Smart Home Assistant
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Hubs & dongles that work with Home Assistant

The engine room: whatever devices you buy, you need something to run Home Assistant on and radios to talk to them. This page covers the official Home Assistant hardware (Green, Connect ZBT-1, Voice), the Zigbee coordinators the community actually recommends, and Z-Wave sticks on the correct EU/UK frequency. If you're starting from zero, a Green plus one Zigbee coordinator covers 90% of this site.

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Frequently asked questions

What's the easiest way to start running Home Assistant in the UK?

Buy a Home Assistant Green (~£85, official hardware, plug in and go) and add a Connect ZBT-1 or SLZB-06M when you buy your first Zigbee devices. It's quieter, cheaper and better supported than repurposing an old laptop, and there's no cloud dependency or subscription — ever.

Which Zigbee coordinator should I buy?

For USB, the Sonoff ZBDongle-E is the default recommendation and works with ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT. If your server lives somewhere with poor radio reach (a cupboard or rack), the Ethernet/PoE SMLIGHT SLZB-06M lets you put the radio where the devices are — it's become the community's favourite for exactly that reason.

Do I need a Thread border router for Matter devices?

For Matter-over-Thread devices (most battery sensors and locks), yes — the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1 can serve as one, as can an Apple TV 4K or HomePod you already own. Matter-over-Wi-Fi devices like smart plugs need no extra hardware, just the Matter integration.