MicroSD cards aren’t the best choice for Raspberry Pi projects anymore… but I still can’t let them go

Most Single-Board Computers ship without built-in storage — no SSDs, no eMMC modules, nothing. So it’s up to you to figure out what kind of storage your little DIY sidekick needs. And because modern maker boards usually depend on microSD cards for everything — from holding the operating system to storing project files — these tiny chips have become a huge part of the SBC world.

But as SBC hardware gets stronger every year, microSD cards just can’t keep up. Even the high-end ones start slowing things down, turning a powerful Raspberry Pi into something that feels held back. And here’s the funny part: I fully understand that microSD cards aren’t ideal for serious projects… yet I keep reaching for them anyway. Something about their simplicity, their low cost, and the habit of using them for years makes it strangely hard to switch to anything better.

Honestly, I know I should move on — but there’s a part of me that still loves popping in a microSD card and watching a new idea come to life.

MicroSD cards wear out faster than you’d expect

Imagine spending days or even weeks building something special with your Raspberry Pi. The very last thing you want is for a tiny storage card to suddenly fail and wipe away all that effort. While microSD cards are perfectly fine for light tinkering, any project that constantly writes data to storage – like the heavy logging done by Home Assistant – slowly eats away at their lifespan. These cards can only handle a limited number of writes before they give up, and compared to SSDs, that limit is pretty low. So if you rely on a microSD card for bigger, more complex projects, you're basically taking a risk without even meaning to.

I’ve been using the Raspberry Pi 5 since it launched in 2023, and honestly, I’ve already lost at least four microSD cards along the way – and these weren’t the cheap bargain-bin ones. I used my Pi 5 for everything: Home Assistant setups, tiny file servers, even quick-and-dirty network video recorders. All of those projects constantly wrote data to the card, and eventually, the cards just… gave out. It’s frustrating watching your hard work vanish in a blink. Yes, there are tools like Log2Ram that can ease some of the stress caused by nonstop logging, but if you’re planning something demanding, switching to an SSD (or even an HDD) is the safer, heartbreak-free path. It can save you from the miserable moment when your microSD card dies and you’re forced to rebuild everything from scratch.

Their transfer speeds and storage capacity are far from ideal

Especially for intensive projects

As if the low write endurance of microSD cards wasn’t already disappointing, their transfer speeds just add another layer of frustration. Unless you splurge on the high-end models, most microSD cards are noticeably slower than regular hard drives—and way slower than SSDs. A casual hobbyist might not mind that, but if you’re working on something where every millisecond counts, using an SD card can feel like you’re dragging your project through mud.

I’ve personally watched a Raspberry Pi desktop crawl like it was stuck in slow motion on a microSD card… then suddenly spring to life the moment I swapped in an SSD. It was like watching someone wake up after finally getting a full night of sleep. The difference is that dramatic.

And then there’s storage. Most budget microSD cards live between 8GB and 128GB. Yes, you can find 1TB versions, but the price tag stings—and honestly, for what you’d pay, you could get a much faster SSD with far better durability. It’s hard to justify paying more for less.

But microSD cards are pretty cheap

Makes them a solid option for building projects on a budget

Unless you jump straight to the premium lineup, your average microSD card is surprisingly affordable. You can grab two or three of them for under $25 without even trying. When I first fell down the Raspberry Pi rabbit hole with my tiny RPi Zero, I didn’t have extra cash for fancy SSDs. Those little 8GB and 16GB microSD cards were like loyal sidekicks—they weren’t fast, they weren’t impressive, but they got me started.

If you’re working with limited money but still want to explore computing and DIY projects, cheap microSD cards paired with low-end Pi models are a perfect entry point. For light experiments where you’re not worried about the long-term health of the storage, microSD cards basically turn into disposable boot drives. And if you want a bit more durability without caring about high speed, some high-endurance cards actually cost less than SSDs—making them a surprisingly decent option.

Their easy-to-swap nature is honestly a lifesaver

No stressing over partitions on one single drive

Mix the low price of microSD cards with how effortlessly the Raspberry Pi lets you swap them, and it’s hard for me to imagine giving them up. Every time I think about it, I feel this tiny spark of relief—like, “Thank goodness I don’t have to deal with that headache.”

For example, if I want to switch from Raspberry Pi OS to NixOS on an SSD, I basically have two choices: juggle a bunch of partitions or wipe the whole drive clean and flash NixOS over everything. Neither option feels fun. It’s the kind of task that quietly drains your energy.

But with a handful of microSD cards? Life suddenly feels simple again. I just flash NixOS onto a spare card using my PC, pop out the old Raspberry Pi OS card, slip in the new one, and I’m off and running. No drama, no fear of messing up a perfectly good setup. Now imagine swapping NixOS with emulators, container platforms, media-server distros—you’d be babysitting partitions nonstop if all of that lived on one SSD.

Honestly, I bounce between SSDs and microSD cards depending on whatever I’m building at the moment. Before I moved my Home Assistant setup into Proxmox, I used SSDs exclusively for my Pi-powered smart home hub. Same story when I played around with MicroCloud—I trusted an SSD as the main drive while running LXCs and even a couple of VMs on that tiny board.

Other times, I mix things up. When I built a Raspberry-Pi NVR, I booted from a microSD card but used a hard drive for all the security footage. I did something similar when I installed OpenMediaVault. But when I’m diving into new distros just for the fun of it, I always go right back to my stack of microSD cards—and I never feel even a little guilty about it.