What is the differnce between the RG1xx LoRaWAN Gateway and lower cost gateways?

There are a number of low cost hobbiest gateways on the market based on devices such as the Raspberry Pi, paired with a Semtech SX1272/SX1276, normally used in a LoRaWAN node. These low cost gateways often are single channel devices, operating on a single spreading factor. A single channel gateway can miss many of the LoRaWAN messages broadcast. The Laird RG1xx is an 8 channel gateway based on the industry standard Semtech SX1301/SX1257 chipset providing a scaleable solution able to receive on multiple channels/spreading factors at the same time.