Current Rating (Stall!)

Match the driver’s continuous current to your motor’s stall current, not its running current. A motor pulls its highest current at startup and when blocked — undersize the driver and it overheats or shuts down.

Voltage Range

Check the motor supply window. Low-voltage 3–6 V toy motors want a DRV8833 or TB6612; 12–24 V gear motors need the L298N, Cytron or BTS7960. Logic voltage should match your 3.3 V or 5 V MCU.

Efficiency & Heat

Old bipolar chips (L298N) drop ~2 V and run hot. Modern MOSFET drivers (TB6612, DRV8833, DRV8871, Cytron, BTS7960) waste far less, run cooler and give your motors more usable voltage.

Channels

A two-wheeled robot needs two channels; a single big motor needs one high-current channel. Dual H-bridges also drive one bipolar stepper. Count your motors before you buy.

Protection & Control

Thermal shutdown, current limiting and undervoltage lockout save your board when a motor stalls. Fast PWM support (up to 100 kHz on the TB6612) means silent, smooth speed control.

SparkFun TB6612FNG

⭐ 4.8/5 · The modern L298N replacement

The TB6612FNG is the driver we hand to anyone still using an L298N. Toshiba’s MOSFET H-bridge drops far less voltage than a bipolar chip, so it runs cool, wastes less battery and gives 3–13.5 V motors more real power. You get two channels at 1.2 A each (3.2 A peak), fast PWM to 100 kHz, a standby pin for power saving, plus built-in thermal shutdown and low-voltage detection. SparkFun’s version ships with pre-soldered headers so you can breadboard it instantly.

Cytron MDD10A

⭐ 4.7/5 · Rugged 10 A dual driver

When your robot outgrows toy motors, the Cytron MDD10A is the step up. It’s a fully solid-state dual NMOS H-bridge that drives two brushed motors at 10 A continuous (30 A peak) each, from 5–30 V, with such low on-resistance that no heatsink is needed. You get 3.3 V/5 V logic compatibility for Arduino and Raspberry Pi, PWM to 20 kHz, regenerative braking, and on-board test buttons so you can spin a motor before writing a single line of code. It’s a quality, well-documented board from a real manufacturer.

2 channels · L298N bipolar · 2 A peak/ch · ~5–35 V motor · 5 V regulator · screw terminals

The L298N is the module almost everyone starts with, and there’s a reason it’s on every robot-car chassis kit: it’s cheap, rugged, has screw terminals and a built-in 5 V regulator to power your Arduino, and it drives 12 V gear motors happily. The trade-off is that it’s an old bipolar design — it drops nearly 2 V across the bridge (heat, not motion) and needs its heatsink under load. For a first robot at 6–12 V it’s still a perfectly good, forgiving choice.

2 channels · DRV8833 MOSFET · 1.2 A/ch (2 A peak) · 2.7–10.8 V · current limiting · internal diodes

For battery robots and tiny 3–6 V toy motors, the DRV8833 is ideal. It runs from as little as 2.7 V, so a pair of AAs or a single LiPo is enough, and it’s efficient where an L298N would barely turn the motor. Two full H-bridges drive two DC motors or one stepper at 1.2 A each (2 A peak), with built-in current limiting and internal kick-back diodes so inductive spikes won’t fry your project. Perfect for Circuit Playground, micro:bit and pocket-sized bots.

Single motor (dual half-bridge) · 2× BTS7960 · up to 43 A · 6–27 V · current sense · on-board heatsink

Need to move something big? The BTS7960 “IBT-2” pairs two Infineon half-bridge chips into one monster H-bridge rated up to 43 A at 6–27 V, with a chunky on-board heatsink, current-sense outputs and built-in over-temperature, over-current and under-voltage protection. It drives one motor with just two PWM lines from your MCU, making it the go-to for large scooters, e-bikes, winches, big robots and power-wheels conversions. Treat the 43 A as a peak — with real cooling it comfortably handles high-teens amps continuously.

Single motor · DRV8871 MOSFET · 3.6 A peak · 6.5–45 V · resistor-set current limit · screw terminals

The DRV8871 is the sweet spot between a hobby H-bridge and a heavy BTS7960. One efficient MOSFET bridge drives a single brushed motor at up to 3.6 A from a wide 6.5–45 V, and its standout trick is resistor-set current limiting — solder one resistor and the chip caps the current itself, protecting your motor and power supply with no inline sense resistor. Add undervoltage lockout, overcurrent and thermal shutdown and you have a tough little single-motor driver for actuators, linear rails and mid-size gear motors.

2 channels · dual L9110S · 0.8 A/ch · 2.5–12 V · ~28×21 mm · sold in multi-packs

The L9110S is the tiny, dirt-cheap board you buy five at a time. Each thumb-sized module carries two L9110S H-bridge chips that drive two small DC motors (or one stepper) at up to 0.8 A each, from 2.5–12 V, working with both 3.3 V and 5 V logic. It has no frills — no current limiting, no regulator — but for classroom sets, line-follower bots, small fans and light 5 V motors it does the core job for pennies, and its size is perfect where an L298N simply won’t fit.

Building your first robot car?

Grab the L298N — cheap, forgiving, screw terminals and a 5 V regulator for your Arduino.

Want efficiency & cool running?

The TB6612FNG is the modern MOSFET upgrade — same 2 channels, far less heat and voltage drop.

Tiny 3–6 V battery bot?

The DRV8833 runs from 2.7 V with current limiting — perfect for micro:bit and pocket robots.

Heavy 12–24 V gear motors?

The Cytron MDD10A gives two rugged 10 A channels with no heatsink needed.

One big, hungry motor?

The BTS7960 43A moves the most amps for the money; the DRV8871 is the tidy 3.6 A option.

Classroom set or smallest board?

The L9110S multi-pack is the cheapest way to give every student a working driver.

How do I know how much current my motor needs?

Size the driver to the motor’s stall current — the current it draws when the shaft is held still — not its free-running current, which is much lower. If the datasheet doesn’t list it, measure it: run the motor at its rated voltage through a multimeter in current mode and gently stop the shaft for a moment. Pick a driver whose continuous rating comfortably exceeds that figure, because a robot hits stall current every time it starts, climbs or bumps a wall.

Why does everyone say to replace the L298N?

The L298N uses an old bipolar transistor bridge that drops about 1.5–2 V. On a 6 V motor that’s a third of your voltage lost as heat, so the motor is weak and the chip gets hot. Modern MOSFET drivers like the TB6612FNG, DRV8833 and Cytron boards drop a fraction of a volt, run cool and give the motor almost the full battery voltage. The L298N is still fine for learning and 12 V motors where the drop matters less — but for efficiency, upgrade.

Can these drivers run stepper motors too?

The dual H-bridge boards — L298N, TB6612FNG, DRV8833 and L9110S — can each drive one bipolar stepper (two coils), which is handy for slow, low-cost motion. But they don’t microstep or set precise coil current like a dedicated stepper driver. For smooth, quiet, high-resolution stepping (3D printers, CNC), use a purpose-built A4988, DRV8825 or TMC2209 instead. The single-motor DRV8871 and BTS7960 are for brushed DC motors only.

Do I need flyback diodes or a separate motor supply?

Every board here has flyback/kick-back protection built into the driver chip, so you don’t need to add external diodes. You should power the motors from their own supply and only share a common ground with your microcontroller — motors dump electrical noise and voltage sags onto the rail that can crash an Arduino or ESP32. A bulk capacitor across the motor supply and keeping logic and motor grounds joined at one point will save you a lot of mysterious resets.

Which driver is best for an ESP32 or Raspberry Pi Pico?

All of these accept 3.3 V logic, so they work with the ESP32, Pico and STM32. For most 3.3 V bots the TB6612FNG or DRV8833 are ideal — efficient, small and happy with 3.3 V PWM. For bigger motors the Cytron MDD10A and BTS7960 also take 3.3 V control directly. Just remember the L298N’s on-board 5 V regulator output isn’t meant to power a 3.3 V board’s 3V3 pin — power your MCU properly and only share ground.