Single-Board Computers are quite popular in the tinkering crowd thanks to their miniature designs, high versatility, and low power consumption. That said, the prices of SBCs have skyrocketed in recent times, with many high-end boards costing well above $100 – without taking any peripherals or accessories into account.

Thankfully, the era of affordable SBCs isn’t dead yet, as you can still find a handful of boards that offer the classic SBC experience without forcing you to empty your pockets. To help you out with your search, we’ve compiled a list containing five of the most affordable miniature boards money can buy.

5 Milk-V Duo S

Making RISC-V affordable, one board at a time

Compared to x86 and ARM processors, RISC-V CPUs are fairly new to the computing landscape and you’ll have a hard time finding systems powered by this architecture in the consumer market. Thankfully, Milk-V has released several inexpensive RISC-V devices, with the Duo S being one of the most impressive boards from the manufacturer.

For starters, this adorable board can host Pi-Hole, light Flask servers, and a couple of other low-processing projects without any issues. Heck, it even has a secondary ARM core wrapped inside its tiny chassis, allowing you to switch between the new RISC-V chip and an old-school ARM core at will!

4 Libre Computer La Frite

A decent eMMC-only SBC

Designed as the miniature and cost-effective version of Libre Computer’s Le Potato SBC, the La Frite board has a couple of things going for it. For starters, you get an ARM Cortex-A53 processor alongside a maximum of 1GB memory, which is more than enough for basic SBC projects. Libre Computer also offers a couple of operating system images for the board, which you can set up on an eMMC module.

That’s because you don’t get the conventional microSD card slot on the device, and will have to rely on the eMMC storage to run your favorite distro. Along with an Ethernet port, the La Frite includes an HDMI port, allowing you to use this affordable SBC without relying solely on an SSH connection.

3 Orange Pi Zero 3

Plenty of connectivity features, with no noticeable drawbacks

Orange Pi is often the biggest competitor to the Raspberry Pi family – and this rivalry extends to budget-friendly boards. The Zero 3 is Orange Pi’s current-gen affordable SBC, and it has enough differences to set itself apart from the Raspberry Pi Zero series.

Apart from the Cortex-A53 CPU, the Zero 3 supports up to 4 GB RAM and even ships with a microSD card slot. Despite its size, it also has a decent set of connectivity options, including a 1GbE port, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth support, a USB port, and even a micro-HDMI socket that supports 4K60FPS display output.

2 Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W

The golden standard of budget-friendly SBCs

Considering that the Raspberry Pi has been at the apex of the SBC industry for over a decade, it makes sense that the RPi Zero 2 W makes it to this list. That’s quite an achievement, considering that the second version of the Raspberry Pi Zero includes an ARM Cortex-A53 with a mere 512MB of RAM. Sure, it’s got wireless connectivity alongside a micro USB port, a micro-HDMI connection, and a CSI socket. However, it’s not as powerful as the Orange Pi Zero 3 or (as you’ll soon see) the Radxa Zero 3W/3E boards.

But just like every other Raspberry Pi SBC, the RPi Zero 2 W is blessed with extensive documentation and an ever-expanding list of projects. Although it’s severely lacking on the memory front, there’s a host of operating systems you can run on this miniature board. Combine it with a lightweight distro like DietPi, and you’ve got an affordable yet capable SBC on your hands.

1 Radxa Zero 3W/3E

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W killer

Radxa has been competing in the SBC race for years, and just like its rivals Raspberry Pi and Orange Pi, the company also has a Zero lineup designed for tinkerers on a budget. Equipped with killer hardware for the price, the Zero 3W and 3E are the latest entries in this series.

The Rockchip RK3566 SoC powering these SBCs houses a quad-core ARM Cortex‑A55 processor, and you can get up to 8GB of LPDDR4 memory, making it the best SBC on this list as far as internal specs are concerned. The connectivity options are just as great, with both the Zero 3W and 3E featuring a Type-C socket (with another one for charging), a micro-HDMI port, and a MIPI connector. However, the two boards differ when it comes to the network options, as the 3W provides wireless Bluetooth and Wi-Fi options, while the 3E ships with a PoE-compatible 1 Gigabit port.

• Radxa Zero 3W

  $36 at Amazon

• Radxa Zero 3E

  $27 at Amazon

Which inexpensive SBC is your favorite?

Those were some of the cheapest boards that can serve you well in lightweight workloads. Unfortunately, you’ll have to step out of the sub $50 price range if you wish to build complex projects involving more computational power. For ARM-powered boards, the Raspberry Pi 5 is the industry standard, though the Orange Pi 5 Ultra is the better option if you desire sheer firepower over all else.

Meanwhile, the Radxa X4 is hands-down the most cost-effective x86 SBC out there, and it’s powerful enough to run Windows 11. And although it’s technically not an SBC per se, the Milk-V Jupiter is the closest you’ll get to a semi-working RISC-V motherboard in the consumer space.