{"slug": "zigbee2mqtt", "name": "zigbee2mqtt", "category": "productivity", "category_name": "Productivity", "description": "", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 7, "warners": 0, "score": 4.851, "rising": -1.64, "first": "2025-11-06", "latest": "2026-10-06", "why": "choose zigbee2mqtt rather than ZHA, it's more reliable overall.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [2, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "choose zigbee2mqtt rather than ZHA, it's more reliable overall.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "zigbee2mqtt.io", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["zigbee2mqtt", "Zigbee2MQTT"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 783342928, "item_id": 48958933, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48958933", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-07-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My experience with Zigbee is that it just works", "excerpt": "Yes this. My experience with Zigbee is that it just works, but the setup and specific hardware probably matters. I use a SONOFF USB dongle through Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant.", "context": "", "use_case": "Zigbee home automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "TP-Link Kasa cameras leaked home GPS via unauthenticated UDP for 6 years"}, {"id": 772411936, "item_id": 48275746, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48275746", "by": "whilenot-dev", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I even just stick to the dashboard of Zigbee2MQTT", "excerpt": "That one was pretty obvious to everyone, open hard- and software is a must for the longevity of (internet of) things that cost < USD 1000. It's the sad reality we settled on in our weird economic system, and every once in a while someone needs to relearn it the hard way: No company is going to offer support for cheap things, so it must be done by an open (source) community. I've settled on a ZigStar Stick for my alwa", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why the Smart Home Bubble Popped"}, {"id": 758492498, "item_id": 47405781, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47405781", "by": "jabroni_salad", "date": "2026-03-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "choose zigbee2mqtt rather than ZHA, it's more reliable overall.", "excerpt": "1.get a cheap used miniPC from ebay 2. Buy a relevant dongle/antenna for the protocol you want to use. I recommend the ones from Sonoff or from the Home Assistant foundation (I started with the sonoff for zigbee, but added the ZBT-2 for matter/thread. they are both good) 3. install proxmox to the metal. 4. use tteck's install script to make the HAOS vm. Don't make the containers, make the HAOS VM specifically: https:", "context": "has had a Home Assistant setup running about 2 years", "use_case": "Zigbee integration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Home Assistant waters my plants"}, {"id": 736241873, "item_id": 46015117, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46015117", "by": "microtonal", "date": "2025-11-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Then get a coordinator recommended for zigbee2mqtt", "excerpt": "Easiest way is to put HAOS (Home Assistant OS) on a Raspberry Pi, Home Assistant Green, or some NUC: https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/ Then get a coordinator recommended for zigbee2mqtt: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/adapters/ Then install and start the following add-ons in Home Assistant: - Mosquitto - zigbee2mqtt: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/installation/03_ha_addon.html - MQTT And that's pretty m", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Connectivity Standards Alliance Announces Zigbee 4.0 and Suzi"}, {"id": 733899873, "item_id": 45868742, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45868742", "by": "microtonal", "date": "2025-11-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if you want to go free software Home Assistant or zigbee2mqtt", "excerpt": "I would buy only Hue but that's because I have more money than sense, and they don't actually make smart plugs last time I looked, Ikea makes Zigbee smart plugs with power monitoring (Inspelning) that are ~10 Euro here (probably $10 in the US). Also Zigbee does not have all the security issues, since it is purely local and will talk with whatever hub/bridge you choose, e.g. Homey, Hubitat, or if you want to go free s", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Drilling down on Uncle Sam's proposed TP-Link ban"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "moogly", "context": "has ~15 Aqara sensors", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49983741", "date": "2026-10-06"}, {"by": "jabroni_salad", "context": "has had a Home Assistant setup running about 2 years", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47405781", "date": "2026-03-16"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["zigbee sensor bridge", "zigbee home automation", "zigbee integration", "zigbee bridge"], "compared": [{"slug": "home-assistant", "name": "Home Assistant", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "home-assistant-os", "name": "Home Assistant OS", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49950653", "title": "Best-selling Zigbee temperature sensors tested and compared", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48952565", "title": "TP-Link Kasa cameras leaked home GPS via unauthenticated UDP for 6 years", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48274667", "title": "Why the Smart Home Bubble Popped", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47348652", "title": "Home Assistant waters my plants", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46477961", "title": "Show HN: I built a \"Do not disturb\" Device for my home office", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45969398", "title": "The Connectivity Standards Alliance Announces Zigbee 4.0 and Suzi", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 2}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 799739858, "item_id": 49983741, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49983741", "by": "moogly", "date": "2026-10-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have not adjusted reporting thresholds/intervals in zigbee2mqtt.", "excerpt": "Something is wrong somewhere, because I've had ~15 of those and battery life is 16-20 months for me (I use Battery Notes in HA which keeps a timestamp since you last changed the battery so I have a pretty good view into battery life). I have not adjusted reporting thresholds/intervals in zigbee2mqtt. They're really annoying to pair though, so I've replaced most of them with Sonoff SNZB-02P which runs a CR2477 battery", "context": "has ~15 Aqara sensors", "use_case": "Zigbee sensor bridge", "switched_from": "", "story": "Best-selling Zigbee temperature sensors tested and compared"}, {"id": 783342928, "item_id": 48958933, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48958933", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-07-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My experience with Zigbee is that it just works", "excerpt": "Yes this. My experience with Zigbee is that it just works, but the setup and specific hardware probably matters. I use a SONOFF USB dongle through Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant.", "context": "", "use_case": "Zigbee home automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "TP-Link Kasa cameras leaked home GPS via unauthenticated UDP for 6 years"}, {"id": 772411936, "item_id": 48275746, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48275746", "by": "whilenot-dev", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I even just stick to the dashboard of Zigbee2MQTT", "excerpt": "That one was pretty obvious to everyone, open hard- and software is a must for the longevity of (internet of) things that cost < USD 1000. It's the sad reality we settled on in our weird economic system, and every once in a while someone needs to relearn it the hard way: No company is going to offer support for cheap things, so it must be done by an open (source) community. I've settled on a ZigStar Stick for my alwa", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why the Smart Home Bubble Popped"}, {"id": 758492498, "item_id": 47405781, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47405781", "by": "jabroni_salad", "date": "2026-03-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "choose zigbee2mqtt rather than ZHA, it's more reliable overall.", "excerpt": "1.get a cheap used miniPC from ebay 2. Buy a relevant dongle/antenna for the protocol you want to use. I recommend the ones from Sonoff or from the Home Assistant foundation (I started with the sonoff for zigbee, but added the ZBT-2 for matter/thread. they are both good) 3. install proxmox to the metal. 4. use tteck's install script to make the HAOS vm. Don't make the containers, make the HAOS VM specifically: https:", "context": "has had a Home Assistant setup running about 2 years", "use_case": "Zigbee integration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Home Assistant waters my plants"}, {"id": 744477360, "item_id": 46529835, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46529835", "by": "lam0x86", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the daemon toggles a light by sending a simple message via zigbee2mqtt", "excerpt": "Nice. I built something similar using a Rust-based daemon running on my Mac. It listens to the microphone state (not the camera) via a Core Audio property listener (AudioObjectPropertyListenerProc), rather than log monitoring or polling, so it works even when the camera is turned off. When the mic status changes, the daemon toggles a light by sending a simple message via zigbee2mqtt. I also installed a fire alarm pla", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: I built a \"Do not disturb\" Device for my home office"}, {"id": 736241873, "item_id": 46015117, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46015117", "by": "microtonal", "date": "2025-11-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Then get a coordinator recommended for zigbee2mqtt", "excerpt": "Easiest way is to put HAOS (Home Assistant OS) on a Raspberry Pi, Home Assistant Green, or some NUC: https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/ Then get a coordinator recommended for zigbee2mqtt: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/adapters/ Then install and start the following add-ons in Home Assistant: - Mosquitto - zigbee2mqtt: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/installation/03_ha_addon.html - MQTT And that's pretty m", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Connectivity Standards Alliance Announces Zigbee 4.0 and Suzi"}, {"id": 733899873, "item_id": 45868742, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45868742", "by": "microtonal", "date": "2025-11-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if you want to go free software Home Assistant or zigbee2mqtt", "excerpt": "I would buy only Hue but that's because I have more money than sense, and they don't actually make smart plugs last time I looked, Ikea makes Zigbee smart plugs with power monitoring (Inspelning) that are ~10 Euro here (probably $10 in the US). Also Zigbee does not have all the security issues, since it is purely local and will talk with whatever hub/bridge you choose, e.g. Homey, Hubitat, or if you want to go free s", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Drilling down on Uncle Sam's proposed TP-Link ban"}, {"id": 733379793, "item_id": 45836237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45836237", "by": "close04", "date": "2025-11-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "That works, I am doing the same.", "excerpt": "> You never needed a bucket of hubs with things like zigbee2mqtt or the Zigbee implementation in Home Assistant That works, I am doing the same. But the average consumers don't want to be bothered to run HA, they want things to work out of the box with minimal fuss setting up or operating. This usually meant having the Philips hub, the IKEA hub, the Samsung hub, etc. > That's enough a proof that the issue was not in ", "context": "", "use_case": "Zigbee bridge", "switched_from": "", "story": "IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products"}]}