ZigBee is a fully local mesh protocol. Matter is a local protocol that can run over either WiFi or over Thread, a local mesh protocol designed to replace ZigBee. Zigbee, Matter and Thread are your friends.

I cannot even begin to recommend this highly enough:

https://sonoff.tech/en-nl/products/sonoff-zigbee-thread-usb-dongle-dongle-plus-mg24

Get one of those - or an equivalent device from another manufacturer - to allow Home Assistant to talk directly to your bulbs using Zigbee or Thread. With that, you HA can speak directly to any bulb that uses Zigbee, Thread or Matter which is 99% of the bulbs worth bothering with.

Anything that connects to WiFi without explicitly using Matter should be avoided at all costs and especially if it uses Tuya - look for the mark of the beast hidden on the packaging of kit sold under other brands.

IKEA Tradfri (ZigBee) and Kajplats (Thread) bulbs are excellent, especially for the low price. Philips Hue (ZigBee/Thread) is the gold standard but not cheap.

Devices running ESPHome or Tasmota are rarer but also highly hackable and work entirely over local WiFi. Take a look at Local Bytes for some good kit like that.

ZigBee, ZigBee, ZigBee. Don't get sucked into these big brands that use WiFi.

Avoid TP-Link wifi bulbs. The ones I bought reboot again and again if their constant reports to China are blocked. TP-LInk and their employees do not need to know when I'm home and when I'm on vacation.

I replaced them with inexpensive Thirdreality Zigbee bulbs and they have worked perfectly for over a year.

I have a Zigbee USB dongle and Zigbee2MQTT. This way I can use Philips hue and Ikea bulbs without an additional app or bridge.

I recommend Phillips Hue bulbs, but add them directly to ZHA and skip the Hue hub. Their bulbs are the best I've tried, and they've been perfectly stable for me on ZHA.

Esphome or ZigBee bulbs are the way to go, avoid tuya for WiFi bulbs

https://www.athom.tech/esphome

ZigBee bulbs I have gotten from aliexpress, they are usually pretty good, but you'll need a ZigBee antenna or bridge.

Tuya require a cloud connection, so best to avoid.

In terms of security, it's definitely best to use either zigbee or thread bulbs with a dedicated dongle plugged directly into your HA server (never use the manufacturer's hub). That way, they can only communicate with your HA directly, and there's no way for them to access the internet surreptitiously.

I highly recommended the Sonoff dongles, I'm using the MG24 for my thread devices and an older model for my zigbee ones and they've been rock solid. Just make sure to use a USB extension cable to plug them in as your USB ports can generate electrical interference - do not ignore this advice! I did at first and it caused me problems. (Iirc the MG24 actually comes with one in the box)

Something else to note is that you can't use the same dongle for both ZigBee and Thread at the same time, they each need to be flashed with the respective firmware for the protocol you want to use.

I'm really pleased with Hue directly to ZHA, also IKEA when they still supplied TRÅDFRI (I think, their Zigbee-bulbs). I've attempted "converting" their new Thread/Matter-bulbs, but I have had no luck getting the process done correctly.

govee have been super reliable.

no flicker, always work. stay the color they are set to. dont know about home hosting that though. that sounds facinating. how would that even work?

also highly recommend remote switches expecially for controlling older switches. safer than reaching in and always shutting them off by hand.

First: Don't get cheap bulbs. Feit is bad. Check the HA site for compatibility.

Also, Do you have occasional power outages, no matter how small? Some bulbs will reset and/or go into a flashing pairing mode. It can be awkward if you have to unscrew the bulb to get it back online. Again, get the best possible bulbs.

FWIW, I have found it to be better to use smart plugs for lamps and smart switches when possible/needed.

I would not recommend IKEAs KAJPLATS bulbs right now. There is a bug in firmware 1.2.0 (which has been out for ~8 months now) where the bulb will turn a neon Shrek green if you have it set to a very warm white/orange color and the brightness is between 49-99%.

Really annoying since you know… people tend to like warmer colored lighting in the evening and at night.

No such issues with their now discontinued Zigbee-only lights or Philips Hue lights.

Sonoff Zigbee dongle plus ThirdReality smart lights is what I'm running

They aren't the most perfect light bulbs, but I use the nanoleaf essentials matter over thread bulbs all over two homes. They're very reliable, support color temp as well as RGB, just wish they sometimes ran brighter. With matter over thread it's a solid mesh network, works fully offline, and supports multi admin setups i.e. the light bulb can be added to home assistant, apple home and google home and can be controlled by all three at the same time.

Afaik it's easy to add a thread radio to your home assistant install.

I use a mix of Hue, Cync, and Nanoleaf bulbs. Hue are easily the best of the lot. They have best colors, the best temps, the best brightness, the best room control, the best app. That said, they are 4 times as expensive as the next cheaper alternative, and they require a hub. I have not yet setup my home assistant box, but it will be interesting to see how things improve after that.

I have all govee bulbs, light strips, tv backlighting, and the uplighter floor lamp and they all work great no issues.

What about smart wall switches instead? What are you trying to automate?

Almost all of the lighting I have that I automate, I do with a zigbee smart plug instead of a smart light.

I use _WiZ Vintage Filament E27, 640 lm _ and WiZ Tunable White & Color (GU10, 345 lm).
Reason: They go quite dark (for cozy evening), have a very low color temperature but still the colors look relatively natural (didn't find this with other models).

The app is good.

I have an LED light bulb that came with a dedicated remote control to change the colour and brightness, but I'm guessing that's not what you're looking for.

You could rig up something more intelligent that sends out the same IR signals to one of those if you were savvy enough, I suppose. I am not and have not.

Brand was generic. Works fine for my purposes.

I like shelly products. They use wifi (some newer one work with other protocols,too). They integrate perfectly with homeassistant.