dresden elektronik / Phoscon
ConBee III
- Zigbee
Verified September 2026
Third-generation ConBee, and still the pick if you specifically want deCONZ/Phoscon rather than plain ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT — that first-party REST API is the one trick no TI or Silicon Labs stick offers. At around £37 it costs more than Home Assistant's own ZBT-2 (roughly £30-35), which ships with a USB extension lead in the box, uses the newer MG24 chip, and has an external antenna versus ConBee III's internal one — so budget for your own extension cable if you're tucking it behind a router. Choose ZBT-2 for a fresh build; choose ConBee III only if deCONZ is the actual reason you're buying.
In Home Assistant
| Control | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| ZHA | Native HA integration | Pair directly with no extra software |
| Zigbee2MQTT | Add-on / standalone service | Pair via Z2M for its wider device-support database |
| deCONZ / Phoscon | First-party local web app | Vendor's own control UI, runs alongside HA |
As a coordinator it doesn't add entities itself — it drives whatever's paired to it via ZHA, Zigbee2MQTT, or its own first-party deCONZ/Phoscon REST API, which is the one genuine advantage over TI/Silicon Labs sticks: you can poll deCONZ's API directly as an independent heartbeat check and auto-restart HA's Zigbee integration if paired sensors have gone stale while deCONZ itself still reports the network alive. Known limitations versus other coordinators: no network backup/restore, no S1 install-code pairing, and no in-HA channel changing or TX power adjustment.
Specs
- chip
- Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 (Zigbee 3.0 + Zigbee Green Power + BLE; Thread-capable silicon but no Thread firmware support)
- range
- Up to 30m indoors / 200m open field (manufacturer spec)
- software
- Works with ZHA, Zigbee2MQTT and deCONZ/Phoscon (first-party)
- connector
- USB-A, internal antenna — no USB extension cable in the box, unlike Home Assistant's ZBT-2
- device capacity
- Up to ~200 devices in direct pairing, extendable to 500-600+ with Zigbee routers
- host compatibility
- Raspberry Pi, Intel NUC/x86 PCs and laptops, Docker hosts; Windows, macOS, Ubuntu/Debian, Raspberry Pi OS — no official Home Assistant Green bundling