ESP8266
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 12 of 28 microcontrollers by recommenders
A very cheap Wi-Fi microcontroller with GPIO pins and an Arduino-like programming experience, easy to add to projects. Critics note that wiring it up before loading a program is a hassle.
A very cheap Wi-Fi microcontroller with GPIO pins and an Arduino-like programming experience, easy to add to projects. Critics note that wiring it up before loading a program is a hassle.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 7.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 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
Simple and easy to use
“These days I don't think Arduinos are meaningfully more accessible than, say, an ESP8266 or ESP32.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Adafruit: Arduino’s Rules Are ‘Incompatible With Open Source’” “it's honestly just way simpler doing something like that with a microcontroller”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “Box of Secrets: Discreetly modding an apartment intercom to work with Apple Home” “it is so simple to implement with low cost ESP32 or ESP8266 controllers”
Comment from 29 Aug 2026 in “A Badass Way to Connect Programs Togther What Is OSC?” - Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: The bedtime – Another little bedside clock I made”
Very cheap, commodity pricing
“offering wifi and gpios and an arduino-like programming experience at a price point of literally $1”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “News about Raspberry Pi 6 and Microcontroller Development – Jeff Geerling” “it is so simple to implement with low cost ESP32 or ESP8266 controllers”
Comment from 29 Aug 2026 in “A Badass Way to Connect Programs Togther What Is OSC?” “the chip was so cheap and capable for projects at the time”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Running Bare-Metal Rust Alongside ESP-IDF on the ESP32-S3's Second Core” - Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “Building a Wall Lamp from Scratch”
Works reliably for years
“Worked flawlessly for years”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Box of Secrets: Discreetly modding an apartment intercom to work with Apple Home” “It still works perfectly.”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “Home Assistant waters my plants” Arduino-like or MicroPython programming
“offering wifi and gpios and an arduino-like programming experience at a price point of literally $1”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “News about Raspberry Pi 6 and Microcontroller Development – Jeff Geerling” “RGB LEDs (e.g. WS2812) connected to an ESP8266 and running microPython are great for experimenting”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Can RGB light strips produce 16M colors?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Needs wiring before loading programs
“you have to muck with cabling it up before you can even load a program on it”
Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “RTX 5090 and Raspberry Pi: Can It Game?”
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 |
| ESP8266This page | 15 | 2 | 88% | 10 | — | Approved |
What people said
15 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“could have been replaced by a commodity ESP8266”
“it is so simple to implement with low cost ESP32 or ESP8266 controllers”
“offering wifi and gpios and an arduino-like programming experience at a price point of literally $1”
“the chip was so cheap and capable for projects at the time”
“Early (ESP8622) MCUs had weak security, implementation flaws, and a host of issues”
“it needs to do PWM in software and struggles with the 25kHz output frequency”
“it's honestly just way simpler doing something like that with a microcontroller”
“Worked flawlessly for years”
“It still works perfectly.”
“This will pair nicely with the eps8266 i just flashed”
“you have to muck with cabling it up before you can even load a program on it”
“since it uses a whole ESP8266 module, it's really easy to add one”
“These days I don't think Arduinos are meaningfully more accessible than, say, an ESP8266 or ESP32.”
“RGB LEDs (e.g. WS2812) connected to an ESP8266 and running microPython are great for experimenting”
“the 8266 is pretty nice as well”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.