I have one of these
They claim this runs "twice as fast as their nearest competitor running at 16MHz", you're free to guess who that is. And they claim it's price is better than the PICAxe series, approx $8 to $11. They have an 18, 28 and 40 pin version. Their benchmark is based on a test of every "nonblocking" command" (anything that calls for a pause) run in a loop one million times. It's nice that it runs using the internal clock set to 8MHz. No crystal or caps to install wrong. The BASIC is quite comprehensive, even has 32 bit math. I prefer their older Basic Atom ICs as they run with a resonator or crystal at 20 MHz. Never hurts to have faster response to interrupts and higher Baud rates. I got the Nano because it has an inexpensive development board that uses USB for programming and communications. And, of course, I'm familiar with the BASIC.
Worth checking out!
kenjj