I’m a regular user of different PCB services form my electronic design. Since 4 year now I’m mostly working with Eurocircuit but recently I tested  different low cost solutions : seeed studio, jlcpcb and OSH Park. This is now an opportunity to compare these different solutions.

Eurocircuit is a professional offer for making PCB you can order online. The PCB are made depends on the pool you choose in Eastern Europe or India. They are making high quality work but the killer feature in my point of view is the PCB Checker.

This tool allow to verify your circuit and gives you a high quality view of your PCB before ordering it. The PCB checker verify all the PCB metrics ( DRC – DFM)

Once you have uploaded your gerber files to the systems it automatically detects how to stack them and propose a preview of each layer of the circuit. The result is really like how the circuit will be and generally this preview is really better than what I have in KiCad. So this is sometime where I find some design bugs.

The interface allow different configuration for the circuit with a real time update on the price. The primary issue with Eurocircuit is the price as soon as you select some non standard options (like red board instead of standard green).

The option panel allows to select all what you need to customize your PCB with related documentation for each of the options. Basically the price of the PCB quickly grow when your reach situation like OAR < 0,1mm /drill < 0,15 mm or clearance < 0,1mm. As soon as your Matrial or PCB definition is out of the standard you also have an important extra cost.

The production time is usually around 7 days with standard price and as soon as you request shorter delay is becomes also really expensive. Sometime the production is made in less than the expected date, the delay is always respected in my experience.  Delivery is about 3-4 days so you can expect to get your PCB within 10 working days.

The PCB checker measure all the main distances in your design to identify the production class. This will help you to verify your design. This tool is really great. Usually when my class is too high, I force in the option panel a lower class to see in the checker where are the pads or wires not respecting the class. This way I detects design mistake and i can fix it ( and pay less). You are also sure that if the checker reports no errors your circuit will be produced correctly and will work once received.

Even when I’m ordering from a different site, I’m using the checker to verify my work. This tool is awesome.

The price of getting some PCB depends on the PCB size but for prototyping, when you are looking for 5-10 pieces it is generally around 100€ (a little bit less or a little bit more) port included. There is no extra tax as it is delivered within Europe. As soon as you order 20-30 pieces the price of each pieces decrease drastically but you will quickly reach 200€. If you are looking for price you have to order 100+ pieces and look for the Indi pool.

Seeed Studio is proposing a low cost service for getting PCBs, when I say low cost, I’m talking about 19$ + port (3-5$) for the same thing as what I got for 115€ with Eurocircuit.

The other main difference is the list of option you can have for no extra cost. The first I like is the PCB color choice : they are all the same price just you can’t request fast shipment other than for green.

Most of the options are making cost higher but you will easily find the right combination for a reduced price. As much as I seen in my different order the production time of 5 days is respected.

The main issues with seeedstudio is the validation of your files : you choose your design constraints yourself and you have no verification once you set your files. You can view your file but this is just an online gerber viewer. So once you order you have no feedback and you have to expect all to be right to receive working PCB. The first time I ordered to seedstudio I wasn’t sure until seen it I’ll receive my PCB with the right cutting. But it was.

The second issue is transportation : seeedstudio is making circuit in Singapore and the delivery can be done using regular post or international transporters like DHL. I’ve tried the two options : regular post is really long but really not expensive, the main reason is it bypass the custom taxes (sounds like normal when price < 22€). The problem is really the transport duration running up to 3 weeks and even when your parcel has arrived in France, it has taken 9 days before being delivered. So this option is better for a second batch than for a prototype one. I’ve try a faster delivery option with DHL and that way I got my PCB in 2 weeks but the price is really higher:

• PCB price : 33€ for 30pces
• Transport price : 21,37€ DHL
• TVA + Custom + DHL : 31€
• Total : 85,37€  tax included

The solutions is still viable but it is a little bit more complicated.

The last point of comparison is the quality of the product. Both provider has delivered working circuits with a sufficient level of quality. Personally I prefer the quality delivered by Eurocircuit as it really looks like what I’ve designed. For Seeedstudio I’ve seen difference for my ground pads as an example. Even if I’m using teardrops for ground plane connections, with seeed they are made differently and as a consequence the pads are larger as seen in the above photo :

You can see that the transistor pad in red is bigger than the others, it is because it is connected to ground. In my design it was not the case.

On the second U1 circuit you can also see two pads larger than the others : they are also the one connected to ground. Isolation with the 3rd one is ok but clearance is lower than expected, in my point of view it is a risk to have pad bridge once soldered.

If we compare with the same component footprint makes by Eurocircuit we can see the difference :

Here we see a clear difference and the teardrops are correctly makes as my design was.

To conclude, both services delivered my working product, I prefer using standard postal service with SeeedStudio but is means really long delivery so for this reason when I need to build a first prototype, I prefer to order Eurocircuit even if more expensive as in case of problem I’ll be sure it comes from my design. I’m ordering 5-6 units. Once validated I’m placing a second order for a larger volume using seeedstudio where I’ll be able to choose more color options and get a lower price. Both services are complementary.

To continue on this post, after some comments proposing me to test some other services, I’ve tried OSH Park solution. OSH Park is a simple solution with a design better than SeeedStudio in the same kind of really low cost approach. The website provides nice pictures of the different layers from your gerber files giving a good level of confidence with the expected results.

There is no real options for your PCB but the proposed price is interesting for first prototypes :  I’ve got 3 of my board ( 47×17 mm ) for about $6,3 including transport. The limitation this this price is low but not decreasing with volume making it really good for 3 units but not relevant for 30 of them. So it sounds good for hackers only looking for 1-5 units for own use, less for companies. I’ll tell you more once I’ll have the PCB in the hands… in 3 weeks maybe.

For information before you order on OSH park, you may know 1 month after ordering the PCB I’m still waiting for them. According to UPS it has been delivered within 10 days but apparently not the the requested address… I need to investigate.

After a second try (I like to play) I’ve got the PCBs in a reasonable time (2-3 weeks), no problem that time. The first order has been lost.

Aisler PCB provider is another interesting solution looking like OSH Park. The main difference is AISLER is an European (germany) provider. This is interesting because the transportation is fast and even if the production time is longer than the Chinese providers you got a fast delivery for a small price and you do not have custom taxes. With this service provider you have no choice : green PCB, quantity must be multiple of 3. The price is really good for 3 to 6 PCB with free transportation costs. It become  expensive for higher volume.

The interface provides PCB renderer with a nice quality and the website is globally modern and easy to use.

The result is quite unusual : on the picture above you can see the same circuit made by AISLER and SEEED, both are working well and good quality but the Aisler via looks larger than the seeed one : to be honest I can see light through the Aisler one. I don’t know if it is due to the varnish or because they have been changed for larger one.

What I like with Aisler is the fast delivery in Europe and the service continuously progressing. I still wait for higher quantity for better price but they are so nice and my favorite. Recently I’ve tested the stencil option and you know what  ? It’s great : they are small and so you don’t have to cut them for making your prototype manually compared to the Chinese one that are so big !

JLCPCB is the next solution I’ve tested. To be honest I did the test because they ask me if I could review their service and offer me a free PCB order for this. So here is the review !

In term of website and service is is looking like all the Asian PCB ordering platform : you have an interface where you find the same kind of options for you PCB. The advantage is you don’t need to learn every time how to use the website.

This website is really low cost for sure, if you order 5 or 10 PCB 100×100 the price is 2$ !! When you go for higher quantities like 15 or more the pcb price is going higher. So this website offer a really aggressive price for small quantities and keep an really low price approach for larger quantities.

Pushing PCB and order processing was standard and well executed. For my test the delivery has been made through DHL and the delivery was really efficient : i’ve got the product in less than 10 days.

The plus was the delivery ; in comment you will tell me if I’ve got benefit of a premium service regarding the context but it’s the first time I received my PCB like this !!

The pcb quality itself was really good, nothing special to say, other than it is what I’m expecting.

I did not tested the stencil offer because the standard size was not really adapted to my small pcb size but the offer is also really aggressive with 9$ offer.

So after this test i’m quite positive about the JLCPCB PCB service . I’ll need to make a second order as an anonymous person next time to confirm this feeling. Your feedback are welcome on comment if you have.

PCBGogo is another service I’ve tested for making my PCB. This service is different than the other previous one even if the selection matrix is looking the same. The first big difference is the Quote not given dynamically, so you have to click on “Quote” button on every modification. This is boring a bit… the second one is you can’t validate all the process in one step online : They are manually checking the gerber files and you have to wait for the open hours to make it done.

So the question is why did I mentioned this PCB provider? The answer is I was quite well surprised by the fast delivery 5 days before Seeed, the package quality and the DHL price really accessible.

The price for 10 units was really not expensive in my case but as soon as you request 15+ units the increase is really high. The PCB finish look also better than the same circuit received from Seeed. As a negative point, some of the circuit were dirty and I preferred to clean them before use. This is a task taking time to add.

On the right one of the circuit.

Let’s  continue with PCBWay, I need to let you know that they offered me free PCB to add them in this post. That said they are not controlling my words and that’s the game.

PCBWay is another Chinese solution to get high volume of PCB for low price. First of all the PCB configuration have a lot of option, including some unusual colors you can get for an acceptable extra.

There is no magic with the PCB price, for sure we could make some comparison with other provider but we are equivalent for small quantities. There is no really small price compared to some other, the minimal price is about 20$.

The main difference is on PCB validation, it is also the reason why I did not ordered on this site previously: you need to transfer your files at the end of your order and then you wait for a manual validation. Personally I like to finish what I start to start something different and this two step order was a blocking point for me. By-the-way this time I did it and the validation process has been made the next day (it was Chinese bank holiday).That’s done the make and the delivery was fast with a DHL delivery. I’ve got it in less than 10 days at home. I’ve ordered 20 pcb + a stencil. The PCB are really comparable to all the one I had from seeed or jlcpcb as you can see:

Nothing to say more than they are as expected.

Regarding the stencil it was a bad surprise because I’m not making industrial PCB so I do not have the machine for standard stencil and this one (as the one from seeeed) are standard and really big. More over the pcbway one have a big framework as an advantage it is not flexible but honestly I do not understand how I can use it with my small PCB… As a chance I had also ordered the same stencil on aisler where the size fit my need.

The main issue I found with PCBWay is the same I have with Seeeed and JLCPCB and basically all the Chinese one: when I’ve chosen a fast delivery with DHL you have to pay for customs the high price because DHL takes 15€ on top of the VAT 15€. Apparently PCBWays declared the PCB price and not the transportation price compared to some other manufacturer so it is already a good news for ordering under 20€ (free of custom)

Well, PCBWay is another good Chinese PCB provider.