Best Arduino Starter Kits

Arduino is an excellent way to introduce both adults and children to robotics and programming. Arduino is an open source hardware and software that makes building electronics projects fun and approachable to beginners. Projects can vary from the trivial, like a blinking light, to the mind-numbingly complex like Inmoov’s life-size humanoid robot.

Picking the right starter kit is an important step that can help set you up for success. Below, we’ll take a look at all the options, and help you find the best kit for your needs.

We’ve done our best to evaluate each kit objectively, and summarize our findings in the table below. A detailed review of a each kit can be found below.

Overview

Best Overall Kit: Elegoo Mega Ultimate Starter Kit

Best Budget Kit: Elegoo UNO Project Super Starter Kit

Best Documentation: Official Arduino Starter Kit

Detailed Reviews

1. Elegoo Mega Ultimate Starter Kit

Ratings

• Value & Price:

• Breadth of Parts:

• Instructions:

Pros

The Elegoo Mega Ultimate Starter Kit is, by far, the best kit we reviewed. It includes a TON of components and a healthy slice of low level components.

This kit also includes some really fun components that are missing from other kits on this list, such as the keypad input, stepper motor, and water sensor.

Finally, this is the only kit that includes an Arduino Mega, which has more inputs and outputs than the Uno, and a larger breadboard.

Cons

The primary drawback to this kit is the documentation. It’s not great, however in practice you can find better tutorials online for every kit on this page.

This documentation takes a project based approached to learning, which works well for people with a little prior experience. Overall the projects are not structured in a way to take a newcomer and progressively teach them the concepts.

If you’re comfortable using google to find tutorials, this is by far the best kit on the list. If you’re looking for a complete starter kit that’s going to guide you from 0 to 60 this is not the kit for you. For a more controlled learning experience, it’s tough to beat the Official Arduino Starter Kit .

Parts List

• 25 x LED (white, yellow, blue, red, green)
• 1 x RGB LED
• 10 x Ceramic Capacitor(22pf & 104pf)
• 2 x Photoresistor
• 1 x Thermistor
• 5 x Diode Rectifier (1N4007)
• 4 x Electrolytic Capacitor (10UF 50V & 100UF 50V)
• 10 x NPN Transistor (PN2222 & S8050 )
• 1 x Tilt Switch
• 5 x Button (small)
• 1 x 1 digit 7-segment Display
• 1 x 4 digit 7-segment Display
• 1 x Sound Sensor Module
• 1 x LCD1602 Module ( with pin header)
• 1 x IC L293D
• 1 x IC 74HC595
• 1 x Active Buzzer
• 1 x Passive Buzzer
• 1 x RTC Module
• 1 x DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Module
• 2 x Potentiometer
• 1 x Rotary Encoder Module
• 1 x Joystick Module
• 1 x Keypad Module
• 1 x 5V Relay
• 1 x IR Receiver Module
• 1 x MEGA2560 Controller Board
• 1 x Breadboard
• 1 x Servo Motor (SG90)
• 1 x Stepper Motor
• 1 x ULN2003 Stepper Motor Driver Board
• 1 x Prototype Expansion
• 1 x Power Supply Module
• 1 x HC-SR501 PIR Motion Sensor
• 1 x Ultrasonic Sensor
• 1 x GY-521 Module ( with pin header)
• 1 x 3V Servo Motor
• 1 x MAX7219 Module
• 1 x Remote
• 1 x 9V 1A Power Supply
• 1 x 65 Jumper Wire
• 1 x Water Lever Sensor
• 1 x USB Cable
• 1 x 9V Battery with DC
• 1 x RC522 RFID Module
• 100 x Resistor (10R/100R/220R/330R/1K/2K/5K1/10K/100K/1M)
• 20 x Female-to-male Dupont Wire

2. Elegoo UNO Project Super Starter Kit

Ratings

• Value & Price:

• Breadth of Parts:

• Instructions:

Pros

The Elegoo UNO Project Super Starter Kit is a pared down, less expensive version of #2 Elegoo Mega Ultimate Starter Kit

This kit is a relatively inexpensive way to get started, and it includes a decent collection of parts that you’ll grow into using. If you’re on a budget, and the cons below don’t turn you off, this can be an excellent kit to start out with.

Cons

This kit takes a project based approached to learning, which works well for people with a little prior experience. Overall the projects are not structured in a way to take a newbie and progressively teach them the concepts.

If you’re not the type that needs a lot of hand holding this kit can be an excellent purchase. If you’re looking for a complete starter kit that’s going to guide you from 0 to 60 this is not the kit for you. For a more controlled learning experience, it’s tough to beat the Official Arduino Starter Kit .

Parts List

• 1 x UNO R3 Controller Board
• 1 x LCD1602 Module ( with pin header)
• 1 x Breadboard Expansion Board
• 1 x Power Supply Module
• 1 x Joystick Module
• 1 x IR Receiver
• 1 x Servo Motor (SG90)
• 1 x Stepper Motor
• 1 x ULN2003 Stepper Motor Driver Board
• 1 x Ultrasonic Sensor
• 1 x DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Module
• 1 x 9V Battery with DC
• 1 x 65 Jumper Wire
• 1 x USB Cable
• 1 x Active Buzzer
• 1 x Passive Buzzer
• 1 x Potentiometer
• 1 x 5V Relay
• 1 x Breadboard
• 1 x Remote
• 1 x Tilt Switch
• 5 x Button (small)
• 1 x 1 digit 7-segment Display
• 1 x 4 digit 7-segment Display
• 5 x Yellow LED
• 5 x Blue LED
• 5 x Green LED
• 5 x Red LED
• 1 x RGB LED
• 2 x Photoresistor
• 1 x Thermistor
• 2 x Diode Rectifier (1N4007)
• 2 x NPN Transistor (PN2222)
• 1 x IC 74HC595
• 30 x Resistor
• 10 x Female-to-male Dupont Wire

3. Official Arduino Starter Kit

Ratings

• Value & Price:

• Breadth of Parts:

• Instructions:

Pros

The Official Starter Kit includes parts and instructions for 15 projects involving a DC motor, servo motor, tilt sensor, LEDs and other basic electronic components. This kit is an great value for the money, and the included documentation and tutorials are very well done.

Cons

While this kit contains a wide array of components, it’s somewhat lacking when compared to other kits in this price range. This kit has the best instructions of all the kits on the list, at the expense of a few components.

Parts List

• 1 x Arduino Projects Book
• 1 x Arduino UNO Rev 3 MicroController
• 1 x USB cable
• 1 x Breadboard
• 1 x Easy-to-assemble wooden base
• 1 x 9V battery snap
• 70 x Solid core jumper wires
• 2 x Stranded jumper wires
• 6 x Photoresistors
• 3 x Potentiometers (10K ohm)
• 10 x Push buttons
• 1 x Temperature sensor
• 1 x Tilt sensor
• 1 x Alphanumeric LCD (16x2 character display)
• 1 x Bright white LED
• 1 x Multicolor RGB LED
• 8 x Red LEDs
• 8 x Green LEDs
• 8 x Yellow LEDs
• 3 x Blue LEDs
• 1 x Small DC motor (6/9V)
• 1 x Small servo motor
• 1 x Piezo capsule
• 1 x H-bridge motor driver
• 2 x Optocouplers
• 5 x Transisitors
• 2 x Mosfet transistors
• 5 x 100nF capacitors
• 3 x 100uF capacitors
• 5 x 100pF capacitors
• 5 x Diodes
• 3 x Transparent gels (red, green, blue)
• 1 x 40 pin male header strip
• 20 x 220 ohm resistors
• 5 x 560 ohm resistors
• 5 x 1K ohm resistors
• 5 x 4.7K ohm resistors
• 10 x 10K ohm resistors
• 5 x 1M ohm resistors
• 5 x 10M ohm resistors

4. Kuman Project Complete Starter Kit

Ratings

• Value & Price:

• Breadth of Parts:

• Instructions:

Pros

The Kuman Project Complete Starter Kit is incredibly cheap and features a ton of parts for the price. The parts are reliable and high quality. The included components form a good foundation for future projects.

Cons

There’s no documentation included with this one (other than a parts list)! If you’re looking for a starter kit that’s going to guide you through this stuff you’d likely have a better time with the Official Starter Kit .

If you’re comfortable with searching online and finding your own path, this kit can still be an excellent choice since it includes so many components for such a low price.

Parts List

• 1 x Kuman UNO R3 development board
• 1 x USB cable
• 1 x Prototype extension board
• 1 x Mini breadboard
• 1 x 5V stepper motor
• 1 x 2003 stepper motor driver board
• 5 x Red LED
• 5 x Green LED
• 5 x Yellow LED
• 2 x Vibration Sensor
• 1 x Flame sensor
• 1 x LM35 temperature sensor
• 1 x Infrared receiver
• 3 x Photoresistor
• 4 x Key cap
• 4 x Key switch
• 1 x Adjustable potentiometer
• 1 x Passive buzzer (piezo buzzer)
• 1 x Active buzzer (tone generator)
• 1 x Jumper cap
• 1 x Large breadboard
• 1 x Remote Control
• 1 x 1602 Screen
• 1 x Breadboard module
• 1 x HC-SR04 module
• 1 x Component box
• 1 x DuPont line 10pin
• 30 x Jumper Wires
• 1 x 8*8 dot matrix
• 1 x One digit eight segment tube
• 1 x Four digit eight segment tube
• 1 x IC 74HC595
• 1 x Battery Holder
• 5 x Resistor 220ohm
• 5 x Resistor 330ohm
• 5 x Ohm resistance 1K
• 5 x Ohm resistance 10K
• 1 x Battery 9V
• 1 x 40pin pin header 2.54mm
• 1 x Three color LED module
• 1 x Thermistor module
• 1 x Touch sensor
• 1 x CD with tutorial
• 1 x plastic box

5. Vilros Arduino Uno 3 Ultimate Starter Kit

Ratings

• Value & Price:

• Breadth of Parts:

• Instructions:

Pros

The Vilros Arduino Uno 3 Ultimate Starter Kit features an authentic Arduino Uno, whereas most of the other kits on this list are all using clones, which is why this kit features less parts than others on this list. Personally, I always purchase clones as they’re significantly cheaper and I have never had any quality problems with them after purchasing more than 50 of them over the years.

Cons

This kit has significantly fewer components than other kits in the same price range, and has poor documentation / tutorials included with it. If you’re interested in this kit, you’d likely find the Official Starter Kit to be a much better value for a little more money.

Parts List

• 1 x Arduino Uno R3
• 1 x Arduino & Breadboard Holder
• 1 x Bread Board
• 1 x Shift Register
• 2 x P2N2222A Transistors
• 2 x 1N4148 Diodes
• 1 x DC Motor with wires
• 1 x Small Servo
• 1 x 5V Relay
• 1 x TMP36 Temp Sensor
• 1 x 6’ USB Cable
• 65 x Jumper Wires
• 1 x Photocell
• 1 x Tri-color LED
• 10 x Red LED
• 10 x yellow LED
• 1 x 10K Trimpot
• 1 x Piezo Buzzer
• 2 x Big 12mm Buttons
• 45 x 330 Resistors
• 45 x 10K Resistors

Parts Comparison