Zigbee2MQTT
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 6 smart home hubs by recommenders
People recommend it as an open-source bridge that connects many Zigbee devices to MQTT and Home Assistant, often more reliably than alternatives. One critic notes it can use several hundred MB of RAM.
People recommend it as an open-source bridge that connects many Zigbee devices to MQTT and Home Assistant, often more reliably than alternatives. One critic notes it can use several hundred MB of RAM.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Open source and locally controlled
“I've been using NodeRED + zigbee2mqtt/zwavejs for my locally controlled home automation to great effect.”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “Google has officially turned these Nest thermostats back into dumb thermostats” “they're genuinely great projects and something that wouldn't really be possible without open source”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products” “open hard- and software is a must for the longevity of (internet of) things that cost”
Comment from 26 May 2026 in “Why the Smart Home Bubble Popped” - Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Zigbee vs. Matter over Thread:Understanding IoT Protocol Performance in Practice”
Works well with Home Assistant
“use conventional Zigbee with an open-source coordinator like Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “The Connectivity Standards Alliance Announces Zigbee 4.0 and Suzi” “have worked very well with ZB2MQTT and Home Assistant out of the box”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products” “use zigbee2mqtt with Home Assistant and be happy”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “The Connectivity Standards Alliance Announces Zigbee 4.0 and Suzi” - Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Zigbee vs. Matter over Thread:Understanding IoT Protocol Performance in Practice”
Supports many devices from many vendors
“hundreds of Zigbee devices w/ zigbee2mqtt in a network”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Zigbee vs. Matter over Thread:Understanding IoT Protocol Performance in Practice” “multi-vendor orchestrated by Zigbee2MQTT”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Zigbee vs. Matter over Thread:Understanding IoT Protocol Performance in Practice” “You never needed a bucket of hubs with things like zigbee2mqtt”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products” Reliable compared with ZHA
“choose zigbee2mqtt rather than ZHA, it's more reliable overall”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “Home Assistant waters my plants” “found HA + MoT to be strictly worse than Z2M”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Zigbee vs. Matter over Thread:Understanding IoT Protocol Performance in Practice”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Unclear whether it worked
“it often isn't clear if that worked, if it'll work later, and so on”
Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Best-selling Zigbee temperature sensors tested and compared” High memory use
“Zigbee2MQTT apparently wants several hundred MB of RAM.”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Best-selling Zigbee temperature sensors tested and compared”
Other smart home hubs people recommend
The four most recommended other smart home hubs, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home Assistant | 298 | 75 | 80% | 13 | 2 yrs17 owners | Approved |
| Apple HomeView | 95 | 149 | 39% | 6 | — | — |
| Zigbee2MQTTThis page | 16 | 2 | 89% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Homebridge | 13 | 1 | 93% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Home Assistant Green | 6 | 1 | 86% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
19 of the 20 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I've been using NodeRED + zigbee2mqtt/zwavejs for my locally controlled home automation to great effect.”
“Zigbee2MQTT apparently wants several hundred MB of RAM.”
“it often isn't clear if that worked, if it'll work later, and so on”
“hundreds of Zigbee devices w/ zigbee2mqtt in a network”
“open source bridge (the aforementioned zigbee2mqtt)”
“multi-vendor orchestrated by Zigbee2MQTT”
“found HA + MoT to be strictly worse than Z2M”
“open hard- and software is a must for the longevity of (internet of) things that cost”
“choose zigbee2mqtt rather than ZHA, it's more reliable overall”
“use conventional Zigbee with an open-source coordinator like Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant”
“You only need a cheap USB adapter as a Zigbee coordinator and you are ready to go.”
“Then install and start the following add-ons in Home Assistant”
“Sticking to pure zigbee devices with zigbee2mqtt and slae.sh's excellent USB coordinator”
“use zigbee2mqtt with Home Assistant and be happy”
“have worked very well with ZB2MQTT and Home Assistant out of the box”
“That works, I am doing the same.”
“It’s so darn convenient to have MQTT in the picture for home automation”
“they're genuinely great projects and something that wouldn't really be possible without open source”
“You never needed a bucket of hubs with things like zigbee2mqtt”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.