I have for many years thought of building some home automation, but it was the launch of Almond+ in combination with a planned move, that actually got me starting to look into this.
And this is what I have so far figured, in the ZigBee vs Z-Wave area, this is all theoretical, I have so far not purchased a single device, except for the Almond+ Developer Pledge.
ZigBee has the advantage of not being locked to regions, but from what I can find this seems to be the only advantage over Z-Wave?
ZigBee instead has a major disadvantage, and that is that it is Profile based in "hardware/firmware", so you might have two ZigBee devices, but they can't talk to each other because they speak different language.
It also seems ZigBee is widely used, but integrated into other brand, and it does not state anywhere that it is ZigBee, or you have to dig deep to find it. It is instead integrated into closed systems, so this makes it more difficult to find devices that are compatible.
ZigBee also operates on the same frequency as many other devices, and has to fight for the frequency spectrum, devices such as DECT, WiFi, BlueTooth, and many more, use the same frequency as ZigBee.
Z-Wave on the other hand has regional limitations, in that they operate on different frequencies in different parts of the world, so you are limited to ordering from shops in your region.
It is also a propitiatory standard, so I suppose the price is increased by license cost.
On the advantages side,
Z-Wave seems to be more widely adopted, and it is easier to find devices that are Z-Wave compatible from different Manufacturers.
Since Almond+ supports Z-Wave of your region, and also the ZigBee HA profile, you could combine devices in your network, so you could have a ZigBee motions sensor turn on a Z-Wave plug. However, this can be risky, as one of the advantages of both types of network, is the Mesh design, but a ZigBee device can't route a Z-Wave signal, and vice versa. So devices would have to rely on direct communication to the base unit if it is alone in the network.
Personally, I think ZigBee has a potential, but they need to get their bunny together and have multiple Profile support.
I will most likely focus my system on the Z-Wave standard, and this is because it seems to be easiest to find devices compatible with this standard.
What are your thoughts?