Zigbee vs. Matter over Thread:Understanding IoT Protocol Performance in Practice

Researchers conducted an empirical comparison of Zigbee and Matter over Thread protocols for IoT smart home applications using commercial hardware across key performance metrics. Zigbee demonstrated lower overhead and faster route recovery, making it more responsive for small static deployments, while Matter over Thread showed superior scalability and robustness with stable throughput across multi-hop networks. The study reveals these protocols represent distinct trade-offs between agility, efficiency, and scalability rather than one being universally superior.