As a competing wireless standard to Z-Wave, Zigbee also uses mesh networking to communicate between devices. Zigbee is a low power communication protocol run under the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The Zigbee protocol is open, and Zigbee products are certified by the Zigbee Aliance. Zigbee signals are carried at the 2.4GHz frequency rage, and can travel up to 300 feet.

Zigbee is designed for home automation, but it also designed for other fields such as industrial control, energy management, and personal health care. The multiple fields caused Zigbee to not be interoperable between different companies. For example, Control4 and AMX both use Zigbee for their home automation signals, but an AMX Zigbee light switch will not work on a Control4 Zigbee network.

Plus Side:

• Wireless and RF signal can travel through walls
• Wireless signal is carried up to 300 feet.
• Can support over 64,000 devices
• Open IEEE standard
• Reliable

Down Side:

• Do a Amazon.com or PriceGrabber search. You won’t find any Zigbee devices.
• Zigbee’s use of the 2.4 GHz can cause interference with existing Wi-Fi networks.
• Zigbee home automation devices may not be compatible between different companies.
• Expensive. Current Zigbee home automation products designed for luxury home market.