Summary

• Raspberry Pi Zero still has plenty of project potential for budget-conscious tinkerers.
• Projects like security cameras, web servers, time-lapse cameras, and retro gaming are feasible.
• Pi-Hole is hands-down the best project for the Raspberry Pi Zero.

The Raspberry Pi 5 may be the feature-packed board in the popular SBC family, but not everyone would want to spend $50 just for extra performance. For budget-conscious tinkerers, the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W presents a solid compromise between price and performance.

But what about the original Raspberry Pi Zero model? With its underpowered processor, lack of decent IO provisions, and low memory, it’s easily the weakest device in the Raspberry Pi lineup. As it turns out, there’s still a surprising number of projects you can build with this adorable little SBC.

5 Security camera

Though you'll have to deal with low-FPS when recording videos

If you have a spare webcam and a Raspberry Pi Zero, you can turn them into a surveillance system with the help of motionEyeOS. Unlike the Raspberry Pi 5, this budget-oriented SBC has a compatible motionEyeOS image that you can simply flash onto a microSD card instead of going through the hassle of running different commands to install it on top of the Raspberry Pi OS.

That said, the reason the RPi Zero lies at the bottom of the list is that you’ll undoubtedly run into performance issues if you try to use motion detection or other advanced features. But for a remote footage monitoring setup, you’ll be fine once you turn down the resolution of the video stream.

4 Lightweight web server

Quite useful when you're learning how to code

Self-hosted web servers are the perfect intermediate project for coding enthusiasts who want to get into web development. With the Raspberry Pi OS supporting different code editing tools, you’d be surprised at how well the Wi-Fi version of the RPi Zero can host basic web servers.

For newcomers, a Flask web server is a simple way to familiarize yourself with Python and the back-end aspects of hosting websites. Meanwhile, experienced coders skilled in HTML, PHP, and MariaDB can try their hand at hosting a more complex LAMP server on the Raspberry Pi Zero W.

3 Time-lapse camera

You can even use a cheap camera module for this project

Once you automate a camera to capture images of a subject at regular intervals, you can combine them to create a time-lapse gallery. Thankfully, neither of these tasks requires cutting-edge hardware, and with the Raspberry Pi Zero possessing a CSI camera connector, it’s possible to build a cheap time-lapse camera for well under $15.

Just be sure to handle the plastic clip on the CSI connector with care, as even the tiniest amount of force can cause it to break off and jeopardize the entire project.

2 Retro gaming machine

Perfect for GBA emulation

Although you shouldn’t expect the Raspberry Pi Zero to run PSP, Dreamcast, or other home consoles, old-school gaming systems featuring 2D titles are a different story. As long as you restrict the low-power board to the NES, Game Boy, and other dinosaur consoles, you won’t run into any performance issues when emulating your favorite titles using Retropie.

Plus, hardcore tinkering enthusiasts can fix 3D-printed cases and buttons to the Raspberry Pi Zero and turn this small board into a portable arcade gaming machine!

1 Pi-hole

Hands-down the best project for the Raspberry Pi Zero

A project that many Raspberry Pi Zero W lovers still use to this day, the weirdly named Pi-hole can block ads on all devices running on your home network. Operating as a sinkhole at the DNS level, a Pi-hole setup also lets you configure custom blocklists to prevent your devices from accidentally launching malicious websites.

As if that’s not enough, Pi-hole also lets you monitor the activity of the clients connected to your home network. Those are quite a lot of features for an open-source utility that’s arguably one of the easiest projects to build with your RPi Zero.

Resurrecting your Raspberry Pi Zero with fun projects

If you don’t mind putting up with the Raspberry Pi Zero’s performance limitations, you can also try your hand at a couple of other projects. For example, you can try setting up LibreElec on the SBC as long as you’re willing to overlook the SBC’s godawful transcoding performance. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty with soldering, you can attach some GPIO pins to the Raspberry Pi Zero and turn it into a DIY weather station. For those with a wired printer in their computing space, you can put your tinkering skills to the test by building a wireless print server with the RPi Zero.

• Raspberry Pi Zero W

  $16 $22 Save $6

  $16 at Amazon

• Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W

  $21 $25 Save $4

  $21 at Amazon $15 at Adafruit