Raspberry Pi Zero W
Ranked 8 of 14 single-board computers by recommenders
Cheap, small single-board computer that runs Linux and Wi-Fi, recommended for learning, light server work and kernel testing. Main caveat: its 512MB of RAM struggles with heavier tasks.
Cheap, small single-board computer that runs Linux and Wi-Fi, recommended for learning, light server work and kernel testing. Main caveat: its 512MB of RAM struggles with heavier tasks.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: 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
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 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
Cheap, small and easy to start
“You can absolutely learn how to program on a $17 raspberry pi zero w connected to an old monitor and keyboard nowadays.”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: Chromebook Leads for K-8 School In Need?” “It was cheap, small and easy to get up and running.”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “News about Raspberry Pi 6 and Microcontroller Development – Jeff Geerling” Runs Linux and Wi-Fi
“what's the cheapest Linux module I can get that's widely supported, backed by a real company”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “News about Raspberry Pi 6 and Microcontroller Development – Jeff Geerling” “It runs Linux just fine. It talks wifi.”
Comment from 24 May 2026 in “Getting an old Computer online with Android Ethernet tethering” Fine for light always-on use
“Almost 100% uptime except for a few days after a bad winter storm, pretty neat!”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “Serving a Website on a Raspberry Pi Zero Running in RAM” “more or less perfect for this use-case”
Comment from 14 Jul 2026 in “How to build a circular LCD clock” “The end result worked very well.”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “A Matter Wi-Fi Light Bulb in Rust on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
512MB RAM too little for heavy work
“My little 4x cluster of Zero Ws suffers to run a couple emulated mainframes and Z-80 machines.”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Raspberry Pi Zero 3W and Pi 4 Model A spotted in device trees” “the Pi0Ws have only 512mb RAM each and that's useless now”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “The Raspberry Pi Interactive Timeline · 2006–2026”
Other single-board computers people recommend
The four most recommended other single-board computers, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi | 425 | 277 | 61% | 12 | 5.5 yrs35 owners | — |
| Raspberry Pi Zero | 77 | 23 | 77% | 12 | 8 yrs6 owners | Approved |
| NVIDIA Jetson | 28 | 21 | 57% | 12 | — | — |
| Orange Pi 6 Plus | 18 | 30 | 38% | 5 | — | — |
| Raspberry Pi Zero WThis page | 9 | 3 | 75% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
14 of the 15 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“My little 4x cluster of Zero Ws suffers to run a couple emulated mainframes and Z-80 machines.”
“It was a wonderful time to live nearby.”
“the Pi0Ws have only 512mb RAM each and that's useless now”
“more or less perfect for this use-case”
“My personal fave RPi, the Zero W”
“The end result worked very well.”
“It was cheap, small and easy to get up and running.”
“what's the cheapest Linux module I can get that's widely supported, backed by a real company”
“It runs Linux just fine. It talks wifi.”
“Almost 100% uptime except for a few days after a bad winter storm, pretty neat!”
“it's actually occasionally useful for testing new kernel releases”
“You can absolutely learn how to program on a $17 raspberry pi zero w connected to an old monitor and keyboard nowadays.”
“network reliability is not great”
“some of us are doing fine with 512mb pi zero w”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.