If you've been following the smart home space lately, you've probably noticed that the protocol wars are... complicated. You've got Zigbee devices that need a coordinator, Thread devices that need a border router, Wi-Fi devices that clog up your network, and now Matter is supposed to tie it all together. It's a mess, and picking the right protocol for your DIY projects can feel like choosing sides in a battle you don't fully understand. Enter the ESP32-C6, a $5-ish microcontroller that says "why not all of them?"
The ESP32-C6 supports Zigbee, Thread, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, and Matter natively, making it one of the most flexible platforms for building smart home devices. And while I've written before about using it for Zigbee sensors with ESPHome, the reality is that this chip is capable of so much more.
The ESP32-C6 is a special microcontroller
It can do a lot
The ESP32-C6 isn't the first ESP32 with Zigbee and Thread support, as that honor goes to the ESP32-H2, which launched earlier but lacks Wi-Fi connectivity. The ESP32-C6 is essentially a more complete package: it has a single RISC-V core running at 160 MHz, 512 KB of SRAM, and radios for 2.4GHz Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, Zigbee 3.0, and Thread 1.3.
What's particularly interesting is that it supports Matter natively through its Thread and Wi-Fi radios. Matter, if you're not familiar, is the smart home standard that's supposed to make all your devices work together, regardless of whether you're using Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, or something else. It runs on top of Thread or Wi-Fi (and occasionally Ethernet), and the ESP32-C6 can handle both. Matter has its own issues, but the point is that the ESP32-C6 can slot in nicely with whatever it is that you're building, and the protocol won't be a limiting factor.
Espressif has been pushing Matter support pretty heavily with this chip, and there's an entire ESP Matter SDK that makes it relatively straightforward to build Matter-compatible devices, along with an Espressif ESPLaunchPad with a number of prebuilt Matter-related images that you can flash. I've been playing around with it, and while it's not quite as plug-and-play as ESPHome, it's far more accessible than I expected.
Look, I'll be honest: Matter has been hyped to death, and the reality hasn't quite lived up to the promise yet. But having played with it on the ESP32-C6, I can see the potential. Using the ESP Matter SDK, you can build devices that show up natively in Apple Home, Google Home, and other Matter controllers without needing bridges or custom integrations. With those premade ESPLaunchPad images, you can even configure and provision an ESP32-C6 using your phone.
Espressif provides examples for common device types like lights, switches, plugs, and sensors. The SDK handles all the Matter certification details, commissioning, and protocol stuff, so you can focus on the actual device logic. It's still more complicated than writing YAML in ESPHome, but it's manageable, especially if you have some experience with ESP-IDF.
The beauty of Matter over Thread is that Thread is designed for low-power mesh networking, which makes it perfect for battery-operated sensors. Matter over Wi-Fi works too, but you lose the power-saving benefits. The ESP32-C6 gives you both options, which is pretty great.
The bar to entry is low
Even if it's not the most powerful
I mentioned in my previous article about the ESP32-C6's Zigbee capabilities that the radio is notably weak. That's still true, and this isn't the most powerful radio you'll find. You'll want to keep your devices relatively close to your coordinator or border router.
The other consideration is that you can't run all these protocols simultaneously. The chip has the hardware to support them, but you're picking one mode at a time when you flash your firmware. You can't have a device that's simultaneously connected to Zigbee, Thread, and Wi-Fi all at once, though Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE can coexist, and technically Thread and Zigbee share the same radio with different software. Technically speaking you can... ish, but Espressif doesn't recommend it, as Wi-Fi and Thread share the same RF path.
Also, if you're using Zigbee mode alongside Wi-Fi, be aware that they can interfere with each other since they both operate in the 2.4GHz band. I've had better luck disabling Wi-Fi entirely when running Zigbee, which also frees up some much-needed RAM, though when I tested Zigbee on the C6, I did actually succeed at using both Wi-Fi and Zigbee at the same time with little issue.
You can find ESP32-C6 development boards for as little as $5 depending on where you buy it from, making it a pretty cost-effective entrypoint for these more unique protocols. For Matter development, I highly recommend starting with the ESP Matter SDK examples, especially because Espressif has pretty decent documentation. For Zigbee in ESPHome, you'll need to use an external component, though you can also use the ESP Zigbee SDK. For Thread, ESPHome recently added OpenThread support natively, which makes building Thread devices more accessible than ever.
The ESP32-C6 isn't going to win any awards for radio range or processing power, but for the price and versatility, it's hard to beat. Whether you're building Zigbee sensors, Thread devices for Matter, or just need a cheap Wi-Fi microcontroller, this little board punches way above its weight class.