Best Zigbee Coordinators for Home Assistant 2026

UPDATED 05.02.2026: This list has been completely revamped for 2026. Obsolete and redundant coordinators have been removed and updated our recommendations to reflect the new “EFR32MG24-standard” for high-performance Zigbee networks.

Zigbee coordinators are the core part of building a Zigbee network, without them a network cannot be formed. They orchestrate and manage your devices, define how and when they talk to each other, send and push information between them and keep the stack in check.

So, it’s simple: the better the coordinator, the better the quality of your mesh network and Zigbee experience.

This article is an overview of the Best Zigbee Coordinators for Home Assistant in 2025, analyzed by SoC platform, integration compatibility, and overall value. If you are looking to find which is best suited for Thread, check out the Best Thread Border Routers for Home Assistant list.

If you are just starting out with Zigbee check out the only guide you will ever need for building a stable and robust Zigbee network.

Quick Summary: Best Zigbee Coordinators

If you don’t want to go through the full technical breakdown and reasoning, here are our top 3 recommendations based on performance, hardware capability, and ecosystem support.

Best Zigbee USB Dongles for Home Assistant

List of the Best USB-only Zigbee coordinators for Home Assistant, compatible with ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT. Remember to use them with a USB extension cord, to eliminate USB port interference.

🥇Best USB Dongle Overall

Also available on Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon FR, Apollo, Domadoo.

The Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 is a USB Zigbee and Thread adapter designed specifically for Home Assistant systems. It is built around a Silicon Labs EFR32MG24 radio and uses an external 4.16 dBi omnidirectional antenna tuned for the 2.4 GHz band, giving it an excellent link quality for both Zigbee and Thread devices.

What truly sets the ZBT-2 apart is its dual-chip architecture. Unlike standard dongles that use a basic USB-to-UART bridge, this device integrates a dedicated ESP32-S3 co-processor to handle the communication between the radio and your Home Assistant server. This design choice explicitly offloads the serial bridging tasks, ensuring that the EFR32MG24 radio can dedicate 100% of its resources to maintaining your network mesh.

In practice, you can use the ZBT-2 either as a Zigbee 3.0 coordinator or as a Thread adapter, not both at the same time. Home Assistant provides separate firmware options and setup flows so you can choose between Zigbee (with ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT) or Thread for Matter devices and switch roles when needed.

For teardown photos and detailed breakdown, read the full Home Assistant ZBT-2 Review.

🥈Best High-Power USB Dongle

Also available on Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon NL, Amazon CA, Sonoff.

The Sonoff Dongle Plus MG24 is the official successor to the Sonoff ZBDongle-E. While the ZBDongle-E is still available, the Dongle Plus MG24 is a significant upgrade in raw power. It is based on the latest Silicon Labs EFR32MG24 SoC, but its real selling point is the radio performance: it pushes the legal limit with +20dBm output power paired with a massive +4.5dBi external antenna.

This combination creates the highest “out-of-the-box” gain of any USB coordinator on this list. If you need a stick that can punch through thick walls or cover dead zones that standard +3dBi dongles can’t reach, this is the one to get.

What’s interesting about this dongle is that it can run Sonoff’s MultiPAN firmware, which allows you to form both Zigbee and Thread networks on a single SoC. It’s worth noting that this feature is experimental and not officially supported by Home Assistant.

Check out our Sonoff Dongle Plus Review to learn more.

🥉Best Compact USB Dongle

Also available on Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon NL, Amazon CA.

If you are familiar with SMLight coordinators, the new SLZB-07MG24 is an excellent option. It uses the EFR32MG24 chip and includes a +3 dBi external antenna. The adapter is a capable Zigbee and Thread coordinator that can handle large networks without issues. SMLight also tends to ship their devices with the latest stable firmware, which is not always the case with other manufacturers. One thing to keep in mind is that the dongle should be used with a USB extension cable, because interference from nearby USB ports is very likely.

Hardware-wise, SMLight didn’t cut corners. It integrates the premium CP2102N USB-to-UART converter, which ensures rock-solid serial communication with your host, eliminating the connection drops often seen with cheaper CH340 chips. Furthermore, it features Auto-BSL support, allowing you to easily flash firmware updates or switch between Zigbee and Thread modes via SMLight’s web flasher without manually pressing physical buttons or putting the device in bootloader mode.

💰Best Budget USB Dongle

Also available on Amazon UK, Amazon NL, Amazon FR, Amazon CA, Domadoo.

If you don’t need the absolute latest EFR32MG24 chip, the Sonoff ZBDongle-E remains the best value-for-money coordinator in 2026. Based on the EFR32MG21 radio from Silicon Labs, this dongle was our top pick for over two years and continues to run thousands of Home Assistant instances reliably.

While it lacks the raw power of the newer Sonoff Dongle Max (MG24), it is still rock-solid for ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT networks. It ships with a +3dBi antenna and is often frequently available for nearly half the price of modern MG24 USB coordinators. For users building a moderately sized Zigbee network, the ZBDongle-E is still a beast.

Best Zigbee LAN/PoE Coordinators for Home Assistant

List of the Best Hybrid (USB, LAN, PoE, Wi-Fi) Zigbee coordinators for Home Assistant, compatible with ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT. Remember to update the firmware in the web dashboard before pairing devices.

🥇Best PoE Coordinator Overall

Also available on Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon NL, Amazon FR, Domadoo.

The SLZB-06MG24 is a PoE powered coordinator built on the EFR32MG24 SoC from Silicon Labs. It supports up to 350 Zigbee end devices and is fully compatible with both ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT. The MG24 radio is paired with an external +5dBi antenna, giving it stable range and enough headroom for very large Zigbee networks. Thread is supported natively on this model, although it operates as a single protocol device at a time, just like the rest of the SLZB-06 range.

Under the hood, the device relies on a robust dual-chip design, utilizing a dedicated ESP32 processor to manage Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and the web interface, while the EFR32MG24 is left dedicated entirely to Zigbee traffic. This separation of concerns ensures that accessing the dashboard or pushing a firmware update never destabilizes your mesh network. It effectively makes the coordinator “crash-proof” in ways that single-chip USB dongles cannot match.

SMLight includes an advanced web dashboard for configuration, firmware management, and basic network tools. The SLZB-06MG24 also supports Wi-Fi via its ESP32 subsystem, if for some reason you want to use it. The SMLight range can connect a remote Zigbee network to your Home Assistant instance via WireGuard, a very welcome and useful feature. Overall, the SLZB-06MG24 is the top pick, as the pricier SLZB-06MG26 is overkill and unnecessary for a dedicated Zigbee network.

🥈Best High-Power PoE Coordinator

Also available on Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon NL, Amazon FR, Sonoff.

The Sonoff Dongle Max is the latest and greatest PoE coordinator from Sonoff, based on the EFR32MG24 SoC. It supports the latest 8.x firmware and ships with +5dBi tuned dual antennas that deliver excellent performance for modern DIY smart homes. While it supports both Zigbee and Thread at the firmware level, you can only run one at a time (despite what the antennas suggest). Sonoff claims MultiPAN support is working fine, although I highly advise against using it on single SoC coordinators.

The Sonoff Dongle Max has its own beautiful web dashboard, useful for configuration and debugging. You can configure an MQTT server, set up webhooks, enable WireGuard, and add an eWeLink Remote Gateway. There is also a very interesting feature that Sonoff decided to include, called the Channel Energy Scan. This tool scans the entire 2.4 GHz spectrum and identifies which channels are occupied or free.

Check out the Sonoff Dongle Max Review to learn more.

🥉Best Dual-Radio PoE Coordinator

Also available on Amazon DE, Amazon NL, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Domadoo.

The SMLight SLZB-MR3 is a high-end, dual SoC Zigbee and Thread coordinator. This model is powered by an EFR32MG24 and CC2674P10 which you can use for either Zigbee or Thread. Just like the first version (MR1), it can run both networks simultaneously, each on its own dedicated radio. Thanks to the newer MG24 and P10 chips, it has increased capacity, supporting up to 750 end devices, with 350 on Zigbee and 400 on Thread. The external dual antenna setup combines the strengths of both radios, giving it excellent coverage.

Its PoE design, built-in web dashboard, Wi-Fi support, and ESPHome integration for Bluetooth proxies make it a highly capable all-in-one coordinator. The MR3 is ideal for users who expect large networks, want maximum headroom, or plan to grow both their Zigbee and Thread ecosystems without swapping hardware later. If you are aiming to cover both Zigbee and Thread, the SLZB-MR3 is the smart choice. You should only consider the SLZB-MR4 (EFR32MG26) if your primary focus is a large-scale Thread network, as the extra RAM provides zero benefit for Zigbee.

NOTE:

• The SMLight SLZB-MR2 (EFR32MG21/CC2652P) is not included in this category because its Texas Instruments chip is weaker than the MR1 and its Silicon Labs SoC is the same.
• The SMLight SLZB-MR4 (EFR32MG26/CC2674P10) is not included in this list because its Texas Instruments chip is the same as the MR3, while the Silicon Labs chip offers no tangible performance benefit over the EFR32MG24 used in the MR3 when it comes to Zigbee.

USB vs. PoE Zigbee Coordinators: Which should you choose?

Now that you have seen the best options out there, it is important to understand the practical differences between these two connectivity methods. Depending on your home layout and server location, one type will be much more suitable than the other.

• USB Zigbee Dongles
  • Connectivity: Direct physical connection via USB.
  • Power: Powered directly by the server’s USB port.
  • Best For: Beginners, small apartments, or setups where the server is already centrally located.
• PoE Zigbee Coordinators
  • Connectivity: Ethernet (LAN), Wi-Fi, or USB.
  • Power: Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) or USB-C.
  • Best For: Large homes, virtualized servers (Proxmox/Docker), or placing the coordinator in a central location away from the server.

The easiest options are standard USB Zigbee sticks. You simply plug them into your server and you are good to go. However, they are physically tethered to your machine. PoE Coordinators offer superior versatility. Since they connect over your local network, you can install the device physically anywhere in your home to maximize signal coverage, regardless of where your Home Assistant server sits.

Texas Instruments vs. Silicon Labs Chips

While the connectivity method (USB vs. PoE) determines where you can place your coordinator, the chipset determines how well it performs. The market is currently dominated by two chip manufacturers: Texas Instruments (TI) and Silicon Labs (SiLabs).

Texas Instruments chips like the CC2652P [Datasheet] were the gold standard for DIY Zigbee networks for many years. The industry has shifted significantly since then and these have largely been surpassed by the more modern EFR32 series from Silicon Labs, like the EFR32MG21 [Datasheet] or EFR32MG24 [Datasheet].

Furthermore, with the new release wave of Zigbee coordinators like the Home Assistant ZBT-2 and Sonoff Dongle Plus / Dongle Max, we’re seeing more and more EFR32MG24 [Datasheet] based coordinators. This is a newer, more powerful chip with more RAM and a better processor, capable of handling larger networks with ease. Here’s how they compare to each other:

Technical Comparison Table

To help you make the final decision, here is the side-by-side comparison of every coordinator’s key hardware specs for easy reading.