Raspberry Pi’s SD card boot support was exemplary when it first arrived, and made it possible to load an operating system on it. Even after a decade, Raspberry Pi boards continue to support SD cards, despite introducing new connectivity options like USB and NVMe boot. SD cards remain the first preference of any new SBC user, even on other non-Raspberry Pi boards. But I think you're leaving a lot on the table if you are still booting your Raspberry Pi from an SD card.
Many better and reliable boot alternatives are available, which can significantly improve the OS performance on your single-board computer. You also eliminate other problems, such as abruptly losing data due to corruption and system downtime. I used to be a firm believer in the power of an SD card, but here are a few reasons that made me look elsewhere.
Slow speeds won’t cut it anymore
Faster options are available
I'm generally not fixated on speeding up boot time, as most Raspberry Pi operating systems load fine, faster than I expect. However, I dislike it when the Pi's SD card struggles during extensive write operations. Even the best A2 SD card will not exceed the 100 MB/s mark, regardless of its premium status. The SD card slot’s design isn’t optimized for blazing-fast speed, so I switched to a more reliable option: a USB SATA SSD.
The Pi 4B and 5 have multiple USB 3.0 ports, and you can easily achieve speeds beyond 100 MB/s with them. The NVMe enclosure SSD is even better with a USB 3.0 port. I would strongly recommend the M.2 NVMe SSDs to every Raspberry Pi user, but not everyone has the Raspberry Pi 5, which features a PCIe slot that takes advantage of an NVMe drive.
An NVMe Gen-2 SSD read-write speeds cross the 300 MB/s mark without a problem on the Pi 5, and you can tweak the BIOS to unlock Gen-3 speed as well. After that, the SSD exhibits almost double the performance of the Pi.
So, unless you have a model packing a USB 2.0 port, there's no reason to stick with the SD card. Add a USB SSD and make it the default boot drive after installing Raspberry Pi OS on it. You'll immediately notice improved read and write speeds, as well as fewer failures, even with demanding self-hosted services like Home Assistant or Jellyfin media server.
Prone to failure
Why risk losing your data?
SD cards aren't meant for excessive write operations and are more susceptible to corruption and failure. When that happens, you're stranded with a broken system needing storage replacement. Unless you maintain some kind of OS backup, all the data will become inaccessible.
High-endurance cards will withstand excessive write operations, and you can extend their lifespan further by using log2ram. However, they still cannot match the longevity of an HDD or SSD. These storage options have earned my trust over the last fifteen years and seldom break.
My laptop’s 2.5-inch SATA HDD survived 13 years of heavy downloads and countless OS and software experiments before becoming non-operational. I don't trust any SD cards much and have had a few breakdowns. Even USB drives, especially cheap ones, aren't reliable for running an SBC operating system and providing self-hosted services like Home Assistant.
SD cards aren't cheap anymore
The good ones are horribly pricey
If you had asked me a few years ago what to buy for an SBC, I wouldn't have said anything except the SD card to boot the OS. Those were the times when external storage, especially SSDs, cost a lot compared to a 128 GB SD card. However, that has drastically changed over time.
If you pick a 128GB SD card, it'll cost more than $20 (especially the official one). Interestingly, you can get a 240GB SSD from any e-commerce site for under $30. That's twice the storage space and speed for almost the same price. For Raspberry Pi 5 users, picking an M.2 SSD with similar storage specifications will cost under $40. Even the official 256GB Pi 5 SSD kit retails for $50.
The atrocious pricing of the official Pi A2 SD card and limited availability make it difficult to pick over USB or PCIe SSDs. Both offer far better bang for the buck than SD cards.
Limited options and unavailability
It’s a struggle
Big-capacity A2 SD cards are difficult to find. You won't find the official Raspberry Pi 128 GB SD card that easily compared to the SSD kit for the Pi 5. It's understandable because Pi will improve the PCIe performance with each generation and focus on native SSD slots rather than building high-performance SD cards.
It's fairly easy to get a 128GB, 240GB, or larger SSD rather than an SD card of the same size. Official ones aren't readily available, and that's a problem for even those who want to stick to SD cards.
There's a limited future market for high-endurance official Pi SD cards because NVMe SSDs are becoming mainstream. Almost every SBC brand offers PCIe Gen-2 or 3 support and an eMMC slot. The role of SD cards won't vanish, especially in low-end SBCs like the Pi Zero 2W. However, I don’t see the SD card as a future-proof storage option, and the slot will become less desirable over time.
Switch to USB or PCIe storage
SD cards remain popular because you can get a $5 32 GB SD card and load and boot a Pi OS on it. But will it stand the constant pressure of many projects you want to run? No. Cheap SD cards are affordable for a reason, and your best bet is a USB HDD or SSD, or even an NVMe SSD, if you have the Raspberry Pi 5. Focus on building a reliable Pi system with storage that can withstand the demands of incessant data logging and multi-user access without breaking a sweat.