Philips Hue Bridge vs Bridge Pro

Philips Hue now sells two hubs. The square Bridge has been the centre of Hue setups for years, and the Bridge Pro arrived in 2025 with more capacity and one feature the older hub cannot run. Both do the same core job, so the decision comes down to how many lights you are heading towards and whether you want your lights doing motion sensing.

What the two have in common

Both run the same Zigbee network, and both connect to your router by Ethernet so the lights keep working when the internet drops out. Both talk to Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home, SmartThings and Matter, and both take the same bulbs, lightstrips and accessories. A light bought for one works on the other.

The Pro also stores over 500 scenes and takes USB-C power rather than the older adapter. Signify puts the processor at five times the older bridge and the memory at fifteen times, which shows up as faster scene changes on a large setup rather than as anything you would notice on a dozen lights.

MotionAware is the real difference

MotionAware turns three or four Hue lights in a room into a presence sensor. The lights notice the disturbance a person makes in the radio signal between them, so a room that already has downlights gets motion control without a sensor on the wall. It needs the Bridge Pro.

The maths is worth doing before you dismiss it. The Pro costs $80 more than the standard Bridge, and a Hue motion sensor is $69.95. If you want motion in one room, buy the Bridge and a sensor. If you want it in two or more, the Pro is already the cheaper answer, and you are not hunting for somewhere to mount anything.

Which one to buy

Buy the standard Bridge if you are lighting an apartment, a unit or a few rooms of a house and expect to land under about 40 lights. It is the cheaper hub and it runs everything Hue makes.

Buy the Bridge Pro if you are fitting out a whole house, if you already run more than 40 lights, or if MotionAware is the reason you are reading this. The 150-light ceiling is the one that matters, because downlights add up faster than people expect. A single open-plan living area can take a dozen.

Already have a Bridge? You do not need to replace it

The square Bridge is in active support and Signify has not announced an end date for it. Only the older round v1 bridge was retired, back in April 2020. If your setup works and you are nowhere near 50 lights, there is nothing here to buy.

If you do upgrade, the Hue app runs a migration that moves your lights, accessories, settings and scenes across, so you are not rebuilding rooms and automations by hand. Worth doing on an evening you are not in a hurry.