Quick cheap PCB + PCBA fab house?

Manufacturing
#1

Hi

I’m basically looking for a few suggestions on PCB manufacturing for prototyping.

I’ve been using PCBWay all until now but the way they price their work is weird
JLCPCB is impractical sins you can’t send them external parts for assembly say from digikey and other weird requirements
Oshpark is potentially slow and expensive…

Any suggestion other common PCB+A fab house that is both reasonably cheap and fast that you know?

#2

I like Elecrow. But you shouldn’t expect to find anything much cheaper than PCBway.

#3

I have never used any assembly service myself, and I’m quite amazed that this is even somewhat affordable for low quantity orders.

Aisler does assembly:

It’s also the biggest sponsor of KiCad.

If you do a search like:
https://html.duckduckgo.com/html?q=pcb+assembly+service+price+comparison

Then you find sites like:


Which compares prices of at least 24 different PCB fab’s.
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#4

This really depends on the complexity, size, and whether you use any throughhole parts. “Cheap and fast” with turnkey assembly can be though. I have used MacroFab and CircuitHub for full turnkey assembly. That both accept Kicad pcb files, pull out the PCB & BOM info, then instantly quote.

#5

PCBA is not nearly as standardized as PCB. So don’t expect PCBshopper to give accurate prices, you’ll need to do some legwork. The places that are more automated like CircuitHub will be quite a bit more expensive.

#6

In general assembly is more difficult for the customer than manufacturing. It may be surprising, but Chinese fab houses boast of prices and their connections and component shelves but you may find it cheaper and/or easier to use some small local assembly house, depending on your own location, language etc.

#7

I would recommend 7pcb.com , they’ve been solid, and they use Octopart for BOM.

#8

For european members I would recommend prototronics.
Quick turn pcb assembly, for prototypes and low volume,
Online calculator for price quotation.
Located in Romania, Europe

#9

We welcome board manufacturers participation. However I’ve removed the link in your post for now since you have exactly one post here and the sole purpose was to promote the company you work for. Had you disclosed your association I may have left it. I left the company name so people can look it up if they wish. If you continue to post and be helpful then links might be permissible. As it is, a one stop drop by ad is not allowed.

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#10

For those who speak Dutch…
The link below has a collection of user experiences from 18 different PCB manufacturers.
https://www.circuitsonline.net/forum/view/124256

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#11

Although I am a newcomer here, my intention was to be helpful, both the author of this topic and the title of this topic urge us to suggest a company/fab house for pcb+pcba with the possibility to send certain external parts.