A few years ago, setting up a smart home almost always meant buying a dedicated hub, a small box whose entire job was translating between your phone and a collection of bulbs, sensors, and locks that couldn't talk directly to your home Wi-FiA wireless technology that connects devices to the internet through a router, without needing a cable. It reaches farther than Bluetooth but needs that router or hotspot nearby. More in the glossary network. Today, many devices connect straight to your home network or phone without any separate box at all, which raises a reasonable question: do smart home hubs still serve a purpose, or have they become an unnecessary extra step?
The honest answer is that it depends on which wireless technology your devices use and how many of them you have. Some smart-home communication standards were specifically designed around having a dedicated hub; others were designed to avoid needing one. Understanding that difference explains why some devices in your home might set up in thirty seconds while others ask you to buy and plug in an extra piece of hardware first.
This article compares hub-based and hub-less smart-home setups directly, including how a newer industry standard called MatterA shared set of rules that lets smart home devices from different brands work together and be controlled from the same app, instead of each brand needing its own separate app. More in the glossary changes the picture.
Why Hubs Existed in the First Place
Many popular smart-home device standards, including ZigbeeA low-power wireless standard used by many smart home devices, like sensors and smart bulbs, to talk to each other and to a hub. It's built to use very little battery power over long periods. More in the glossary and Z-Wave, were built around a low-power wireless radio technology that is not the same as the Wi-Fi your phone and laptop use. These radios are efficient and good at forming reliable local device-to-device networks, called mesh networksA home Wi-Fi setup using two or more connected devices, called nodes, placed around a house instead of one router. It helps Wi-Fi reach dead zones a single router can't cover well. More in the glossary, where devices can relay signals to each other, but your phone has no built-in radio capable of speaking that language directly.
A hub's core job, in this setup, is translation: it has a radio that can speak the device's wireless language, like Zigbee or Z-Wave, and it also connects to your home Wi-Fi network and the internet, acting as a bridge between the two. Without that bridge, your phone simply has no way to reach those devices at all.
This translation role also explains why early smart-home hubs were often sold by the same company that made the sensors or bulbs: without a shared standard, each brand effectively needed its own compatible hub, which is part of why some households ended up with several different hub boxes stacked near a routerThe box that connects your home network to the internet and shares that connection with your devices over Wi-Fi or cables. It's the hub most home networks are built around. More in the glossary.
How Wi-Fi Devices Skip the Hub Entirely
Some smart-home devices, many smart plugs, some bulbs, and many cameras among them, use your home's regular Wi-Fi network directly instead of a separate low-power radio standard. Because your phone, your home router, and these devices are all already speaking the same Wi-Fi language, there's no translation problem to solve, and no separate hub box is needed.
The tradeoff is that Wi-Fi radios generally use more power than the low-power alternatives, which is a bigger deal for battery-powered sensors than for a smart plug that's already plugged into continuous power. It's also why most purely Wi-Fi-based smart-home device categories tend to be the ones that are already plugged into an outlet anyway, like plugs, bulbs, and cameras, rather than small battery-powered sensors meant to last months or years without a charge.
What Matter Actually Changes
Matter is a relatively new smart-home connectivity standard, developed by a broad industry alliance, designed specifically to let devices from different manufacturers work together reliably without requiring brand-specific hubs or apps for every single device. Matter devices typically connect over Wi-Fi or Thread, a newer low-power mesh networking standard built with internet-style protocols in mind from the start, rather than needing a proprietary translator box for each separate ecosystem.
Matter doesn't necessarily eliminate the need for some kind of coordinating hardware entirely: Thread-based Matter devices still rely on something called a Thread border router to bridge their mesh network to your Wi-Fi network and the broader internet. The key difference is that this border router function is increasingly built directly into devices you'd likely already own anyway, like certain smart speakers, streaming devices, or routers, rather than requiring a separate, single-purpose hub box bought specifically for that job.
For shoppers, the practical effect is that a Matter-certified device is designed to work with any Matter-compatible app or voice platform, rather than being tied to one company's ecosystem the way many earlier devices were. That doesn't guarantee every feature of a device works identically across every platform, but it does mean basic control, like turning something on or off, should work consistently regardless of which app or voice assistant you prefer.
When a Dedicated Hub Still Makes Sense
If you already own, or plan to own, several Zigbee or Z-Wave devices, a dedicated hub is still generally the most reliable way to connect them, since those standards were built around having one. A dedicated hub also often provides a more stable mesh network backbone for a larger number of devices than relying entirely on a device that happens to include hub functionality as a secondary feature.
Dedicated hubs also sometimes offer more advanced local automation options, letting devices talk to each other and trigger actions without needing to reach the internet or a manufacturer's cloud service at all, which can matter for both reliability during an outage and for people who prefer to minimize how much of their smart-home data leaves the house.
When You Can Reasonably Skip One
If most of your devices are Wi-Fi based, or if you're starting fresh with Matter-certified devices and already own a smart speaker, streaming box, or router capable of acting as a Thread border router, you may not need to buy a separate hub at all. This is a meaningfully simpler setup experience for someone just getting started with one or two smart devices rather than building out a large multi-device system.
The right choice really comes down to scale and the specific technology each device uses: a single smart plug and a video doorbell rarely justify a dedicated hub, while a house full of a dozen battery-powered sensors across multiple rooms often benefits from one.
Hub-Based vs. Hub-less (Matter/Wi-Fi-Style) Smart Home Setups
| Hub-Based Setup (e.g., Zigbee, Z-Wave) | Hub-less / Matter-Style Setup | |
|---|---|---|
| How devices connect | Through a dedicated hub translating a low-power radio protocol | Directly over Wi-Fi, or Thread via a border router often built into existing devices |
| Extra hardware needed | Usually yes, a dedicated hub box | Often no extra box, if you already own a capable speaker, router, or streaming device |
| Typical device battery life | Often better, due to low-power radio standards | Can be shorter for Wi-Fi devices; Thread devices are also low-power |
| Local automation without internet | Often strong, since many hubs run automations locally | Varies by manufacturer and device; improving as Matter matures |
| Best suited for | Larger multi-device systems, especially battery sensors | Smaller setups, or mixed-brand systems prioritizing simple setup |
Common Mistakes
- Assuming every smart device needs a dedicated hub, when many Wi-Fi-based plugs, bulbs, and cameras connect directly without one.
- Buying several Zigbee or Z-Wave devices without realizing they require a compatible hub to function at all.
- Expecting a Matter label alone to guarantee hub-free setup, when Thread-based Matter devices still need a border router somewhere in the home.
- Overlooking that an existing smart speaker, router, or streaming device might already be capable of serving as a Thread border router.
- Choosing an all Wi-Fi setup for many battery-powered sensors without considering the shorter battery life that often results.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a hub for a single smart plug or smart bulb?
Usually not, if it's a Wi-Fi-based device, since it can connect directly to your home network without a translator box.
What is a Thread border router, and do I already have one?
It's a device that bridges a Thread mesh network to your Wi-Fi network and the internet. Many newer smart speakers, streaming devices, and routers already include this function, so you may not need a separate box.
Does Matter mean I'll never need a hub again?
Not entirely. Matter devices that use Wi-Fi generally don't need one, but Matter devices that use Thread still need a border router somewhere in your home, even if it's built into another device you already own.
Is a hub-based system less reliable than a hub-less one?
Not necessarily. Dedicated hubs often provide strong local automation and a stable mesh network for many devices, which can make them more reliable for larger setups than relying on a secondary hub feature in another device.
Will my existing Zigbee or Z-Wave devices work with a Matter setup?
Not directly. Matter is a separate standard, so older Zigbee or Z-Wave devices generally still need their original hub, though some hub manufacturers offer bridges that make certain existing devices visible to a Matter-based system.
Sources
- Connectivity Standards Alliance (Matter) — official Matter and smart home interoperability standard documentation — https://csa-iot.org
- Connectivity Standards Alliance — Zigbee protocol background — https://csa-iot.org
- IEEE Spectrum — coverage of smart home connectivity standards and mesh networking — https://spectrum.ieee.org