BBC micro:bit
Shares rank 22 of 28 microcontrollers by recommenders
Recommended for introducing students to hardware, with a built-in display, sensors, simple code and immediate feedback. One critic says classes end up following predefined recipes.
Recommended for introducing students to hardware, with a built-in display, sensors, simple code and immediate feedback. One critic says classes end up following predefined recipes.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 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
Teaching hardware to school students
“If your target audience is school kids, you really can't go past the micro:bit and Makecode”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Adafruit: Arduino’s Rules Are ‘Incompatible With Open Source’” “It's a game changer for introducing hardware to students. Just works.”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “WebUSB Extension for Firefox” Easy to get started
“A micro:bit mostly emphasizes on the end result, with a built-in display and sensors and many plug-and-play modules to get you going.”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: How to get started with robotics as a hobbyist?” “Gets you really comfortable with fairly simple code and immediate feedback about whether you gets things right”
Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Build with Python – a beginner course where your code draws”
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 |
| BBC micro:bitThis page | 6 | 1 | 86% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
7 of the 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Gets you really comfortable with fairly simple code and immediate feedback about whether you gets things right”
“performing predefined recipies for MicroBit or BlueBot in 5th-6th grade”
“It's a game changer for introducing hardware to students. Just works.”
“incredibly compelling and feels a lot like this”
“A micro:bit mostly emphasizes on the end result, with a built-in display and sensors and many plug-and-play modules to get you going.”
“If your target audience is school kids, you really can't go past the micro:bit and Makecode”
“the awesomely simple networking that the micro:bit provides”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.