Move over Raspberry Pi, here are a dozen, better alternatives

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  • BeagleBone Black

    BeagleBone Black

    BeagleBone Black is a low-cost, community-supported development platform for developers and hobbyists. This $55 board allows you to boot Linux in under 10 seconds and get started on development in less than 5 minutes.

    • AM335x 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8512MB DDR3 RAM
    • 4GB 8-bit eMMC on-board flash storage
    • 3D graphics accelerator
    • NEON floating-point accelerator
    • 2x PRU 32-bit microcontrollers

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • Udoo Quad

    Udoo Quad

    A $135 quad-core board that's just as at home running Android as it is Linux.

    • Freescale i.MX 6 ARM Cortex-A9 quad core 1GHz CPU
    • Vivante GC 2000 + Vivante GC 355 + Vivante GC 320 GPU
    • Integrated accelerators for 2D, OpenGL ES2.0 3D and OpenVG
    • Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex-M3 CPU (same as Arduino Due)
    • RAM DDR3 1GB
    • 76 fully available GPIO: 62 digital + 14 digital/analog
    • Arduino-compatible R3 1.0 pinout
    • HDMI and LVDS + Touch2 Micro USB (1 OTG type a+b)

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • C.H.I.P.

    C.H.I.P.

    At $9, C.H.I.P. is a perfect demonstration of how cheap computing has become. You get what would only a few years ago have been desktop power on a tiny board.

    • 1.0GHz CPU
    • 512MB of RAM
    • 4GB of storage
    • Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • Arduino INDUSTRIAL 101

    Arduino INDUSTRIAL 101

    A $40 Arduino that's idea for integration into a commercial or industrial product.

    • Atheros AR9331 processor
    • 64MB of RAM
    • 16MB of flash storage
    • USB 2.0

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • VoCore

    VoCore

    A coin-sized Linux computer that is totally open-source, and costs $20. This is a small, low-cost, totally open-source (both the hardware and software) computer that's ideal for projects such as IoT or building your own custom router.

    • 360MHz MIPS CPU
    • 32MB of RAM
    • 8MB of flash memory
    • Ready equipped with header pins for sound, USB 2.0, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • Banana Pi M3

    Banana Pi M3

    Banana Pi M3 is a super charged single board computer with an Octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM. It also features Gigabit Ethernet, 2 USB, SATA, WiFi, Bluetooth, and HDMI connection. It can run on a variety of operating systems including Android, Lubuntu, Ubuntu, Debian, and Raspbian.

    • Octa-core 1.8GHz CPU
    • 2 GB RAM
    • 8 GB eMMC flash storage
    • Wi-Fi and Bluetooth onboard

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • cloudBit

    cloudBit

    The easiest way to create internet­-connected devices - no programming, soldering or wiring required. IFTTT support allows it to connect with any web service, like Facebook, Gmail and Twitter, or hardware like NEST and Philips HUE.

    All for just $59.95.

    • Freescale i.MX23 ARM926EJ-S processor
    • 64MB of RAM
    • 802.11b/g/n

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • Parallella

    Parallella

    The Parallella computer is a high performance, credit card sized computer based on the Epiphany multi-core chips from Adapteva. Starting at $99, the Parallella can be used as a standalone computer, an embedded device or as a component in a scaled out parallel server cluster.

    • 16-core Epiphany RISC SOC
    • Zynq SOC (FPGA + ARM A9)
    • Gigabit Ethernet
    • 1GB SDRAM
    • Micro-SD storage
    • Up to 48 GPIO pins
    • HDMI, USB (optional)

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • NanoPC-T3

    NanoPC-T3

    The NanoPC-T3 is the bigger brother of the NanoPi 2 Fire, and features an octa-core processor which has enough power for commercial and industrial applications.

    • Samsung S5P6818 octa-core ARM Cortex-A53 up to 1.4GHz
    • 1-2GB of RAM
    • 8GB of flash storage
    • Gigabit Ethernet
    • USB 2.0

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • NanoPi 2 Fire

    NanoPi 2 Fire

    A cheap, $23 quad-core powered board that's ideally suited for hobbyists.

    • Samsung S5P4418 quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 up to 1.4GHz
    • 1GB of RAM
    • Gigabit Ethernet
    • USB 2.0

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • Intel Edison with Kit for Arduino

    Intel Edison with Kit for Arduino

    At around $92, the Intel name doesn't come cheap, but this Arduino-compatible board is turning out to be a popular choice.

    • Dual-core, dual-threaded Intel Atom CPU with a 32-bit Intel Quark microcontroller
    • 1GB of RAM
    • 4GB of flash storage
    • Integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE
    • Support for Yocto Linux, Python, Node.js and Wolfram

      More information

      Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

    • PixelPro

      PixelPro

      The PixelPro features a i.MX6Q Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 running at 1.0 GHz, with 2D and 3D GPUs and an embedded 2GB 64-bit DDR3 RAM, which means that it is capable of running rich multimedia applications, embedded web servers, digital entertainment systems, industrial control systems, and high definition video.

      At $129.95, the PixelPro is not cheap, but you get a lt of power for the cash.

      • Freescale i.MX6Q Soc Quad Core ARM Cortex-A9 up to 1GHz
      • 2GB of RAM
      • WiFi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
      • Gigabit Ethernet
      • PCIe x1
      • USB 2.0

        More information

        Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

      1 of 12

      The Raspberry Pi might be the name that springs to mind when people think of single board computers for homebrew projects, but there are other boards out there worth considering.

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      BeagleBone Black

      BeagleBone Black is a low-cost, community-supported development platform for developers and hobbyists. This $55 board allows you to boot Linux in under 10 seconds and get started on development in less than 5 minutes.

      • AM335x 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8512MB DDR3 RAM
      • 4GB 8-bit eMMC on-board flash storage
      • 3D graphics accelerator
      • NEON floating-point accelerator
      • 2x PRU 32-bit microcontrollers

      More information

      Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

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