Info post: Seeedstudio PCB pricing matrix

I was doing some PCB order on seeedstudio and noticed a price error. So I thought it would be cool to make the pricing matrix for the several board sizes that I use (bet others use these sizes also). Saves you time from digging on their site:

5*5	PCS	Cost	Unit cost
	5	 $9.90 	 $1.98 
	10	 $9.90 	 $0.99 
	20	 $28.90 	 $1.45 
	30	 $28.90 	 $0.96 
	50	 $39.90 	 $0.80 
	100	 $79.90 	 $0.80 
			
10*10	PCS	Cost	Unit cost
	5	 $20.90 	 $4.18 
	10	 $24.90 	 $2.49 
	20	 $45.90 	 $2.30 
	30	 $69.90 	 $2.33 
	50	 $109.90 	 $2.20 
	100	 $179.90 	 $1.80 

5*10	PCS	Cost	Unit cost
	5	 $18.90 	 $3.78 
	10	 $23.90 	 $2.39 
	20	 $42.90 	 $2.15 
	30	 $56.90 	 $1.90 
	50	 $69.90 	 $1.40 
	100	 $104.90 	 $1.05 
			
10*15	PCS	Cost	Unit cost
	5	 $45.90 	 $9.18 
	10	 $55.90 	 $5.59 
	20	 $86.90 	 $4.35 
	30	 $124.90 	 $4.16 
	50	 $139.90 	 $2.80 
	100	 $249.90 	 $2.50

Notice the mistake in there?

It seems like from 1010 to 1010, you pay a deep increase.

I just decided NOT to go with seeedstduio for a while. They excluded PCB service from $50 free shipping. They've been doing this for years but just removed it. This triggered me to look at alternative, iteadstudio.

I had some quote dispute with itead a few years back. I do 100-200 boards at a time for some of my kits. One guy gave a price and the other guy would give a very different one, like twice as expensive. Confusing a whole lot. I decided to drop them and return to seeed, knowing they were a bit more expensive, but discovered the free shipping.

Now I took another look at itead, they have slightly lower priced 10*10 boards ($5 less) and shipping is quite a bit more reasonable compared with seeed. I'll see how they handle 100-200 board quotes.

I know CR has been using/recommending itead :slight_smile:

I've used iTead a few times, no complaints at all. The only reason I currently use Elecrow is that they do coloured boards for no extra charge!

I've been happily using itead for a few small runs: only 10-20 boards not 200 - got my latest delivery just last week! However they have the full quantity pricing structure laid out on their website (qty up to 300) so there shouldn't be any confusion; for example, 10x10cm.

The process standards (clearances, min line widths, etc) are not up to local (Australian) quality but it is literally 10-50x cheaper and more than good enough for simple microcontroller work.

And they are still shipping with desiccants. I don't know if that's good or not for transportation. Seeed says that's not allowed by their mail carriers. Anyway, it's good to know the boards are dry.