Best mmWave presence sensors 2026
The mmWave presence sensors worth buying in 2026 for Home Assistant: why they beat PIR, honest picks, placement gotchas, and HomeKit/Hubitat notes.
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If you’re building a local-first smart home, mmWave radar sensors are worth the extra cost over PIR motion sensors. Unlike passive infrared, mmWave detects micro-movements—breathing, typing, even slight posture shifts—so lights don’t cut out when you’re sitting still. For Home Assistant, that means presence automations that actually behave.
Why mmWave Matters for Presence Detection
PIR sensors have one job: detect heat moving across their field of view. Sit still for a minute and your bathroom light turns off. You’ve probably worked around this with long timeouts or motion-boost buttons, but that’s a hack, not a fix.
mmWave radar sensors detect presence through distance, velocity, and micro-movements, so they hold “occupied” while you’re stationary. The tradeoffs are price (good mmWave sensors run roughly $25-95 versus $15-30 for PIR) and tuning: mmWave can be triggered by fans, moving curtains, or HVAC airflow, and it can see through thin walls if you over-crank sensitivity. Placement and tuning matter more than with PIR. A common and reliable approach is to combine both radios, which we cover in how to set up presence detection with mmWave and PIR.
Top Picks for Home Assistant
Aqara FP2
The Aqara FP2 is still the best balance of features and integration for most people. Importantly, it’s a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi device (not Zigbee, not Matter) that integrates with Home Assistant locally over your network. Its standout feature is zone detection: you can define up to 30 separate zones in the Aqara app and Home Assistant tracks occupancy per zone, which is unusual at this price. After zone setup you can uninstall the app and it keeps working. The FP2 is USB-powered (no battery option) and includes a light sensor. Expect roughly $65-83.
The FP2’s main quirks are that zone setup happens in Aqara’s app, and like most mmWave sensors it needs careful placement to avoid false triggers from fans or vents.
Aqara FP300
The newer Aqara FP300 is a different animal: it’s a battery-powered, wire-free 5-in-1 sensor (PIR + mmWave + light + temperature + humidity) that supports both Zigbee 3.0 and Thread (Matter). In Thread mode it connects to a Thread border router for Matter integration with no Aqara hub; in Zigbee mode it pairs with ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT. Battery life is up to ~3 years on Zigbee / ~2 years on Thread (two CR2450 cells). It does not do FP2-style multi-zone positioning, but the combination of battery power, Matter/Thread, and a full sensor suite makes it a great room-presence sensor where running USB power is a pain.
Everything Presence One
The Everything Presence One is designed specifically for Home Assistant and ships with ESPHome pre-installed, so it’s local out of the box with no flashing required (you can still customize the YAML). It pairs a 24GHz mmWave radar with an industrial PIR plus light and temperature sensors, and exposes rich data for nuanced automations. Roughly $65 (about 50 GBP). It’s the enthusiast pick: more tuning flexibility than consumer sensors, with an easy ESPHome-native workflow.
Everything Presence Lite
The Everything Presence Lite is the smaller, cheaper ESP32 + ESPHome sensor (around $35) built on the HLK-LD2450 radar. It tracks up to 3 targets simultaneously with X/Y coordinates and supports customizable detection zones configured directly from Home Assistant (no separate app). If you want zone positioning on a fully local, open ESPHome device, this is the one to look at.
What About Hubitat and HomeKit?
- HomeKit: mmWave choices are still thin. The Aqara FP2 supports HomeKit directly over Wi-Fi, and the FP300 can be brought in via Matter/Thread, so Apple Home users do have real options now — but most other “motion” sensors in the HomeKit world (Eve Motion, etc.) are still PIR. If you’re all-in on Apple Home, the FP2 or FP300 are your best mmWave bets.
- Hubitat: Hubitat works well with Zigbee and Z-Wave but has no native ESPHome support, so the Everything Presence sensors integrate most cleanly with Home Assistant. The Aqara FP300 in Zigbee mode is a reasonable Hubitat-friendly mmWave option; the FP2 (Wi-Fi) is harder to integrate there.
Quick Verdict
- Best overall (zones, Wi-Fi): Aqara FP2 — up to 30 zones, solid local integration, USB-powered.
- Best wire-free / Matter: Aqara FP300 — battery, Zigbee + Thread/Matter, full sensor suite.
- Best for tinkerers (turnkey ESPHome): Everything Presence One — local out of the box, rich data.
- Best local zones on a budget: Everything Presence Lite — multi-target tracking and HA-configured zones for ~$35.
The gap between PIR and mmWave is real. If you’re tired of lights turning off while you read, mmWave is the fix — just plan placement carefully and budget time for tuning. Corner or ceiling mounts away from fans and vents usually work best.