Any recommendations for Chinese pcb manufacturers? Looking for lowest cost including shipping to UK. Not too worried about lead times if its under 4 weeks.
Not large quantities at the moment.
Don't care about fancy colours. Simple double sided boards.
Google throws up PCBway, JLCpcb and AllPCB amongst hundreds of others! Itead is another I've seen mentioned.
I'm not in the UK but JLCPCB has served me well at a reasonable price.
Seems Julian Ilet (cool YouTube channel) in the UK is being sponsored by them and you can redeem a $10 coupon in a link provided under his video
--> coupon @ From PCB Design to PCBA- EasyEDA & JLCPCB
I've used ITEAD and been completely satisfied. You do have to check how they do their pricing though, look for an offer where you buy 10 boards up to a certain size, it might be cheaper than ordering by size. Also note that you need to pay first then upload your design.
I ordered from JLPCB several times and they are more than ok, fair pricing and even when there was a confusion they took responsibility. Not less important is their free design tool EasyEDA which I recommend for most DIY projects.
I've used Itead a lot, also. Excellent quality and fast shipping. Very cheap!
I use JLPCB and have never had a problem. I may be a bit biased but I goofed on my first layout and they caught it and saved me a lot of time. I was learning KiCad at the time (still am) and it was my first PCB.
I ordered from JLPCB several times and they are more than ok, fair pricing and even when there was a confusion they took responsibility. Not less important is their free design tool EasyEDA which I recommend for most DIY projects.
I'll check EasyEDA out. Better than DesignSpark?
No idea, never tried DesignSpark, I am not a PCB designer or expert, just a guy building things 
I've found that EasyEDA was the easiest for me to work with as an occasional user. Tried KiCAD and Eagle but not DesignSpark
Will give JLPpcb a shot! Thanks everyone.
I've used JLCPCB, PCBWAY, Seeed, and ITead, and the boards were all fine. My impressions (some of which are old by now) was that JLCPCB had the cheapest overall options (especially if you only want 5 boards), and PCBWay shipped faster (time from when they received the order to when THEY shipped, not including shipping delays.)
JLCPCB now does really cheap 4-layer boards, which is very tempting.
I use allpcb.com and have been very happy with the quality, cost and speed of delivery.
Additional fees can be a problem. It is more an issue of how the customs here works with a lower order value limit, below which, the order is exempt of duty. If, however, the price goes one cent above that limit, then a hefty admin fee kicks in and the whole order is subject to duty. It has happened once recently where I had to pay an extra almost 30 bucks because of some modest "extra charges".
What I have noticed, when testing prices from other manufacturers, is that the software is almost identical, so all these firms may not be as independent as they appear. But, anyway, if the price is good, so what.
Cheap boards has changed the way I prototype. I much prefer to go straight to a PCB and design a first board with lots of jumpers and exposed tracks so I get something which I can hack easily, especially if I am familiar with the components. That as an alternative to soldering a lot of SMD components to break out boards and then fitting it all, with inter connections, to a bread board or solder board.
Itead is closing their PCB business:
"JLCPCB, one of the key and reliable partners of ITEAD STUDIO, will take over the PCB prototype and Laser Cut SMT stencils business from ITEAD STUDIO, whether you’re creating your first PCB, or developing an electronic hardware product, JLCPCB will help you build hardware easier and faster by providing rapid PCB prototype and SMT stencils service.
If you would like to purchase PCB or SMT, you can take this factory for reference."
I agree. JLCPCB is a great PCB manufacturer for very cheap prices.
I am from Bulgaria and have ordered from several PCB manufacturers but in terms of quality and price I am most satisfied from www.boktech.cc.
This topic was automatically closed 120 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.