Essential hardware, components, and platforms for building connected systems—from beginner projects to industrial deployments.
The brain of your IoT system. These microcontroller boards handle sensors, connectivity, and logic.
The go-to board for most IoT projects. Built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, low power consumption, Arduino-compatible, and incredibly affordable.
Best For: Smart home devices, sensor networks, WiFi-enabled projects
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹299), ThinkRobotics (₹349), Amazon India (₹399)
The next-generation ESP32 with WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and RISC-V architecture. Better performance, lower power, and future-proof connectivity.
Best For: Battery-powered devices, Matter smart home, mesh networks, future-proof projects
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹649), ThinkRobotics (₹749), Amazon India (₹799)
The classic learning board. Simple, reliable, and supported by thousands of tutorials. Perfect for understanding sensor basics before adding connectivity.
Best For: Learning electronics, sensor prototyping, classroom projects
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹549), Amazon India (₹650), Electroncomponents (₹599)
Modern microcontroller with built-in WiFi. More powerful than Arduino, cheaper than full Raspberry Pi. Great for Python developers entering IoT.
Best For: Python developers, data logging, multi-sensor systems
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹649), ThinkRobotics (₹699), Rarecomponents (₹750)
The most affordable WiFi-enabled board. Older than ESP32 but still excellent for simple connected projects.
Best For: Budget WiFi projects, home automation, learning IoT connectivity
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹199), Amazon India (₹249), Electroncomponents (₹299)
A full Linux computer for edge computing. Run databases, web servers, computer vision, and AI at the edge.
Best For: Edge gateways, computer vision, local data processing, AI inference
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹5,499 for 2GB), Amazon India (₹6,200 for 4GB)
Professional-grade IoT board with built-in cloud connectivity, OTA updates, and cellular options. Built for products, not just prototypes.
Best For: Commercial IoT products, fleet management, remote monitoring
Indian Vendors: Import from Particle.io, Mouser Electronics ships to India
The eyes, ears, and hands of your IoT system. Sensors collect data from the physical world; actuators change it.
The most popular environmental sensor. Reliable, cheap, and simple to use. Perfect first sensor.
Use Cases: Weather stations, greenhouse monitoring, home automation
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹199), Amazon India (₹249)
Detects CO2, ammonia, benzene, smoke, and other air pollutants. Crucial for Indian cities with air quality issues.
Use Cases: Delhi/Mumbai air quality monitors, industrial safety, ventilation control
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹149), Electroncomponents (₹179)
Measures soil water content without corrosion. Essential for precision farming and irrigation automation.
Use Cases: Smart irrigation, greenhouse farming, agricultural research
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹249), ThinkRobotics (₹299)
Detects human motion via infrared. Ultra-cheap, ultra-reliable. The heart of smart security systems.
Use Cases: Security systems, automatic lighting, occupancy detection
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹99), Amazon India (₹149)
Measures distance using ultrasonic pulses. Perfect for parking sensors, tank level monitoring, and obstacle detection.
Use Cases: Water tank monitoring, parking assistance, waste bin fill detection
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹89), Amazon India (₹129)
Add precise location tracking to your IoT device. Essential for vehicle tracking, asset monitoring, and outdoor deployments.
Use Cases: Fleet tracking, delivery monitoring, agricultural equipment tracking
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹449), ThinkRobotics (₹549)
Measure AC/DC current without breaking the circuit. Monitor power consumption, detect equipment failures, prevent overload.
Use Cases: Energy monitoring, predictive maintenance, solar panel monitoring
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹199), Electroncomponents (₹249)
Control high-voltage AC appliances with low-voltage microcontrollers. Turn lights, motors, pumps on/off remotely.
Use Cases: Home automation, irrigation control, industrial equipment switching
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹249), Amazon India (₹299)
How your devices talk to each other and the cloud. Choose based on range, power, bandwidth, and cost requirements.
Long-range communication up to 10km in open areas. Perfect for rural deployments, agriculture, and city-wide sensor networks.
Use Cases: Smart agriculture, rural IoT, city-wide air quality networks
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹549), ThinkRobotics (₹649)
Cheap wireless communication for sensor networks within buildings. Create mesh networks of sensors without WiFi.
Use Cases: Wireless sensor networks, remote controls, home automation
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹129), Amazon India (₹179)
Connect anywhere with cellular coverage. Send SMS alerts, make HTTP requests over 2G. Perfect for remote monitoring.
Use Cases: Remote locations without WiFi, SMS alerts, vehicle tracking
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹449), Amazon India (₹599), Note: Use Airtel/Vodafone SIM
Industrial-grade mesh networking. Self-healing networks with hundreds of nodes. Used in smart homes and factories.
Use Cases: Smart factories, building automation, large sensor deployments
Indian Vendors: Import from Digi.com, Mouser ships to India
Classic Bluetooth for phone-to-device communication. Great for configuration, debugging, and short-range control.
Use Cases: Phone-controlled devices, wireless debugging, proximity sensors
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹249), Amazon India (₹299)
Wired network connectivity for industrial reliability. No WiFi interference, secure, and always-on connectivity.
Use Cases: Industrial automation, critical infrastructure, factory IoT
Indian Vendors: Robu.in (₹549), ThinkRobotics (₹649)
Where your data lives and gets analyzed. From free hobbyist platforms to enterprise-grade infrastructure.
The easiest way to get started. Send sensor data via HTTP, visualize instantly, run analytics with MATLAB.
3 million messages/year, 4 channels, public or private
Simple HTTP GET/POST to log data, retrieve with JSON
Real-time charts, graphs, gauges built-in
Run MATLAB scripts on your data automatically
Best For: Beginners, student projects, prototyping, sensor data logging
URL: thingspeak.com
Build professional mobile apps for your IoT devices without coding. Drag-and-drop interface builder.
1 device, basic widgets, mobile + web dashboard
iOS & Android apps with custom UI (buttons, sliders, charts)
Push notifications, email alerts, webhooks
Arduino, ESP32, Python, Node.js libraries
Best For: Smart home projects, mobile-controlled devices, consumer IoT prototypes
URL: blynk.io
Industrial-grade IoT platform. Handle billions of messages, integrate with AWS services (Lambda, S3, DynamoDB).
C, Python, Java, JavaScript libraries with MQTT
Virtual device state even when offline
Route messages to databases, analytics, ML models
X.509 certificates, IAM policies, encryption
Pricing: Free tier: 250,000 messages/month for 12 months, then $1/million messages
Best For: Production deployments, scalable systems, enterprise IoT
URL: aws.amazon.com/iot-core
Microsoft's IoT platform. Excellent integration with Azure services, Power BI, and Microsoft 365.
Send commands to devices, receive telemetry
Store device metadata, sync state
Azure IoT Edge for local processing
Stream Analytics, Time Series Insights
Pricing: Free tier: 8,000 messages/day, then from $10/month for 400,000 messages/day
Best For: Enterprise Windows/Microsoft ecosystems, hybrid cloud-edge deployments
URL: azure.microsoft.com/en-in/products/iot-hub
By makers, for makers. Simple, well-documented, and perfect for learning IoT cloud connectivity.
10 feeds, 30 data points/min, 30 days storage
Drag-and-drop blocks (charts, gauges, toggles)
Arduino, Python, CircuitPython official support
Triggers, webhooks, IFTTT integration
Best For: Hobbyists, learning MQTT, quick prototypes, classroom projects
URL: io.adafruit.com
Note: Google Cloud IoT Core is being retired (August 2023). Google recommends migrating to third-party solutions or using Google Cloud Pub/Sub directly.
Use Google Cloud Pub/Sub for messaging
Google recommends ClearBlade, Litmus, Losant
Recommendation: Use AWS IoT Core or Azure IoT Hub instead for new projects
Start with the Smart Temperature Monitor project using an ESP32 and DHT22 sensor. Total cost: under ₹1,000.
Read IoT Fundamentals to understand architecture, protocols, and design principles.
Try the design exercises in Activities—learn to make protocol decisions and architecture tradeoffs.
Connect with Indian IoT makers on Hackster.io, Arduino Forums, and local maker spaces.