There are Raspberry Pis spanning a broad spectrum of computational power. On the one hand, you have the Pi 5, which can pack enough power to go toe-to-toe with some mini PCs. On the other hand, you have the Pi Zero and the Pi Zero 2, which are extremely low-powered devices.
It is tempting to just buy the most powerful unit to “give yourself flexibility,” but it often isn’t necessary. There are three big reasons why I buy Raspberry Pi Zeros instead of the more capable units.
The Pi Zero is tiny
Smaller is sometimes better
None of the Raspberry Pi devices are large devices, but the Pi Zero is famously small. It isn’t much larger than a stick of gum, or if you stick a case on it, a pack of gum.
Most of the time whenI’m using a Pi Zero, I want it because it is compact and low-power.
In the past, I’ve used Pi Zeros for outdoor projects like a smart thermometer setup. The Pi Zero was literally a perfect fit precisely because it was so small—I didn’t need to worry too much about whether it’d fit in the enclosure or not.
I’m currently using a few Raspberry Pi Zeros to provide fallback services in case my main self-hosting machine goes down. Since they’re so small, I can leave them plugged in and powered on near my router all the time without worrying about them taking up a huge amount of space. If I really wanted to, I could easily hide them on the inside trim of a faced cabinet so they’d literally never be visible.
Besides the basic size, the Pi Zero also doesn’t include a presoldered GPIO header by default either, which the Pi 4 and Pi 5 do. If you need something extremely thin, that is a huge difference.
You could buy the Pi 5 Computer module, which doesn’t have the header, but has a larger footprint.
If you need something more powerful than a Pico (or other microcontroller), but you need to be able to conceal it or fit it into a small space, the Pi Zero is a great option.
It consumes almost no power
I can leave it running during a power outage
The Raspberry Pi Zero, and its successor, the Pi Zero 2, aren’t powerful machines, even by the standards of Raspberry Pis. However, the tradeoff is power consumption.
Even under heavy load, the Pi Zero only consumes X watts, and most of the time it’ll use much less than that.
It makes the Pi Zero and the PI Zero 2 much better suited for jobs where you need to run the Pi Zero exclusively off a battery, or off a battery and a solar panel. I’ve had good luck using a Pi Zero as the brain for an outdoor smart hygrometer and thermometer setup precisely for that reason.
These days, my Pi Zeros form a critical part of my self-hosted setup. I run WireVPN and Joplin, among other things, on Raspberry Pi Zeros attached to a large battery backup that also powers my router and modem. That ensures that my essential services remain online and active even during a power outage. As often as not, that also means that I’ll be able to VPN into my home network for outside as long as the ISP isn’t also experiencing an outage.
The cost-to-benefit ratio for low-power applications
Cheap doesn’t mean useless
Largely thanks to the NAND crisis, the cost of the top-shelf Raspberry Pi 5 is well more than $200 now.
By comparison, the Pi Zero 2 costs a much more modest $15 to $20, depending on exactly what you get.
While the Pi Zero 2 doesn’t have nearly the same capabilities, sometimes they’re not necessary.
My backup services—Joplin, WireGuard, Glance, and a few other—are extremely lightweight and don’t require a $200 Raspberry Pi to run. They do just fine on a Pi Zero or a Pi Zero 2.
Similarly, many DIY embedded projects, like a thermometer or thermostat, a small, slightly-intelligent robot, and countless other projects, don’t really require top-shelf components. It would be like buying an RTX 5090 just to play Skyrim—an egregious waste of money.
I use Pi Zeros very liberally precisely because they’re inexpensive enough that I can buy a couple without breaking the bank, and I don’t worry excessively if I use one for a project that exposes it to conditions (like rain or snow) that could damage it.
Buy the right equipment for the job
Of course, there are plenty of things that the Pi Zero or the Pi Zero 2 aren’t suited for. You can’t host servers that require fast data transfer rates or run anything that requires a powerful GPU.
In those situations, you should check out the Pi 4, Pi 5, or even a miniPC.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
