Best microSD Cards for Raspberry Pi Servers

Quick Recommendation

Samsung PRO Endurance 128 GB. It’s designed for 24/7 write-heavy workloads (dashcams, security cameras — same write pattern as a server). Rated for 140,160 hours of continuous recording. Costs about $18. It’s the only microSD card you should consider for a Raspberry Pi server.

If your budget allows, skip microSD entirely and boot from a USB 3.0 SSD. A 256 GB SATA SSD in a USB enclosure ($30–$40 total) is faster, more reliable, and lasts longer. See the “Skip microSD” section below.

Why microSD Choice Matters

Raspberry Pi servers write constantly — Docker logs, database writes, temp files, application state. Consumer microSD cards are designed for cameras: write once, read many. A server workload is the opposite: write constantly, read occasionally.

A cheap microSD card in a Pi server will:

• Slow down under sustained writes (write speed drops to 2–5 MB/s)
• Wear out in months (consumer cards have low TBW endurance)
• Corrupt silently (no wear-leveling, no power-loss protection)

The right card handles 24/7 writes for years. The wrong one kills your data in weeks.

Best microSD Cards for Raspberry Pi Servers

1. Samsung PRO Endurance — Best Overall

Spec	Value
Capacity	32 / 64 / 128 / 256 GB
Speed Class	U1, V10, Class 10
Sequential Read	Up to 100 MB/s
Sequential Write	Up to 40 MB/s
Endurance	140,160 hours (128 GB model)
Price (128 GB)	~$18

The PRO Endurance is purpose-built for continuous recording. Samsung rates the 128 GB model at 140,160 hours — that’s 16 years of 24/7 writing. It has power-loss protection to prevent corruption on unexpected shutdowns.

Buy the 128 GB. The price difference between 64 GB and 128 GB is negligible, and Docker images eat space faster than you’d expect.

2. Samsung PRO Plus — Best Performance

Spec	Value
Capacity	128 / 256 / 512 GB
Speed Class	U3, V30, A2, Class 10
Sequential Read	Up to 180 MB/s
Sequential Write	Up to 130 MB/s
Random Read (IOPS)	14,000
Random Write (IOPS)	12,000
Price (128 GB)	~$15

Faster than the PRO Endurance (A2 rating = better random I/O), but lower endurance rating. Good choice if your Pi server does more reading than writing — like serving a static website or running Pi-hole (mostly reads from blocklists).

3. SanDisk MAX Endurance — Runner-Up

Spec	Value
Capacity	32 / 64 / 128 / 256 GB
Speed Class	U3, V30, Class 10
Sequential Read	Up to 100 MB/s
Sequential Write	Up to 40 MB/s
Endurance	120,000 hours (128 GB model)
Price (128 GB)	~$20

SanDisk’s equivalent to the Samsung PRO Endurance. Slightly lower endurance rating (120,000 vs 140,160 hours) and slightly higher price. A solid alternative if Samsung is out of stock.

4. Kingston High Endurance — Budget Pick

Spec	Value
Capacity	32 / 64 / 128 GB
Speed Class	U1, A1, Class 10
Sequential Read	Up to 95 MB/s
Sequential Write	Up to 30 MB/s
Endurance	24,000 hours (128 GB model)
Price (128 GB)	~$14

Lower endurance than Samsung or SanDisk (24,000 hours — about 3 years of 24/7 use), but cheaper. Acceptable for lightweight Pi servers (Pi-hole, Home Assistant) that don’t write heavily.

Cards to Avoid

• SanDisk Ultra — No endurance rating, no power-loss protection. The #1 cause of Pi SD card corruption posts on Reddit.
• Samsung EVO Select — Decent card for phones/cameras, but no endurance focus. Will wear out under server workloads.
• Any card without an endurance rating — If the manufacturer doesn’t publish a TBW or endurance hours figure, it’s not designed for 24/7 writes.
• Any card under $10 — Cheap cards use low-quality NAND with minimal wear-leveling. They will fail.

Comparison Table

Card	Read	Write	Endurance (128GB)	A-Rating	Price
Samsung PRO Endurance	100 MB/s	40 MB/s	140,160 hours	A1	~$18
Samsung PRO Plus	180 MB/s	130 MB/s	Not rated	A2	~$15
SanDisk MAX Endurance	100 MB/s	40 MB/s	120,000 hours	—	~$20
Kingston High Endurance	95 MB/s	30 MB/s	24,000 hours	A1	~$14

Skip microSD: Boot from USB SSD

The best microSD card is no microSD card. Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi 5 support USB boot natively. A USB SSD is:

• 5–10x faster in random I/O (the bottleneck for server workloads)
• 100x more endurance (consumer SSDs handle 100+ TBW vs <1 TBW for microSD)
• More reliable (proper wear leveling, DRAM cache, power-loss protection)

How to Set Up USB Boot

1. Buy a 256 GB SATA SSD ($20–$25) and a USB 3.0 to SATA enclosure ($10–$15). Total: ~$35.
2. Flash Raspberry Pi OS or Ubuntu Server to the SSD using Raspberry Pi Imager.
3. On Pi 5: USB boot works out of the box. Plug in the SSD and power on.
4. On Pi 4: Update the bootloader first. Boot from a microSD with Raspberry Pi OS, run sudo raspi-config → Advanced → Boot Order → USB Boot. Then shut down, remove the microSD, plug in the SSD, and boot.

Recommended SSDs for USB boot:

• Samsung 870 EVO 250 GB (~$25) — reliable, fast, endurance rated at 150 TBW
• Kingston A400 240 GB (~$20) — budget option, no DRAM cache but adequate for Pi workloads
• Crucial BX500 240 GB (~$22) — good middle ground

For more, see Raspberry Pi Home Server and USB Boot Guide.

Extending microSD Life

If you’re sticking with microSD, these practices reduce write wear:

1. Move Logs to tmpfs

Docker and system logs generate constant writes. Move them to RAM:

# Add to /etc/fstab
tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults,noatime,nosuid,mode=0755,size=64m 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,nosuid,size=128m 0 0

Trade-off: logs are lost on reboot. For a home server, this is usually acceptable.

2. Reduce Docker Logging

# /etc/docker/daemon.json
{
  "log-driver": "json-file",
  "log-opts": {
    "max-size": "10m",
    "max-file": "3"
  }
}

3. Disable Swap

Swap on microSD is extremely destructive — it writes constantly to the slowest, least durable storage:

sudo dphys-swapfile swapoff
sudo dphys-swapfile uninstall
sudo systemctl disable dphys-swapfile

If you need swap, use a zram swap (compressed RAM) instead.

4. Mount with noatime

Disable access time updates to halve metadata writes:

# In /etc/fstab, add noatime to the root partition options
/dev/mmcblk0p2  /  ext4  defaults,noatime  0  1

FAQ

How long will a microSD card last in a Pi server?

With a Samsung PRO Endurance 128 GB: 3–5+ years under typical server workloads. With a cheap consumer card: 3–12 months. The endurance rating is the best predictor.

A2 vs A1 — does it matter?

A2 cards have higher random I/O specifications (4,000 IOPS read, 2,000 IOPS write vs 1,500/500 for A1). For server workloads (lots of small random reads/writes), A2 is noticeably faster. In practice, the difference is less dramatic than spec sheets suggest because many A2 cards only sustain those speeds in bursts.

Should I use ext4 or f2fs?

f2fs (Flash-Friendly File System) is designed for NAND storage and can extend microSD lifespan. However, ext4 is better supported and more stable for Docker workloads. Use ext4 unless you have a specific reason to use f2fs.

Can I RAID microSD cards?

Don’t. It’s technically possible (USB readers + mdadm) but practically useless. The USB bus is the bottleneck, and microSD cards fail in correlated ways (heat, power loss). If you need redundancy, use a USB SSD with scheduled backups.

Related

• Raspberry Pi Home Server
• Raspberry Pi Docker Setup
• Raspberry Pi vs Mini PC
• USB Boot Guide
• Best SSDs for Home Server
• HDD vs SSD for Home Server
• Home Server Build Guide