isn´t this a hardware alternative?

[xbln]

Espressif created the so called Espressif Thread Boarder Router https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-thread-br/en/latest/hardware_platforms.html which is a small board with 2 USB-C connectors and a combination of an esp32-H2 and an esp32-S3. It aims to matter devices but certainly could also be used for zigbee. Price of the board is a bit more than 10 USD.

Image Espressif Thread Border Router

[tostmann]

Thanks for the pointer, @xbln! You raised the same board over in the esp-coordinator sister project too (Discussion #1) — let's keep it on one thread, there's already a detailed reply there.

Short version: on that board the S3 and H2 are wired together over UART, not USB (there is no USB path between the two chips), so it doesn't fit CDC2NET's USB-host→TCP bridge model. It's a good fit for the coexistence/coordinator architecture discussed over in esp-coordinator instead — full details and next steps (we're planning to get one on the bench) are there. 👍