Popular ESP32 boards
The dev boards people actually buy and build with, as opposed to the bare modules they're based on. Specs, prices and the gotchas that bite, with a link to the SoC each one runs.
Board specs and prices are community/vendor-sourced and move around; confirm before ordering.
New to the "Cheap Yellow Display"? Read the CYD family guide →
Display boards
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ESP32 Cheap Yellow Display (CYD) The cheapest way to get an ESP32 with a colour touchscreen on one board. A huge community has grown around it for smart-home panels, dashboards and retro UIs. -
LilyGo T-Display-S3 Bright 1.9" wide IPS in a slim board with native USB-S3 and generous PSRAM/flash; popular for tickers, gauges and handheld UIs. -
Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.28 (round) A round 1.28" touch display with a 6-axis IMU on one ESP32-S3 board, the easy path to smartwatch, compass and circular-gauge projects.
Tiny / minimal
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ESP32-C3 SuperMini Dirt-cheap, thumbnail-sized RISC-V board with USB-C and BLE 5, ideal for sensors, beacons and one-off projects. The 0.42" OLED variant was the top affiliate seller. -
Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 (& Sense) The smallest practical ESP32-S3 board (21 x 17.5 mm) with LiPo charging. The 'Sense' add-on (OV2640/OV3660 camera plus mic plus microSD) makes it a go-to for TinyML and on-device vision/audio. -
LOLIN (Wemos) D1 Mini The cheapest, smallest way onto Wi-Fi: a thumb-sized ESP8266 with a big shield ecosystem (battery, relay, OLED, DHT). For many people it was the first ESP board they ever flashed. -
Seeed XIAO ESP32-C6 A thumbnail board that brings Wi-Fi 6 plus Thread, Zigbee and Matter to the popular XIAO footprint: the easy on-ramp to Matter-over-Thread smart-home work, with both an onboard and a u.FL antenna. -
LOLIN (Wemos) S2 Mini About the cheapest way to get native USB on an ESP32-class chip: a tiny S2 board with USB-C, plenty of GPIO and 2MB PSRAM. A favourite for USB-HID gadgets and CircuitPython.
Camera
ESP32-CAM (AI-Thinker) LoRa / mesh
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Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 (V3) The default node for Meshtastic / MeshCore / LoRaWAN: ESP32-S3 plus a Semtech SX1262, a small OLED and LiPo charging, for off-grid mesh messaging and long-range telemetry. -
LilyGo T-Beam (LoRa + GPS) The go-to Meshtastic node: ESP32 plus LoRa, GPS and an 18650 holder on one board, so you can build an off-grid mesh-comms device without wiring radios yourself.
Finished gadgets
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M5StickC PLUS2 A pocketable, battery-powered ESP32 gadget in a finished case with screen, buttons, IMU, mic, IR and buzzer built in. Big in the M5Stack Grove/HAT ecosystem and in security-research firmware. -
M5Stack Cardputer A pocket computer with a full 56-key QWERTY keyboard and a colour screen, built on the ESP32-S3 (StampS3). Popular for badge and hacking projects, retro UIs, handheld LLM clients and as a ready-made gadget.
Dev kits
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ESP32 DevKitC / NodeMCU-32S The default 'just give me an ESP32 on a breadboard' board, and what most tutorials assume. All usable GPIO on 0.1" headers, onboard USB-UART and EN/BOOT buttons. -
NodeMCU ESP8266 (ESP-12E) The classic ESP8266 dev board: breadboard-friendly headers, onboard USB-serial and a huge body of beginner tutorials. For years it was the default 'ESP' board before the ESP32 arrived.
LilyGo T5 4.7" E-Paper (ESP32-S3)