NI Stepper motor

Hi all,

I wan t to have an stepper motor with a built-in encoder. something like ST34-8E from NI. But I'd like to know if it is crucial to drive that buy NI products or I can use any other third party product? I am thinking to use a Gecko power driver and Arduino Uno to drive and control it. It is much cheaper than using NI Compact RIO.

Thanks,

Saridar