Teensy
Hacker ApprovedRanked 10 of 28 microcontrollers by recommenders
Recommended for high processing power in a small, cheap board with plenty of I/O and polished development support. Critics object that it is closed hardware.
Recommended for high processing power in a small, cheap board with plenty of I/O and polished development support. Critics object that it is closed hardware.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not 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 carries the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 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
Strong processing power in small size
“if I wanted that I would just purchase it rather than the Freensy”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation” “Teensy 4 does currently fill a pretty unique niche in terms of processing power though.”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation” “I use Teensy because it's the screaming-est processor, and I use its computing power.”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Arduino Terms of Service and Privacy Policy update: setting the record straight” - Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Linux latency measurements and compositor tuning [KWin Wayland]”
- Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “The Death of Arduino?”
- Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “PSPi 6 – Raspberry Pi in a PSP”
Respected maker and polished products
“Imho it's a great product, and the owner, Paul Stoffregen, a great engineer and person from my experience using their products.”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation” “We all really should be supporting the Teensy guy.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “The Death of Arduino?” “Developers value Teensy's polish & consistency”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation” - Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “The Death of Arduino?”
- Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation”
Saves designing your own board
“I'd heavily recommend checking out the teensy. It removes the need for a raspi or computer.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Audio Reactive LED Strips Are Diabolically Hard” “It's faster than having to route your MCU, USB, debugger, etc. manually”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “NTSB report: Decryption of images from the Titan submersible camera [pdf] (2024)” Reliable with minimal software overhead
“worked just fine for my projects”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “The Death of Arduino?” “Less OS means less to go wrong.”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: I was reintroduced to computers: Raspberry Pi”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Closed, single-source hardware and software
“when a closed product or exclusive channel is used as leverage, the correct response is to remove the leverage”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation” “closed as I have no interest in promoting or teaching closed hardware and software”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation” “we don't want to trade one closed-single-source component for another.”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation” - Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation”
- Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation”
Called dated and old-fashioned
“The Teensy is so 2020 anyways.”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation” “Leave this old shit behind.”
Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “Open-source Teensy-compatible – what features do you want?”
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 |
| TeensyThis page | 21 | 7 | 75% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
34 of the 42 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“that thing packs so much into so little space”
“it has a high processor frequency for a rather cheap price”
“I love for reasons maybe unexplainable my Teensy2..”
“I'd heavily recommend checking out the teensy. It removes the need for a raspi or computer.”
“since it has so much IO, multiple UART, multiple I2C busses, sd card reading, etc...”
“The Teensy is so 2020 anyways.”
“Developers value Teensy's polish & consistency”
“I will never buy a Teensy, but I look forward to buying the Freensy.”
“closed as I have no interest in promoting or teaching closed hardware and software”
“Imho it's a great product, and the owner, Paul Stoffregen, a great engineer and person from my experience using their products.”
“Teensy is a great platform”
“It's the closest I can get to an FPGA within my skill set.”
“It supports the developer by preventing blatant ripoffs of the Teensy.”
“the reason why the teensy is so desirable is because of its raw power in such a neat package”
“if I wanted that I would just purchase it rather than the Freensy”
“These boards were an endless nightmare to work with.”
“Teensy 4 does currently fill a pretty unique niche in terms of processing power though.”
“which rely heavily on the DSP and processing power of the Teensy itself”
“the teensy 3.2 which many folks loved so much”
“we don't want to trade one closed-single-source component for another.”
“I would not buy something else if I needed these features.”
“when a closed product or exclusive channel is used as leverage, the correct response is to remove the leverage”
“Leave this old shit behind.”
“I'm a long time user of the Arduino IDE for third party boards such as the Teensy.”
“Less OS means less to go wrong.”
“a restrictive module that completely disables your ability to use SWD/JTAG on an otherwise excellent MCU”
“It's faster than having to route your MCU, USB, debugger, etc. manually”
“I use Teensy because it's the screaming-est processor, and I use its computing power.”
“worked just fine for my projects”
“Adafruit and PJRC (Teensy) are exemplars.”
“We all really should be supporting the Teensy guy.”
“Teensy 4.1 is a beast, also quite power efficient.”
“I do miss the older Teensy 3's and 2's.”
“That seems reasonable to me.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.