The Raspberry Pi Imager gives you nine OS choices in the default list, then hides everything worth flashing behind a “Custom” button. The best pick for a Pi 5 running a Jellyfin server is not the same as the best pick for a Pi 4 running Home Assistant, and neither of them is Raspberry Pi OS Desktop with its full LXQt session and a browser you’ll never open.
We looked at seven distributions people flash onto Pis in 2026. Two are minimal servers, one is the OS you use when you don’t want to think, and four are purpose-built images that treat the Pi as a fixed-function box instead of a general-purpose computer.
What to look for
- RAM footprint at idle. A 2 GB Pi 4 running Home Assistant OS at 700 MB is not the same as one running Pi OS Desktop at 1.2 GB.
- Whiptail-menu install flow. Point-and-shoot software install for the common services, without hunting for the right Debian packages.
- Update strategy. Rolling, LTS, or immutable — pick the one that matches how often you want to touch the box.
- Kernel and firmware freshness. Newer Pi hardware (Pi 5, Pi Zero 2 W) needs recent kernels and firmware to get the best of the chip.
- Community and docs. A Pi image with 100 tutorials on the wiki is not the same as one with a Reddit thread.
Quick comparison
| Distro | Best for | RAM at idle | Install flow | Update model | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DietPi | Minimal image with a menu-driven installer | ~200 MB | dietpi-software | Rolling (Debian-based) | GPL |
| Raspberry Pi OS Lite | Official minimal server | ~250 MB | apt | Point releases | Debian |
| Ubuntu Server | LTS predictability on ARM | ~350 MB | apt | LTS + interim | Debian |
| Home Assistant OS | Turnkey Home Assistant | ~700 MB | HAOS supervisor | Managed | Apache 2.0 |
| LibreELEC | Kodi appliance | ~250 MB | Kodi addons | Rolling | GPL |
| RetroPie | Retro gaming on top of Pi OS Lite | ~300 MB | RetroPie-Setup menu | Manual | GPL |
| Batocera | Retro gaming, no Pi OS underneath | ~300 MB | Batocera menu | Rolling | GPL |
1. DietPi – Best minimal image with a menu-driven installer
DietPi is the distro that turns “install a self-hosted service on the Pi” into a checklist. The first boot walks you through a whiptail menu; dietpi-software gives you 200+ curated one-command installs (Jellyfin, Home Assistant, Pi-hole, Wireguard, Nextcloud, and dozens more). The base image is trimmed of everything a headless server doesn’t need. That’s why the RAM footprint stays around 200 MB at idle.
Where it falls short: The menu-driven flow assumes you never want a GUI. If you’re going to plug the Pi into a monitor, this isn’t the pick.
Pricing:
- Free: Everything.
- Paid: None.
Platforms: Raspberry Pi (all models), Odroid, Rock, generic x86, VMs.
Download: dietpi.com.
Bottom line: The default for a headless Pi. Flash it, run through the menu, done.
2. Raspberry Pi OS Lite – Best official minimal server
Raspberry Pi OS Lite is the headless official image from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Debian Bookworm underneath, first-party kernel and firmware, no desktop. It’s the safe pick when you want to run stock apt packages and never worry about a third party losing interest in maintaining the image.
Where it falls short: No installer menu. You install everything by hand with apt, like a normal Debian.
Pricing:
- Free.
- Paid: None.
Platforms: Raspberry Pi (all models).
Download: raspberrypi.com.
Bottom line: The safe pick. Flash it if you already know Debian and don’t want a helper layer.
3. Ubuntu Server – Best LTS predictability on ARM
Ubuntu Server on the Pi gives you the same LTS predictability as an Ubuntu server anywhere else. Snap available if you want it, snap avoidable if you don’t. Cloud-init works out of the box, so mass-flashing a fleet of Pis with pre-baked config is straightforward.
Where it falls short: Slightly heavier than Pi OS Lite. Kernel updates lag the Pi Foundation kernel for the newest hardware quirks.
Pricing:
- Free.
- Paid: Canonical Pro subscription is optional and mostly for enterprise.
Platforms: Raspberry Pi (2, 3, 4, 5, Zero 2 W).
Download: ubuntu.com/download/raspberry-pi.
Bottom line: The pick if your other servers are Ubuntu LTS and you want a matching stack on the Pi.
4. Home Assistant OS – Best turnkey Home Assistant
Home Assistant OS is the appliance version of Home Assistant. It’s the OS that runs HAOS as its only real job: supervised container updates, a web UI for every setting, one-click add-ons (Node-RED, Mosquitto, ESPHome, AdGuard, Zigbee2MQTT), and backups that restore cleanly onto a fresh SD if the current one dies.
Where it falls short: You can’t run other services alongside it in a supported way. If you want Home Assistant plus a Jellyfin container, you install Home Assistant Container on DietPi or Docker instead.
Pricing:
- Free.
- Paid: Nabu Casa Cloud subscription is optional (for remote access without a self-hosted VPN).
Platforms: Raspberry Pi 3, 4, 5, x86-64, VMs, several other SBCs.
Download: home-assistant.io.
Bottom line: The right pick if the Pi has one job and that job is Home Assistant.
5. LibreELEC – Best Kodi appliance
LibreELEC is the “Just Enough OS” that boots straight into Kodi. It updates itself, plays every codec a Pi can decode in hardware, and never asks you to open a shell. A Pi 5 with LibreELEC and a decent PSU is one of the cheapest 4K media players you can build.
Where it falls short: Kodi is the only application. If you want to run anything else alongside it, this isn’t the pick.
Pricing:
- Free.
- Paid: None.
Platforms: Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4, 5.
Download: libreelec.tv.
Bottom line: The Kodi appliance. Flash, plug into the TV, done.
6. RetroPie – Best retro gaming layer on Pi OS Lite
RetroPie installs on top of Raspberry Pi OS Lite and adds the EmulationStation front-end, a curated set of emulators, and a menu-driven setup for BIOS, controllers, and ROMs. It’s the retro layer to pick when you want Kodi or SSH or a Wireguard tunnel running on the same Pi as the retro handheld.
Where it falls short: Slower to update than Batocera. You maintain the underlying Pi OS separately.
Pricing:
- Free.
- Paid: None.
Platforms: Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4, 5.
Download: retropie.org.uk.
Bottom line: Pick this when the Pi has more than one job and one of them is retro emulation.
7. Batocera – Best retro gaming with no Pi OS underneath
Batocera is the immutable retro-gaming distro. Boot from SD, everything is read-only, updates arrive as full-image swaps, and your ROMs and saves live on a separate data partition. Same emulator core selection as RetroPie, different maintenance model.
Where it falls short: You can’t easily install unrelated services alongside it. Runs one job.
Pricing:
- Free.
- Paid: None.
Platforms: Raspberry Pi 3, 4, 5, x86-64, several handhelds.
Download: batocera.org.
Bottom line: The pick when the Pi is a retro handheld or a couch console and nothing else.
How to pick the right one
- If you want a Pi that runs three or four self-hosted services with a friendly installer: DietPi.
- If you want the vanilla, first-party option: Raspberry Pi OS Lite.
- If you want LTS predictability that matches your other servers: Ubuntu Server.
- If the Pi’s only job is Home Assistant: Home Assistant OS.
- If the Pi’s only job is Kodi: LibreELEC.
- If you want retro emulation plus one more job: RetroPie.
- If you want retro emulation and nothing else: Batocera.
FAQ
Which Raspberry Pi OS is the fastest? For a headless server, DietPi and Pi OS Lite are within a few percent of each other on RAM and CPU at idle. DietPi wins on install experience; Pi OS Lite wins on being the official image.
Can I run Home Assistant OS in Docker on DietPi instead? You can run Home Assistant Container, which is the same UI without the supervised add-ons. If you want the add-on store, you need Home Assistant OS or Home Assistant Supervised.
Is Ubuntu Server slower than Pi OS Lite on a Pi? Marginally, and usually not enough to matter for a self-hosted workload. Pi OS Lite has the Foundation kernel, which sometimes lands quirk fixes for new hardware sooner.
Does DietPi replace apt? No. dietpi-software installs curated packages through apt (or upstream tarballs) and configures them for you. You can still apt install anything else you want.
Which distro is best for a Pi 5? All seven run on the Pi 5. For a general-purpose homelab, DietPi. For anything Home Assistant, HAOS. For Kodi, LibreELEC. Match the distro to the job, not to the model.