Best ESP32 Boards: Our Picks by Use Case
The boards we would buy again for each job, with a budget option, a step up, and what is wrong with each.
Not a ranking of every ESP32 board. We document 298 boards and have not used them all. These are the ones we have worked with, enjoyed, and recommend - your best board may well be one we have not tried.
Updated September 2026. Prices are typical and change often.
01Best tiny ESP32 boards
Wearables, enclosures and sensor nodes.
Thumb-sized, well documented, and every XIAO has a LiPo charger and low deep sleep.
Catch About 1.5-2x a Super Mini, and 14 pins run out fast.
02Best general-purpose ESP32 dev board
Breadboard prototyping and firmware work with every pin broken out.
Go for an ESP32-S3: native USB means no driver and usually no holding BOOT. If the firmware crashes or sleeps, the native port drops out - hold BOOT to recover, and enable "USB CDC On Boot" in Arduino.
Espressif's reference S3 board - what the ESP-IDF docs and examples are written against.
Catch Pricier and harder to find from trustworthy sellers.
03Best ESP32 boards with a touchscreen
Home Assistant panels, dashboards and LVGL projects.
A 4 inch 480 x 480 IPS touch panel in a finished wall-box case, on an S3 with 8 MB PSRAM, two mics, a speaker amp and battery management.
Catch No free GPIOs - the panel, audio and buses use every S3 pin, so the header only taps existing buses.
04Best ESP32 e-paper boards
Weather stations, calendars and labels that update now and then.
A 4.2 inch 400 x 300 panel on an S3 with 8 MB PSRAM, buttons and a rotary switch for about $27.
Catch Elecrow ships two panel controllers under one SKU - pick the matching driver revision, or you get a blank screen.
05Best ESP32 for Zigbee, Thread and Matter
Home Assistant, Zigbee2MQTT and Matter devices - you need a C6, H2 or C5.
Branded C6 with a u.FL connector for range, LiPo charger and 15 uA sleep.
Catch Only 14 pins.
06Best ESP32 for battery-powered sensors
Runs from a LiPo for months, waking only to send a reading.
Built-in LiPo charger and 15 uA deep sleep, with Zigbee/Thread as a bonus.
Catch Only 14 pins.
07Best ESP32 camera boards
Doorbells, time-lapses, streaming and on-device vision.
OV3660 camera and mic on an S3 with 8 MB PSRAM and USB-C.
Catch Draws about 3 mA asleep - not a battery camera.
08Best ESP32 with Ethernet
A reliable wired link for Home Assistant and ESPHome.
An ESP32-S3 with 8 MB PSRAM, W5500 Ethernet and USB-C for flashing, plus a header for an optional PoE module.
Catch The octal PSRAM takes several header pins, leaving 20 free I/O pins on the 40-pin header.
09Best ESP32 for LoRa and Meshtastic
Off-grid messaging, long-range sensors and Meshtastic nodes.
The V3 successor: SX1262 at up to 28 dBm, OLED, solar and GNSS connectors, same pinout.
Catch Sold with 2 MB or 8 MB PSRAM chips that use different pin maps - check which one you have.
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