Hello,
after years designing single sided PCBs for home production I intend to order a “real” PCB: double sided, 30x17mm, 10…20 pieces, nothing special.
I would like to ask which manufacturer you recommend (I am in Germany) ?
thank you for your advice !
I’ve personally have used:
their quality is pretty good, however they are quite expensive when you compare them to:
where the PCB is almost free the highest cost is the shipping
I have used Beta-Layout back in 2011, from the UK. They were one of the first PCB manufacturers to offer a free stencil with you PCB order.
Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to matter in which country and what language I order my PCBs to work, but they don’t. They just lie there silently mocking me and my grand design ideas.
Sorry, silly joke around the word “order”. 
Let me see: 10 @ 100mm x 100mm PCB’s for €137 (plus delivery) from Germany, or about €10 for the same from China. Delivery is probably about the same 
(I’ve used JLCPCB in china several times now: excellent product, delivery as promised every time)
Aisler. They manufacture in Germany. Good quality PCBs, quick manufacturing, and they’re a premium sponsor of KiCad. You can (if you want) also upload KiCad files directly without creating Gerbers and so on.
I would not suggest Aisler, I ordered only once there, never got the PCB, money was gone, no answer to emails… But that’s only my personal experience…
I have good experiences with JLCPCB.
Hi @chris9,
eurocircuits.de is highly recommended. Their online service and tools are excellent, so are the PCBs.
I discovered aisler recently, they seem to be easier to process, with lower costs at less high-tech options. I have not tried aisler yet.
BTW I trust european or german fab houses regarding enviromental and working condition concerns, so why go to china to save a couple of bucks.
Hi Chris,
Maybe you already have suppliers.
We focus on PCB quality and service.
Which do you care more, quality or price?
Linda
Sounds like pcb layout! 
That might be an understatement. I have not checked the price recently, but one of the (mentioned above) Chinese suppliers was selling 5 two-layer boards (up to 100 mm x 100 mm) for $2.00, or $0.40 per board. That is not a typo. I think this was in December of 2021. Shipping to USA was about $17 US. Shipping is the most expensive part, but I ordered two different boards in one order. That effectively cuts shipping cost per board in half for an order for two different boards. I built the boards, they work as intended, and I am completely happy with them.
@BobZ , you are right: 3.80$ per 100scm is a good deal. Aisler‘s price ist about 6.60$ for 5pc 100scm.
Thats including shipping/basic costs.
The sheer pcb differ even more:
0.40 vs. 4.20 (assuming 1€=1$ to keep it simple).
China cannot give away pcbs for free, the must earn something, at least 1 cent per board. That means they can produce our board for 39cents in worst case.
What I do not understand:
Aisler and their competitors trade in a free market economy, they cannot vote any price just as they like. Lets assume they generate 3/4 of the price (which would be a lot in a free market economy), they need 1.15$ for production.
This is worst case as well.
We have a gap of 0.75$ now, that china is able to give you just like a birthday present.
I wonder who pays that nice present.
Here it‘s getting political, so let‘s stop at this point.
I just intended to think about the whole issue.
At least, anyone can decide wich way to go.
Politics aside, and I know nothing about staff conditions in China, but, take home pay aside, do their workers get the annual leave, sick leave, carers leave, maternity leave, retirement superannuation, 35 hour weeks, etc.etc?
How much is Power!!!, rent for premises, land tax, various company insurances, GST on all those, payroll taxes, waste disposal fees, software purchase and upgrade costs, and on and on, in China?
I’d bet there is a huge difference between China and the US, Europe, Au. etc.
The Chinese PCB manufactures, with their pricing, are virtually guaranteeing their production line is running full time with no wasted space on their processed boards.
Oh, and not to forget, if they are registered companies, there are shareholder dividends, directors fees, obscene? management salaries, and more etcs.
@jmk, thank you for highlighting more aspects to take into account!
The more I think about it, the more I decide to switch to chinese production. I really should not pay „western“ companies and their employees as all my money is beeing wasted for all the luxoury you listed.
If just all of us did! Then all of the annoying work we have to do now was „made in china“, and we had a lot more time to spend on our hobbies!
Sorry for beeing sarcastic.
If labour cost and business costs were the only major factors why China is so cheap then one would expect the less developed economics like Malaysia to be competitive players. But they are not. The fact is this is a logical consequence of the West outsourcing building electronics to China thus building up expertise in China. That and the massive scale of production enabled by Internet ordering for commercial PCB products makes it possible for hobbyists and small businesses to piggyback on the production chain at a low price.
Just pointing out some of the 75c.
I’ll bow out of this thread now, before I get too political 
I join you. Let‘s have a pint of rice wine and talk about pad shapes and copper plated edges.
I use Eurocircuits. Great on-line tools and great service.
I keep meaning to try Aisler, but I haven’t yet…
Both take Kicad files directly.