Bluetooth has the advantage of being supported by most computers and smartphones already, with no additional hardware. Zigbee has the problem that its specific

Bluetooth has the advantage of being supported by most computers and smartphones already, with no additional hardware. Zigbee has the problem that its specification's license is incompatible with the GPL, meaning that the Linux Kernel will likely never have full support for it, and thus neither will Android[1]. Given that Bluetooth is already ubiquitous on computers and smartphones, and Bluetooth LE is starting to catch on, it's pretty likely that Bluetooth could supplant Zigbee in not too long if a few hardware vendors started selling Bluetooth controlled hardware rather than Zigbee. So yes, you can get a Zigbee hub and use Zigbee via a hub, or you can use something that connects via WiFi. Zigbee has the disadvantage that you need a separate hub. WiFi is quite complex (and thus more expensive) and doesn't work well for low-power applications. Bluetooth LE has neither of these problems; it's simpler and lower power than WiFi, and already has ubiquitous device support so you don't need some other interface hub to plug into your network. Note that the WeMo Insight switch (the one that's comparable to these, as it provides energy monitoring) costs $60, while these cost $45 each; which is a pretty big difference if you want to wire up a bunch of lights. [1]: http://elinux.org/6lowpan/ROLL_support_on_802.15.4_radios http://elinux.org/6lowpan/ROLL_support_on_802.15.4_radios