ESP32-C5
Shares rank 24 of 28 microcontrollers by recommenders
Recommended for running Rust on its RISC-V cores, with Thread, Zigbee, BLE and dual-band WiFi support. Critics note the lack of SIMD extensions and that ESP-IDF support arrived late.
Recommended for running Rust on its RISC-V cores, with Thread, Zigbee, BLE and dual-band WiFi support. Critics note the lack of SIMD extensions and that ESP-IDF support arrived late.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
RISC-V cores suited to Rust
“The newer model, C3, C6, C5 all have RSIC-V cores which make it a dream to run Rust”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Running Bare-Metal Rust Alongside ESP-IDF on the ESP32-S3's Second Core” Thread, Zigbee and BLE support
“It's also reasonably powerful for a micro and supports Thread, Zigbee, and BLE.”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “The newest ESP32 can run Linux and it's getting close to a Raspberry Pi” Dual-band 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi
“supports 2.4 and 5 GHz dual-band WiFi”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “ESP32-S31: 320MHz 2C RV32IMAFCP+CLIC, 512KB SRAM, GbE, 802.11ax, 61 GPIO” Suggested over other ESP32 chips
“I'd say go for an ESP32 C5 or C6.”
Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Best-selling Zigbee temperature sensors tested and compared”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
No SIMD extensions
“the lack of SIMD extensions on the C5/C6 holds it back”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Turn a WiFi 7 Router into a 320Msps Software Defined Radio Receiver” ESP-IDF support arrived late
“announced in June 2022, received initial support in -IDF in August 2025”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “ESP32-S31: 320MHz 2C RV32IMAFCP+CLIC, 512KB SRAM, GbE, 802.11ax, 61 GPIO”
Other microcontrollers people recommend
The four most recommended other microcontrollers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESP32 | 190 | 35 | 84% | 12 | 5 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Arduino boards | 81 | 73 | 53% | 12 | 16 yrs7 owners | — |
| Raspberry Pi Pico | 72 | 16 | 82% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Raspberry Pi RP2350 | 47 | 13 | 78% | 11 | — | Approved |
| ESP32-C5This page | 5 | 2 | 71% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the lack of SIMD extensions on the C5/C6 holds it back”
“I'd say go for an ESP32 C5 or C6.”
“It's also reasonably powerful for a micro and supports Thread, Zigbee, and BLE.”
“The newer model, C3, C6, C5 all have RSIC-V cores which make it a dream to run Rust”
“supports 2.4 and 5 GHz dual-band WiFi”
“announced in June 2022, received initial support in -IDF in August 2025”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.