I’ve just done some test on different RF433 receivers, from the classical really low cost system to some more expensive systems. The test environment was always the same : a dirty test board with lots of wire connections everywhere and an antenna made with a 17.3 cm wire. The conditions are poor but identical.

Then I move around my house and activate my alarm detector one after one and check if the system received it. Some detector are same floor, 1 floor or 2 floors distance, some are behind walls, distance vary from 5 to 20 meters in house.

The following results are the number of message received by the different receivers in this context. More you see, better it is.

All the different receivers tested are all AM receivers. We have 8 sensors located in different area of my house (named A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H). For each I’ll give you the number of event received on the receiver.

The first one tested is a really simple and low cost device you can found here for 3.76€ HT with emitter and receiver.

This is a 5V receiver system the emitter seems to operate any voltage, 12v recommended (to be verified)

Results ( A = 0 | B = 5 | C=0 | D = 0 | E = 2 | F = 0 | G =0 | H=0) Total score : 7

The second receiver (B) I’ve test is a high cost receiver you can find here for the price of 12€.

This receiver is working with 5V

Results : ( A = 0 | B = 7 | C = 0 | D = 2 | E = 9 | F = 3 | G = 0 | H = 0) Total Score : 21

The third one (C) you can find here for the price of 7.2€ is actually a really good receiver operating at 5 Volts.

Results : ( A = 0 | B = 7 | C = 6 | D = 2 | E = 6 | F = 5 | G = 3 | H = 7 ) Total Score : 36

The last one (D) you can find here for the price of 6.17€ have two big advantages in my point of view compared to the previous one for the same performance : it is operated in 3.3V simplifying integration on raspberry PI and it is really small design pluggable as a SMD. More over it have a antenna plug incorporated (but you also have the antenna pin to connect a simple wire)

Result ( A = 7 | B = 7 | C = 7 | D = 3 | E = 6 | F = 6 | G = 0 | H =7 ) Total Score : 43

According to this I definitely choose the last one for my design, I much I have seen there is a really high impact on the receiver choice in a 433Mhz design and even if the less expensive looks the worst, the most expensive is not the best.