What is the best SD card for Raspberry Pi projects?

[Builder]

I keep seeing mixed advice on SD cards for Raspberry Pi. Some people say speed matters most, others say reliability is everything. I have had cheap cards fail and corrupt installs, so I am trying to avoid that this time. Has anyone tested cards like SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB SDXC UHS-I Card or Samsung EVO Select 128GB microSD Card for long running Pi setups?

[Undertaker00]

I have used the Samsung EVO Select for over a year in a Pi running 24 7 and it has been solid with no corruption issues

[SilverSurfer]

SanDisk Extreme Pro is faster in benchmarks but honestly for Pi workloads I noticed reliability matters more than raw speed

[Fox]

I switched from cheap cards to the Samsung EVO line and all my random crashes stopped so I would not go back

[Phil80]

If you are running databases or logs the better endurance cards like those two are worth it in my experience

[CarlosBuddle]

Can't argue with that. Thanks for that.

A clean install solves things but it is not always practical.

[Luke78]

One practical tip that often gets overlooked: buy from a reputable retailer. Counterfeit SD cards are still a nuisance, and some advertise 256GB while actually containing a fraction of that capacity.

After purchasing, test the card with H2testw on Windows or F3 on Linux. These utilities check whether the advertised capacity is genuine and can expose faulty storage before you spend hours configuring your Raspberry Pi. Much better to discover a dodgy card on day one than after building an entire project around it!

[JohnyBlue]

My recommendation would depend heavily on the project. For a Pi Zero running a simple sensor script, an ordinary reputable 32GB card is likely sufficient. For a Pi 5 running a desktop environment or several services, I'd spend more on a quality card or consider an SSD.

There isn't one universally best SD card because workloads vary. What are you planning to run: RetroPie, Home Assistant, a media server or something else? That makes a bigger difference to the recommendation than simply choosing the most expensive card available.