I've tried a few aliexpress alternatives with mixed results; but here are some of the shortfalls.
An uno which would not accept a sketch because of a PCB design fault where one of the SMD microprocessors was not connected properly. I found a post online about how to solve this.
A nano v3.0 which I used for a plant watering system, but the output to the pump relay sometimes got stuck on. The solution was to replace with a v4.0.
Another nano v3.0 from the same batch used for a dcf77 clock receiver, which did not see the reception from the receiver module. I proved the receiver module working with a simple LED circuit. It turns out the D2 input pin was basically shorted to GND. The solution again was to swap for a v4.0
An ESP32 used for an Internet radio, where the WiFi reception was little over a few meters… The solution was to swap for and ESP32 from Ebay UK - but from unknown origin.
If money was easier to earn, I'd happily pay more for more expensive modules every time. But in the mean time, is there a way to find cheaper alternatives that are half-way decent?
I have had an MCU fail on an LGT8F328P and a UART fail on a blue Nano board with an unmarked UART IC. Generally Nanos with genuine Atmel 328P or 328PB and CH340G ICs have worked fine.
I checked over everything, but just plugging in a different Arduino/ESP32 yielded results without changing anything.
The feedback on Aliexpress has seemed good, but I assume it was left by people who had received the product but not fully tested. TBH, I sometimes order well in advance of actually getting around to using components.
I've not tried Bangood before, but found some Ebay stuff gets dropshipped from AliExpress, just at a higher cost.
There is definitely some gaming of the feedback system. I regularly receive emails offering free products from sellers hoping to make an exchange for Amazon reviews.
I actually took up one of these sellers on their offer years ago while I was solely a hobbyist in this field and gambling with using the dodgy cheap products from eBay and AliExpress in my projects. I had already made some purchases from this seller and found their products to be interesting and of adequate quality. So I had a reasonable expectation that they were sincere in their offer, as opposed to it being a complete scam.
However, I firmly refused to do anything unethical. What I offered instead of a review was to provide high quality technical feedback on their product listings (which were riddled with errors from translation errors and incompetence). The seller took me up on the offer, but then we had a bit of a conflict when they wanted me to pay me to purchase the products from their listings on Amazon. I felt this would still be somewhat unethical because it would provide them some boost with the algorithm for making a sale when there was no actual sale. I insisted they simply ship me the products and they did give in.
I provided high quality feedback that was easily equal in value to the cost of the products I was given. However, when I checked back later the indisputable errors in the listings I reported (and provided replacement text that could have been pasted in verbatim) had had not been corrected. So it seems like they were only trying to manipulate their Amazon stats and didn't actually care about improving the quality of their listings.
I think it's just bad luck. Remember that you never hear from the people whose hardware just works. Electronics manufacturing at scale is a solved problem, but like anything else, it's not perfect.
Of the dozens of clones that I've bought i never had one arrive DOA or only partially working.
This practice dates back to the era when artists or publishers bought their own records or books to push them into sales charts, a well-documented tactic known as priming the pump.
With digital distribution and generative AI, the same mechanism now operates at much larger scale and lower cost.
Unethical marketing agencies receive a budget from sellers and reroute part of it to coordinated fake activity, inflating sales volumes, rankings, and engagement metrics while keeping the remaining funds as profit.
These operations commonly rely on VPNs, proxy networks, SIM farms, and racks of smartphones or small computers to simulate tens of thousands of distinct users.
Such systems are used to generate fake followers on social networks, artificial purchases (some later canceled or refunded), platform commission churn, and large volumes of fabricated reviews, often written or assisted by generative AI.
This behavior violates the terms of service of platforms like Amazon, Google, and Meta and has led to account bans, large-scale review purges, and face legal sanctions for commercial deception in many countries but tracking them down or taking action is super difficult.
So not sure I trust the reviews, the starts or whatever anymore…
For my hobby purposes, I use mainly aliexpress and I order quite a lot of stuff. Only on a few of occasions have I had something completely unusable and the dispute process has worked every time so far and I've just thrown the stuff away. So I am prepared to take a risk. I like to have a large stock of stuff (say a selection box of 100 leds instead of just 3 leds for the current project). That is, I don't just create a bill of materials for the current project and buy exactly that. I don't buy expensive items which would be a hassle to return if that turned out to be necessary. I also prefer to buy individual microcontroller chips from specialist parts distributors.
There are also other hidden costs to buying cheap stuff. Bad or non-existent documentation can mean some experimentation or fiddling about measuring and creating PCB footprints for special parts.
Some of the Chinese stuff looks ridiculously cheap. AliExpress with v3 Nanos at £0.68 and free delivery. RS Components £22.88 plus delivery.
How do you make money at £0.68? On the other hand, why pay RS prices?
I used RS and Farnell a lot professionally but I wasn't paying the bills. There wasn't much choice and procurement people set the buying rules. It was noticeably expensive with specialised tools like crimpers.
Probably, lack of competition kept prices high. What you did expect from large distributors were genuine, quality assured goods, traceable. You got no thanks for trying to be economical.
Now, in hobby use, I try a middle way. Buy genuine Arduino products to support the project - Qualcomm might change that - and sometimes take a punt on dirt cheap boards.
I'm glad the availability of cheap components and boards from China has opened up the market. If you get a duff one now and again, so what?
If you are starting to buy Arduinos in quantity , you ought to think of making your own PCB’s made to suit the task you want .
You can then buy genuine processors and have good quality boards for a reasonable price and professional appearance .
That tends to be more expensive than the Chinese imports (at least, it was before the new tariffs and such.)
You do want to spend some effort finding a "good" seller from Aliexpress/etc. One that has a "store" that specializes in electronics and not clothing and sex toys with some PCBs on the side. One that publishes a decent amount of technical information, and that you can deal with more than once. (although, the vendor I trusted ("Baite Electronics") apparently opted out of selling directly (their logo still appears on boards sold by other vendors...))
( in past I’ve have had good results with cheap one , buying 10 at a time , off eBay but the odd fault, CH340 drivers, old bootloaders etc can be frustrating to newbies - I think your first board should a genuine UNO )
I’d Agree about the prices ( how do they do it ?) but I was thinking about a “ project “ rather just say a nano clone , where rather than having your cheap nano , a piece of breadboard , some nails, and load of DuPont wires for your “ Mk2 Nuclear sub control system “ you could have a board , with a 328 , crystal and with the motor controllers , leds etc as needed for that control task . It then becomes more cost effective - even for one or two off .
It’s a good personal development exercise .
