Blog · August 16, 2025

How to Choose the Right Embedded Development Board for Your Project

how to choose the right embedded development board for your project

There are hundreds of dev boards out there, and picking the wrong one costs you weeks — not just in wasted money, but in wrestling with toolchains, missing peripherals, and dead-end ecosystems. The right board makes prototyping fast and the path to production clear. Here's how to think through the decision.

Start With Your Requirements, Not the Board

It's tempting to grab whatever's popular on YouTube this month. Resist that. Before you look at a single product page, nail down these questions:

  • What's the end goal? A quick proof-of-concept, a learning project, or something that ships to customers? This alone eliminates half the options.
  • Processing needs: Are you reading a temperature sensor every 10 seconds, or running computer vision on a camera feed? These are wildly different boards.
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, BLE, Ethernet, CAN bus, Zigbee, Matter, cellular? Know this upfront because retrofitting wireless onto a board that doesn't have it is painful.
  • I/O count: How many GPIOs, ADCs, UARTs, SPI/I2C buses do you actually need? Count your sensors, actuators, and displays.
  • Power source: Battery-powered projects have completely different board requirements than wall-powered ones. A Raspberry Pi 5 pulling 5W+ is a non-starter for a coin-cell sensor node.

Getting specific here saves you from the "this board can do everything" trap. You don't need everything. You need the right things.

The Major Board Families in 2026

Here's how I think about the landscape:

  • Arduino boards (Uno R4, Nano ESP32, etc.): Still the best on-ramp for beginners. The Arduino IDE 2.x ecosystem is mature, libraries are everywhere, and you can get something working in an afternoon. Limited when you need raw performance or tight real-time control.
  • ESP32 family (ESP32-S3, ESP32-C6, ESP32-H2): The sweet spot for IoT. Built-in Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth, dirt cheap, and you can develop with Arduino, ESP-IDF v5.3+, or PlatformIO v6.x. The ESP32-C6 and H2 add Thread/Zigbee support, which matters for Matter-based smart home projects.
  • STM32 Nucleo/Discovery boards: Professional-grade ARM Cortex-M development. STM32CubeIDE v1.16+ is genuinely good now — free, full-featured, and well-integrated with CubeMX for peripheral configuration. This is where you go when you need precise real-time control, low power, or plan to move to a custom PCB.
  • Raspberry Pi (Pi 5, Pi 4, Pi Zero 2 W): These are Linux computers, not microcontrollers. Pick one when you need an OS — running a GUI, processing video, hosting a web server, or integrating with high-level frameworks. The Pi 5 is significantly faster than the Pi 4, with a real PCIe bus for NVMe storage and AI accelerators.
  • Nordic nRF series (nRF52840, nRF5340, nRF9160): Dominant in BLE and low-power wireless. If you're building a wearable, beacon, or mesh sensor network, these are hard to beat. Well-supported by Zephyr RTOS v3.7+.
  • BeagleBone and similar (BeaglePlay, BeagleBone Black): Strong for industrial applications, especially when you need real-time Linux or PRU co-processors. Smaller community than Pi, but the hardware capabilities fill a specific niche.

Ecosystem Matters More Than Specs

A chip with great specs and terrible documentation is worse than a slightly weaker chip with a thriving community. Check these before you buy:

  • Quality of official documentation and reference manuals
  • Active forums, Discord/Slack communities, and Stack Overflow presence
  • Library and driver availability for the peripherals and sensors you plan to use
  • How recently the SDK/BSP was updated — abandoned SDKs are a red flag

I've seen projects stall for weeks because the team picked a board with impressive specs but a half-baked SDK. Don't be that team.

Development Environment and Toolchain

Your board choice locks you into a toolchain. Make sure you're okay with it:

  • Arduino IDE 2.x / PlatformIO v6.x: Works with Arduino boards, ESP32, STM32 (via add-ons), and many others. Great for rapid prototyping.
  • STM32CubeIDE: Eclipse-based but solid. Free, includes debugger, and the CubeMX integration handles peripheral config visually.
  • ESP-IDF v5.3+: The official Espressif framework. More powerful than Arduino for ESP32 but steeper learning curve. CMake-based build system.
  • Zephyr RTOS: Cross-platform RTOS that supports hundreds of boards. If you want maximum portability or plan to switch MCUs later, Zephyr is worth the upfront investment.
  • Vendor-specific IDEs (MPLAB X, Keil, IAR): Some require paid licenses for full functionality. Factor this into your cost.

Thinking About Production and Scalability

If your project might become a product, think about this early:

  • Chip availability: Is the MCU on the board orderable in volume? Check distributors like Mouser and Digikey for stock and lead times.
  • Unit cost at scale: A $35 Raspberry Pi is fine for a prototype but expensive in a 10,000-unit production run. An ESP32-C3 module at $2 is a different story.
  • Transition path: Can you easily move from the dev board to a custom PCB? STM32 and ESP32 make this straightforward. Raspberry Pi Compute Module exists but is a bigger design effort.
  • Certification: Pre-certified wireless modules (like ESP32 modules with FCC/CE) save months of certification work.

Real-World Project Mapping

  • IoT sensor node (battery-powered): ESP32-C6 or nRF52840. Low power, wireless built in, cheap enough to deploy many of them.
  • Motor control / robotics: STM32 Nucleo with an appropriate motor driver shield. Hardware timers and PWM channels are what matter here.
  • Smart home hub: Raspberry Pi 5 running Home Assistant or a custom Matter controller. You need the Linux stack for protocol bridges and a web UI.
  • Wearable health monitor: nRF5340 for dual-core BLE with Zephyr. Ultra-low power is non-negotiable.
  • Industrial data logger: STM32 with FreeRTOS v11.x for deterministic timing, plus an SD card and Ethernet for data offload.

Bottom Line

Don't pick a board because it's trendy. Pick it because it matches your requirements, has a healthy ecosystem, and gives you a clear path from prototype to whatever comes next. When in doubt, buy two different boards and spend a weekend with each — the $50 experiment beats months of regret.