Quick answer

Buy the Connect ZBT-2 if you run Home Assistant and want one stick that is a Zigbee coordinator today and can become a Thread border router later. It runs one protocol at a time, has no Bluetooth or Z-Wave, and hangs off USB. If you need Ethernet placement or both radios at once, buy the SLZB-06 or two sticks.

TL;DR · Connect ZBT-2

  • Buy it for a first Zigbee network on a Home Assistant box that sits where the stick can sit, or for a Thread border router you can switch to later. $49 MSRP, cable and antenna in the box, ZHA, Zigbee2MQTT and OpenThread all supported.
  • It is one radio. Zigbee or Thread, never both at once, and no Bluetooth or Z-Wave. Both networks means two sticks.
  • Skip it when the Home Assistant machine lives in a rack or closet and the radio needs to live in the house: the SMLIGHT SLZB-06 goes on Ethernet with PoE. Skip it for Z-Wave; that is the ZWA-2.
  • Owners of a ZBT-1 or SkyConnect keep using it. Discontinued, still updated, same hardware under both names.

Home Assistant’s own Zigbee stick got a second generation in November 2025. The question people bring is not “is it good”. The owners in the r/homeassistant thread say it is. The question is whether it is the right radio for the machine and the house it is going into, and that turns on four things the product page will not decide for you. I have no ZBT-2 on my bench. This page is built from the vendor documents and the owner threads, and the verdict is my position on them.

The deciders that matter, ranked

1. One radio runs one protocol. Nabu Casa’s specification page says it plainly: “Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 supports either the Zigbee or Thread protocol. You can choose the protocol during setup and also switch later, if needed. Running Zigbee and Thread at the same time on the same adapter is not supported.” The product page says the same in fewer words: “Connect ZBT-2 cannot do both Zigbee and Thread simultaneously.” So the ZBT-2 is a Zigbee coordinator or a Thread border router, and if you want Zigbee devices and Matter-over-Thread devices in the same house you need two radios. The same Nabu Casa page adds that Home Assistant’s ZHA integration “is single instance only” and that “you cannot run 2 Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 adapters with the Zigbee Home Automation integration at once.” That limit is ZHA’s, not the stick’s. Two ZBT-2s on ZHA is out; one on ZHA and one on Thread is the documented pair.

2. Where the radio can physically sit. The ZBT-2 is a USB stick. Home Assistant ships it with a 1.5 m USB-C cable and a 164 mm external antenna precisely because the ZHA documentation tells you to keep the radio away from the computer: “Avoid USB 3.0 ports/computers/peripherals as they are known culprits of RFI/EMI/EMF disruption,” “only connect the Zigbee USB adapter to a USB 2.0 port,” and “use a long USB extension cable and place Zigbee Coordinator away from interference and obstacles.” A cable solves that for a Home Assistant Green on a shelf. It does not solve it for a Proxmox host in a basement rack, and that is the case where a network-attached coordinator wins. The top reply in the r/homeassistant thread makes the same cut: the ZBT-2 “is great if you’re using ZHA and have a good place to put it,” and “isn’t great if you want to connect it over something other than USB, for instance ethernet.” The mini PC for Home Assistant page covers the USB 3 interference trap in detail.

3. Which Zigbee software you run. Nabu Casa lists ZHA, Zigbee2MQTT and OpenThread Border Router as supported, and the product page answers the Zigbee2MQTT question directly: “Yes, Connect ZBT-2 is being used by many people with Zigbee2MQTT, and they are seeing great results.” Nabu Casa’s Getting started with Zigbee section carries migration guides from Zigbee2MQTT, deCONZ and an existing ZHA network onto the ZBT-2, so moving a network is a documented path rather than a re-pair. The Zigbee and Z-Wave tutorial is the setup walk-through for either path.

4. Z-Wave is a different stick. The ZBT-2 “does not support Bluetooth or Z-Wave.” Home Assistant’s Z-Wave radio is the Connect ZWA-2, a Silicon Labs ZG23 800-series stick that its product page prices at $69 / 59€ and that runs “Z-Wave and Z-Wave Long Range networks simultaneously.” If your devices are Z-Wave, the ZBT-2 does nothing for you.

5. Price against the cheap dongle. The ZBT-2’s recommended price is $49 USD / €45. ITead lists the Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus, the ZBDongle-P, at $19.90 with a CC2652P, +20 dBm output and an SMA antenna. Both work with ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT. The Sonoff is a Zigbee coordinator only. It has no Thread firmware path. If Thread is never coming to your house, the price gap buys nothing.

6. The radio itself. The generation change is real. Home Assistant’s announcement says the ZBT-2 moves from the MG21 to the Silicon Labs MG24, takes the chip’s serial link to the host from 115,200 to 460,800 baud, which is the link speed and not radio range, and grows the antenna from “safety pin-sized” to “tablespoon-sized.” It also puts an ESP32-S3 on the stick as the USB bridge, which the blog frames as room for future firmware work. None of that changes the one-protocol rule.

Side by side

Connect ZBT-2Connect ZBT-1 (SkyConnect)Sonoff ZBDongle-PSMLIGHT SLZB-06Connect ZWA-2
ProtocolsZigbee 3.0 or Thread, one at a timeZigbee or Thread (an experimental multiprotocol firmware exists; Home Assistant does not recommend it)Zigbee 3.0Zigbee 3.0 (Thread noted in SMLIGHT’s guides)Z-Wave and Z-Wave Long Range
RadioSilicon Labs MG24 + ESP32-S3 bridgeSilicon Labs MG21TI CC2652P + CP2102(N)TI CC2652P + ESP32Silicon Labs ZG23 + ESP32-S3 bridge
LinkUSB-C, 1.5 m cable and external antenna in the box; 460,800 baud host linkUSB, 115,200 baud host linkUSB-A, SMA antenna, +20 dBmEthernet with PoE (802.3af) or USB-C; a Wi-Fi mode per SMLIGHTUSB-C, 5 V 1 A
SoftwareZHA, Zigbee2MQTT, OpenThread Border RouterZHA, Zigbee2MQTT, OpenThreadZHA, Zigbee2MQTTZHA, Zigbee2MQTTZ-Wave JS
BluetoothNo (Nabu Casa)NoNot offered (ships Zigbee firmware)Not offered (ships Zigbee firmware)Antenna present but inactive
Price on the vendor page$49 / €45 MSRP (USD before tax, EUR with tax, per the product page)Discontinued$19.90Not listed; set by resellers$69 / 59€ (same tax note)
Availability, read 2026-09-12Shipping since November 19, 2025Out of production, still receives software updatesListedListedListed

Specifications and prices are from the vendor pages cited in the sources below; the Bluetooth cells for the two CC2652P sticks, the availability row and the parentheticals are my reading of those pages, not vendor statements. I measured none of it.

What I would run, and why

I have no ZBT-2 on the bench, and no Zigbee stick is part of the hardware this site documents as mine. Read this as a position. Not a report.

For a first Zigbee network on a Home Assistant Green, Yellow, or a mini PC on a shelf, I would buy the ZBT-2 and run it on ZHA with the cable, antenna vertical, away from any USB 3 port. It is the stick Home Assistant’s own docs list first, it is the one the migration guides are written for, and if Matter-over-Thread devices arrive later it can become the border router while a $20 Sonoff takes over Zigbee.

For a Home Assistant VM on a Proxmox box in a closet, I would buy the SLZB-06 and put it on a PoE port in the middle of the house, because the radio’s location matters more than the radio’s chip and the Proxmox setup already has enough USB passthrough in it. The ZBT-2 on a 1.5 m cable does not reach the middle of a house from a rack.

For a house that already runs a Sonoff dongle without dropouts, I would change nothing. The owners in the r/homeassistant thread who report the ZBT-1 running “a handful of Zigbee devices (~30 or so?)” with no problems are describing the normal case, and Home Assistant says the ZBT-1 keeps getting updates. Spend the $49 when you have a reason: Thread, a dying stick, or a coordinator too far from the devices it serves.

The bottom line

The ZBT-2 is the right default Zigbee radio for a Home Assistant machine the stick can sit next to, and the right Thread border router for the same machine. Not both at the same time. Decide the protocol first, then the room the radio lives in, and the choice between the ZBT-2, a Sonoff and an SLZB-06 makes itself. Z-Wave is a different stick. A working ZBT-1 is not a reason to buy anything.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

How do I connect the ZBT-2 to Home Assistant?
Plug it into a USB port on the machine running Home Assistant, on the 1.5 m cable it ships with rather than straight into the port, and Home Assistant offers to set it up. Nabu Casa’s documentation says you choose Zigbee or Thread during that setup and can switch later. Pick Zigbee and it becomes the coordinator for the ZHA integration or for Zigbee2MQTT; pick Thread and Home Assistant configures it as an OpenThread Border Router. The status light goes off once it has joined a network, which is normal operation.
Does ZBT-2 light up?
Only while something is happening. Nabu Casa’s LED guide says the status light is off most of the time, which means the device is joined to a Zigbee or Thread network and in normal operation; it pulses while connecting to a network; and its blinking-fast state is labelled suboptimal antenna orientation, with the instruction to remount the device so the antenna is vertical, and the note that this only happens during initial setup.
Is Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1 discontinued?
Yes. Home Assistant’s own ZBT-1 page says the product is no longer in production but continues to receive software updates, and points buyers to the ZBT-2. The ZBT-1 is the same hardware that was sold as SkyConnect; the page describes that as a rebranding with the exact same hardware, capability and support. If you already own one, keep using it. Nothing forces an upgrade.
Does ZBT-2 have Bluetooth?
No. Nabu Casa’s specification page states that the Connect ZBT-2 does not support Bluetooth or Z-Wave. It carries a Silicon Labs MG24 radio that runs either Zigbee 3.0 or Thread firmware and an ESP32-S3 that acts as the USB-serial bridge. For Z-Wave, Home Assistant sells a separate stick, the Connect ZWA-2, and for Bluetooth devices you use the Bluetooth adapter already in your Home Assistant machine.

Evidence ledger

Last updated
Methodology
See our methodology for research and review standards. It draws on 11 cited sources, listed below, each checked against the original page on the date above. I have no Connect ZBT-2 on the bench, and no Zigbee radio of any kind is part of the hardware this site documents as mine, so nothing on this page is a measurement of mine. Every specification is quoted from the vendor that published it, opened live on 2026-09-12: Nabu Casa’s support articles (read in a browser, since they refuse automated fetches) and Home Assistant’s product and blog pages for the ZBT-2, ZBT-1 and ZWA-2; ITead’s product page for the Sonoff ZBDongle-P; SMLIGHT’s product page for the SLZB-06; and the ZHA integration documentation for the interference guidance. The verdict and the ‘what I would run’ section are my read of those documents and of owner reports in the r/homeassistant thread, stated as a position.
Sources
Update log
  • 2026-09-12 — Page updated.
Corrections
Spotted an error or a stale number? Email hello@techfuelhq.com. Confirmed corrections are added to the update log above.

About the author

Written by Lowell K. Wood IV, who builds and runs TechFuelHQ from St. Louis, Missouri.