Both Zigbee and Z-Wave operate as a mesh network. Zigbee uses 2.4 GHz versus 900 MHz for Z-Wave. Zigbee waves travel on a more commonly used frequency. The more modules in your home, the more distance your network can cover.
Z-Wave can handle up to 232 nodes, while Zigbee can handle over 65,000 modules. The 2.4 GHz frequency gives Zigbee more bandwidth. This means it can carry more information over it’s network. Zigbee is an open source network.
Zigbee does win in many areas. Zigbee is better from a forward thinking perspective, especially for large applications. However, for consumer homes, Z-Wave might be more in line as the right choice. Zigbee can control more types of devices with it’s larger bandwidth, but that also means there’s more code in the Zigbee protocol and leading to issues with cross-compatibility. Zigbee does perform well, but inter-manufacturer interoperability has been noted as a major problem.
Standardization will be the key for home automation. So my bet is on Z-Wave for now and Zigbee will eventually win out once the open source format learns from the known mistakes. Price is everything in this market. Not many people will be sinking thousands into home automation unless the price of electricity absolutely sky rockets. Check out the Vera 2 controller to find out more. Vera 2 is an WiFi meets Z-Wave router/client that has backwards compatibility aspects allowing interfacing with less expensive X-10 and INSTEON modules. The fact that Z-Wave is not open source is not an issue. Z-Wave is more in line with most consumer home automation needs.
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