Question

I bought a Smartthings Wifi plug without realizing it. What a pain to set up. What is the adavantage of a WiFi plug over either a Zigbee or Zwave plug?  

Answer 1

Price. Maybe. Zwave and zigbee are faaaaaaar superior when it comes to smart home tech

Answer 2

You dont need a hub to set it up is the primary advatage.  

Answer 3

As someone that runs both I thing a zigbee hub is way better because it keeps 30 other random devices off my wifi

Comments

While it is true that ZigBee and WiFi do share the 2. 4GHz band, and sometimes careful channel management is needed, by using ZigBee devices instead of WiFi they do not consume router resources for every device (IP address, routing, WiFi bandwidth etc), and do form a mesh network for better whole home coverage.  

Answer 4

There is none. Just a different language

Answer 5

Wi-Fi plugs can operate independently of hubs, and are arguably better suited to energy/power monitoring at shorter intervals. They have their place.