[ihattendorf]

Z-Wave devices are almost universally better (longer battery life, longer range, more reliable, etc.) than Zigbee (I have both). Not sure if this is based on price (Z-Wave devices being more expensive), certification, different radio frequency, or something else.

With the investment into Thread (still sharing frequency with 2.4 GHz WiFi) I could see this changing.

[vineyardmike]

I don't own ZWave devices, but comments here seem to question their superiority.

The range and battery life is likely due to the lower-frequency it uses, which is less congested and longer range. Typically, this will translate to a lower power usage (better battery life).

[CommanderData]

Linus tech tips has done a few videos on his smart home (z-wave) and he does not seem overly happy with it..

I'm really glad I went Zigbee as its been almost completely pain free even with third party non cloud software.

I can't fault it but I do worry about future security updates should something be discovered in Zigbees stack.

[vineyardmike]

> I can't fault it but I do worry about future security updates should something be discovered in Zigbees stack.

I agree it’ll likely be few devices that’s ever see an update but I think theoretically Zigbee proton supports OTA from the hubs. I know home assistant supports automatic OTAs from a handful of brands.

[yencabulator]

> longer battery life

Meanwhile, this HN discussion has people telling others to never use battery-powered Z-Wave devices, or it'll be laggy...