For an easier alternative to using these example, the [ESP8266HTTPClient library](https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/tree/master/libraries/ESP8266HTTPClient) can be used (which also supports HTTPS via a SHA1 fingerprint).
this article makes BLE (bluetooth low energy) seem pretty attractive compared to ZigBee; BLE is said to have lower power requirements (it lists current draw for RF4CE but not for ZigBee, but it says that RF4CE is similar to ZigBee; RF4CE current draw is said to be too high for a CR2032 battery), better range, and better resistance to jamming; and BLE is said to be able to do mesh networking with the addition of an application)
B. Schäfermeier, T. Hanika, and G. Stumme. 16th EAI International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services (MobiQuitous), November 12--14, 2019, Houston, TX, USA, (2019)
B. Schaefermeier, T. Hanika, and G. Stumme. Proceedings of the 16th EAI International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services, ACM, (November 2019)
B. Schäfermeier, T. Hanika, and G. Stumme. 16th EAI International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services (MobiQuitous), November 12--14, 2019, Houston, TX, USA, (2019)
B. Schäfermeier, T. Hanika, and G. Stumme. 16th EAI International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services (MobiQuitous), November 12--14, 2019, Houston, TX, USA, (2019)