[cptskippy]

Having network access is my primary concern. The protocol was developed by the largest adware companies on the planet...

I'm sure someone will chime in and say you can setup a VLAN and restrict all Matter devices from the internet yada yada...

You don't have to do that with Z-Wave or ZigBee. And with ESPHome you know exactly what the device is doing because you have 100% control over it.

[protimewaster]

This is, to me, one of the absolute biggest selling points for ZigBee and Z-Wave.

I can get some random, vendor I've never heard of, ZigBee sensor, and I know it won't do anything rogue on the internet because it doesn't have any way of getting to the internet.

Also, ZigBee is extremely power efficient compared to WiFi. With ZigBee, I don't mind putting a sensor in the crawlspace or somewhere a pain to get to. It won't need the batteries changed for a year or two anyway.

I know Matter can work over more efficient means than WiFi, but most of the cheaper devices I find are WiFi. A cheap ZigBee device is still ZigBee.

[ianburrell]

Many Matter products are running on Thread, which uses the same radio as Zigbee and has the same power savings.

Thread doesn't have accessible IP address. It uses IPv6 and the ULA space which is non-routable.

[protimewaster]

As I said, my experience has been that the cheaper products run on WiFi. I also don't like that a product advertising "Matter" doesn't answer the question of whether it uses WiFi or not.

I much prefer that a $3 ZigBee temperature and humidity sensor definitely doesn't use WiFi rather than having to dig to see if a cheap a Matter sensor uses WiFi.

I also much prefer the prices of ZigBee.

[cptskippy]

Is there anything preventing a Matter product from also requesting an IP address from your DHCP server and getting a route out to the internet?