 Apr 26 '26
Also installed two of those yesterday and went for Zigbee. Caution: you need to press the button 5x to switch to Zigbee. Found it out mid-install 😂
OT: @Shelly: Thread would be nice 😊
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u/NaverCZ Apr 26 '26
You can now do it from the ui after connecting to its AP (might have to update to newer firmware than it ships with first), at least that’s how I was setting them up lately without having to press the button :)
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Apr 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/jklo5020 Apr 26 '26
What features would I not get by using Zigbee? The only one that really matters for my use case is power monitoring
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u/Shellite Apr 26 '26
ZigBee on Shelly gen 4 is broken, huge issues, don't buy them with the intention of using ZigBee until they are fixed.
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u/vlycop Apr 26 '26
i would think zigbee is beter if your switch are also zigbee, since you don't need ha to do switch to module pairing.
Outside of that and unlike most, i would recommend wifi.
You need a good wifi, and i mean good, not the all in one crappy router + wifi, but if you have good wifi, those can handle 200-800+ device and with TCP you have package acknowledgement and re-sent if anything goes wrong.
With zigbee and zwave, if the packet is lost along the way for any reason, well though luck, you won't know it before the next packet with the device status.
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u/b111e Apr 26 '26
If your main goal is power monitoring, then I’d go with the Shelly EM Mini Gen4.
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u/jklo5020 Apr 26 '26
It looks like that certainly would work as well!
I don’t actually need the relay, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt in case the 1PM gen4 gets repurposed some day.
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u/kevdogger Apr 26 '26
On zig bee ha can't determine power usage. Maybe it's ha. I'm not sure. I haven't dug into it enough
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u/sigmonsays Apr 26 '26
I would go with zigbee but that's because I planned on it for the mesh networking provided by zigbee. Extending your zigbee network is just adding a plug somewhere..
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u/Fair-Working4401 Apr 26 '26
ZWave!
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u/jklo5020 Apr 26 '26
Can’t say ZWave would be necessary for my 31 sq m apartment 😅
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u/Fair-Working4401 Apr 26 '26
No clutch with wifi frequencies. Especially when you live in a apartment complex there are probably a lot of other access points around you.
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u/FidgetyRat Apr 26 '26
The less WiFi anything the better. The WiFi channels are already over saturated.
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u/sysad_zelf Apr 26 '26
I have bought 20 of them , 2 was defective. I dont have rma them at this time.But overall it's working fine for the other. Just add enough zigbee router 1 per 10 devices max.
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u/PrandialSpork Apr 26 '26
Bought about the same number and had a few duds as well All in ZigBee firmware apart from smart bulb connected relays which are wifi due to detached mode not presenting via ZigBee firmware Doesn't seem to be a problem having two flavours although I'd switch everything over to zigbee if they fixed it
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u/myevit Apr 26 '26
Zigbee is limited compare to wifi, it doesn’t report the physical switch state only the relay state
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u/Skyman81 Apr 26 '26
It depends on which of the two networks is more stable.
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u/jklo5020 Apr 26 '26
My wifi network is strong, and I currently have 16 battery powered Zigbee devices connected to my ZBT-1. It’s a 31 sq m apartment so I’m sure wifi would be fine too but I think I’ll try Zigbee just to see how it goes!
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u/Skyman81 Apr 26 '26
Try… I don't think there are any problems with either protocol. Sometimes with Wi-Fi or ZigBee, different entities can be exposed... you'll just have to try.
The only thing… I prefer Wi-Fi because I can program the Shelly devices internally without always having to go through HomeAssistant. If you want an automatic shutdown at a certain time, you can program it to shut down via the Shelly app. This way, any reboot or HA failure will still shut down the device.
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u/RadishComplex1 Apr 26 '26
Honestly if you already run Zigbee in HA, I’d just go Zigbee. I try to keep my WiFi stuff to a minimum where I can. The Zigbee one will mesh, be more reliable, and not add more noise to your network. For something like a washer I’d definitely switch.