ZigBee has been around since the 1990s.  Is supported by established reputable companies. Is an IEE802 standard.  But it will not work for you with a range of 3 meters.  <br>

LoRa has been around nearly two years.  It's a hodgepodge mesh mess. These sorts of things take more than two years to be truly usable and interchangeable. A networking protocol would be a good thing to have.<br>

Yes you can buy a LoRA board. It can transmit and receive data.  That's it.  No networking protocol.  It's a toy.<br>

Two of the ZigBee Alliance Members I checked out, TI and Silicon Labs, both have said they will not be supporting LoRa. <br>  

In my looking around I found this interesting product at Silicon Labs.<br>
I did not check into it further but it supports IEEE 802.15.4g.  ZigBee on a 433Mhz radio transceiver. Interesting. <br>
The have development kits around $300, some transceiver boards are $55.<br>

[Silicon Labs' EZRadioPRO][1]<br>



<br>


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**The Toys** 


[Adafruit][2]<br>
[Indestructables][3]<br>
[SparkFun][4]<br>
 


  [1]: http://www.silabs.com/products/wireless/proprietary/ezradiopro-ism-band-transmitters-recievers-transceivers
  [2]: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3179
  [3]: http://www.instructables.com/id/Introducing-LoRa-/
  [4]: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12823