Zigbee vs. Matter over Thread:Understanding IoT Protocol Performance in Practice • Hacker News Board

Re: Zigbee vs. Matter over Thread:Understanding IoT Protocol Performance in Practice

#101

Post by SEJeff » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 2:41 PM UTC

margalabargala wrote: post #93

SEJeff wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? The entire specification is in this git repo maintained by the home assistant team. Also, they’re on the zwave board now. It’s wholly open, but wasn’t maybe 4-5 years ago. https://github.com/zwave-js/specs

Source available is not the same as open. Source available does not mean non-proprietary. Just like HDMI, if you want to build a device that uses Zwave, you must pay for the privilege.

You pay to have it tested and certified to use the trademark. This is why so much zwave kit from different vendors works perfectly where as zigbee it’s more of a crap shoot if different vendor’s gear works well together.

Re: Zigbee vs. Matter over Thread:Understanding IoT Protocol Performance in Practice

#102

Post by SEJeff » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 2:43 PM UTC

waste_monk wrote: post #52

SEJeff wrote: post #4

I’m a bit surprised they didn’t add zwave into this comparison.

I'd like to use z-wave but as an Australian we have different allowed frequency bands (specifically the USA-market gear uses frequencies that are reserved for telecom use over here, and anything that can interfere with the ability to call emergency services is Very Illegal), and thus the few devices that get built supporting the AU rf bands are overly expensive due to the (lack of) economy of scale. As a result my ho…

Hey mate, Z-Wave in Australia operates on the 919.8 MHz regional frequency, which is different from the US (908.4 MHz) or Europe (868.4 MHz). They have AU certified zwave kit.

Re: Zigbee vs. Matter over Thread:Understanding IoT Protocol Performance in Practice

#103

Post by margalabargala » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 3:10 PM UTC

SEJeff wrote: post #101

margalabargala wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source available is not the same as open. Source available does not mean non-proprietary. Just like HDMI, if you want to build a device that uses Zwave, you must pay for the privilege.

You pay to have it tested and certified to use the trademark. This is why so much zwave kit from different vendors works perfectly where as zigbee it’s more of a crap shoot if different vendor’s gear works well together.

That would be great if it were true, but my experience has been that Zwave devices have consistently flaked out while Zigbee have been more solid.

Re: Zigbee vs. Matter over Thread:Understanding IoT Protocol Performance in Practice

#104

Post by Forge36 » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 5:47 PM UTC

baby_souffle wrote: post #6

Forge36 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having switched to zigbee devices recently I regret trying to start with WiFi. While I'm not sure how it looks under the hood, adding devices with home assistant was miles easier.

I've helped lots of people with home automation Network build outs l; the biggest factor is the RF environment. If you're fortunate enough to not be battery constrained at most endpoints and can put a high quality Wi-Fi access point in an optimal location than Wi-Fi is incredibly reliable. The tooling for inspecting all layers of a Wi-Fi network is infinitely more accessible and mature and that certainly helps; I can…

Wi-Fi was never unreliable. The devices that used WiFi were much worse to work with and setup.