Zigbee Gateway with Apple HomeKit Compatibility

A HomeKit Zigbee gateway puts your Zigbee devices into Apple's Home app, and that is the whole reason to choose this one over an ordinary Tuya hub.

• What a HomeKit Zigbee gateway does that a Tuya one cannot
• It is not an either-or
• Wired to the router, not on your Wi-Fi
• The compatibility question, honestly
• Device limits and the alternatives

Wired to the router, it runs a Zigbee 3.0 network of its own. Every mains-powered device on it repeats the signal onward, so coverage grows as you add more rather than thinning out.

One thing to settle before you order, and it is covered in full below: which of your devices will appear in Apple Home, and which will only appear in the Tuya app.

What a HomeKit Zigbee gateway does that a Tuya one cannot

An ordinary Tuya gateway puts your Zigbee devices in the Tuya app and stops there. Apple's Home app never sees them, Siri cannot touch them, and they cannot join an Apple Home scene or automation.

Zemismart's ZMHK-01 is HomeKit certified, so curtain motors, lights, switches and sensors appear alongside your Apple kit and behave like native HomeKit accessories. In a household where everyone carries an iPhone, that is the whole decision.

It is not an either-or

The same gateway works as an ordinary Zigbee hub in the Tuya or Smart Life app, with Alexa and Google Assistant on top.

So nobody is locked out for owning an Android phone. The iPhone users get Apple Home and Siri, everybody else gets the Tuya app, and both are looking at the same devices.

Wired to the router, not on your Wi-Fi

This one has an ethernet port rather than joining a wireless network. A cable to the router is one less thing to go wrong, and it takes the hub off the 2.4GHz band entirely, which is where home networks get congested.

It is a small round puck with a status ring around the edge that tells you what it is doing at a glance. Power comes over micro USB.

The compatibility question, honestly

Everything you pair to it will work in the Tuya app. Whether a given device also appears in Apple Home depends on that device's Zigbee chipset being one Tuya has certified for HomeKit.

That covers Zemismart's own Zigbee range, which we stock, and a good number of other Tuya Zigbee devices. It does not cover every Zigbee device ever made. Tell us what you want to control and we will confirm what will show up in Apple Home before anything is bought.

Device limits and the alternatives

Published figures for this gateway range from 100 to 150 devices depending on the source, so we quote the range rather than picking the flattering end of it. Either number is more than a normal house will use.

If nobody in the house cares about Apple Home, the plain Zigbee Tuya gateway costs less and does the Zigbee half identically. If you want to control an air conditioner or a television by infrared as well, the three-in-one gateway adds an IR blaster and Bluetooth Mesh. Zemismart publish their range at zemismart.com.