For tech hobbyists and tinkerers, Raspberry Pi 4 is the one machine they can’t live without. Either you want to run a VPN server or control home automation, Raspberry Pi 4 gets everything done. However, for some time, users have been looking for alternatives in search of a more powerful single-board computer. Apart from that, the recent faulty Type-C design forced many users to look south. So, if you are still on a lookout, we have put together a list of 12 best Raspberry Pi 4 alternatives which are quite powerful and come with several ports. Now having said that, let’s begin the article without any delay.
Here, we have sorted the 10 best alternatives to Raspberry Pi 4 which are not only powerful but also power-efficient. Apart from that, we have kept low-pricing as our key factor before finalizing the list so that you get similar performance without breaking your bank. Having said that, if you are looking for a truly powerful Raspberry Pi like board and price isn’t a factor, we have some new options at the end, so take a look. Now without further ado, let’s get started with the first pick.
Odroid-N2 is one of the best single-board computers out there and easily rivals Raspberry Pi 4 in terms of both specs and pricing. The N2 comes with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A73 CPU with a dual-core Cortex-A53 cluster integrated to the main board which is clocked at 1.8GHz. In essence, it’s more powerful than RPi 4’s A72 CPU which is clocked at 1.5GHz. On the RAM front, it comes in 2GB and 4GB models so that is great for multi-taskers. And the best part about the processor is that it’s built on the 12nm fabrication process so it’s much more power-efficient than RPi 4’s 16nm chipset.
Buy from ODROID: (Starts at $60)
RockPro64 is another great alternative to Raspberry Pi 4. And I say this because RockPro64 enjoys similar community support and has excellent documentation for all the hardware and software SDKs. Apart from that, RockPro64 has a powerful Hexa-core Rockchip RK3399 SoC which comprises dual A72 and quad A53 cores clocked up to 2GHz. Looking at the specs on paper, the RockPro64 is definitely a powerful tiny machine. Besides that, you have Mali T860 MP4 GPU which is powerful enough to run graphics-heavy content.
3. Nano Pi M4
NanoPi M4 is a popular Raspberry Pi 4 alternative which is built by another open-source company, FriendlyARM. The single-board computer comes with Rockchip RK3399 CPU which is clocked up to 2GHz. The Rockchip SoC is using a dual-core Cortex-A72(clocked up to 2.0GHz) and quad-core Cortex-A53( clocked up to 1.5GHz) which essentially means that Nano Pi M4 is on par with Raspberry Pi 4 in terms of performance. On the GPU side, it has a powerful Mali-T864 GPU which is capable of rendering 4K content without any issue.
Banana Pi M4 is one of the cheapest Raspberry Pi 4 alternatives in this list. It costs around $38 which is pretty close to RPi 4’s $35 offering. The single-board computer features a Realtek RTD1395 processor which comes with a quad-core 64 Bit ARM Cortex-A53 cluster. It also has a dedicated Mali 470 MP4 GPU for smooth graphics rendering which is on par with Raspberry Pi 4. Other than that, the base variant comes with 1GB of LPDDR4 RAM and can be upgraded up to 2GB. There is 8GB of onboard storage as well and you can expand the storage up to 256GB using a microSD card.
Asus Tinker Board S is our next pick for the best Raspberry Pi 4 alternative. While it’s not as low-cost as Raspberry Pi 4, the Asus single-board computer offers a reliable and stable experience because of its solid internals. It’s packed with Rockchip RK3288 SoC which is clocked up to 1.8GHz and has 2GB of DDR3 RAM. The board is equipped with Mali – T764 GPU which is said to have better rendering capability. However, the best part is that it comes with 16GB onboard storage which the Raspberry Pi 4 lacks.
Libre is another open-source company which is pretty transparent about its hardware and software programs. And for this very reason, it is a suitable alternative to Raspberry Pi 4. Given its open-source stand, Libre enjoys community support in varying degrees which is very comparable to Raspberry Pi Foundation. Coming to specs, it features a Quad-core 64-bit 1.4GHz ARM Cortex-A53 processor along with Mali-450 GPU. The best part is that just like RPi 4, it can also render 4K content at 60FPS without breaking a sweat.
Besides that, you get 4GB of DDR4 RAM, but without any onboard storage. The Libre board is equipped with several ports including superfast Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, eMMC module, HDMI and lots of GPIO slots. To sum up, Libre Renegade is an excellent choice for tinkering with Linux and Android systems and you can definitely give it a try.
Orange Pi 4 is another capable alternative to Raspberry Pi 4 that comes with powerful hardware and offers excellent performance. It packs the ARM-based Rockchip RK3399 processor which is based on 64-bit architecture and has six cores clocked up to 2.0GHz. For comparison, RPi4 speeds up to 1.5GHz so Orange Pi 4 clearly has more horsepower. Along with that, Orange Pi 4 features the Mali-T864 GPU which is quite decent. Further, the board packs 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. The best part about Orange Pi 4 is that, similar to Raspberry Pi 4, it comes with Bluetooth 5.0, WiFi support, and Gigabit Ethernet port. Apart from that, Orange Pi 4 houses a 3.5mm jack, several GPIO pins, HDMI, Type-C, USB 3.0, and USB 2.0 ports. Simply put, Orange Pi 4 is a worthy alternative to Raspberry Pi 4 and you should definitely give it a try, more so when it costs just around $60.
8. LattePanda
LattePanda is a unique Raspberry Pi 4 alternative which is designed to run Windows 10 instead of open-source operating systems like Linux or Android. While it’s not that powerful to run full-fledged Windows, you can use the standard Windows 10 Home Edition without any problem. The board is powered by Intel Z8350 CPU which is clocked up to 1.92GHz. It also ships with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The mini board is equipped with Bluetooth and WiFi so that is great. Apart from that, in terms of ports, you get HDMI, Ethernet, USB 2.0 and a few GPIO ports. All in all, if you are looking for a Raspberry Pi 4 alternative which can run Windows natively then LattePanda is a great pick despite its few shortcomings.
If you need a low-powered machine to run Linux distros or cloud IDEs then BeagleBone is a great pick. The single-board computer comes with AM335x 1GHz ARM® Cortex-A8 processor with a dedicated 3D graphics accelerator. You also get onboard storage of 4GB and 512MB of DDR3 RAM. While there is no WiFi or Bluetooth connectivity, it has USB connectors for enabling radio communication. You can simply attach a WiFi or Bluetooth adapter and you can use radio services without any problem. Apart from that, you get a few ports including Ethernet, HDMI, USB 2.0 and more. Simply put, if you want a low-configuration single-board computer, you can give BeagleBone a shot.
If you are a developer and use Raspberry Pi 4 for testing AI applications then let me offer you a better alternative. Nvidia, a popular GPU manufacturer has created a low-cost single-board computer which is capable of running AI tests without needing much power and resources. The Jetson Nano can deliver high performance with its powerful GPU and without taking much time. Nvidia also provides Developer Kit to get started on this mini-computer. There are HDMI, USB, Ethernet and several GPIO ports which can be pretty helpful for running hardware-based AI tests. To conclude, if you want a single-board computer like Raspberry Pi 4 with a powerful GPU for AI experiments then Jetson Nano by Nvidia is a solid pick.
So far, only the Raspberry Pi 4 alternatives we have talked about are power-efficient, decently powerful, affordable boards but what if you want a board that’s supremely powerful for some serious projects. Well, enter the new PICO-WHU4, the latest board from electronics board Aaeon and it brings beastly specs. It comes with Intel’s 8th Whiskey Lake processors with UHD Graphics 610/620, a SODIMM DDR4 slot that supports up to 16GB RAM, a standard SATA III port for HDDs or SSDs. When it comes to ports, there are two HDMI 1.4b ports, two Realtek RTL8111G ethernet ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, one USB 2.0 header and two USB 2.0 ports.
All of that specs are high-end but it’s packed in a design that’s not massive. The PICO-WHU4 measures 3.94 inches x 2.84 inches (100mm x 72mm), which means it’s only slightly bigger than Raspberry Pi 4. Plus, what makes this board unique is the fact that it can withstand harsh conditions, up to 60-degrees Celsius and operating humidity up to 90%.
If you have been looking for a single board computer like Raspberry Pi 4 but something that’s powered by an AMD Ryzen CPU, you should take a look at newly announced DFI GHF51. This SBC is powered by the Ryzen Embedded R1000 series with integrated Vega 3 graphics, either the Ryzen Embedded R1606G or Ryzen Embedded 1505G, as it’s said to have 12W TDP. The APU is obviously way more powerful compared to Raspberry Pi 4, and the rest of the specs prove that too. The GHF51 will come with 8GB DDR4-3200 single-channel RAM, up to 64GB of soldered eMMC storage, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C, and two micro-HDMI 1.4 ports.
