10 Surprisingly Powerful Projects You Can Run on a Raspberry Pi (2025–2026)

From smart home automation to self-hosted API backends, discover what the humble Raspberry Pi can really do as we head into 2026.

As we close out 2025 and look ahead to 2026, the Raspberry Pi continues to punch well above its weight class. What started as an educational tool has evolved into a legitimate platform for home servers, IoT hubs, development environments, and even production-grade API backends.

This guide explores ten practical projects that showcase the Pi's versatility heading into the new year—ranging from beginner-friendly setups to advanced configurations that rival cloud-hosted solutions.

1. Home Automation Hub with Home Assistant

Transform your Raspberry Pi into the brain of your smart home. Home Assistant is an open-source platform that integrates with over 2,000 devices and services—from smart lights and thermostats to security cameras and voice assistants.

What you'll need: A Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB+ RAM, a 32GB+ microSD card, and optionally a Zigbee or Z-Wave USB dongle for direct device control without relying on cloud services.

Home Assistant's lightweight architecture runs efficiently on ARM processors. The Pi's GPIO pins enable direct hardware integration, and the always-on nature of a Pi makes it ideal for automation that needs 24/7 availability.

# Install Home Assistant in Docker
docker run -d --name homeassistant \
  --privileged --restart=unless-stopped \
  -v /PATH_TO_CONFIG:/config \
  -v /run/dbus:/run/dbus:ro \
  --network=host \
  ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable

2. Network-Wide Ad Blocker with Pi-hole

Block ads and trackers across every device on your network—phones, tablets, smart TVs—without installing anything on individual devices. Pi-hole acts as a DNS sinkhole, intercepting ad-serving domain requests before they reach your devices.

The beauty of this project is how little hardware it requires. A Pi Zero W can handle DNS queries for hundreds of devices with minimal latency. Installation is a one-liner:

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

Tip: Enable query caching and use upstream DNS providers like Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or Quad9 (9.9.9.9) for optimal performance. Pi-hole's dashboard shows exactly what's being blocked across your network.

3. Personal VPN Server with WireGuard

Access your home network securely from anywhere and encrypt your traffic on public WiFi. WireGuard's modern cryptography is optimized for ARM processors, delivering better performance than OpenVPN while using less battery on mobile clients.

You'll need a static IP or dynamic DNS service and port forwarding capability on your router. Once configured, you can securely access your home network resources from anywhere in the world.

# Install WireGuard
sudo apt install wireguard

# Generate keys
wg genkey | tee privatekey | wg pubkey > publickey

4. Retro Gaming with RetroPie

Turn your Pi into a multi-platform emulation station capable of playing classic games from systems like the NES, SNES, Genesis, and PlayStation.

Important: Emulation is legal, but downloading copyrighted game ROMs you don't own is not. RetroPie is designed for playing games you've personally backed up from cartridges or discs you own. Many homebrew games and public domain titles are freely available if you're looking for legal content to start with.

The Pi 4's VideoCore VI GPU handles 2D rendering efficiently, and the quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 manages emulation overhead for most systems through the PS1 era. Download RetroPie from retropie.org.uk and flash it to your SD card. Your legally-owned game backups go in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/[system]/.

5. Private Cloud Storage with Nextcloud

Host your own Dropbox alternative with full control over your data. Nextcloud gives you file sync, calendar, contacts, and even collaborative document editing—all running on hardware you control.

The key to good performance is using an external SSD via USB 3.0. MicroSD cards are too slow for database operations. With an SSD, a Pi 4 can serve files to a small household with acceptable performance.

# Using Docker
docker run -d --name nextcloud \
  -p 8080:80 \
  -v /mnt/ssd/nextcloud:/var/www/html \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  nextcloud:latest

6. Personal Media Server with Jellyfin

Stream your personal media library to any device on your network or remotely. Jellyfin is a free, open-source media server that organizes your movies, TV shows, and music with beautiful interfaces for every platform.

Note: Media servers like Jellyfin are designed for organizing and streaming your own legally-owned content—home videos, ripped DVDs and Blu-rays from your personal collection, DRM-free music purchases, and similar media. Ensure you have the rights to any content you add to your library.

The Pi 4 can direct-play most formats without transcoding. For content that requires transcoding, Jellyfin's software encoding handles 720p adequately. For 1080p, ensure your client devices support direct play of your media formats.

curl https://repo.jellyfin.org/install-debuntu.sh | sudo bash

7. Network Monitoring with Grafana and Prometheus

Visualize your home network's performance, bandwidth usage, and device health in real-time dashboards. Prometheus's pull-based architecture is lightweight, and Grafana's dashboards render efficiently even on modest hardware.

This setup is particularly useful if you're running multiple services on Pis around your home. Monitor CPU temperatures, memory usage, disk space, and network throughput all from a single dashboard.

8. Development Environment with VS Code Server

Access a full Visual Studio Code environment from any browser, with your Pi handling the compute. Code-server runs VS Code's backend on the Pi while streaming the UI to your browser—letting you code from tablets, Chromebooks, or any device with a modern browser.

curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sh
sudo systemctl enable --now code-server@$USER

Access via http://your-pi-ip:8080 and configure the password in ~/.config/code-server/config.yaml.

9. Self-Hosted Git Server with Gitea

Run your own GitHub alternative for private repositories and team collaboration. Gitea is written in Go, compiles to a single binary, and uses minimal resources. It includes issues, pull requests, wikis, and CI/CD webhook support.

docker run -d --name=gitea \
  -p 3000:3000 -p 222:22 \
  -v /home/pi/gitea:/data \
  gitea/gitea:latest

10. Full REST API Backend with DreamFactory

This is where the Raspberry Pi truly surprises: running a complete, enterprise-grade API backend that auto-generates REST endpoints from any database.

DreamFactory is a Laravel-based API generation platform that introspects your database schema and automatically creates fully documented REST APIs. While designed for enterprise deployments, its architecture adapts well to resource-constrained environments when configured appropriately.

What You Get

• Auto-generated CRUD endpoints for every table
• Built-in JWT authentication and role-based access control
• API key management with rate limiting
• OpenAPI/Swagger documentation generated automatically
• Server-side scripting in PHP, Node.js, or Python
• Support for 20+ database types

Installing DreamFactory on Raspberry Pi

DreamFactory has been tested on Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB RAM using Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit (Bookworm). The installation uses Nginx with MariaDB as the database.

The process involves installing PHP 8.3, Nginx, MariaDB, and Composer, then cloning and configuring DreamFactory. Here's a step-by-step overview:

Step 1: Update system and install dependencies

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

sudo apt install php8.3-fpm php8.3-common php8.3-xml php8.3-cli php8.3-curl php8.3-mysqlnd php8.3-mbstring php8.3-zip php8.3-bcmath php8.3-gd nginx mariadb-server

Step 2: Create the database

sudo mysql -uroot -e "CREATE DATABASE dreamfactory;"

sudo mysql -uroot -e "CREATE USER 'dfadmin'@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'dfadmin';"

sudo mysql -uroot -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON dreamfactory.* TO 'dfadmin'@localhost;"

Step 3: Clone and install DreamFactory

sudo mkdir /opt/dreamfactory && sudo chown $USER /opt/dreamfactory

cd /opt/dreamfactory

git clone https://github.com/dreamfactorysoftware/dreamfactory.git ./

composer install --no-dev --ignore-platform-reqs

Step 4: Configure and run setup

php artisan df:env

Choose MySQL when prompted and enter your database credentials.

php artisan df:setup

Step 5: Set permissions

sudo chown -R www-data:$USER storage/ bootstrap/cache/

sudo chmod -R 2775 storage/ bootstrap/cache/

For complete step-by-step instructions including Nginx configuration, see the official Raspberry Pi installation guide.

Real-World Use Case: IoT Data Collection

Connect sensors to your Pi's GPIO pins, store readings in a database, and DreamFactory instantly exposes them via REST API:

GET  /api/v2/db/_table/sensor_readings
POST /api/v2/db/_table/sensor_readings
GET  /api/v2/db/_table/sensor_readings?filter=temperature>25

Mobile apps, dashboards, and external services can consume this API immediately—no backend coding required.

Note: Most "API on a Pi" tutorials involve hand-coding Flask or Express endpoints. DreamFactory eliminates that boilerplate entirely. You define your database schema, and the API exists. Role-based access control, rate limiting, and API documentation come built-in.

Hardware Recommendations

Performance Tips

A few tweaks can significantly improve your Pi's performance across all these projects:

1. Use an SSD: USB 3.0 SSDs dramatically outperform microSD cards for database and file-serving workloads
2. Use 64-bit OS: Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit improves performance for most workloads
3. Monitor temperatures: Run vcgencmd measure_temp—throttling begins at 80°C
4. Disable unused services: sudo systemctl disable bluetooth if not needed
5. Overclock conservatively: Pi 4 can safely run at 1.8-2.0GHz with adequate cooling

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a Raspberry Pi really handle a production API?

For internal tools, prototypes, and moderate traffic, absolutely. A Pi 4 running DreamFactory can handle hundreds of concurrent API requests for typical CRUD operations. The limiting factors are usually database performance (use an SSD) and memory for complex queries. For high-traffic public APIs, you'd want proper server infrastructure—but for home automation backends, IoT data collection, internal dashboards, and development environments, a Pi is more than capable.

How does DreamFactory compare to writing my own API with Flask or Express?

If you need standard database CRUD operations with authentication, DreamFactory generates in minutes what would take days to code manually. You get JWT auth, role-based access control, rate limiting, and auto-generated documentation out of the box. The trade-off is flexibility: custom business logic requires server-side scripts rather than native code. For most Pi projects—sensor data collection, home automation APIs, simple backends—DreamFactory eliminates boilerplate. For complex custom logic, you might prefer coding from scratch.

Which Raspberry Pi should I buy heading into 2026?

The Pi 4 with 4GB RAM remains the sweet spot for most projects. It handles everything in this guide comfortably and costs less than the Pi 5. The 8GB model is worth it for memory-intensive applications like running multiple Docker containers or VS Code Server. The Pi 5 offers better performance for demanding workloads like media transcoding, but for the projects listed here, a Pi 4 is sufficient and more cost-effective.

Conclusion

The Raspberry Pi's evolution from educational curiosity to capable server platform opens possibilities that seemed impractical just a few years ago. Whether you're blocking ads network-wide, hosting your own cloud storage, or running a full API backend with DreamFactory, these projects demonstrate that serious computing doesn't require serious hardware budgets.

Start with one project, master it, and expand from there. The Pi's low power consumption (under 15W at full load) means you can run these services 24/7 without meaningful impact on your electricity bill.

The best part? If something breaks, reflash the SD card and start fresh. That freedom to experiment is what makes the Raspberry Pi ecosystem so compelling for developers and hobbyists alike.