Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Zephyr VS FreeRTOS

Compare Zephyr VS FreeRTOS and see what are their differences

Zephyr logo Zephyr

Zephyr is a small real-time operating system for connected, resource-constrained devices supporting...

FreeRTOS logo FreeRTOS

Cross Platform Real Time Operating System (RTOS)
  • Zephyr Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-03
  • FreeRTOS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-21

Zephyr features and specs

  • Scalability
    Zephyr is designed to be scalable and can support applications from small embedded devices to larger systems with resource constraints.
  • Modularity
    The kernel is highly modular, allowing developers to include only the components needed for their specific application, which helps in optimizing resource usage.
  • Support for Multiple Architectures
    Zephyr supports a wide range of hardware architectures, including x86, ARM, RISC-V, and others, making it versatile for different hardware platforms.
  • Real-time Capabilities
    Zephyr has built-in real-time operating system (RTOS) capabilities, which are crucial for time-sensitive applications and can meet stringent timing requirements.
  • Security Features
    Zephyr includes multiple layers of security, such as memory protection, kernel object permission, and stack overflow protection, to help secure embedded applications.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    Backed by the Linux Foundation, Zephyr has a strong community and ecosystem, which means robust support, extensive documentation, and continuous development.
  • Open Source
    Zephyr's open-source nature enables transparency, community contributions, and the ability for organizations to customize the OS to their specific needs.

Possible disadvantages of Zephyr

  • Complexity
    Due to its modular and scalable nature, Zephyr can be complex to set up and configure, especially for beginners who may find the learning curve steep.
  • Limited Middleware
    While Zephyr supports a variety of hardware, its middleware offerings may not be as extensive or mature as those provided by more established OSes like FreeRTOS.
  • Documentation Gaps
    Although the community is active, there are areas where documentation could be more comprehensive and detailed, which can hinder quick adoption and troubleshooting.
  • Resource Intensive
    Given its wide range of features and capabilities, Zephyr can sometimes be more resource-intensive compared to more minimalist RTOS options, which might be a concern for extremely resource-constrained environments.
  • Vendor Lock-in Risk
    While Zephyr aims to be vendor-neutral, there can be dependencies on certain hardware platforms or vendors, which might lead to a form of vendor lock-in.

FreeRTOS features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Zephyr videos

Zephyr - Rework Review & Build

More videos:

  • Review - Warframe Reviews - Zephyr
  • Review - NIKI - Zephyr ALBUM REVIEW

FreeRTOS videos

What is Amazon FreeRTOS?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Zephyr and FreeRTOS)
Software Testing
84 84%
16% 16
QA
80 80%
20% 20
Project Management
62 62%
38% 38
Website Testing
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Zephyr and FreeRTOS. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Zephyr should be more popular than FreeRTOS. It has been mentiond 11 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Zephyr mentions (11)

  • A Web based Broadcast Assistant
    Combining the Zephyr RTOS stack, running on an affordable nRF52840 Dongle with the power of modern web technologies turned out quite well and it has also allowed us to experiment with multiple subgroups, supported by the specs, but not yet by many devices in the market (at the time of writing at least - be sure to keep an eye out for that!). - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Auracast and multiple subgroups
    Also, it's really great to see that the RFcreations mini-moreph and blueSpy software was able to capture and render this slightly more advanced source and that it was possible to build using Zephyr RTOS and the nRF52840 Dongle. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • A simple Broadcast Audio Source
    The Zephyr RTOS contains some great Bluetooth LE Audio related samples. One of them is the Basic Audio Profile (BAP) Broadcast Source sample. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Capturing the perfect (radio) wave
    I thought about what would be a good first capture, and remembered, I recently made a very simple Bluetooth Low Energy demo using Zephyr and Web, covered in an earlier post. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • It's 2023 why embedded development is so cumbersome?(rant)
    Check out Zephyr OS and Platform IO. Zephyr is part of the Linux foundation and has similarities to Linux with how it performs hardware abstraction (device tree). Platform IO integrates with other frameworks including mbed and Arduino. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

FreeRTOS mentions (3)

  • Debugging FreeRTOS with QEMU in VSCode
    In this post, I will step through an example setup that shows how to debug a FreeRTOS application in the Visual Studio Code (VSCode) editor using QEMU to emulate an Arm Cortex-M3 microcontroller. No actual hardware is required for this example, except a laptop or desktop as your development environment. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • When wouldn’t you use Python?
    Https://freertos.org/ for example is a popular OS, that has realtime capabilities and fits in 9KB of RAM. https://micropython.org is basically a µC OS too, understands Python 3 Syntax and works with 16KB of RAM already. It might appear more convoluted at first, but you can get it to be real-time too by following the same principles as in any RTOS (react to stuff by means of ISR, allocate memory only initially and... Source: over 2 years ago
  • Looking for Resources to build a RTOS
    Just mentioning but, you can port FreeRTOS to your MCU and compiler and you are done. All thats left is tell the RTOS what to do. Ofc there is alot to learn about rtos. FreeRTOS. Source: about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Zephyr and FreeRTOS, you can also consider the following products

TestRail - TestRail provides comprehensive test case management for software testing. Organize your testing, boost productivity, get real-time insights, and track progress toward milestones. Integrates with leading issue tracking and test automation tools.

NuttX - NuttX is a real-time operating system (RTOS) with an emphasis on standards compliance and small...

Sauce Labs - Test mobile or web apps instantly across 700+ browser/OS/device platform combinations - without infrastructure setup.

embOs - embedded Operating System (embOS), is a Real-time operating system, developed by the Company SEGGER Microcontroller. It's designed to be used as a foundation for the development of embedded real-time applications for a wide range of µc.

TestComplete - TestComplete Desktop, Web, and Mobile helps you create repeatable and accurate automated tests across multiple devices, platforms, and environments easily and quickly.

BrowserStack - BrowserStack is a software testing platform for developers to comprehensively test websites and mobile applications for quality.

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