I've previously had to justify the costs of PLC hardware for prototyping to my non-technical CEO, as well as electronics engineers who've never worked with PLCs

I've previously had to justify the costs of PLC hardware for prototyping to my non-technical CEO, as well as electronics engineers who've never worked with PLCs before. Yes, the hardware is "expensive" compared to an arduino or a RasPi. Arguably, cheap hardware quickly becomes expensive when you consider the amount of engineering time required to get something working. With a PLC, I have: - A validated hardware AND development environment that "just works" - Plug-and-play like capability with a huge ecosystem of instruments, motion controls, etc. etc. - Can quickly program and test said PLC - Can quickly develop a GUI - Can quickly debug issues through the development environment Obviously there's some downsides. If the sensors I need only have I2C, SPI, or similar interface, things can get a little hairy. Resist the urge to prematurely optimize hardware based on "cost" young jedis.