There are different types of Arduino boards available in the market, but each board has unique features such as Arduino MEGA has the most number of pins, Lilypad is used for its wearable items. When you are in your early days, you don’t know much about it. There is a high possibility that you end up getting confused and buying the wrong board.
A guide about the Arduino board comparison would help you to select the right board without wasting your time looking here and there for other boards.
The best thing about Arduino is its community and its availability in the local market. You don’t have to wait so long, and you can buy different types of boards according to your needs and requirements.
Pro Tip: If you are a beginner I would highly recommend you to select the Arduino NANO and Arduino UNO because they are easy to use and user friendly.
Things to consider when buying an Arduino
Every board is unique in its own way and can be used according to your requirements such as it is recommended that Arduino MEGA would be used for 3d printers, Arduino UNO for beginners, and Lilypad for wearable items. It is important to ask questions to yourself before you make a purchase of any board that could save you from future mishap.
The questions that may come to our mind are as follows
- If the processor important to you
- If you are entering Arduino’s world-first time
- If the size of the board is important for your project
- If fewer pins are applicable or you required more pins than a normal keyboard
- If you want to use Arduino shields in your project
- If you have a limited budget
To answer these questions go through the following chart that will help you to get your desired board.
Arduino Comparison chart guide
| Board | Operating voltage | Input Voltage | Analog I/O | Digital I/O | Pin Header | USB | UART | IOT | Li-on battery | Shield support |
| UNO | 5V | 7-12V | 6/0 | 14/6 | Female | Type B | 1 | – | 2 CELL | Yes |
| NANO | 5V | 7-9V | 8/0 | 14/6 | Male | MINI | 1 | – | 2 CELL | – |
| MINI | 5V | 7-9V | 8/0 | 14/6 | Male | – | 1 | – | 2 CELL | – |
| PRO MINI | 3.3V/5V | 3.35/5-12v | 6/0 | 14/6 | Male | – | 1 | – | 2 CELL | – |
| MICRO | 5V | 7-12v | 12/0 | 20/7 | Male | Micro | 1 | – | 2 CELL | – |
| ZERO | 3.3V | 7-12v | 6/1 | 14/10 | Female | 2 Micro | 2 | – | 2 CELL | YES |
| MEGA | 5V | 7-12v | 16/0 | 54/15 | Female | Type B | 4 | – | 2 CELL | YES |
| DUE | 3.3V | 7-12v | 54/12 | Female | 2 Micro | 4 | – | 2 CELL | YES | |
| FIO | 3.3V | 3.7-7v | 14/6 | Male | Mini | 1 | – | 1 CELL | – | |
| GEMMA | 3.3V | 4-16v | 1/0 | 3/2 | – | Micro | 0 | – | 1 CELL | – |
| LEONARDO | 5V | 7-12v | 12/0 | 20/7 | Female | Micro | 1 | – | 2 CELL | YES |
| ETHERNET | 5V | 7-12 | 6/0 | 14/4 | Female | – | 0 | LAN | 2 CELL | YES |
| YUN | 5V | 5v | 12/0 | 20/7 | Female | Type A | 1 | LAN | 2 CELL | YES |
| UNO WIFI | 5V | 7-12v | 6/0 | 14/5 | Female | Type B | 1 | WIFI | 2 CELL | YES |
| 101 | 3.3V | 7-12v | 6/0 | 14/4 | Female | Type B | 0 | BT | 2 CELL | YES |
| LILYPAD | 2.7-5.5V | 2.7-5.57v | 6/0 | 14/6 | – | – | 0 | – | 1 CELL | – |
| LILYPAD USB | 3.3V | 3.8-5v | 4/0 | 9/4 | – | Micro | 0 | – | 1 CELL | – |
| LILYPAD SIMPLE | 2.7-5.5V | 2.7-5.5v | 4/0 | 9/4 | – | – | 0 | – | 1 CELL | – |
Entry-level Arduino boards
The two most prevalent and suggested Arduinos for beginners are the Arduino Uno and Arduino MEGA 2560. They both are quite famous in the Arduino community because of its simple architecture and easy to use.
There is a little difference as to why beginners prefer to have Arduino MEGA instead of Arduino UNO? To answer this question we have compared both of the boards technically.
Here I am telling you about some features of both Arduino boards that are why these boards are the best fit for the beginners.
Arduino Uno
An Arduino Uno is a fundamental Arduino board that numerous beginners use to start their journey. R3 is the amendment number of this Arduino which implies that it is the third edition of the board. In other words, changes were made to the initial Arduino Uno to progress it. There are some important features of Arduino UNO that are as follows
- Easy to use
- Replaceable microcontroller chip
- Inexpensive
Arduino MEGA 2560
An Arduino MEGA 2560 is essentially a greater Arduino Uno in terms of a number of pins or header associations, a measure of the board, and an estimate of the memory. All of the advantages of the Arduino Uno apply to the Arduino MEGA 2560, except for the price. Some advantages are as follows
- More input and output pins
- More analog pins
- More memory
- Use Arduino shields
Charts of comparing both boards
| Arduino UNO | Arduino Mega 2560 | |
| Price points | $19.99- $23.00 | $38.61-$39.01 |
| Dimensions | 2.7 in x 2.1 in | 4 in x 2.1 in |
| Processor | Atmega328P | ATMega2560 |
| Clock speed | 16MHZ | 16MHZ |
| Flash memory | 32 | 256 |
| EEPROM | 1 | 4 |
| SRAM | 2 | 8 |
| Voltage level | 5V | 5V |
| USB connectivity | Standard A/B USB | Standard A/B USB |
Advanced level Arduino board
In the projects that you’re seeking out a more capable processor with a bigger number of GPIO (General-purpose Input/output) compared to UNO. At that point the Arduino MEGA board is one of the foremost advanced choices. MEGA is the Arduino board profiting from ATMEGA 2560 microcontroller with 4-kilobyte EEPROM memory, 8-kilobyte SRAM, and 256-kilobyte streak.
With the most I/O pins among all the boards, the Arduino Mega may be an extraordinary choice for more progressed Arduino devotees. The Arduino Mega has 16 analog pins, basic for yielding analog signals. Furthermore, Arduino Mega advanced I/O pins may be as many as 50 or more.
Above all Arduino MEGA has the most memory and SRAM if you compare with other boards like NANO, Lilypad, Leonardo. I would recommend you to use this board in your advanced projects because you will have access to more pins.
Here is a chart that shows the properties of Arduino MEGA.
| MICROCONTROLLER | ATmega2560 |
| LENGTH | 101.52 mm |
| WIDTH | 53.3 mm |
| WEIGHT | 37 g |
| DIGITAL I/O PINS | 54 (of which 15 provide PWM output) |
| ANALOG INPUT PINS | 16 |
| DC CURRENT PER I/O PIN | 20 mA |
| DC CURRENT FOR 3.3V PIN | 50 mA |
| FLASH MEMORY | 256 KB of which 8 KB used by the bootloader |
| SRAM | 8 KB |
| EEPROM | 4 KB |
| CLOCK SPEED | 16 MHz |
| LED_BUILTIN | 13 |
| OPERATING VOLTAGE | 5V |
| INPUT VOLTAGE (RECOMMENDED) | 7-12V |
| INPUT VOLTAGE (LIMIT) | 6-20V |
Education boards
Arduino is the favorite gadgets learning and prototyping stage, much obliged to its ease-of-use, open source equipment, and program. Arduino has stamped its nearness in science, innovation, advancement, designing, chemistry, material science, arithmetic, consistent thinking, Internet of things (IOT), music, expressions, and imaginative expression science.
The board TME ARD EDU Unit REV1. The instructive pack may be a custom-made Arduino-based board designed by TME Instruction. Its reason is to form instructions that are simple and fun, so a client can learn microcontroller programming as quickly as possible.
TME ARD EDU Pack rev1. is our most adored instructive unit. It is additionally a favorite kit of the understudies within the schools you participate with. That’s why, at the time of an overhaul, you choose to base the update on the input we assembled.
Recommendations, needs, and concepts of shining youths who have gone to our workshops motivated us to include additional functionalities and components. TME ARD EDU Pack rev2. is the result of what is cruel by productive participation with inventive understudies!
TME ARD EDU KIT rev2. contains the same components as in the first edition:
- Arduino UNO
- Switches
- Potentiometer
- Temperature sensor
- Light sensor
- Buzzer
- Bluetooth module
- RGBs LEDs
- LEDs
- LCD display
Now some more elements added to this kit
- Programmable RGB LEDs
- OLED display
- Microphone
- 7-segment display
- IR receiver
The pack is spiced up with five addressable LEDs to educate how to program the most recent era of LEDs lattices. They include a few fun units with light movements of up to 16 million colors. Moreover, TME ARD EDU Pack rev2. is sent with my step-by-step online direction addresses outlined with cases and outlines from the Arduino IDE computer program.
IoT based Arduino boards
Arduino is an open-source equipment board that’s promptly accessible for specialists & students all over the globe to make projects. It comes with an ATMEGA microcontroller that forms the data and encourages the correct working of the IoT framework.
The Arduino Ethernet may be a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328. It has 14 computerized input/output pins, 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz gem oscillator, an RJ45 association, a control jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. NB: Pins 10, 11, 12, and 13 are saved for meddling with the Ethernet module and ought to not be utilized by something else.
This decreases the number of accessible pins to 9, with 4 accessible as PWM yields. A discretionary Control over the Ethernet module can be included on the board as well. The Ethernet varies from other sheets in that it does not have an onboard USB-to-serial driver chip, but features a Wiznet Ethernet interface. Usually, the same interface is found on the Ethernet shield.
| Microcontroller | ATmega328P |
| Operating Voltage | 5V |
| Input Voltage Plug (recommended) | 7-12V |
| Input Voltage Plug (limits) | 6-20V |
| Input Voltage PoE (limits) | 36-57V |
| Digital I/O Pins | 14 (of which 4 provide PWM output) |
| Arduino Pins reserved: | |
| 10 to 13 used for SPI | |
| 4 used for SD card | |
| 2 W5100 interrupt (when bridged) | |
| Analog Input Pins | 6 |
| DC Current per I/O Pin | 40 mA |
| DC Current for 3.3V Pin | 50 mA |
| Flash Memory | 32 KB (ATmega328P) of which 0.5 KB used by the bootloader |
| SRAM | 2 KB (ATmega328P) |
| EEPROM | 1 KB (ATmega328P) |
| Clock Speed | 16 MHz |
| W5100 TCP/IP Embedded Ethernet Controller | |
| Power Over Ethernet ready Magnetic Jack | |
| Micro SD card, with active voltage translators | |
| Length | 68.6 mm |
| Width | 53.3 mm |
| Weight | 28 gr |
Is it worth buying these Arduino boards?
On the off chance that you’ve got a project you simply need to do, that uses gadgets, an Arduino, or comparative microcontroller board can certainly be helpful and worth buying. There are some reasons why you should buy Arduino boards.
Reason #1
The UNO is by far the foremost well-known Arduino board out there. In case you’re just getting started, and you need to see a few case codes that’s out there, you’re getting to discover tons of it accessible for the Arduino UNO.
Reason #2
Most of the add-ons that you’ll discover for Arduino, called “shields”, are built to work with the Arduino UNO, and every other board that is linked to arduino.
Reason #3
For 99% of your needs, the Arduino UNO is planning to do precisely what you would like. The UNO has 20 isolated input and yield channels, called pins, and all of those channels can be utilized to study computerized “on-off” sort inputs.
Recommended Arduino starter kit
These Arduino boards are great for students and hobbyists, as well as for individuals who have exceptionally small or no encounters in gadgets and programming but are willing to memorize more. We have given all the data required to assist you to decide which Arduino starter pack is the most excellent for you, from cost, things included some pros and cons of the packs. Still, we are able not to select one as the leading Arduino starter unit as each unit is interesting in its own way. Here are some kits that are available and they are as follows
- The official Arduino starter kits
- Elegoo mega 2560 Project Ultimate Starter Kit
- Elegoo UNO project super starter kit
- Kuman for Arduino Project Complete Starter Kit
- Smraza ultimate starter kit
- Sun founder project super starter kit
- Geekcreit Mega 2560 The Most Complete Ultimate
- Geekcreit UNOR3 Basic Learning Starter Kit For Arduino
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Recommended Arduino boards
- Arduino Uno
Best Arduino for Beginners because of these reasons
- Inexpensive
- Easy to use
- Replaceable microcontroller chips
- Arduino Nano
Best Arduino for Breadboards and Portable Projects due to following reasons
- It has 22 input/output pins in total.
- 14 of these pins are digital pins.
- Arduino Nano has 8 analog pins.
- It has 6 PWM pins among the digital pins.
- It has a crystal oscillator of 16MHz.
- It has a reset button as well
- Arduino Mega
Best Arduino for Advanced Users
- Arduino boards are able to read inputs
- light on a sensor
- a finger on a button
- Activating a motor
- Turning on an LED
- Publishing something online.