Hi everyone, I’m a student working on a budget electronics project for school — I recently finished designing a small power management board for a solar-powered sensor. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s my first proper 2-layer PCB and I was hoping to get a few prototypes made to test.
Specs are pretty standard:
FR4, 2-layer
60 x 120 mm
5 pcs
1.6mm thickness
Red soldermask
1oz copper, Lead-Free HASL finish
I chose red soldermask just because I’ll be presenting this project in class and thought it would stand out better than green — visual impact matters when you’re getting graded 
.
The board size (60x120mm) is just what fits my enclosure, so I couldn’t shrink it down to the 100x100mm threshold that most fab houses offer cheap deals for.
I first checked PCBWay and JLCPCB, which I’ve heard are the go-to for cheap PCBs, but they came out to:
PCBWay: $43.43 (with $5 new user coupon)
JLCPCB: $45.93
That includes shipping, and I know it’s not that expensive, but for a student with no income and trying to keep costs under control, it’s tough. I’ve already burned most of my budget on parts and tools.
Then today I stumbled on ALLPCB through a Google ad ALLPCB. They have a $30 new user coupon + free shipping, so I tried their online calculator.
To my surprise, the same board came out to just $5 total (original was $35 PCB + $23 shipping, both fully discounted). Seems almost too good to be true.
I don’t see many people talking about ALLPCB online — most forums I searched only recommend JLC or PCBWay.
Has anyone here tried ALLPCB before? Are they reliable in terms of quality and delivery?
Would love to hear some real feedback before I pull the trigger. Thanks!