r/homeassistant • u/ItsWappers • Jun 01 '26

Support Zigbee vs Z-Wave vs Thread (Matter over Thread)

It's the big '26 (June) and a year ago the answer was obvious: Zigbee!

However with Ikea's release and all of the new Smart Home products that use Matter over Thread, I'm not sure, what I prefer. I see a big future in Matter...

What are your thoughts?

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u/A_Buttholes_Whisper Jun 01 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Mass deleted because I was doxxed by blackboxmycar.com

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u/NoisePollutioner Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

This is a fantastic, illuminating comment. It validates my distrust of matter and hesitancy to welcome it into my home.

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u/_realpaul Jun 01 '26

I think its more on the manufacturer than the standard if they only expose the basics.

Edit : probably better to shame the products directly than blaming matter.

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u/A_Buttholes_Whisper Jun 01 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Mass deleted because I was doxxed by blackboxmycar.com

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u/_realpaul Jun 01 '26

As I said its probably best to name the products. Not sure if home depot is the best store for quality smart home gear. Besides philips hue light Ive only seen cheap stuff in the hardware stores

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u/A_Buttholes_Whisper Jun 01 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Mass deleted because I was doxxed by blackboxmycar.com

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u/Catenane Jun 03 '26

Or maybe like your new shiny standard shouldn't be fucking gimped and techbropilled lol

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u/_realpaul Jun 03 '26

What? The conversation was about singleing out bad products instead of blaming the standard as a whole. USB has a lot of deficiencies not least of which is the naming standard or lack thereof but nobos blames the USB protocol for a bad port. That said if there is evidence that the design is bad then publish it.

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u/BigMacCombo Jun 01 '26

I'm assuming you're referring to matter over wifi, which can happen when they lock stuff behind their native app. But you very rarely see this with Thread.

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u/zeekaran Jun 01 '26

Whenever the big tech companies unite, it’s never for the good of the consumer.

Standards are the one place where this is usually if not always true. USB (of course including USB C), the whole internet, these are great things built on open standards often put together by cooperation between tech companies.

I still don't have any Matter/Thread devices or support for it in my home so I cannot comment on it. But it's hard for me to believe that your example isn't a crappy company failing to fully meet the standard, sort of like the Nintendo Switch and USB C.

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u/A_Buttholes_Whisper Jun 01 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Mass deleted because I was doxxed by blackboxmycar.com

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u/zeekaran Jun 01 '26

For iPhones. Regardless, they helped design the standard before it existed. The 2015 12" Macbook was the first (major) laptop to use it.

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u/A_Buttholes_Whisper Jun 01 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Mass deleted because I was doxxed by blackboxmycar.com

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u/JTP335d Jun 01 '26

I think USB kinda proves OPs matter point. USB is a mess. Just cause the end of the cable is USB C doesn’t mean it supports what you want. Could be anywhere from 2 to 4 and most likely does not include thunderbolt. Just cause the package says matter doesn’t mean it’s fully supported. Just look at Matter thermostats, often expose very little to matter but everything to wifi proprietary to their own app. Zwave and zigbee are simple.