by In this article, we are going to explore some of the best alternatives to the Raspberry Pi.
While we are massive fans of the Raspberry Pi and use it with almost every one of our tutorials, some excellent alternatives shouldn’t be ignored.
Since the original Raspberry Pi was released, there has been a constant stream of competing single-board computers being released.
These competing units range in both vastly in both functionality and price point.
Below we are going to go through some of the best alternatives available to the Raspberry Pi.
Rock64
The Rock64 is a powerful single-board computer developed by Pine64 that is perfect for operating as a media center.
It is regarded as one of the strongest alternatives to the Raspberry Pi while sticking with a similar form factor and price point.
The board features the RK3328 quad-core processor. This processor features inbuilt video decoders for the most used video codecs.
This includes the three most used modern video codecs, VP9, and h264/h265. For these formats, the Rock64 can decode 4k video with up to 60 frames per second.
Decoding these codecs at 4k is a massive advantage over the Raspberry Pi that still only features a 1080p decoder for the h264 codec.
You can purchase the Rock64 from Pine64’s official store.
Orange Pi 4B
Orange pi is one of the longest-running alternatives to the Raspberry Pi. The Orange pi replicates its form factor while packing in even more functionality on to the board.
The Orange Pi 4b is one of the strongest showings from the company.
This small package delivers a lot of power by packing in the Rockchip RK3399 processor.
This processor features six cores in the popular BIG.little ARM format. This means it has two powerful cores to deal with intensive tasks, and four lower-power cores to handle easier tasks.
Thanks to its processing power, the Orange pi can help deal with data that needs more processing power then the Raspberry Pi can handle.
Also, as the Orange pi 4B uses a more mainstream chip, it has decent support for the Android operating system.
You can purchase the Orange Pi 4B from Amazon.
LattePanda Alpha
Whereas the Raspberry Pi aims to be an affordable entry into single-board computing, the LattePanda Alpha aims to be the leader in performance.
To achieve this performance, the LattePanda Alpha packs in n 64-bit Intel processor. This processor is the dual-core M3-8100Y that is used in the lower end Macbooks.
While only having two cores, these two cores are much more powerful than those used in most ARM SBC’s. As a bonus, it also allows you to run the full version of Windows 10.
To drive its GPIO pins, the LattePanda has an Arduino Leonardo co-processor. This co-processor handles all the GPIO input and feeds it back to the rest of the device.
This powerful alternative to the Raspberry Pi comes at the cost of a much higher price tag.
You can purchase the LattePanda Alpha from Amazon.
ODROID-C4
The ODROID-C4 is one of the latest in a series of Raspberry Pi alternatives developed by HardKernel.
The latest version of the ODROID was aimed at creating a more energy-efficient and faster device than the last generation.
The Odroid-C4 features 4GB of RAM alongside a quad core Coretex-A55 cluster. Though the processor is not as powerful as the Raspberry Pi 4’s, it is still a fairly competitive CPU.
Where the ODROID-C4 wins out though is its GPU, which is the much-better-supported Mali-G31. You should have better performance in more graphically intensive applications.
Price-wise, the ODROID-C4 is about on par with the Raspberry Pi 4 4GB edition.
If you want to purchase an ODROID-C4, you can get it from HardKernels store.
Arduino Uno
While not a direct alternative to the Raspberry Pi, the Arduino Uno is a capable microcontroller perfect for electronic projects.
You can even pair the Arduino Uno with a Raspberry Pi, using the Arduino to drive your electronics then feeding that data back to your Pi.
One problem you may run into with the Pi’s GPIO pins is that it can be slow at driving other electronic devices.
This is a space where the Arduino’s microcontroller wins out. It doesn’t have to deal with a lot of the complexities that a single-board computer like the Pi has to deal with, being built purely to handle and drive electronics.
Be sure to check out our comparision guide of a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino UNO.
You can purchase the Arduino UNO from Amazon.
Hopefully, you now have an idea about some of the best Raspberry Pi alternatives that you can.
If you have any other great alternatives feel free to comment them below, and we will check them out.
I’d add the Teensy series from Paul Stoffregen (PJRC.com) to this list. Teensy’s offer more powerful processors than most Arduino hardware platforms yet can use the same Arduino IDE to program them. Teensy boards are tiny, yet offer a lot of I/O options and very consistent timing for things like A/D conversion of sensor signals.