The Raspberry Pi is a popular credit card-sized computer that costs around $25. It was conceived by a team of engineers at the Raspberry Pi Foundation in Cambridge. The Pi has proven itself a popular kit for electronics projects and is one of the most successful examples of a community-driven open source hardware project. The Raspberry Pi has an ARM processor, low power, low cost, and uses less energy than other processors. It also has no problem with most software, so you can use it for many of the same applications as any desktop PC would be able to do.
The Raspberry Pi took the world by storm when it was first released in 2013. The single-board computer was affordable and could be used for a number of different projects. Since then, there have been other boards that have come out that are worth looking into as well.
As you might have seen, the Raspberry Pi Zero has been discontinued. This means the Raspberry Pi Zero W, which added wireless connectivity, to the mix. If you’re interested in picking up a Raspberry Pi, but you don’t want to pay the premium for the Raspberry Pi Zero W, or if you’re just curious about what other single board computers are out there, take a look at our list of the best Raspberry Pi alternatives.
To help you sort through the mess, we’ve put together a list of the top single board computers that are sure to be popular in 2021, and we’re excited to share it with you!
Here are the Top 7 Raspberry Pi Alternatives In 2021:
- RockPi 4 Model C — The Rock Pi is a single board computer that can run on a wide variety of operating systems and languages. Rock Pi boards are ideal for projects and demonstrations at trade shows or events. RockPi is a community-supported project that aims to develop a fully open source single board computer based on the Allwinner A64 SoC (Sunxi) and Rockchip RK3188 SoC (sunxi).
- ASUS Tinker Board S — is an extremely powerful single board computer. It’s not just that it runs Android. It’s packed with hardware to make it perform at the highest levels. The Tinker Board S is a super-powerful single board computer that comes preinstalled with the latest Android OS (Oreo) and has access to the Google Play Store. It’s a better overclocker than your desktop and has a huge range of connectors you can use to attach external hardware easily.
- UDOO BOLT V8 — The UDOO BOLT V8 is a powerful single board computer that fits in a case the size of a deck of cards, offering a full set of I/O and four powerful ARM SBC CPU cores. The UDOO BOLT V8 is designed for professionals with demanding needs, such as VR developers, augmented reality game developers, and AI researchers.
- NanoPi NEO4 — is a tiny, low-power single board computer that works great as a computer, a media center, a home server, an embedded system, a computer vision camera, or many other applications. It is also an ideal SBC for running Android on and offers a fast and smooth user experience.
- Odroid XU4 — The Odroid XU4 is the first single board computer (SBC) to be built by the Odroid team. Its features include a 1.6GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 1 GB DDR3 RAM, Mali400 graphics, and MicroSD slot.
- Nvidia Jetson Nano Developer Kit — Nvidia’s Jetson Nano Developer Kit is an open platform for developing the next generation of AI-powered applications and services. It provides a powerful, energy-efficient platform for developers to build AI applications that can run on mobile devices, industrial computers, automotive, consumer electronics, and more.
- Beagleboard PocketBeagle BeagleBone — The BeagleBone is a single-board computer from Texas Instruments that runs Linux and supports a wide variety of interfaces, including high-speed serial, PCIe, and USB. The PocketBeagle is a re-design of the BeagleBone specifically for an embedded system.
There have been a few new Raspberry Pi-compatible devices announced over the last few months. One of the biggest announcements is a new version of the Raspberry Pi Zero which uses the same ARM core as the new Raspberry Pi 3 and will be available to buy in July. Another new product is the Raspberry Pi 5, the first Raspberry Pi with onboard Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Gigabit Ethernet, and also the first one with mobile cellular connectivity — 3G and 4G — built-in.