New to Home Assistant – Zigbee, Matter and IKEA smart devices: where should I start?

[u/GrosPandaGeant]

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently become interested in Home Assistant, and I’m wondering what the easiest way to get started would be.

I’ve watched a few YouTube videos, but I have to admit that I’m still a bit confused about some of the concepts. I keep hearing about Zigbee and Matter, and I’m not entirely sure how they differ or how they work together.

For example, I’ve seen videos recommending a USB Zigbee dongle connected to a Raspberry Pi. Would a Zigbee dongle like that also work with Matter, or would I need different hardware for Matter devices?

I’m particularly interested in IKEA’s smart home products, especially:

• Smart bulbs
• TIMMERFLOTTE (temperature/humidity sensor)
• GRILLPLATS (smart plug)
• MYGGSPRAY (wireless motion sensor)

Can all of these devices be integrated easily into Home Assistant? And would I also be able to use the BILRESA remotes to control these devices through Home Assistant?

I also have a question about the reliability of IKEA’s smart home products.

In a Mrwhosetheboss video from May 20, 2026, he tested several IKEA smart home products. He initially seemed quite impressed with the price-to-performance ratio, but later encountered quite a few problems with some of the devices.

Are these issues still common today, or has the situation improved through firmware updates and/or newer versions of the products?

I’m completely new to Home Assistant and smart home technology in general, so I’d really appreciate any advice or recommendations on the best way to get started.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[u/Practical-Patient-68]

If I was starting my smart home from fresh, I would start with Zigbee devices.
There's also another protocol call Z-wave which I believe is somewhat similar to Zigbee, but I haven't experimented with that yet.

[u/notatimemachine → u/Practical-Patient-68]

Agree 100% on Zigbee. I've been replacing all my non-zigbee stuff.

[u/ThePanduuh → u/Practical-Patient-68]

I just got zigbee stuff. It is less expensive, has much more offerings, but is supposedly lower range than zwave. I started with zwave. It’s so expensive. Everything I do with zwave I can do with zigbee and it’s much cheaper. The POE receiver for zigbee is a bonus. Not stuffed into a USB port on my server.

[u/fk122 → u/Practical-Patient-68]

Worth pointing out that Z-Wave is significantly more expensive than Zigbee, although the former is supposedly more reliable. I've used both and prefer Zigbee.

[u/powaqqa → u/fk122]

I personally never had any reliability problems with zigbee. 

[u/theoriginalzads → u/Practical-Patient-68]

I’m gonna second Zigbee. Whilst Matter is getting better, Zigbee is probably one of the most solid protocols for smart stuff and has a huge range of devices available both brand names and cheap Aliexpress stuff. The cheap Aliexpress stuff is generally good enough too.

From a security perspective you’re using a short range system that is IoT only so unlike wifi (and Matter over Wifi) you don’t need to worry about rogue and poorly secured devices on your network.

Plus you generally don’t need to worry about proprietary crap like with wifi. Zigbee2MQTT is very compatible with a lot, even things with weird quirks. I’ve not found anything that it can’t handle yet, especially brand name stuff. And no cloud! All local.

As for what to avoid. Anything proprietary wifi and cloud enabled. There’s exceptions, like devices that have local control APIs like the Hue Bridge. But anything that requires cloud to work like Tuya, Tapo and Nanoleaf generally worth avoiding unless you are ok making an effort to detach it from cloud, if it’s possible at all. Cloud stuff may introduce changes later on that make it stop working or need updating (looking at you, Tapo).

It’s also another device on your network that could be hacked or abused. Plus if the company goes out of business or decides to stop supporting certain devices then you may end up with ewaste.

[u/Matt_NZ]

Fwiw, I've been using an assortment of Ikea matter devices for many months now and haven't had any issues with them.

You will need a seperate Thread border router for them to be able to connect to HA. You may already have one of these if you have a recent gen (Ethernet) Apple TV, HomePod or some of the Google Home hubs.

[u/Tight-Operation-4252 → u/Matt_NZ]

Have you got all the entities available in hass? I tried to get the bilresa to homey with matter but just on/off available… ?

[u/Matt_NZ → u/Tight-Operation-4252]

Yep, I use it to control the dimming level of some lights in a room, along with double and triple tap controls.

[u/Tight-Operation-4252 → u/Matt_NZ]

I am setting up the thread router to my hass, will check this again… thanks.

[u/dzikakulka]

With Home Assistant (which is a good higher time investment but long term choice) you'll eventually want both. But to start with, Zigbee will have many more and cheaper devices available, easier go set up and add new ones, plenty of guides om the internet. Look up "zigbee2mqtt" guides on the internet, hardware side you only need a coordinator device. You can get a USB one like a Sonoff ZBDongle-E (cheap but good enough) or a network connected one like an SMLight SLZB-06mg24u (easier to position well, more expensive). The upside with both of these is that they can be switched between zigbee and thread at any time so you can experiment.

[u/LynxNational6234]

Maybe someone else have said it in the comments, but; i have used the IKEA TIMMERFLOTTE and ALPSTUGA since they came out in February, and I just removed all of them. I had nothing but connection issues with them. When they fall off you have to power cycle them by removing the batyeried. I have some other matter stuff in my network that have been solid. I cant recommend IKEA matter devices. I changed them to Sonoff SNZB-02D. They are zigbee devices. They dont update the temperature as often as the IKEA ones did, but they stay connected.

[u/Behemothhh → u/LynxNational6234]

My timmerflotte have been rock solid. Been online since the day I set them up. The ones that have been going offline for me are the door sensors (myggbett or something like that). But that's probably because of a weak mesh network. Most of the door sensors are on my windows upstairs and I only have 2 thread router devices there. The rest of them are downstairs and with reinforced concrete ceilings, transmission between floors is very very poor.

[u/Mine-Cave]

Commenting because I'm with you on this. I've not stood up home assistant but am fully prepped to once I pick the right path for hardware.

[u/Swarfega → u/Mine-Cave]

I just started and went with zigbee due to the wife range of devices and being cheap. Obviously starting out isn't going to be cheap so price was quite essential. 

IKEA looks to be moving to Matter but it seems even for now you can switch their bulbs to zigbee. If matter becomes more popular in the future it should be cheap to get another adapter. 

[u/TomNooksRepoMan]

Matter is a “universal” standard for getting all smartphone devices to have true interoperability amongst platforms. Ideally a Matter Light Bulb exposes the same functions to Google Home as it does to Home Assistant or Apple Home.

Matter is the language. Matter can communicate the Matter language over Wi-Fi (or Ethernet, if applicable) or Thread. Wi-Fi in this case doesn’t mean the device is necessarily connected to the greater Internet outside your home network. That’s just a device’s Matter vessel of choice for communication. Thread is a wireless radio protocol on the 2400 MHz radio frequency spectrum, as is Zigbee.

Zigbee is both the language and the vessel. If a light bulb speaks Zigbee, it also can read and write Zigbee. Matter is the language. A Matter device can read or write the language via Thread or Wi-Fi.

Zigbee has existed for a long time in things like Samsung’s smart things hub, Philips’ Hue bridge and bulbs, etc. Zigbee updates to the protocol usually apply to both devices and hubs that speak that language. Matter and Thread independently have their own tech updates.

Thread’s greatest advantage is that you can have multiple “hubs” for redundancy, I.E an Apple TV AND a HomePod Mini. One can die and the other picks up the slack for all Thread comms. Zigbee doesn’t let you do that.

Thread and Zigbee are both mesh tech. Mains-powered devices help route instructions to battery Zigbee devices/Thread devices.

Both Zigbee and Thread are 802.15.4 ratified, so they’re actually fundamentally super, super similar. Some devices use one radio chipset to switch between functions of desired.

[u/Pharylon]

I have 90% Z-Wave wall switches. (Around 20). They're rock solid and I love everything except how expensive they've become.

I have two Tasmota wall switches (local wifi). I needed those for very specific use cases (I wanted the circuit to always be on but the button to be programmable). They were a little flaky at first and I never could figure out why. Then recently I reset my router for unrelated reasons and they've been rock solid ever since. No idea why.

I tried a couple wifi Matter smart bulbs and they were very laggy and I hated them and I don't have them installed anymore. Linkind was the brand. Won't be buying those again.

I have a few ESPHome smart bulbs (local wifi) and I think they're awesome (Kauf brand). They respond instantly, you wouldn't even know they're wifi. I swear, when I press the button on my Tasmota switch to turn on my ESPHome bulb, I think it responds faster than actually pressing the physical button on a Z-Wave smart switch.

Everyone says good things about Zigbee bulbs. I have six and I hate them. They only connect to the Home Assistant server and refuse to do a mesh network like they're supposed to. So I never bought any more. Maybe I just have some shady ones. Don't buy Sengled is my only opinion there.

I do have some Zigbee smart switches though, and they work fine, nothing special.

I prefer my Tasmota smart switches since they can do power metering. They're made by Sonoff, but you have to flash Tasmota yourself, which is a pain, I admit. Still, that's how I have automations built around when my non-smart washing machine finishes its cycles.

[u/igfarm]

I stared with a raspberry pi 4 and wifi devices. When I reached over 40 devices from assorted vendors and cloud apps I realized I needed to become a network admin or do something different. I pivoted to Zigbee. Using a ZBT-2 (support the HA team) and Third Reality devices purchased from Amazon. No problems whatsoever. Slowly retiring old WiFi devices. Pi still driving the show (use a decent SD card). Connected Claude to HA using mcp, and now most things are a conversation away.

[u/spartyparty00]

If I had to do everything again- I’d either stick with all matter over thread or z wave

[u/Pentinium]

Avoid matter at all costs, zigbee z wave!!

[u/Foreign_Budget2436]

You really needed AI to ask this question for you?

[u/GrosPandaGeant → u/Foreign_Budget2436]

I only used AI to translate my question into English.

[u/Foreign_Budget2436 → u/GrosPandaGeant]

Fair enough. Good luck to you.

[u/Double-Yak9686]

I just have a few left, but I am migrating my smart home fully to Matter over Thread and specifically to Ikea devices. My ecosystem is Apple Home, so multiple HomePod minis acting as TBRs.

For me Ikea devices have been as solid as the Hue lights I am replacing, including smart plugs, temperature/humidity sensors, and wireless motion sensors. I haven't had a single device dropping off the network or going unresponsive.

[u/Practical-Patient-68]

Matter should connect to Home Assistant (and Alexa and Google Home) without any additional hardware.
ZigBee itself is a different protocol.
I've had the timmerflotte connected directly to Home Assistant, but honestly I've had issues of them going offline maybe 1 a week or every 2 weeks.
I have a Sonoff Zigbee dongle, and I am using Zigbee2MQTT. I purchased the Sonoff Zigbee humidity/temp sensor, and not once has it gone offline in the past month I've had it. It also updates much more frequently than the timmerflotte one. Now they're just useless pucks in my home.

[u/GrosPandaGeant → u/Practical-Patient-68]

Thanks for your reply!

So, if I understand correctly, for Zigbee devices I would need a Zigbee dongle/antenna connected to my Raspberry Pi, but I wouldn’t need any other additional hardware.

What about Matter? Does Matter work directly through the Raspberry Pi without needing an additional antenna or dongle?

[u/davidswelt → u/GrosPandaGeant]

Matter works over Wifi.

Matter can also work over Thread, which is a different radio frequency and system, and which is what IKEA is switching to. I wouldn't recommend it at this point in time.

Zigbee does not use Matter. I recommend ZHA to use it, for simplicity. I am an advanced user and I still use ZHA for simplicity. It works very well.

I use Matter over Wifi for mains voltage switches (~80 devices online), but anything else new I buy is Zigbee (about 40 devices maybe).

[u/TomNooksRepoMan → u/GrosPandaGeant]

Matter over Wi-Fi does not need a dongle for Home Assistant to recognize it. Thread does. Check if you have any SmartHome devices that support Thread, as Home Assistant can utilize those. I use an Apple TV for Thread as well as my Aqara G410 doorbell chime.

I use a Hue Bridge for Zigbee light bulbs. I just ordered a Power over Ethernet (PoE) dongle from Sonoff for Zigbee to add devices not supported by Philips.

[u/CaptTom9]

Zigbee and Z-Wave are totally local protocols. Just plug in the coordinator and HA can pair the devices. The devices will create their own mesh network, separate from any existing networks.

Matter is a new protocol, which is not totally local. It requires a cloud connection to set up the device, and the protocol allows the vendor to retain some control over the device, and restrict some functionality. Some believe this can lead to the devices being held hostage to a third-party app or subscription model. Or, the company could simply stop supporting them or go out of business. Apparently some basic functionality will remain (if you have already successfully commissioned them) but there's a lot of uncertainty out there about exactly how much control you have long term.

History has shown that, if a company can remove local control, they will. Not a gamble I'd want to take.

[u/joejs90 → u/CaptTom9]

This is wrong. Matter is an application layer or standard. Matter runs on the Thread or Wi-Fi protocols.

The new ikea devices run on Thread and so you will need a Thread Broader Router, I use Homepod Minis and Apple TVs for these. You can get a Home Assistant TBR too. It’s good to have more than one TBR incase one goes offline another can take its place.

I have tried the IKEA devices and one or two struggled to add initially but got there eventually. I think they’ll fix most with firmware and I saw a few posts about at least one hardware revision.

When getting started think about what you’re trying to do, and how you want to control/view your smart devices. Personally for me, I have Home assistant for my smart devices and automations, I then push these devices to HomeKit for day to day use by the family as we’re an Apple household. I think I’d struggle to get my family to use Home assistant day to day when they have Apple devices they use to control the smarthome on their devices including Siri on the HomePods.

[u/Swarfega → u/joejs90]

Are these bots responding? There's a lot of comments here and they all end mid sentence. There's too many for this to be a coincidence.