cheap-PCB-manufacturing

PCB Manufacturers - prices with shipping to the Netherlands/Europe per Q1 2018

GitHub tag

Note: These pages are also viewable at https://gerhobbelt.github.io/cheap-PCB-manufacturing/

JLCPCB
- on-line quote calculator: https://jlcpcb.com/quote
- shipping costs worldwide: https://support.jlcpcb.com/article/27-shipping-delivery
- indicative price: 2L (2 layers), 100x100mm, 10pcs, HASL, green PCB, 1.6mm thickness: Special offer = USD 2, weight 330g EX shipping
- Registered Air Mail is hinted to be USD 9.92 (but you only will know for certain once you’ve gone through the entire order process and arrived at ‘payment’…)
- Estimated total cost for reference PCB 100x100xminimum count = USD 12 (2+9.92)
DirtyPCBs
- on-line cost estimator: https://dirtypcbs.com/store/pcbs
- shipping calculator worldwide per country (which might be indicative for the others): https://dirtypcbs.com/store/shipping_calculator
- indicative price: 2L (2 layers), 50x50mm, 10pcs, HASL, red PCB, 1.2mm thickness: USD 12 (11.95) EX shipping
- indicative price: 2L (2 layers), 100x100mm, 10pcs, HASL, red PCB, 1.2mm thickness: USD 17 (11.95+5.00) EX shipping
- seems all thicknesses up to 1.6mm are the same price: this is not so for many other PCB manufacturers
- when set to ‘custom size’, 100x100mm as above lists as USD 20
- any size beyond 100x100mm strongly jumps up the price; we observe this with many other manufacturers as well. The days of ‘euroformat’ (160x100) are definitely in the past now. ;-)
- shipping using HongKong Post for a 400 grams is listed at USD 8, delivery in 1-8 weeks
- shipping using PostNL for a 400 grams is listed at USD 9, delivery in 1-8 weeks
- Estimated total cost for reference PCB 100x100xminimum count = USD 20 (12+8)
FusionPCB a.k.a. SeeedStudio
- on-line quote calculator: https://www.seeedstudio.io/fusion_pcb.html
- shipping: “Calculated at Checkout”.
- indicative price: 2L (2 layers), 100x100mm, 10pcs, HASL, green PCB, solder mask dam 0.4mm↑, drill holes 0.3mm↑, 6mil↑ traces, 1.6mm thickness: Special offer = USD 4.90, weight 320g EX shipping
- production 5-6 working days
- note the FAQ: http://support.seeedstudio.com/knowledgebase/articles/1835581-why-doesn-t-my-fusion-pcb-qualify-for-the-special - the special price is only for the first 5 orders. After that it’s USD 9.99. Can’t find that bit of info in the FAQ anymore though (April 2018), so this bit of info may be outdated!
- note the FAQ: http://support.seeedstudio.com/knowledgebase/articles/445755-the-seeed-production-code-must-be-printed-on-some
- has a nice technology FAQ which also works for most of the others if the various forums I browsed are an indication: http://support.seeedstudio.com/knowledgebase/topics/63002-fusion-technical-support
- minumum order amount is 5pcs, but it doesn’t change the price for the special offer at least when you order 10pcs.
- shipping FAQ: http://support.seeedstudio.com/knowledgebase/articles/374487-what-are-the-available-shipping-methods
- Estimated total cost for reference PCB 100x100xminimum count = USD 15 / USD 20 (4.90+9 / 9.90+9)
PCBWay
- on-line quote calculator: https://www.pcbway.com/orderonline.aspx
- shipping: is part of the on-line quote calculator (yay!): https://www.pcbway.com/orderonline.aspx
- indicative price: 2L (2 layers), 100x100mm, 5pcs, HASL (lead), green PCB, white silkscreen, drill holes 0.3mm↑, 6mil↑ traces, 1.6mm thickness: USD 5, weight 175g, shipping with China Port: USD 9
- indicative price: 2L (2 layers), 100x100mm, 10pcs, HASL (lead), green PCB, white silkscreen, drill holes 0.3mm↑, 6mil↑ traces, 1.6mm thickness: USD 5, weight 350g, shipping with China Port: USD 11
- Tented vias:
  - What is the main reference to process vias by PCBWay?
    1. If you submit gerber file, then we process via exactly according to your file. The three options you chose will be ignored then.
    2. For .PCB and .PCBDOC files, it is hard to confirm the via attribute, so we will process via according to the options you selected.
- production 2-3 working days
- minumum order amount is 5pcs, but it doesn’t change the price for the PCBs when you order 10pcs; it’s only the shipping costs which rise with the larger order.
- shipping via China Post is cheapest and is indicated at 25-40 working days delivery time.
- Note: “Final price is subject to our review.” in the calculator page.
- Extra ‘advanced options’ which do not hike the price:
  - Half-cut/Castellated holes, i.e. holes on the edge of the board which are cut in half.
  - UL marking
  - solder mask colors: Red/Green/Yellow/Blue/White/Black/None. (The solder mask colors which do hike the price - to USD 50 total - are: purple, matte black, matte green.)
  - silkscreen color: Black, iff used with solder mask color WHITE. (Some other combinations are not available, while the other color combos with black silkscreen (green, yellow) do hike up the price to USD 50 total.)
- Estimated total cost for reference PCB 100x100xminimum count = USD 14 (5+9) and USD 16 for 10pcs.
- One of the very few where all-black and black-on-white PCBs share the same price with the standard green and white-on-green ones.
allPCB
- on-line quote calculator: http://www.allpcb.com/online_quote.html?hidLength=100&hidWidth=100&num=5&countNumer=5&txtSelNum=&Layersquote=2&Thicknessquote=1.6
- shipping: is part of the on-line quote calculator (yay!): http://www.allpcb.com/online_quote.html?hidLength=100&hidWidth=100&num=5&countNumer=5&txtSelNum=&Layersquote=2&Thicknessquote=1.6
- indicative price: 2L (2 layers), 100x100mm, 5pcs, HASL (lead), green PCB, white silkscreen, drill holes 0.3mm↑, 6mil↑ traces, 1.6mm thickness: weight 660g, shipping with TNT @ 3-5 days shipping: USD 21 = board @ USD 4.97, Film @ USD 4.42, Shipping: rest.
- indicative price: 2L (2 layers), 100x100mm, 10pcs, HASL (lead), green PCB, white silkscreen, drill holes 0.3mm↑, 6mil↑ traces, 1.6mm thickness: weight 820g, shipping with TNT @ 3-5 days shipping: USD 26 = board @ USD 9.95, Film @ USD 4.42, Shipping: rest.
- indicative price: 1L (1 layer), Aluminium backplace, 100x100mm, 5pcs, HASL (lead), black silk on white PCB, 6mil↑ traces, 1.6mm thickness: USD 21, weight 660g, shipping with TNT
- No difference in shipping cost for TNT and HK Post, though HK Post has the usual long delivery times, while TNT is listed at 3-5 days.
- production 2-3 working days
- minimum order amount is 5pcs, but this is one manufacturer where larger numbers don’t exhibit sudden price jumps: the prices increase gradually as you order a larger number of the same board.
- Extra ‘advanced options’ which do not hike the price:
  - black silk on white board. Other colors or color combos other than white-on-green and black-on-white increase the price to USD 30 - USD 43 total vs. base price USD 21. Do note that, contrary to PCBWay, AllPCB does charge extra for black mask (basecoat)!
- Estimated total cost for reference PCB 100x100x5 = USD 21 and USD 26 for 10pcs.
Elecrow
- on-line quote calculator: https://www.elecrow.com/pcb-manufacturing.html
- indicative price: 2L (2 layers), 100x100mm, 5pcs, HASL (lead), green PCB, white silkscreen, drill holes 0.3mm↑, 6mil↑ traces, 1.6mm thickness: weight 275g, USD 4.90 EX shipping
- indicative price: 2L (2 layers), 100x100mm, 10pcs, HASL (lead), green PCB, white silkscreen, drill holes 0.3mm↑, 6mil↑ traces, 1.6mm thickness: weight 470g, USD 4.90 EX shipping
- production 4-7 working days
- Shipping options are at the bottom of the on-line quote calculator page, but are not included in the large displayed price at right: Registered Mail is cheapest at USD 8.04 for 5pcs and USD 11.46 for 10pcs.
- PCB costs jump when going beyond the 10pcs order amount: 15pcs @ USD 32.45, 20pcs @ 38.10. This behaviour is similar to most other manufacturers, including the ones we don’t list here as they are way more expensive than any of these while exhibiting similar production times and often DHL/FedEX-only extortionate shipping costs (particularly when you know what DHL does for you when it comes to paying taxes: they list the Dutch shipping charge (rather than the one paid by Chinese in China) and taxes are calculated accordingly, resulting in a PCB cost that’s so far off the charts, you’ll need NASA to locate it for you.)
- Similar price jump when ordering boards beyond the size 100x100mm: 110x100mm @ USD 21.72 + Shipping @ USD 8.76 for 5 pcs. Again, the same behaviour as for many other manufacturers. We are clearly observing a curious marketing phenomenon here, ladies and gentlemen!
- Extra ‘advanced options’ which do not hike the price:
  - any of these PCB colors: black, green, red, yellow, blue, white. (Purple and Matte Black boards are more expensive, though.)
  - Has a fixed silkscreen color for each PCB color, so that’s settled, no questions asked.
- Castellated Holes are listed as an option but do hike the price from USD 4.90 to USD 19.90
- Estimated total cost for reference PCB 100x100x5 = USD 13 (4.90+8.04) and USD 17 for 10pcs (4.90+11.46).
Others…
- To help investigate other manufacturers, there’s these sites:
  - https://pcbshopper.com/
  - http://oliverbetz.de/pages/PIM/LeiterplattenKleinmengen - which lists some older info, but is targeting Germany, which is much closer to home than The Donald County.
  - https://www.leiton.de/kalkulation-preis.html#prices – a German manufacturer clocking in at EUR 55 at 12 AT (ArbeitsTagen - working days) “SparTarif”. Some may be a tad cheaper, many a tad - or two tads - more pricey…
  - http://www.platinenbelichter.de/index.php/platinen-preise.html - another German manufacturer, this one looking like the low end of things Made In Germany at, er, competitive prices?
  - https://aisler.net/products/boards - no price indication, apart from being the cheapest in another list and in Oliver Betz’s above.
  - https://firstpcb.com/ – dunno
  - https://www.smart-prototyping.com/PCB-Prototyping.html – 50x50x5 @ EUR 4.21 but no shipping info(?), while 100x100x5 goes for EUR 5.93 at 3-4 working days. Oh wait! Here’s the shipping info link: https://www.smart-prototyping.com/shipping-warranty-returns, so these guys might actually be competitive indeed!
  - https://easyeda.com/order - 100x100x10 at USD 2.00 “total price”, but the quotation page hints this is an alias or reseller site of JLCPCB at the top of this file, hence the USD 2.00 cost, which is identical to JLCPCB itself…
FAQs:
- https://www.elecrow.com/wiki/index.php?title=Common_PCB_design_problem_for_PCB_fabrication

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