I see a lot of posts about people who like their Zigbee and Z-Wave products. As I’m setting up the hardware in my home, I’m using Wi-Fi products because I already have Wi-Fi. I don’t see much difference in price. What is the actual benefit of setting up a separate network for home devices? Is there a reason that I should consider setting up one of these networks?
If I already have a handful of WiFi devices, do you think it is worth it to replace them? Say, 4-5 switches. I’m planning to invest in a few more and a home thermostat. I certainly want to commit before buying a thermostat, since they tend to be a little more pricey.
Is there a greater danger of ZigBee not being sustainable over decades? WiFi will probably be available for the remainder of my lifetime because it is already so ubiquitous.
ZigBee is already so widespread that I don’t see it going away. I’d be much more worried about your WiFi devices.
While WiFi as a network technology certainly isn’t going anywhere, most WiFi-connected devices talk to a service on the internet. You probably created an account somewhere to manage your WiFi devices. So if the manufacturer shuts down their service, which happens all the time when they either shut down the whole business or abandon a product line, you will have no way to manage your devices.
ZigBee will continue working as long as your hardware does, because you control the software managing it.