Both devices are development boards, and as such many people tend to compare them and want to know which one is better. However, Raspberry Pi and Arduino are two very different platforms and they are not comparable, as they have been designed for different purposes. In this article we are going to tell you how Raspberry Pi vs Arduino are different and what each one is used for.
Raspberry Pi is a development board but it is actually a whole computer. It is powerful enough to perform basic, multimedia tasks, programming and compiling programs that run on it. For its part, Arduino is an open source creation platform based on free hardware and software that offers the Arduino IDE platform (integrated development environment), a programming system to create specific programs for Arduino boards.
Raspberry Pi vs Arduino, how are they different?
| Raspberry Pi 3 Model B | Raspberry Pi Zero | Raspberry Pi 2 Model B | Raspberry Pi Model B + | Raspberry Pi 4 | Arduino uno | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SoC | BCM2837 | BCM2835 | BCM2836 | BCM2835 | BCM2711 | ATmega328 |
| CPU | Quad Cortex A54 @ 1.2 GHz | ARM11 @ 1 GHz | Quad Cortex A7 @ 900 MHz | ARM11 @ 700 MHz | Quad Cortex-A72 @ 1.5 GHz | 16 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv8-A | ARMv6 | ARMv7-A | ARMv6 | ARMv8 | Arduino IDE |
| GPU | VideoCore IV 400 MHz | VideoCore IV 250 MHz | VideoCore IV 250 MHz | VideoCore IV 250 MHz | VideoCore VI | ATmega328 |
| RAM | 1 GB SDRAM | 512 MB SDRAM | 1 GB SDRAM | 512 MB SDRAM | 1GB, 2GB, 4GB (depending on model) | 2 KB |
| Storage | Micro SD | Micro SD | Micro SD | Micro SD | Micro SD | EEPROM 1 KB |
| Ethernet | 10/100 | No | 10/100 | 10/100 | 10/100/1000 | No |
| Wireless | 802.11n / Bluetooth 4.0 | No | No | No | 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, BLE | No |
| Video outputs | HDMI / Composite | HDMI / Composite | HDMI / Composite | HDMI / Composite | 2 × micro-HDMI | No |
| Audio outputs | HDMI / Headphones | HDMI | HDMI / Headphones | HDMI / Headphones | HDMI / Headphones | No |
In terms of hardware, as you can see, they have nothing to do. And is that the main difference between both development boards is that Arduino is only capable of running one program at a time (and is intended to run it over and over continuously), while with Raspberry Pi we can do almost the same as in a PC in terms of methodology. In essence Raspberry Pi is a mini PC while Arduino is a micro controller .
In the following table we are going to give you the fundamental differences of both platforms.
| Raspberry Pi | Arduino |
|---|---|
| It is a mini PC that can run multiple programs at the same time | It is a micro controller, part of a computer, that runs a single program over and over again. |
| It is difficult to run on battery power. | It is intended to run on battery power. |
| It requires complex tasks like installing libraries and software to interact with sensors and other components. | Its components and sensors work in an integrated way. |
| It is expensive in relation to Arduino. | It is cheap. |
| It connects easily to the Internet with its RJ-45 port or with WiFi via USB. | Requires external hardware to connect to the Internet and must be programmed using code to work. It is not intended to connect to the Internet. |
| It has no storage, but you can use its micro SD slot for it. | May come with integrated storage. |
| It has 4 USB ports to connect different devices. | It only has a female USB Type-B port to connect it to a PC. |
| It uses ARM processors. | It uses an AVR family processor. |
| We must turn it off properly so there is no risk of file corruption. | It is a plug and play device. |
| The recommended programming language is Python, but you can use C, C ++, and Ruby as well. | Just use Arduino and C / C ++. |
As you can see in the table the differences are more than evident, and it is that in fact they are not comparable because although aesthetically they seem to be similar components, they have little to do with each other. Going to the extreme, we could use a Raspberry Pi to program an Arduino board connecting one to the other through USB.
What are Raspberry Pi and Arduino used for?
The range of possibilities that a Raspberry Pi gives is enormous, especially compared to Arduino. It is all a mini PC, and just by putting an operating system in a micro SD we can use it, for example, as a multimedia station to play content on a TV, to program using a Linux distribution (Raspbian), as a file server, As a domain controller … the possibilities are immense.
For its part, with Arduino as we said we can only run individual programs. Many engineers use Arduino boards to program the actions of a robot automaton, to create a meteorological station, lighting management with motion sensors … the possibilities are also very wide, but as you can see they must be for a single purpose, and in all cases additional hardware is required .
As you can see, they are very different devices and are used for different purposes, so we can’t really compare each other or say which one is better because they are used for different things. In any case, we can say that Raspberry Pi will provide us with a much more versatile platform and with more possibilities than Arduino.
