Dev boards are generally aimed at specific usage, for e.g. Microchip sell many different boards, general/multi purpose such as the Picdem version with various input sensor devices, to the more specific aimed at either BLDC or DC motor control.
The Picdem has various sized sockets for different pic's, fortunately Picmicro's have a fairly standard I/O pin definitions across part No.'s.
The other popular ones are made by Olimex etc.
Although I found the problem with these, (Olimex) is they do not have an easily way of creating connections for external devices to the micro itself.
Max.