Zigbee or Z-Wave?

Devices & Integrations
1

Hello. This is my first post. I am just getting into home automation and am excited about the possibilities. I selected the SmartThings hub mostly because of the open architecture and this forum which is awesome. To date all I have is the Philips Hue starter kit and backlight strip and a Fortrezz water and freeze alarm for the crawlspace, the Philips bridge and of course the SmartThings bridge. Oh, I also have an Alexa and Logitech Harmony remote which are already integrated to the SmartThings bridge. Very cool!

The question I have, which may be philosophical is should I try to stay with only one of the two protocols, Zigbee or Z-Wave? I understand the concept that both protocols build a mesh network so is there an advantage to stick with one protocol to get a bigger network or will I need both protocols to get all the sensors, switches, lights and other cool things?
What is the future for Zigbee and Z-Wave? Will they both exist in 5 years or will one win out over the other, like VHS and beta?

Can’t wait to create my first app.

Thanks,
Al

2

There’s an article in the community – created wiki which covers most of the main comparison:

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Z-wave_versus_Zigbee

One of the advantages of SmartThings as a multiprotocol platform is that you select the device for any given use case based on how well it will work as a solution, not just on its protocol. So many SmartThings customers have some of each.

Indeed, if you want just Z wave devices, you might prefer to get one of the competitor systems which isn’t as cloud – dependent SmartThings is. It’s the ability to press a single button (or schedule a single rule) and have devices of multiple protocols respond that is the real strength of the SmartThings platform. :sunglasses:

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JDRoberts,
Thanks for the link to the Wiki info. The article was very informative.

Al

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