Raspberry PI 2 VS Banana pi BPI-M1 benchmarks

It's actually cheaper than I was expecting... Like $55. Not AS cheap as the pi, but still pretty cheap for what it is.

Actually, the BPI will run any RPi OS image unmodified, although you'll get better performance if you run one that is compiled natively. (ARM6 images will run on an ARM7 processor) The BPi has the same number of OS choices. More if you consider that the ARM7 images for the BPi won't run on the RPi.

Each USB on the BPi has it's own controller, whereas the RPi shares USB through a hub on the ethernet chip. The BPi has better USB performance.

The BPi's ethernet is WAY faster than the RPi.

In all fairness, the BPi has the same number of GPIO as the RPi. The BPi Pro has the same number of GPIO as the RPi2. Both boards have the same layout so shields can be interchanged.

The BPi has an LVDS video interface, which is far more standard than DSI. It can be used to drive large LCD panels directly.

As for the community, any question or issue that rises for the RPi applies to the BPi with maybe a few exceptions. BPi users have the RPi community to draw on, plus BPi specific support.