The Home Assistant Green does not come with built-in Zigbee and Thread.
To integrate Zigbee or Thread-based smart home devices with Home Assistant Green, you’ll need a compatible Zigbee/Matter radio adapter—and the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 is the go-to choice for many users.
Hardware to Extend Zigbee and Thread Compatibility for Home Assistant Green
Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 is a Zigbee & Thread USB radio from Nabu Casa, designed specifically for Home Assistant. It connects via USB-C to your Home Assistant hub (e.g., Green / Yellow / Raspberry Pi) to build a fast, reliable, and fully local smart home network. Up to 4× faster than the previous generation ZBT-1 (SkyConnect), with enhanced RF performance and stronger connections.
Moreover, a detailed guide for configuring Zigbee and Thread multi-protocol support on Home Assistant Green is available on the Home Assistant website:
As an authorized Home Assistant reseller, we offer both Home Assistant Green and the Connect ZBT-2. 🔥 Special offer: Order Home Assistant Green with Connect ZBT-2 from Seeed enjoy Free Shipping and Combination purchase Save $5. 👉 Buy Now!
Alternative Solution
Note: Since Home Assistant Yellow is no longer in production, this workaround is only useful if you already have a Home Assistant Yellow device.
Here’s an alternative way to enable Zigbee and Thread in Home Assistant—Home Assistant Yellow, another smart home hub developed by the Home Assistant team. Explore the difference between Home Assistant Green and Yellow.
The key points:
- Home Assistant Yellow supports Zigbee out of the box.
- Currently, enabling Thread involves manual steps, which facilitates the connection of Matter-over-Thread devices to your network. Follow the steps here: https://support.nabucasa.com/hc/en-us/articles/25742476767517-Enabling-Thread-support
- If you want to use both Thread and Zigbee with Home Assistant Yellow, an additional radio is required, such as Connect ZBT-2.

If you’re new to smart home automation or looking for a budget-friendly setup, Home Assistant Green with the ZBT-2 is a fantastic entry point.
And if you’re looking for more processing power, greater expandability, and built-in support for Zigbee and Thread, Home Assistant Yellow is a powerful alternative—which, of course, comes with a higher price.
Here’s a hardware cost comparison to help you decide which option best fits your needs.
Hardware Cost Comparison
| Hardware | Home Assistant ZBT-2 | Home Assistant Green + ZBT-2 | Home Assistant Yellow (PoE version) | Home Assistant Yellow (Power Supply version) | Home Assistant Yellow + ZBT-2 |
| Best for | Already own Home Assistant Green and want to add Zigbee/Thread support | Haven’t purchased HAG yet and want Zigbee & Thread functionality | Comes with built-in Zigbee; Thread can be enabled via firmware. PoE version | Comes with built-in Zigbee; Thread can be enabled via firmware. Power Supply version | Want to run Zigbee and Thread on Home Assistant Yellow simultaneously |
| Price | $49 | $207.90 | / | / | / |
| Purchase Link | Buy Now | Buy Now | Discontinued | Discontinued | Discontinued |
Note: The prices listed above are based on Seeed’s China warehouse. We also have stock available in our U.S. and European warehouses. please switch the shipping warehouse on the product page to get pricing with tax included for your country.
Update Log
2026-02-03: Home Assistant Connect ZBT‑1 has been discontinued, so the content has been updated to feature its next‑generation successor, ZBT‑2, along with a revised tutorial. In addition, the pricing information for Home Assistant Green has been refreshed.
About Author
Liyan Gong
10 years in the IoT hardware industry. I’m here to share practical guides on Home Assistant, NVIDIA Jetson, Meshtastic/Meshcore, Raspberry Pi, LoRa, PCB/PCB Assembly and more to help bring your creative ideas to life.