As announced by [André] on Bluesky, next month the much loved Rpilocator.com website will cease displaying the stock status and pricing of Raspberry Pi computers from various online retailers.
One of the main reasons is that the indexing bot used by the site has been blocked by most shopping sites. It’s not clear whether this blocking is on purpose or just another consequence of website owners protecting themselves from the onslaught of obnoxious ‘AI’ scraping bots. But in any event, the effort of finding workarounds that may only work for a few days or weeks was becoming too much.
According to [André] there are still about 11,000 users of the site each month, which even when accounting for the human-bot ratio is still a sizable number of visitors who’ll now have to get their fix somewhere else. He also indicates that he receives numerous emails from presumably real people about the site to point out small issues they have noticed.
Although the site may still be back in the future, it’s also important to recognize how much the single-board computer landscape and raison d’être for this tracking site have shifted since the 2020s Chip Crisis days. Currently it’s less about finding where these boards are in stock, and more about taking the hits to one’s wallet as memory prices continue to spiral out of control. Making what were once fun, cheap little hobby boards into luxury items that cut into your rent-food-and-gas budget.
I feel like irrelevant is a bad term, but as one of their biggest supporters, their SBCs have become largely irrelevant to me. Nearly anything they do, there’s a better way to do it now. A lot of this comes from them driving up the price trying to do more.
a $35 sbc that keeps getting a little better every few years, cool. Obviously that’s not the world we live in. Proxmox is a better choice for me for all the server-y things. Mini pcs are the better (and often cheaper) choice for the standalone things. By the time you factor in the PSU and Case that comes with the mini pc and real HDMI ports, they’re almost always a better choice.
Yep. I was a huge Pi fan, had every single version from 1-4, including all the 0’s and A models. The Pi 4 was a tough pill to swallow, and I couldn’t stomach a Pi 5 especially since they got rid of hw decoding.
Pi prioritizing business over hobbyists during COVID was also an irritation.
Thats not to say I don’t like the results though. I did buy a Uconsole years back which was $230 including the CM4. Reasonable for the kit/CM4/ and the formfactor. Likewise I did also back the Cardputer Zero using the CM0 more recently. Outside of specialized kits making use of the Pi’s I don’t see myself buying a plain one anymore
The Pi shop usually has stock of everything (and sometimes on special offer too).
I think the DIY market is moving on.
If your requirement is purely compute then better and cheaper ways now exist.
If your into linking compute to hardware the PI is still probably the best bet due to the amount of support it has.
I wouldn’t as an example setup a pihole on a pi but I might use one with a shield for CAN.
This is also the curse as it’s become pretty standard in industrial applications so hobby are competing with companies where a few more $ means nothing when the saving over more traditional methods is huge.
Hardware costs have gone up and as far as I’m aware they are still being made in the UK but Sony(?) so competing on a purely manufacturing basis with the china clones is almost impossible.
I wish them luck and hope they can continue to find a way through these crazy times.
Facts Only
* Rpilocator.com will cease displaying stock status and pricing of Raspberry Pi computers next month.
* The indexing bot used by the website has been blocked by most shopping sites.
* There are approximately 11,000 users of the site each month.
* The author notes that finding workarounds for the blocking is becoming too difficult.
* Hardware costs have increased, leading to concerns about budget constraints regarding memory prices.
* Some SBCs, such as Uconsole and Cardputer Zero, were purchased by the author in the past.
* The author suggests Proxmox for server-related tasks and Mini PCs for standalone applications.
* The author notes that hardware costs have increased and manufacturing is largely handled outside the UK.
* The Raspberry Pi is still considered a viable choice for linking compute to hardware due to its support.
Executive Summary
Full Take
The narrative positions the traditional hobbyist market for SBCs as being structurally challenged by economic forces, shifting the focus from product availability to financial burden. The story reflects a tension between the idealized DIY ethos—where accessible hardware facilitates exploration—and the harsh reality of modern commercial pricing and industrial application demands. This dynamic suggests that technology development is increasingly constrained by macro-economic pressures rather than purely technical innovation.
The concern is not merely about a defunct tracking site, but about how perceived value evolves when cost dominates utility. The reflection on past dissatisfaction with hardware evolution (e.g., Pi 5 changes) and the comparison to industrial applications highlights a broader pattern: technologies that successfully transition from niche hobby status to commercial/industrial use face intense price pressure and obsolescence within the enthusiast space. This implies a systemic misalignment where the motivations driving hardware design (hobbyism, accessibility) diverge sharply from market forces (profit maximization, operational cost reduction).
The implicit assumption is that personal agency over technological choices diminishes when core components become luxury items. The final stance—that compute needs dictate the optimal platform rather than nostalgia or community preference—serves as a subtle commentary on cognitive sovereignty: prioritizing pragmatic solutions (cheaper compute) over entrenched, albeit beloved, platforms. The absence of specific data means we must question whether this perceived shift is purely economic or if it reflects a genuine structural evolution in how technology is valued and deployed across the spectrum of user groups.
Sentinel — Human
This analysis reflects a deeply personal reflection rather than objective reporting, strongly indicating human authorship driven by subjective experience.