BoardRepo vs Hackaday.io for publishing a hardware project
Short version: they answer different questions. Hackaday.io is where you tell people what you built and why. BoardRepo is where they open the board and see how.
| Capability | Hackaday.io | BoardRepo |
|---|---|---|
| What a visitor sees first | The project story: description, details, build logs, instructions, photos, a components list, and who follows it. | The board: rendered schematic, PCB by layer, 3D model, BOM and the file tree. |
| Design files | Attached to the project as downloads, or linked out to a repository. | Uploaded as the project folder and rendered from the sources. Every original file stays downloadable per version. |
| Opening the schematic or layout | Download the files and open them in the design tool, or rely on the PDFs and images the author posted; those are the file types with a preview. | In the browser, no account and no install. KiCad and Altium are drawn; other formats are stored and downloadable. |
| Bill of materials | A hand-maintained components list with quantities. | Extracted from the design, filterable, and downloadable as CSV; components are indexed for search. |
| Version history | Build logs record the story over time; files are replaced or re-uploaded. | Numbered versions with per-version files, restore, and a visual compare between any two versions. |
| Community | Followers, skulls, comments, Hack Chat, contests and a large maker audience. | Comments and saves on a board, and an open library browsable by component and tag. Not a social network. |
| Private and team work | Private projects, and team members who can update the project and its logs. | Unlisted links, passwords, and organizations that decide board by board who can see and publish. |
| Machine readers | Web pages, and a public read-only API for projects, logs and components. | A markdown twin of every public board page for assistants and crawlers, and an MCP server for your own AI. |
| Cost | Free. | Free. |
What Hackaday.io does well
A project page with build logs is the best way to explain a design: the dead ends, the measurements, the photo of the first board working. The audience is there, the contests bring attention, and a good log is read for years. None of that is what a design file viewer does, and BoardRepo does not try to.
Where the design files end up
The gap is the moment a reader wants to look at the actual schematic. On a story site the files are attachments: a zip to download and open in a tool the reader may not have, or a link to a repository that shows the schematic as text. On BoardRepo the same zip becomes a page with the schematic, PCB, 3D model and BOM rendered from the sources, the file tree alongside, and a numbered history as the design moves.
Using both
Write the story on Hackaday.io and link the board on BoardRepo from it. Readers get the narrative where it belongs and the design where it can be opened, and when you revise the board the BoardRepo link stays the same while the version behind it changes. The license you set on the project is shown on the board page next to the downloads.
Upload a project to get a link worth putting in a build log, or see the other comparisons.