Raspberry Pi Alternatives 2024: A Curated Guide to the Best SBCs for Your Project
The single-board computer (SBC) market has evolved far beyond the ubiquitous Raspberry Pi. While the Pi remains an excellent choice, global supply constraints and diverse project needs have fueled a thriving ecosystem of powerful, specialized alternatives. Whether you’re building a budget media player, an industrial controller, or an edge AI device, there’s an SBC tailored for the task. This guide explores the top contenders for 2024, helping you find the perfect board for your next project.
Why Look Beyond the Raspberry Pi in 2024?
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has created a phenomenal platform, but its strengths come with limitations:
Persistent Supply & Pricing Issues: Although improved, finding a Pi at its official MSRP can still be a challenge, pushing users towards often-overpriced kits.
Performance Ceilings: For intensive tasks like 4K video playback, multiple camera streams, or serious machine learning, the standard Pi models can show their limits.
Specialized Needs: Projects requiring specific features like SATA ports, multiple Ethernet ports, or wider operating temperature ranges need a more purpose-built board.
The modern SBC landscape offers solutions that address these exact points, providing better performance, unique I/O, and often, better availability for similar or lower cost.
The Contenders: Best SBCs by Project Category
1. For Budget-Friendly Tinkering & Education: Orange Pi 5 Series
If you’re looking for Raspberry Pi-like versatility with more power for the price, the Orange Pi 5 and 5B are standout choices.
Key Specs: Rockchip RK3588S (4x A76 + 4x A55 CPUs), up to 32GB LPDDR5, Mali-G610 GPU, PCIe 2.0, dual HDMI outputs supporting 8K.
Why It’s a Top Alternative: It delivers significantly higher CPU and GPU performance than a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 at a highly competitive price. Its PCIe interface allows for adding high-speed NVMe storage, a game-changer for OS responsiveness.
Ideal For: General-purpose computing, lightweight home servers, emulation stations (up to some PS2/GameCube), and as a desktop replacement.
Considerations: Software support, while strong and based on mainline Linux, is not as universally polished as the Raspberry Pi’s. Community support is large but slightly more fragmented.
2. For a Powerful Media & Emulation Center: Libre Computer Board AML-S905X-CC (Le Potato)
For a pure, reliable media center, the “Le Potato” offers exceptional value and simplicity.
Key Specs: Amlogic S905X CPU (4x A53), 2GB DDR3, Mali-450 GPU, full-size HDMI 2.0 with CEC.
Why It’s a Top Alternative: It is one of the best-supported boards by the CoreELEC and LibreELEC distributions, providing a flawless, appliance-like Kodi experience for 4K HDR content. It’s stable, cool-running, and draws very little power.
Ideal For: Dedicated Kodi boxes, simple retro emulation (up to PlayStation 1), and lightweight always-on tasks.
Considerations: Its CPU is not for heavy multitasking or modern desktop use. It’s a specialist, not a generalist.
3. For Industrial & Robust Embedded Applications: ODROID Series (e.g., ODROID-M1)
Hardkernel’s ODROID boards are engineered for reliability and offer features crucial for embedded development and industrial use.
Key Specs (M1): Rockchip RK3568 B2 CPU, up to 8GB RAM, PCIe Gen 2 x1, SATA port, dual GbE ports, 40-pin GPIO.
Why It’s a Top Alternative: Features like a SATA port for direct, reliable storage, multiple Ethernet ports for network gateways, and a focus on long-term kernel support make it ideal for products. The build quality and documentation are exceptional.
Ideal For: Network-attached storage (NAS), industrial controllers, routers, robotics, and any project deployed in a fixed location requiring stable storage.
Considerations: Less focused on the hobbyist “maker” community than Pi; accessories can be more specialized.
4. For Edge AI & Machine Learning Projects: NVIDIA Jetson Nano / Orin Nano
When your project revolves around computer vision, object detection, or complex AI models, NVIDIA’s ecosystem is unmatched.
Key Specs (Orin Nano): NVIDIA Ampere GPU with 512 CUDA cores, 6-core ARM CPU, up to 8GB LPDDR5.
Why It’s a Top Alternative: It provides dedicated, GPU-accelerated AI performance that crushes any ARM-based SBC without a dedicated NPU. Access to NVIDIA’s JetPack SDK, CUDA, and cuDNN libraries means you can deploy state-of-the-art models from TensorFlow or PyTorch with relative ease.
Ideal For: Real-time object detection, autonomous robots, smart cameras, and advanced AI prototyping.
Considerations: The price point is higher, and it is power-hungrier. It is a specialized tool for AI, not a general-purpose board.
5. For x86 Compatibility & Ultra-Low Power Desktop Use: Radxa ROCK 5 ITX
For users who need full x86 software compatibility in a low-power SBC form factor, this board is a unique and powerful option.
Key Specs: Intel N100 Processor (4-core, 4-thread), dual DDR5 SO-DIMM slots, triple display outputs, dual 2.5 GbE, SATA, M.2 PCIe.
Why It’s a Top Alternative: It runs any standard x86-64 operating system (Windows 10/11, Linux, TrueNAS) without driver hassles. It offers modern desktop performance for office work, web browsing, and light duty at a fraction of the power draw of a traditional PC.
Ideal For: A quiet, efficient home office PC, a compact firewall/router (OPNsense/pfSense), or a lightweight home server.
Considerations: Price is closer to a budget mini-PC. Lacks the GPIO and maker community of ARM boards.
Comparison Table: Key Boards at a Glance
How to Choose: Key Decision Factors
Project Requirements First: Define your needs: Do you need 4K video decoding? Multiple camera inputs? SATA storage? AI acceleration? Let the project dictate the board.
Software & Community: A board is useless without a good OS. Check for active community forums and mainline Linux kernel support. Raspberry Pi OS has the widest peripheral support, but Armbian is a fantastic, unified distribution for many alternatives.
Power & Thermal Management: More powerful boards need robust power supplies (PSUs) and often active cooling. A flaky PSU is the #1 source of instability for SBC projects.
Total Cost of Ownership: Factor in the cost of necessary accessories: a quality PSU, case, cooling, and storage. A “cheap” board can become expensive once fully kitted out.
The Bottom Line for 2024
The “best” SBC no longer exists. Instead, we have a rich field of excellent boards, each optimized for different scenarios.
For a balanced, do-it-all board that most closely rivals the Raspberry Pi 5, the Orange Pi 5B is the current champion.
For a dedicated, silent media center, the Libre Le Potato is unbeatable for the price.
For building a product or reliable NAS, the ODROID-M1‘s professional features are worth the investment.
For any serious AI at the edge, the NVIDIA Jetson platform is the only sensible choice.
The golden age of single-board computing is here, driven by competition and specialization. By looking beyond the familiar Raspberry Pi, you can find a board that not only fits your project but excels at it, often for less money and with greater availability. Your perfect board is out there.
