In my day job, I work in Wi-Fi. So, I am biased towards Wi-Fi.
In the forums and on social media, I read a lot of posts from people ardently in favor of z-wave or Zigbee, and bashing Wi-Fi. When someone starts bashing their competitor it makes me suspicious.
I have not used z-wave or Zigbee.
In the old days, ethernet wasn't the dominant protocol it is today. Back in the 70s and 80s, hubs converted one protocol to another. Eventually ethernet won out, and the need for hubs disappeared. With the advent of Home Automation, hubs returned. Hubs are required for z-wave and Zigbee protocols to talk over ethernet and to the internet.
The table below shows some specs regarding the various protocols.
Note:Only 2.4GHz Wi-Fi should be used for Home Automation