Battle of the Smart Home Titans: Matter 1.3 vs Zigbee 3.0 vs Thread 1.3 (2025 Ultimate Showdown)
Matter 1.3, released in mid-2024, expanded support to kitchen appliances, EV chargers, and water leak sensors, and added energy usage reporting plus a universal casting feature. Matter is an application-layer protocol that runs over IP on Wi‑Fi or Thread, requires a CSA-issued secure element and a unique X.509 certificate, and uses AES-128-CHACHA-Poly1305 with SPAKE2+ (CASE) for commissioning. Zigbee 3.0, introduced in 2016 and widely deployed by 2025, uses IEEE 802.15.4 at 2.4 GHz, AES-128-CCM encryption, a self-healing mesh with a single Coordinator, and has shipped over a billion Zigbee chips. Thread 1.3 standardizes Border Router interoperability, gives Thread devices IPv6