These are tough times for American hackers, and rife with uncertainty. Trade wars are on, off, on again– who can keep track? If you’re used to getting everything from China, that can really cramp your style. [Jeremy Cook] took the time to write up his experience prototyping with American-made PCBs, just in time for us to totally miss Independence Day.
The project was a simple nightlight, using a single LED, a photoresistor, a transistor, and a CR2032 battery. The CR2032 battery does complicate things, though: [Jeremy] figured out a neat way to hold the battery using a PCB cutout, but it needs to be a 0.8 mm board. (That’s going to matter in a moment.) He’s put that PCB on GitHub if you’re interested.
To start off, JLBPCB is the Chinese clearing house of choice for [Jeremy], and they quoted a very cheap $7.10 for 20 boards. The problem was that shipping across the Pacific Ocean, plus the ever-wavering tariff charge, brought the price to $48.08. About five dollars of which was from tariffs; the rest you can put down to the cost of jet fuel and the size of the Pacific Ocean.
On the other hand, OSH Park, was able to get [Jeremy] three of their pretty purple PCBs for $7.75 all-inclusive. Overall, since he’s prototyping and does not want 20 boards this revision, [Jeremy] saves quite a lot by staying local– including the environmental impact of shipping and laxer regulations in China, if that sort of thing matters to you.
The suprizing thing is the turnaround time: [Jeremy] got his pretty purple PCBs from OSH Park a full twenty days after ordering. Similar orders from China take only a week, which is just mind-blowing when you stop and think about the great honking ocean in the way. We could perhaps cut OSH Park some slack in that 0.8 mm boards are not the most common, but their quoted turnaround time for two-layer prototypes is minimum 12 days.
They do offer a “super-swift” option for two-layer boards, but then they lose on price. As [Jeremy] points out, there are always tradeoffs. If you’re really in a hurry, nothing’s faster than milling the boards yourself. Or you could go the old-school toner-transfer etching route.
Our thanks to [Jeremy] for the tip. If you’ve got a better way to prototype, do send us a tip about it. Also, please us know in the comments if you’ve tried an in-country PCB fabricator, and how it compared to the usual offerings from the PRC.
I had some PCBs made at JLPCB. They were ordered, and reviewed on the 5th of June. Then created and shipped on the 7th of June. 8th of June, the shipment arrived in Leipzig, Germany. Then for some reason it took 5 days to process in Leipzig. Then went to Cologne and then Duesseldorf, where it arrived on the 13th of June. In Duesseldorf it took another 4 days before something started moving. The package arrived in The Netherlands on the 17th of June. And then finally arrived at my house on the 18th of June.
So it took 11 days to ship, 9 days of which the package was standing still somewhere in a warehouse in Germany.
I am really wondering why the Chinese are 4 times as efficient as the Germans. What happened to those Germans that caused this?
June 7th was a Saturday, June 8th was Sunday. On weekends in Germany, little happens.
Monday, June 9th was a holiday – also nothing really happens here.
I don’t know what happened to the other 5 days, though.
About slow shipping.. Here in Germany, there is (or was) “Warensendung” which is cheapest mail type for such things.
It’s a variation of “Büchersendung” and uses envelopes closed throzgh brass fasteners.
It’s known for being slowest, too. Average shipping time is 3-4 days.
eBay sellers often use(d) it here to ship small or low-priced things such as DVDs (with case) etc.
The reason for this is that they ship the orders in bulk by express and then repackage them in europe for distribution. These are tricks to reduce shipping costs and obviously you do not get first priority clearance for that as well.
This has nothing to do with slow customs in europe. The shipping time is also clearly denoted next to the shipping options.
Use DHL express if it is supposed to be fast.
Ah yes, makes sense. Reminds me of ‘shared ordering’ concept in which groups of people (say hobbyists in a forum) make one, big single order to save shipping costs.
I had a very good experience with JLCPCB and DHL Express shipping to Czechia. PCB were ordered on wednesday evening, manufactured during thursday, dispatched on friday, flown over the weekend and were delivered on monday morning.
But for one sidd PCBs nothing beats UV presensitized boards for 2eur and resin printer (or rather its UV LCD). Can be exposed developed and etched in 30min.
I have great experience with JLCPCB. Every time I look, they turn out to be the cheapest for me. Comparison for 5 doublesided PCBs of 147.3 x 55.9mm size, with the absolute cheapest shipping option:
JLCPCB: €6.10 + €6.36, eta: 4-8 business days
PCBWay: €21.17 + €4.89, eta: 6-10 business days
OSH Park: $63.80 + $0.00, eta: 21 business days
At OSH Park, I get only 3 PCBs for that price.
To be fair, my package took 11 days, of which 2 were weekend days and 1 was a holiday day. So it basically did take 8 business days.
In the weekend days, most likely the German bureaucracy was in suspended animation, so the package had to wait until the next monday to be cleared by customs. And on the holiday day, the DHL warehouse was probably closed. I guess Germany simply does not have a “24-hour economy”.
In any case, JLCPCB was still the single best option. The others were all more expensive AND slower as well.
JLCPCB can also make purple PCBs at no extra cost, other than an estimated 2 extra days of manufacturing time. :) So, at JLCPCB, I can get 5 purple PCBs for 1/5th of the price of 3 PCBs from OSH Park, and they will arrive twice faster as well.
This is my experience in The Netherlands.
Germany barely has 5-day economy. By early afternoon on Friday everything shuts down already. No wonder even places like Brazil might overtake us on GDP by 2040s.
I hate ordering anything in the EU and yookay because of their shipping services. UK has absolutely awful mail, I don’t know how they stand it.
Cannot confirm that. Seems to work pretty well using DHL within Germany and getting deliveries from AliExpress. Bank holidays appear to add extra shipping days in-country, doubt this is Europe-specific.
hmm.. based upon my experiences (which are fully based upon the 80’s stop-motion children TV show named “postman Pat”) I never imagined the UK postal services to be awful. Pat was always ever so friendly and that little cat was adorable, his cute little red delivery truck never failed him and he always got the job done. I guess things have changed.
I have lived in England, and only had very good and reliable service from Royal Mail. Not sure what TG is on about.
Royal Mail has become quite bad in the past 2-3 years and has the feel of a business circling the drain. It now only delivers regular mail 2 or 3 days a week. First class stamps are >£1.70, (more if your mal is thicker, larger or heavier than a regular letter.) Their parcel delivery is still quite good, but not attractively priced for businesses.
You should try Polish InPost “paczkomat” service not only super fast, reliable it also delivers to box machine of your choosing so its convinient too.
Paczkomats were a good idea 5 years ago but nowdays if you use one during late evening you’re likely to get mugged by organized crime groups from Georgia. Happened to me 3 times during last year. I switched back to direct delivery by courier or even Poczta Polska. It’s more expensive than InPost but I don’t risk my life for a $3 socket wrench from Allegro.
It does matter a lot who handles it on the EU part of it. I’m in the Netherlands too. Two months ago I ordered a GPS unit from uncle Ali (I spend so much money there I see him as family). Got a shipping notification an hour after paying. Two hours later it was at the airport. A day later I got a notification it was at the Amsterdam airport with PostNL. I ordered it on monday-tuesday night, right after midnight. On thursday there was a delivery person at my house.
Well over a decade ago I ordered cable sleeves, cable shrinks etc, from eastern Europe (Poland iirc), That got send by UPS. Incredibly high end stuff made there by someone with his own machines, that sold it directly to custom PC builders. The expected delivery time was 3 days. It took many many months. It got a tour around the entire EU, seeing every countries at least twice. It suffered many many non-existing train derailments, got stuck in local post offices of villages in Spain, Italy, Romania etc. I wish I still had the tracking info, it was page after page after page. It was in Amsterdam multiple times, getting my hopes up, only to send it somewhere totally unrelated. It would have been funny if it wasn’t for the fact that I ordered it for a custom gaming PC build off.
You can be lucky and it’s send by a proper delivery company, or unlucky and it ends up in the hands of DHL or UPS.
Five days in Leipzig? You’re lucky! My packages usually get a full week’s vacation courtesy of German Customs.
There must be a way to get things through more easily, but I haven’t found it.
Not for me, here in the UK.
I’d imagine not, no. Have you tried one of the fabrication houses on old blighty? Obviously you haven’t got tarrifs to worry about, but environmental and shipping costs still apply.
Not American.
My condolances.
(As it happens, neither am I!)
My glasses are all dirty. Can you tell me what the first line of this article says?
“Not American.”
In this day and age, I wish I was not :(
Feel free to renounce your citizenship and find another place to go, then. If you can’t handle being American during the “worst” times, you don’t deserve to be during the best of times.
Have you tried seceding?
*Other countries also available
If you’re living in the usa, you can always emigrate. Canada seems to be a country with quite friendly people and a sensible government.
Wait, do you recommend an invasion here? 😂 No really, do you? 🥲
Unfortunately, Canada’s immigration system is much more interested in aquiring indentured serfs (or as the UN calls them, “slaves”) from countries with no culture of worker protections:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/un-special-rapporteur-migrant-worker-program-modern-form-of-slavery-1.6958592
Even with the current administration in Washington, it is much easier for Canadians to work and live south of the border than vice versa.
There is a new service from India, which looks like Indian JLCPCB? Any experience with that?
https://www.lioncircuits.com/
In Europe there is Aisler, of course
https://aisler.net
I use them frequently. Their turnaround time within india is 10 working days ( not including weekends) . They were good last year recieved boards in 8 days, but they changed shipping providers and now it has added 2 more days to it. On cost, they are comparable to JLCPCB, but faster within India.
Life in the former colonies has become so difficult !
It would be nice if JLCPCB would open a factory in the US.
The US PCB manufacturers are slow. A Chinese manufacturer will have my boards done before I even get a quote back from a US manufacturer since nothing is automated.
Where you’re going, you’re not going to need a PCB factory.
Ive worked with JLCPCB and OSHPark for years. Their prices were pretty much the same. JLC definitely has fast shopping. Also JLC does assembly and OSHPark does not. JLC has better quality as well. Their stencils are free with assembly and easier to order than oshpark who takes you to another website. Still, i wish oshpark did assembly…
I was at an American manufacturing company prior to the 2016 “Trade War,” and the company’s workflow was to use American subcons for rapid prototyping.
With the introduction of tariffs, this American manufacturer found it couldn’t get raw materials (aluminum, steel, copper) from their regular distributors because they were all imported and now too expensive. The domestic suppliers raised their prices as well because foreign suppliers were no longer competition.
As for PCBs, prices went up because the PCB subcon couldn’t get raw materials at decent prices for the same reasons. Turn-around times went up as they had to decrease production capacity because of the limited access to materials.
As a result, the American manufacturer I worked for switched to a Chinese PCB house that had access to raw materials and could meet orders fast enough. Of course, the same pressures apply to us all so my employer lost a lot of business because they couldn’t meet orders either. Customers like Boeing and Raytheon couldn’t wait and didn’t like the price hikes so they cancelled orders and bought parts from a Chinese competitor instead.
Made in America doesn’t make sense for anyone as long as there’s tariffs and other policies that punish making things in America.
Yea like all simple answers to complex problems tarriffs arent enough to fix anything but sound good to the simple minded. In order to fix our problems in the US there would have to be tarrifs to raise outside prices, domestic price regulation to control the competition problem you mention, subsidies to encourage factory growth, and markets to trade the items kept open through good relations.
What we’re doing now is shooting ourselves in the foot and calling it an incentive for the other foot to do better and run faster.
Could always not export those materials recycling to China, but I get US businesses want money for their scrap
Not sure where the $50 shipping came in for JLCPCB – should be around $3 for an 8 day economy postal service. Should get 5 small PCBs for under $8, total, in under 10 days. Quality is top notch.
DHL tends to be about 20 bucks, plus the 5 dollar tariffs, plus a 16 dollar customs greasing fee to DHL. 40 bucks for shipping plus the 5 dollar boards plus sales tax, PayPal fee, etc. gets you in that 50 dollar ballpark.
Sure. In UK we have option to select ‘economy shipping’ – not expensive DHL or Fedex.
Simple reasons for fast China: Cheap labour, no limits on daily working hours, no weekends, less environmental regularions, high subsidies for everything that is hightech and for export, tightly controlled and artificially lowered money exchange rate, and for historical reasons nearly no shipping costs (international post treaty)
What you get is always the express service for a price you can not beat in the US or EU.
Our convenince for getting cheap PCBs from China blazingly fast is resting on the shoulders of many chinese workers and politics that does not care for people.
Hackers should ask their conscience whether it is really the right decission to use the cheapest available option. It has consequences for more people than just you.
Sadly the difference is often a board or no board, if you include the assembly and parts in stock.
No board for your hacks project is a #firstWorldProblem
Forced labour camps is a #uhuigurProblem
True, but getting prototype boards from a US CM recently was quoted as 1 week (with expedite fee) and took 8. It’s put our product development a month behind schedule. There’s a critical supply issue in the US.
Well said. I wonder how many people posting here have any idea of who the Uyghurs are, or give a damn about their plight.
@Dragan Off topic and wrong, there is plenty of evidence. Go troll somewhere else.
First of all, I think people in the US should look into their own fresh prisoner labour camps and shut up about other countries. Especially since they are quickly falling down into full-blown unapologetic fascism.
Second, I happen to live in a part of world that actually followed through and abolished death sentence as well as forced labour as suggested by the UN. This doesn’t stop e.g. France for bleeding some African countries dry, but at least here we managed to do the right thing.
Third, if you believe there are moral component sources under global capitalism, you are not looking hard enough. Do you buy Samsung capacitors? Young Koreans call their homeland Hell Joseon for a reason.
So yeah, I care about teaching kids here in EU how to do stuff more than I care about exploitation elsewhere, because that’s about the only thing I reasonably can do, given there is exploitation everywhere. Here I can at least make effort to make us more capable and less dependent. And I cannot afford to do that with local companies who do not care to invest in the future.
Meanwhile US is busy bombing civilians, assisting genocide, abandoning and/or threatening allies and herding people for slave labour while US citizens complain about Uyghurs maybe being involved in some Chinese supply chains and asking for domestic production.
Here’s a fun fact, there are 11M Uyghurs in China out of 1400M people total. They must be super productive for you to worry about. /s
The reality is that China exploits it lower class GenXers. They build today’s China. That was the Camel’s hump in population due to healthcare being introduced and they’ve used them to build up.
I am happy to make their customer. For now.
Tu-quoque is not an excuse for either side, only an admission of guilt.
Alternatively, it can be viewed as an argument out of bad faith: if you think that neither side should be criticized for the fact, but you’re still using the argument to put one down, then you’re arguing using morals that you yourself don’t believe in and therefore shouldn’t be complaining in the first place.
Or, if you’re using it as an appeal to hypocrisy, you’re making a faulty argument again. A classic example is claiming that an alcoholic shouldn’t be criticizing drunkenness – their failure to follow their own advice does not negate the truth of their argument.
In fact, the classic “but you’re hanging negroes” was a common evasion tactic of the Soviet Union whenever the western media pointed out to any human rights violations in the communist countries.
Investments in the future demand profits now to gather up capital with which to make those investments, which is hard to do if you’re competing in price with someone who’s effectively selling under cost by exploiting their own people.
You can up the price and lose the sales, or you can drop the price and stop the investments to remain in business for as long as possible. That’s what the predatory pricing tactic that China is using is all about. Take the hits until the opponent has no punch left – last man standing wins. Playing that game against a command economy hulk like China is a losing proposition.
The problem isn’t about teaching kids how to do stuff – with widgets bought from China – because you’re still teaching them to rely on someone else to do the grunt work. That’s not self-sufficiency. You know the old saying about giving a man a fish instead of teaching them how to fish – well, here we’re talking about who’s making the fishing rod and lures. If you’re bankrupting yourself by outsourcing to the point that you can’t even buy the equipment for the job, then what good does it do?
“Hackers should ask their conscience whether it is really the right decission to use the cheapest available option. It has consequences for more people than just you.”
+1
The search for lowest price has its price, too.
Greed for money and absolute profit thinking has its effects.
Native markets go extinct because we all buy from China.
We thought we were smart by exploiting Chinese workers who work for low wages.
But after decades, the tide is turning in favor of them.
They succesful made us dependent of them, we have sold our souls and given up on our own industries.
Same thing happened in Europe/Germany.
We’re depend of US American software and services.
Despite knowning for 20+ years that it’s not wise and that there must be a change (LiMux project, for example).
Just suddenly, I read, the Deutsche Bahn (DB) has switched off its own servers and moved over to Amazon/MS Azure. So sad.
Such things aren’t good, they make each one a slave.
They undermine sovereignty of democratic nations.
Being entirely dependend of China also weakens political power.
Nations nolonger acting on eye level with each others.
In response, human rights are not established, which also harms people in very authorian nations such as China.
I wonder how valid the “cheap labor” argument is in 2025. Everything has gotten so automated that in a PCB-manufacturing plant, you can look across a 10,000-square-foot factory floor and see almost nobody out there, because machines do everything including shuttling parts and materials from one station to the next.
There are still people and technology before (someone must build it), inside (someone must overview, maintain, service and modernize machines) and around (all bureaucrats, designers etc.) those factories.
Here’s how the “cheap labor” equation works these days: if and when the exploited workers start to demand higher living standards, you kick them out and automate the job, which displaces the workers back to lower paying jobs. You need less GDP to maintain your population if more of your people are poor and don’t demand as much goodies like cars or big houses, which is a handy way for a communist government to save cost. And, guess who pays for the machines? The billion plus people who are taxed despite their poverty and used to subsidize the factory for the company that exports the goods to the west.
The money they save and profits they collect can then be used for other purposes, such as maintaining the living standards of the elite – much like how the Soviet Union exploited all the other Soviet states and peripheries in favor of Moscow. Stalin starved the Ukrainians while using the grain procured from them to buy machinery from the west to build up industrial capacity. China is doing the same – it just has far more people to exploit so they don’t have to go to such extremes to collect enough spoils, except where they choose to.
So the “cheap labor” is not exploited directly in the factory, because they’re not working there, but the people are still being exploited as cheap labor overall.
Cheap labour, especially in the high tech industry, hasn’t been a thing in China for quite some time. Everything else that you have stated is 10% facts mixed with typical propaganda. That state that does “not care for the people” has lifted 800M of their people from absolute poverty, while the west and their vassals that “care”, are destroying their working class.
You posted this right as I was writing my short book, but I entirely agree.
I should have addressed the “doesn’t care about its people” part, because no government really cares about its people. Governments care about what it takes to keep being in charge. If anything, I see more hustle out of the Chinese government to help people than the US. Nowhere near the EU or even Canada in terms of personal rights, but at least you can retire with some sense of confidence in China… at the age of 60 (for men, 50/55 for women) which is crazy reasonable.
Actually the USA working class earnings are growing which is why the country has a hard time keeping eager workers out. Does Communist China have a problem with emigrants sneaking into the country?
Hi, I work closely with Chinese partners and have insight into the working culture, so I feel like I can address a lot of this.
“Cheap labour”
This hasn’t been the case in China, at least for the tech sector, for quite a while. They’re probably the leading country in precision automation. In my own job, we rely heavily on imported Chinese precision testing equipment because they’re the only ones on Earth that make them. We use the same ones used in Chinese factories.
“No limits on daily working hours”
As an American, we don’t either, but worse is that China does have working hour limits. After the Foxconn incident, they’ve been cracking down pretty hard to enforce it because it hurt exports. 40/5 and 44/6 are by far the norm. The companies we work with are strict on the 40/5 cycle and no more than 3 hours of OT.
“Less environmental regulations”
I live in the US. Same.
“No weekends”
lmao what. They most definitely do have weekends, and it’s very normal. China has a massive consumer culture and weekend leisure is a big part of life.
“On the shoulders of many chinese workers and politics that does not care for people”
I’m not going to defend the CCP, they’re awful, but this is totally disconnected from reality. Most factories are 80% automated from my own experience. Humans tend to only get involved in the fiddly bits and when PCBs have design defects caught during inspection.
You are not immune to propaganda, my friend. I’m not going to say China is just like the West, far from it, but the horror stories you hear are largely overblown. The biggest problems, imo, are IP rights, the tofu-dregs, awful banking issues, and the ABSOLUTE STATE of the dying housing sector. Those legit harm the Chinese population a lot, but a lot of stuff in western media tends to be overblown for propaganda sake.
I am an American, but from a country in South America. Is incredible the arrogance of calling themselves as a whole continent (North American is better, but you have other countries to share the title as well). The original article talks about the US though, so I guess the bias is from this editor in particular.
Author here: I actually suggested that headline.
I suppose the bias is baked in to the English language, but not quite how you think. No native speaker would refer to “the american continent” — we’d count North America and South America as separate. The word “American” doesn’t register as being related to the continents to us. A Canadian would never think of themselves in terms of continental location; we’re not continental-Americans, we’re not North Americans, we’re Canadians. The idea of identifying with a continent just seems weird in Anglo culture.
You like that I referred to the United States in the article, but like “America”, “The United States” is only an unambiguous name by convention– there are other polities that could be so-called, like los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. Brazil was also a “United States” during its first two republics. I should have specified “United States of America” to be sure.
The people who live in that USA are “Americans”; if you can’t accept it, then there is just no good way to refer to the people living between Canada and Mexico. (“Yankees” actually refers to a specific geographic subset living in New England. Using that for the whole bunch makes as much sense as calling all Mexicans Norteños.) If we’re calling the people who live there “Americans” we may as well call the place “America” for brevity. Again, in the English language, there’s no real gestalt of that word referring to the entire hemisphere.
The bias is not baked into the English language. Maybe into American English, but that certainly is not “English”. Bit more bias baked into American English
The fact that the BBC can refer to “America” without confusion or clarification suggests that British English indeed has the same bias. There’s no shame in the fact that anywhere in the anglosphere you can declare “I’m catching a flight to America” and no one will ask you “Which country on that vast pair of continents?” It’s not politics; it’s not supporting the USA or whoever is in government there; it’s just how people talk.
I do think it is a bit weird to refer to the USA that way, but such is the convention that was formed well before my time.
OTOH, my understanding is that Mexico City dwellers refer to the city as Mexico; Asian in USA nomenclature wouldn’t typically include Indian, Russian, and Middle Eastern territories (depending on the context); and I’m sure there are all kinds of other similar examples around the world. So it’s not JUST U.S. Americans supposedly being arrogant.
For that matter, why does a cartographer get TWO continents named after him??? One might argue it’s all a bit silly!
Then you’re not an American. That’s just pedantic, obtuse, and geographically incorrect silliness. The full name of the USA is the United States of America, hence its citizens are called Americans, much like the name of Mexico (in English) is the United Mexican States and its citizens are called Mexicans. It’s right there in the name.
Who in their right mind refers to themselves by their continent? And if you did, you would refer to yourself by the actual continent name, “I’m a a South American”, not “I’m an American.” Someone from the US is both an American and a North American. Someone from Canada is a Canadian and a North American, but not an American. If you’re from Brazil, you’re a Brazilian and a South American, but not an American. See how that works? Or do they not teach geography where you’re from?
“Who in their right mind refers to themselves by their continent?”
Australians?
(Sorry I couldn’t resist)
Oceanians.
It used to bother me a bit too, as I grew up in a South-American country, because of my parents’ work. People there would refer to the US as “los Estados Unidos,” or sometimes “Norte América,” and our mail, addressed to someone back home, always had “EEUU” at the end, short for “Estados Unidos.” For better or for worse, the official name of the country is “United States of America.” When we had Japanese visitors, they always referred to the US using just the term “America.”
I hate OSHPark purple color. It is tacky and pointless. I wish they would just stick to plain green if many options are not possible. So, I can only order After Dark option, which does not have 4 layers. This limits the types of PCBs I can use them for.
Also, mouse bites are annoying. I wish they could figure out a way to eliminate them.
The point of the purple is branding. They want people to see where you got your PCB fabbed so they get more business
Why on earth should a contract manufacturer have branding on my design. Nope. No thanks.
I love OSHPark, and if I am making small boards I prefer to use them, I just made an order with them the other day. They are in Oregon just like me, provide amazing service, and the price is great… for small boards. But I also sent an order for PCB, parts, and 3D printing to JLCPCB. The boards are 4 layer 170x80mm and the cost from OSHPark would have been prohibitive. In excess of $200 for 3, as opposed to the ~$30 for 5 from JLCPCB.
Then there is the price of the printing and parts. Even with tariffs and broker fees getting all that done in the US would have been 4-5 times as much as I paid.
I would be willing to place orders with US companies… if they gave me the time of day, and if they could get the price down to 2x or so.
Good point about de minimis.
I’d love for there to be more local places to get PCBs made, but JLC has a MOQ of 5 (for $2), not 20 as stated above. In my country, I’d pay $250 for one board.
For the past 15 years, here in the US, I’ve been using advancedpcb.com for prototypes – boards up to 60 sq in [3 min @ 33 each], which may not seem great, but for $50 more per order, you can fit multiple boards on one panel. I allow a .062 gap between boards and cut them apart with a small tile saw with diamond blade. If you’re a registered student, they let you make just one panel. instead of the minimum 3. They have a similar deal at $66 for 30 sq in 4 layer boards also.
Thanks so much for the writeup!
I’ve never found anything stateside that can compete with JLCPCB. They’re incredibly fast and high quality, but what really gets it for me is the LCSC integration. For the price it would cost to have just the PCBs made locally and at the same fast turn around of JLCPCB, with JLCPCB itself I can not only get my boards fabbed, but I can also have them assembled. It’s such a a massive time saver for me, especially since I don’t have a PnP and often need ICs in QFN packages which suck to place by hand (especially since I have a slight tremor). I would love to have something like them in the US just because I would prefer not to ship stuff all the way around the world, but they still win even with our own ridiculous tariffs getting in our way.
We made electronics in the USA before, and we should again. It’s a really bad idea to leave the production of all your important things in the hands of other people who don’t like you very much.
I have used both Jclpcb and Osh Park with comparable results. I have also seen about the same in delivery time. In some cases Osh Park was a tiny bit cheaper when considering shipping/tariffs etc. But Osh Park was extremely helpful in pointing out a subtle error that could have cost a lot more. So my next order goes to Oregon.
In early March I used PCBWAY before the tariffs kicked in and paid $22 for 5 boards, including DHL shipping. I had them in my hand 3.5 days after placing the order. Amazing. I’m in the US.
The first issue is that you should never use the default shipping on JLCPCB. If you are willing to wait 2 weeks for shipping, you can save like $35. The last time I got a board from them it cost $10 total for a keyboard.
I wanted to support a local PCB manufacturer (in Denmark), so I went on their website : $157 for picking up the phone, same per hour, materials on top and then expensive shipping. Compare that to $36 (for 10 PCBs) price using a Chinese factory…. Hell to the No!
I ordered a few small flex PCB’s from OSHPark back in May. Still waiting for them. Seems my order went to a fabrication facility that didn’t quite have all the kinks worked out of their flex PCB operation. I was told the order had been sent off to another fabrication facility weeks ago. I suppose I should reach out. My experiences with OSH in the past have otherwise been decent FWIW.
I also had issues with OSHPark flex pcbs ordered December 6, 2024, that shipped December 19, 2024. The manufacturer didn’t plate any of the thru holes or vias on the flex circuit! I’m glad we didn’t try to use them until after January 4th when we were notified of the issue, otherwise I would have wasted my time assembling and debugging useless boards. Replacement boards were shipped out Feb 11, 2025.
I’ve used OSHPark many dozens of times with rigid boards without issue (2, 4, and 6-layers).
Something not discussed here is that OSHPark has good stackups for 4-layer and 6-layer boards that are suitable for RF (or just good signal integrity in general) and they use lower-loss dielectrics (FR408HR). JLC might let you select similar stackups (like JLC06121H-2116A for 6-layer) and select similar board materials, but I haven’t priced that out.
There is no tariff, tax or duty that would make it better or cheaper to do anything in the USA.
Very true. Even with tariffs, customs, and every other bit of nonsense this administration adds to convince people not to buy from China, JLCPCB still remains the cheapest, most convenient, and reliable option.
I’ve had PCBs made, in order or increasing cost, in China, Europe (Aisler) and the USA (OSHPark). I got a quite to have some made here in the UK but it was over 10 times what it’d cost elsewhere. Not viable at all (and a similar turnaround/shipping time to coming from China too)
Would be interesting if you compared with DigiKey Red as well as a US manufacturing option
It’s well known china has been dumping pcb fab for many years – you can’t even buy laminate for the price of a finished product! We all love the cheap prices BUT it causes extinction of local companies doing pcb fab.
Also china dispensed with “setup” fees and other extra charges that North American fabs pride themselves on charging customers. This is excellent and they need to drop them.
I’ve even had North American fabs send off the Gerbers to Asia to build the boards yet claim they made them. That fooled us until the quality was terrible traced back to Korean product. Another had fake Panasonic laminate used. Copper thickness very thin is another cost saver that ruins power supply boards.
I’m not a electronic engineer and i don’t keep KiCAD or Eagle on my pc all times. If i need prototype small pcb fast, i can do it on JLCPCB site in “few” clicks from schematic to components without looking PITA rules etc. And i didn’t have troubles yet. It was time when i was looking for “domestic” company and no one had JLCPCB’s level of service for prototyping. DIY is not “merica” style anymore… May be except repairing old junk.
JLC shipping is only expensive if you don’t use Global Standard Direct Line. They quoted me $8 on 20 credit-card sized PCBs to the US. DHL was $40. Turn it down to 5 PCBs and shipping is $5 (DHL $35). If I only need a few prototype PCBs I go with Osh Park, if I need more than that or PCBA I use JLC.
Have you ordered any boards with global standard direct shipping since the de minimis exception was removed? Customs fees are not pre paid. How big of a bill you you get for that?
Unfortunately if you produce anything larger than 1″x1″ at OSHpark, the cost will explode compared to JLCPCB. If what you are making is limited to tiny nicknacks, you will be fine with OSHpark, but for serious projects they are not a competition, it’s not even the same ball game.
It is annoying that OSHpark can not do proper edge cuts for the price they are charging.
For a 4 layer 176x114mm board I can get 10 fully populated boards including BOM cost, shipping and tariffs for less than what I pay for 3 unpopulated boards at OSHpark, and then OSHpark won’t even bevel your edge connectors for that price.
DigiKey Red is nice quality but their costs are outrageous. Most US local PCB manufacturers have an awful customer experience. I upload my Gerbers and then are asked for the PCB dimensions and the number of drills in the PCB. What on earth? Can’t you guys extract that information from the Gerber files? For 10x the price I’d expect someone to be able to write a script that is at least getting service close to the ball park of the Chinese manufacturers.
The problem with US manufacturing is not overblown prices, it is that the product you get can not compete with the significantly cheaper Chinese PCB houses. I understand that something has to give, and that something is probably the cost of manufacturing. But come on, work on service and quality. Nobody can run a business on an opaque definition of freedom units.
I’ve used OSHPARK for several years now. Turn around and pricing is acceptable. Quality is very good. I’m happy to support a domestic supplier. I’ve not yet taken PCBWay or JLCPCB for a spin yet. Likely they have labor cost, labor safety and environmental regulations (or lack thereof ) advantages.