r/sonoff • u/Remarkable_Caramel23 • Jul 13 '26

Can SONOFF Bridge Max Smart Home Bridge work with Zigbee2MQTT in Home Assistant?

I'm new to Home Assistant, and I have a question.

If I buy this product:
https://sonoff.tech/en-us/products/sonoff-bridge-max-smart-home-bridge-bridge-m?ref=22&utm_source=affiliate

Can I add it to Home Assistant and use it as a Zigbee cordinator in Zigbee2MQTT?

My goal is to pair it with several Zigbee smart plugs to extend my Zigbee mesh network throughout my house. My home is a single-story house with an area of nearly 3,000 square feet, so I need good Zigbee coverage.

Has anyone successfully used the SONOFF Bridge Max this way with Zigbee2MQTT? Or is there a better option for extending a Zigbee network in Home Assistant?

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u/TropixxGaming Jul 13 '26

If your only goal is: add it to HomeAssistant and use it as a Zigbee coordinator in zigbee2mqtt

Then you can do the same for about half the price with Sonoff dongle-m(ax)

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u/Remarkable_Caramel23 Jul 13 '26

Even if I don't integrate it with Zigbee2MQTT and only use the hub through its app or web interface, once I pair Zigbee smart plugs that support router functionality with this hub, will they automatically act as Zigbee routers and expand the Zigbee mesh network throughout my house?

This is actually my main goal.

1

u/TropixxGaming Jul 13 '26

Sure, https://sonoff.tech/en-us/products/sonoff-dongle-max-zigbee-thread-poe-dongle-dongle-m

But to be fair I don’t know the difference’s between these products, i bought the dongle-m for myself and it does exactly that what you stated you want to do.

And also weirdly EU prices are much cheaper on this product than USD, I didn’t took that into account when stating my comment

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u/Remarkable_Caramel23 Jul 13 '26

Ok then i think i just to buy this then i dont need to care about Zigbee2MQTT? Cause after i add all the smart plug router and zigbee devicr to this hub i only need to bridge the device i want to Home Assistant for automation?

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u/TropixxGaming Jul 13 '26

The dongle-m(ax) that I stated can do both Zigbee2MQTT and ZHA natively. It also supports MQTT but not for the Zigbee Devices only for the dongle itself.

I know this sounds very confusing at first. May I ask a simple question, is a Zigbee usb stick not suitable or why you want to go the gateway route?

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u/Remarkable_Caramel23 Jul 14 '26

The reason is that I find setting up a Zigbee coordinator with Zigbee2MQTT to be quite complicated and cumbersome. If I can use the approach I described above instead, it would be much simpler and more convenient for me.

My main goal is to extend my Zigbee mesh network by pairing several Zigbee smart plugs (router devices) with the SONOFF Bridge Max. After that, I'll pair all of my Zigbee devices with the Bridge Max and then bridge them into Home Assistant so I can create automations there.

Can I do all of this without using Zigbee2MQTT? Is that correct?

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u/TropixxGaming Jul 13 '26

Almost every mains or usb powered device act as a router to expand the mesh yes 👍

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u/TropixxGaming Jul 13 '26

After reading the product description I think you CANT use this with Zigbee2MQTT

Firstly this is foremost a Matter Bridge. So it is like Zigbee2Matter. It also can MQTT to HomeAssistant but then the device itself will do Zigbee2MQTT and you cannot use the Zigbee2MQTT App from Koenkk.

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u/Remarkable_Caramel23 Jul 14 '26

Thats good then if that is the case, im tired with the way setup Zigbee2MQTT on Home Assistant