5 Reasons Why Zephyr RTOS Will Rule the Embedded World

At a Glance

• Zephyr's contributor base has grown five times since 2017.
• Zephyr is governed by the Linux Foundation with 45+ member companies collaborating, leading to true vendor neutrality.
• Zephyr RTOS enables observability, the ability to understand and monitor a system's internal state and behavior.

Zephyr RTOS is going to take over the world. It might have already done so; you don’t realize it yet. That’s just the thing about overnight success. It’s never overnight. It’s a slow burn that produces magnificent results after a decade of hard work. Suddenly, before you realize it, the entire industry has changed. 

That’s the story of Zephyr RTOS. The project was started by the Linux Foundation 9 years ago. But slowly, over time, incremental improvements and strategic partnerships have turned Zephyr RTOS from “yet another RTOS” into a dominant industry force that will find its way into nearly every industry. 

Here are five reasons why Zephyr RTOS will rule the world (and why it might make sense for you to adopt it). 

Industry contributions

There are many ways to determine whether an RTOS is gaining traction or not. We could look at things like:

Since teams seem to love open-source software and avoid buying commercial software like the plague, contributions to a project can be a good indicator. The Zephyr Project plots the Github contributors to open source RTOS projects over the last 8 years. 

The numbers don't lie. While other RTOS projects stagnate or decline, Zephyr's contributor base has grown 5x since 2017, reaching 256 unique monthly contributors in 2024! 

I would argue that this shows a trend of not just contributions but also of adoption. As more developers and teams contribute to the project, you’ll see an exponential increase in support, features, and quality. These then create a snowball effect of adoption. 

Now, you might be saying that the number of contributions doesn’t equate to quality. I’d agree. Last year, I compiled an RTOS Performance Report that examined several open-source and commercial RTOSes and put them through their paces. 

Zephyr didn’t exactly score the best. However, instead of complaining, bullying me, or ignoring the results, they did what all great companies do: They acted. They made it a priority to improve the kernel's performance! 

Zephyr 4.1 was released, featuring:

Zephyr RTOS is going to rule the world.

True vendor neutrality

There are a lot of open-source RTOSes available today. Each has its own unique features, strengths, and weaknesses. Zephyr RTOS still stands out from all of them for one very clear reason: True vendor neutrality.

Related:Mastering Custom Linux for Raspberry Pi 5: A Yocto Project Guide

Unlike proprietary alternatives or single-vendor "open" projects, Zephyr is governed by the Linux Foundation with 45+ member companies collaborating.

That means no single company is pushing Zephyr in the direction they want to go to meet their company's objectives. Instead, 45+ companies are collaborating to create an open-source solution that can support a diverse range of applications and industries. 

Zephyr is following the Linux model that has made Linux so prevalent in so many different application spaces. 

It’s true open-source, meaning the embedded industry can guide it to the quality and feature sets that make it the most valuable tool available. It’s not guarded and controlled by a single developer or company.  

Larger developer ecosystem

One of the biggest challenges facing embedded teams today is that embedded skillsets are disappearing. Fewer colleges are focusing on embedded systems development. Maybe a handful, if that, teach C programming. The embedded software engineer is genuinely starting to become extinct. 

Zephyr RTOS helps open the door for more developers to work on embedded systems. Zephyr uses the Devicetree and Kconfig, concepts familiar to those developing for Linux. This enables more software developers to work within the embedded systems ecosystem without requiring deep hardware expertise. 

Related:How AI Is Sneaking into Your Embedded Toolbox

Instead, you can have more developers working at higher levels of abstraction to get the application developed and deliver the features and logic that are most important to the customers. 

Yes, you’ll still need low-level knowledge, understand real-time concepts, and much more, but fewer developers will need that knowledge. Teams can develop their applications faster with fewer embedded developers, leaving the low-level integration to those who understand it and letting the application developers move the project forward quickly. 

Zephyr RTOS is going to rule the world.

Built-in observability tools

Zephyr RTOS also enables observability, a critical feature in modern embedded software systems. Observability is the ability to understand and monitor a system's internal state and behavior. It allows developers to gauge their system's health, performance, and status.

But Zephyr doesn’t stop at basic metrics. It embraces integrations with powerful observability tools like Memfault and Percepio Tracealyzer. These tools transform how we monitor, debug, and maintain embedded systems in the field.

Memfault brings remote diagnostics and fleet monitoring to Zephyr-based devices. By integrating Memfault, developers can:

Tracealyzer, on the other hand, provides rich real-time tracing and visualization of system behavior. With Tracealyzer and Zephyr:

These tools make Zephyr more than just an RTOS; they make it a platform for professional-grade, modern development.

Zephyr RTOS is going to rule the world.

Modular design enables “build only what you need”

Zephyr’s architecture is modular by design. In the embedded world, that’s not just a bonus feature, it’s a necessity.

Traditional RTOSes often take a one-size-fits-all approach. You pull in the kernel, and with it, an overwhelming bundle of features you’ll never use. Sure, some configuration is allowed, but it often removes the most useful features!

Zephyr flips that model on its head.

With Zephyr, you only build what you use. Thanks to its tightly integrated Kconfig system, you can include or exclude modules like drivers, file systems, protocol stacks, and subsystems with surgical precision.

The result? Smaller binaries, reduced attack surface, and faster boot times.

Do you need BLE but not Wi-Fi? SPI but not I2C? Zephyr doesn’t assume anything. You build your OS intentionally like you build your firmware.

This modularity also makes Zephyr future-proof. As your product grows, you can extend it without re-architecting. Add a new subsystem? Enable a new hardware platform? Drop in the module, configure it, and go.

Combined with its board abstraction, device tree system, and flexible driver model, Zephyr’s modular design empowers teams to build portable, maintainable, and tailored firmware stacks that scale from simple sensors to complex gateways.

Zephyr RTOS is going to rule the world.

The bottom line

Zephyr RTOS isn’t just catching up; it’s quietly pulling ahead. With industry-wide collaboration, a growing contributor base, a flexible architecture, powerful observability tools, and a focus on long-term sustainability, it’s poised to become the default RTOS for modern embedded systems. 

It’s not a matter of if Zephyr will rule the embedded world.

It’s a matter of when.