Top Alternatives to Raspberry Pi: What to Buy When the Pi Isn't Right

The Raspberry Pi is the most popular single-board computer in the world, and that popularity is well deserved. But stock shortages over the past few years pushed a lot of people to try other boards, and many discovered that alternatives can actually be better for certain use cases.

Whether you need more power, different form factors, or just want something you can actually order right now, here are the best Raspberry Pi alternatives.

Orange Pi

Orange Pi boards have been around for years and offer competitive specs at lower prices. The Orange Pi 5 packs a Rockchip RK3588S with up to 32GB of RAM, which blows past even the Raspberry Pi 5 in raw performance. It handles 4K video, light machine learning workloads, and serves as a capable mini desktop.

The trade-off is software support. Orange Pi's community is smaller, and you won't find the same breadth of tutorials and ready-made disk images. But if you're comfortable with Linux and mainly need processing power, it delivers excellent value.

Libre Computer (Le Potato and Sweet Potato)

Libre Computer boards aim to be drop-in replacements for the Raspberry Pi with the same form factor and GPIO layout. Le Potato is the Pi 3 equivalent, and it runs many Raspberry Pi operating systems with minimal tweaking. The software compatibility is better than most alternatives since it's specifically designed to be Pi-compatible.

For home server duties, running Armbian or Debian, it's a practical choice. The community is smaller but engaged, and the boards are reliably available.

ODROID Series

Hardkernel's ODROID boards have earned a solid reputation in the maker community. The ODROID-N2+ was a popular Home Assistant platform for years, and the ODROID-M1S continues that tradition with good performance and eMMC storage support.

ODROID boards tend to have better storage options than the Pi, with eMMC and NVMe support being common. They're a favorite among people running media centers, NAS devices, or dedicated servers where storage speed matters.

Banana Pi

The Banana Pi lineup offers boards for different use cases, from the compact BPI-M5 to router-oriented boards with multiple Ethernet ports. The BPI-R3 and BPI-R4 are particularly interesting as DIY router and firewall platforms with real networking hardware built in.

If you've been wanting to build your own pfSense or OpenWrt router on an ARM board, Banana Pi has some of the best options available.

Rock Pi / Radxa

Radxa's Rock boards have become serious contenders. The Rock 5B with its RK3588 SoC is one of the fastest ARM single-board computers you can buy, with M.2 NVMe storage, multiple display outputs, and up to 16GB of RAM.

For media center builds, emulation, or any task that benefits from GPU acceleration, the Rock 5 series punches well above Pi-level performance. Armbian support is solid, and the community has been growing quickly.

Intel NUC and Mini PCs

This is a different category entirely, but worth mentioning. If what you really need is a small, capable computer and you're running Pi to host services like Home Assistant, Pi-hole, or Nextcloud, a mini PC with an Intel or AMD processor might make more sense.

Used mini PCs from Lenovo, Dell, or HP can be found for $50 to $100 and run x86 Linux or Windows, giving you access to software that doesn't have ARM builds. They're more power-hungry than a Pi but vastly more capable. For a home server that does multiple things, this is often the smarter investment.

BeagleBone

BeagleBone Black and its variants offer something the Pi doesn't: real-time I/O through PRU coprocessors. If your project needs precise timing for motor control, LED driving, or industrial communication protocols, BeagleBone handles it at the hardware level.

It's more niche than the Pi and not a general-purpose replacement, but in robotics and industrial applications, it's the better tool.

Khadas VIM Series

Khadas makes polished, well-documented boards that feel more like consumer products than bare development boards. The VIM4 with its Amlogic A311D2 is powerful and comes with a proper metal case option, good thermal management, and active software development.

The documentation is above average for Pi alternatives, and Khadas's approach to both Android and Linux support makes their boards versatile for media, AI, and general computing tasks.

Raspberry Pi Pico (Yes, Really)

If you were using a full Raspberry Pi for a simple sensor reading or automation task, you might not need a Linux computer at all. The Raspberry Pi Pico (or Pico W with WiFi) can handle many tasks that people use a full Pi for, at a fraction of the cost, power consumption, and complexity.

No SD card corruption to worry about. No boot time. No OS updates. Just a microcontroller that turns on and runs your code instantly. For dedicated, single-purpose tasks, a Pico is often the right downgrade.

How to Choose

If you need Pi compatibility, look at Libre Computer. For raw power, Rock 5 or Orange Pi 5. For networking projects, Banana Pi. For a home server, consider a used mini PC. For simple automation, try a Pico.

The Raspberry Pi earned its dominance through community, documentation, and ecosystem. Most alternatives trade some of that for better specs or lower prices. Whether that's a good trade depends entirely on your project and how comfortable you are venturing off the beaten path.