PCBWay Reviews 233

I have been using PCBWay for almost 2 years now.
I never had any issues with the service or the quality of product offered by the company.
The items that I would like to highlight are:
1. Timely Delivery
2. Excellent Packaging
3. Outstanding Quality of Product
4. Very Nice Customer Service
Thanks a lot PCBWay and your team.

For the past 2 years, I've been using PCBWay to make my PCB. I have placed more than 27 orders in PCBWay. PCBWay is the largest PCB manufacturer in China. PCBWay is known for their fast service. The best thing about PCBWay is that when we order more PCBs, we become V5 members. V5 members can get 5% off on their all orders. And also we get Beans as rewards when we place orders. Beans are like rewards points that can be used to buy electronics stuff from their website. Overall, my experience with PCBWay is pretty good for their quality product and good service.

I have been using PCBWay for quite a while now and I never had any issues with the PCBs that I get. Their products are amazing and absolutely upto the standards.

As an electronics enthusiast, Maker, and professional designer of PBCs for customers, I design, produce, and handle quite a lot of PCBs produced worldwide. Some of them are very good, and some are just plain terrible.

Over the last year and a half (give or take a few months), I have been using PCBWay as my go-to PCB Manufacturer and Supplier. My detailed review will follow below:

Disclosure: I do receive sponsorships from PCBWay. PCBWay and I, t/a MakerIOT2020, have a current working relationship relating to the sponsorship of certain of my projects and designs.

This review is NOT paid for, and it is not BIASED by our relationship at all. I perform this review in an effort to educate and inform.

So, let us begin:

In my view, PCBWAY is providing an excellent service for Makers, electronics enthusiasts, as well as professional electronics designers.

Why:

1) Price:
PCB manufacturing can be quite expensive, and PCBWay has managed to get the relationship between cost and quality down perfectly. $5USD for 5 to 10 prototype sized dual layer PCBs is a VERY VERY attractive price.

2) Quality:
All of the PCBs that I have ordered at PCBWay has been at least TG150 FR-4 material... (Some other manufacturers only offer TG135 or lower)

I have never had issues with delamination, warping or boards that were difficult to solder.

Attention to detail, precision etc is always of the greatest standard.

3) Speed of manufacturing
PCBWAY has the capability to get your boards out of the factory extremely quickly, in some cases within 24 hours.
My average is 3 days to do 3 different PCBs, with stencils ( delay mostly due to my choice of solder mask colour) [ Green seems to dry the fastest ]

4) Transparency and ease of access to support
Every customer has access to dedicated support, via real-time chat, as well as a dedicated customer service representative for email support.

This is a very important point, most people will overlook... but it can not be overstated how important this is. Things go wrong sometimes, for example, I ordered the wrong item or doubled up on something... Support takes care of it immediately, and the issue just goes away...

5) Accuracy and repeatability
The factory is capable of manufacturing PCBs to quite a high tolerance value. This gives me the capability to really push my designs to their limits, squeezing every last bit of space from a layout, without worrying that my design will not be manufacturable...

and then, in the unlikely event that I do design something impossible, the engineers will quickly let me know exactly what is wrong, as well as offer advice on how to fix it.

Summary:

Having a PCB made can be a very very stressful experience, especially if it is a high-value item, or if it is your very first design. People are not aware that the factory WILL NOT REPAIR YOUR MISTAKES. That is not being funny, that is not their job. period. You designed it, they will manufacture it true to your design.

That out of the way, you can smile and relax. You can definitely trust PCBWay to do their utmost best to give you high quality, perfectly manufactured PCBs that will be EXACTLY AS YOU DESIGNED THEM..

Non è un'azienda in grado di montare componenti!!! Ha un costo di montaggio esagerato e le persone che se ne occupano sono incompetenti perché non sono in grado di gestire l'approvvigionamento della componentistica necessaria. Comunicano con i clienti con piccole frasi di comodo, non capendo il problema che si sta discutendo. Questo è confermato dal fatto che mi è stato proposto un rimborso di 24$, a causa dell'irreperibilità di un componente, ma ne avrei dovuti pagare 27$ per la commissione di rimborso. Inoltre hanno montato dei componenti non conformi e non funzionanti e ho dovuto rivedere a mano tutti i componenti di tutte le schede.

While PCB are okay, SMT is to be avoided.

Now did about 5 batches of SMT boards with PCBWay for a total of about 30 boards.

Out of these, about 50% did not work out of the box because of misplaced components, reversed polarity, missing components, and unsoldered pin. Those problems are random so it is a pain to fix.

Beyond that, all boards exhibit cold joints or bad solder wetting, which makes the board unreliable. In some cases, there is no electrical contact at all, some are unreliable, or sometimes some components can just pop out.

This is caused by bad processes, either bad / too old solder paste, wrong reflow temperatures, too much delay before reflowing.

Opened dispute, PCBWay ensure the joints are "normal" despite clear cold joints pictures under a microscope, which leads to either they are lying, or either they have no idea about proper solder joints, which is bad either way, proposed a 20$ refund while 600$ project cost and about 500$ in components wasted.

Given those boards are unreliable they can only be discarded.

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EDIT, sent pictures and then no replies from PCBWays, how many bad joints pictures do you need? This is just some made-up reply.

imgur.com -> L9lpLRm
imgur.com -> lW3cpAe

For my last few projects I used pcbway pcb and smt service. I have never had any problems with them. I do miss Julia at customer support. Pcbway has no problems with mixing smd and through hole designs. Also: even things like old obsolete smt components that need some extra care before mounting ( like cleaning and baking) are not a problem for pcbway. Components that failed during smt production have been replaced at the cost of pcbway. Their engineers are helpful, think along and solve problems I overlook. Maybe they are not rock bottom cheap like others but they can offload the complete production and they simply deliver. Their pricing for buying components can be high but they are willing to look at your suppliers or you can send components yourself.

I am a full-stack developer and maker. I have been using PCBWay services for my electronics projects for a long time.

In my projects, I am fond of creating unique PCB art designs with varying shapes and visual patterns. As far as my project designs differ, I always receive my PCBs with reliable, accurate, fast, and high-quality service. Also, their silkscreen and solder mask color options provide design-wise flexibility.

This is my review of PCBWay Service.

I've been using PCBWay for this past year and placed more than 8 orders so far, their service is fast.
Let me explain how fast their service is, I placed an order yesterday, My Gerber data was faulty, I received an email regarding the correction done on Gerber data in 15 mins after uploading the file. The next day PCBs are almost completed and they will get delivered in the coming 5 days.

Also, we get Beans rewards which are pretty cool!
(they are like rewards points which can be used to buy electronics stuff from their website)
Overall, my experience with PCBWay is pretty good!

We have worked with you before, made large commercial orders through your service. I plan to continue my cooperation with you, as I like your service, your attitude to partners and customers. And I hope that our cooperation with you will soon reach a higher level.

I have used a few other providers, however I find PCBway very good and promising.
Thanks

I've been using PCBWay services for about a year. The PCB production process is quite fast and I got help when the PCB design or the Gerber file I sent had a problem.

I have used PCBWay's services for several DIY project (at least 10 boards divided in 5 order, 5-10 pieces each) and never had any problems with them.
PCBs have always been produced within the agreed time and shipped as fast as possible. Delivery times are another story, but they strongly depends on the method chosen and are not out of their control when the package leave the facility.
PCBs are always of the expected quality, no nasty surprises, and they kindly answer to your questions, if any.
My experience with them is highly positive

Nightmare II

Another nightmare. The site is not logical, and has caused a major problem when trying to understand what they are doing. The representives tell lies and fob you off with excuses then take another holiday and leave you not knowing what is going on. The atitude seems to be the customer is a nuisance so pass them around until they go away as no one at PCBWay appears to have a clue as to what is in production and what is not. We have now discovered that 35% of switches on the PCBa failed on the last delivery. Covid is easier to deal with than PCBWay.

A nightmare. The site is not logical, and has caused a major problem when re-ordering. The representive in question is very blunt and not very helpful and is causing delaying by sending wrong files to check. When this was all clarified by email, yet sends back info relating to wrong orders. The atitude seems to be the customer is always wrong!?!
I used this for 17 clients businesses it seems we will have to move them away.

I design and develop custom test equipment for electronics manufacturing.
My orders have been for low volume double sided boards (~8"x8") with a low component count.
That being said, the boards I have received have been high quality, low priced, and delivered within 4-5 days (including shipment to the us).

Заказал первый раз.Написали изготовление 24 часа.
Четвертые сутки статус изготовления. На письма никто не отвечает.Что дальше ждать не знаю.

J'ai commandé du PCB flex avec report de composants.
Concernant la qualité : un driver a été mal soudé, des sorties manquent à l'appel lors du test. Je ne vous les recommande donc absolument pour ce besoin.
Relation client : ils ont fait une boulette sur le positionnement du stiffner (régidisseur). Ils m'ont contacté pour m'alerter et pour me dire que si je souhaite avoir le stiffner cette fois-ci au bon endroit, il faudra passer une autre commande....J'avais cru un moment que j'halucinais.....

Pcbway create very high quality pcb, it has good finishing as compare to others

I've been using these guys for prototyping as well as low volume assembly and manufacture for years now, and the consistency and quality have always been spot on. Assembly and panelling of awkward boards (components raised on their legs without spacers, non-standard insertion of pins though the board etc.) wasn't ever a problem, and blank PCBs are always well produced and good quality. Sure, you can get finer resolution silkscreening elsewhere, but you also pay far more at those board houses, and the quality from PCBWay is more than adequate at the price.

Plenty of shipping options too that allow you to avoid expensive couriers if you're not in a hurry, and fast shipping if you are, though the cost reflects the perhaps surprising weight of PCBs in bulk.

Communication is always prompt, and while it can sometimes suffer a little from the language barrier, it's never actually a problem and confirmations are sought from the customer when things aren't 100% clear.

Price quotes for more complex jobs aren't always 100% accurate until they're reviewed and it's time to pay, but you do always have the final figure before you actually make the payment - there are no additional or hidden fees, and the cost changes (which, to be fair, as often go down as they do up) are down to them rearranging the panelling to suit assembly, and to passing on the actual cost of parts from Farnell, Digi-Key or whoever to be assembled directly onto the customer.