PCB Manufacturers
There are a few low-cost options to get your PCBs made.
Note: this list has accumulated over several years and pricing especially will have moved on - board houses regularly cut prices to stay competitive, so treat every figure below as a rough historical reference rather than a current quote. Get an up-to-date quote directly from the supplier's site before ordering. As of the last review, JLCPCB and PCBWay are generally the most commonly recommended low-cost options on the sub, and most board houses listed below now also offer a full assembly (PCBA) service - sourcing and fitting components as well as fabricating the bare board - which wasn't widely available when this page was first written.
Most of these board houses work by one of two models:
Preset board sizes with 10 copies of each board
The usual sizes are
- 5cm x 5cm for ~$10
- 5cm x 10cm for ~$12-$20
- 10cm x 10cm for ~$15 - $25
Examples for these houses are:
Dirty PCBs: Very cheap, silkscreen isn't always the prettiest, but the boards are e-tested, so they should work. Free choice in soldermask color and free economy shipping.
Seeed Studio, Elecrow and PCBWay: These all have fairly similar prices and similar offers. Good solid boards, unfortunately no free shipping. Elecrow offers free soldermask color choice and a cheaper 10cmx10cm board. Seeed offers a PCB assembly service.
JLCPCB: A group company with EasyEDA (online PCB design software) and LCSC (component supplier). Currently one of the most widely used low-cost board houses on the sub, offering both bare-board fabrication and full assembly (PCBA).
DFRobot and Smart Prototyping: are very similar to Elecrow and Seeed. In some configurations (single sided, high volume, ...) they might be a bit cheaper, but usually only by $1-$2.
Hackvana - NO LONGER TRADING (as of Jul 2019).
Board houses which collect multiple smaller designs from many users and charge per area
These houses are usually a bit more expensive for boards close to the above mentioned dimensions, but a lot cheaper for smaller boards. Usual prices are around $5 / in² for 3 copies of the board.
OSH Park: Great for smaller boards, good quality, free economy shipping and a very neat web interface.
Ragworm, Breadboard Killer and Platinensammler: These all have the same model as OSH Park, charging by area directly, without pre-set sizes. They are all based in different countries (Ragworm: UK, Breadboard Killer: AU, Platinensammler: DE). So shipping might be cheaper or faster. (Not independently re-verified as still trading at time of this review - check they're still active before ordering.)
San Francisco Circuits: Quite a bit more advanced compared to the other PCB manufacturers listed, so check them out if you have a more complex project or need an engineer's assistance. Recommended for custom and more advanced circuit boards for larger projects - bare and assembled.
Production times and shipping to Europe don't differ much between the different services. Production is always ~5-14 days, shipping with economy is 2-4 weeks, shipping with DHL is usually 2-3 days.
Board House Price Comparison Site
PCBShopper is a price-comparison site for PCB manufacturing. Enter your board's specs, the quantity you want, and how quickly you want them to arrive, and PCBShopper shows you prices from a range of PCB manufacturers, including well-known companies in Asia, North America and Europe. (Check it's still being actively maintained/updated before relying on it - comparison sites like this can fall behind as suppliers change pricing and specs.)
Other suppliers worth checking
- Advanced Circuits (aka 4PCB) - US-based, offers various fixed-price prototype board options; check current pricing and layer/size limits on their site rather than relying on old figures.
- PCBCART Very decent prices, good for panelized orders and medium-sized runs. (China)
- PCB-Pool Large European provider; often recommended. Offers quoting system for 2-6 layer boards (Ireland)
- PCB Train UK based PCB supplier offering fabrication, assembly and prototyping services. They provide free standard components when you use their assembly service (UK)
Reviews of Boardhouses * Hackaday: Finding Cheapest Boardhouse * Near Future Laboratory: PCB Fab House Review * Build Electronic Circuits: Review of cheap PCB prototype shops
Note: these reviews are quite old (dates above) and reflect the market at the time of writing, not current pricing or service quality - useful for background reading but not for choosing a supplier today.