Best Zigbee Dongle : Discover A Comparison

Are you interested in buying a Zigbee Dongle but there are different models from different brands and you don’t know which one to choose?

Discover my comparison to get more clarity on the main Zigbee dongles in the home automation market.

Index

Zigbee Dongle : The comparison

Marca	ZVIDAR	NABU CASA	SONOFF	SONOFF	SMLIGHT	SMLIGHT	SMLIGHT	SMLIGHT	ZIGATE	AEOTEC	PHOSCON
Referencia	Z-DG-Z01	HASKYCNCT	ZBDONGLE-P	ZBDONGLE-E	SLZB-06	SLZB-06M	SLZB-07	SLZB-07P7	ZIGATETTLV2_0	ZGA008	CONBEEIII
Precio	29.99€	39.99€	29.99€	27.99€	39.99€	39.99€	19.99€	23.99€	49€	29.99€	39.99€
Tienda	COMPRAR	COMPRAR	COMPRAR	COMPRAR	COMPRAR	COMPRAR	COMPRAR	COMPRAR	COMPRAR	COMPRAR	COMPRAR
Tecnología	Zigbee	Zigbee, Thread	Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth	Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth	Zigbee	Zigbee	Zigbee, bluetooth	Zigbee	Zigbee	Zigbee	Zigbee
Chipset (SoC)	EFR32MG21	EFR32MG21	CC2652P	EFR32MG21	CC2652P	EFR32MG21	EFR32MG21	CC2652P7	–	EFR32MG21	EFR32MG21
Procesador	EFR32MG21A020	Cortex-M33	Cortex-M4F	Cortex-M33	Cortex-M4F	Cortex-M33	Cortex-M33	Cortex-M4F	–	–	Cortex-M33
Memoria Flash	512kb	1024kb	352kb	1000kb	352kb	768kb	768kb	704kb	640kb	–	1024kb
RAM	64kb	96kb	80kb	96kb	88kb	96kb	96kb	152kb	–	–	96kb
Potencia antena	20dBm	20dBm	5 à 20dBm	20dBm	5dBm	5dBm	3dBm	3dBm	–	–	10dBm
Antena rotativa	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
Servidor WEB	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Zigbee2MQTT	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
ZHA (Jeedom, Home Assistant)	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Eedomus	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌
Conexión por USB	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cable deportado USB	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Conexión por Ethernet	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Alimentación por POE	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Función Coordinador	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Función repetidor (End Device)	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
Conexión VPN	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Dimensiones (mm)	50 x 19 x 8	39 x 18 x 5	111 x 41 x 19	75 x 26 x 14	155 x 24 x 24	155 x 24 x 24	18 x 56 x 10	18 x 54 x 10	70 x 25 x 10	37 x 17 x 9	60 x 18 x 9

Which is the best Zigbee dongle?

The variety of Zigbee dongles in the home automation market is very interesting as we have different solutions to suit our needs.

If for example you have an Eedomus home automation controller that integrates Z-Wave technology by default and you want to add Zigbee, you can use the Zigate USB dongle, which is the only possible option.

However, if you have a Home Assistant or Jeedom home automation hub, all the Zigbee dongles in this comparison can be used.

There are mainly 2 companies that manufacture Zigbee chipsets: Silicon Labs and Texas Instrument.

While CC2652P chipsets were initially the best performing chipsets for Zigbee2MQTT, EFR32MG21 chipsets are increasingly being used by all companies.

Proof of this is provided by Sonoff, which previously marketed its ZBDongle-Plus with CC2652P chipset but now produces a new ZBDongle-E dongle with EFR32MG21 chipset.

Conbeeiii is also a new Zigbee dongle from dresden elektronik that integrates an EFR32MG21 chipset.

Another example with Aeotec and their Zigbee dongle which is an EFR32MG21 chipset.

Even the companies Home Assistant with its Skyconnect dongle or Jeedom Luna, Jeedom’s home automation hub, integrate this EFR32MG21 chipset.

And each time new versions of these 2 companies are released, so we are getting better performance with new products.

Another factor to take into account is of course the price. A Zigbee dongle may be less powerful but more than enough for a small installation and at a reduced price.

And there are also other interesting details such as the type of connection of the dongle, either by USB directly connected to the home automation hub or by Ethernet (even powered by POE) with Smlight‘s proposal.

Other details such as the possibility of using a rotating antenna to optimise the range of Zigbee communications, the size or even being able to take advantage of Matter over Thread for the future of the smart home, may be interesting to take into account.