True. Like rickyc091 pointed out, pis lying around and programming language would be a major plus for choosing it. An alternative for this problem would be https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/onion/omega2-5-iot-comp... Onion Omega 2 is more awesomer than esp8266( atleast according to the kickstarter video ).. $5 and runs linux out of the box, has wifi module built into it and has mods if we need them.. like pi zero.. I'll be getting mine in a week.. worth checking out..