PCB manufacturers compared: European fabs vs JLCPCB, PCBWay and OSH Park in 2026

For years the answer to "where should I order my prototype boards?" was short: upload the Gerbers to a Chinese quick-turn fab, pay a couple of dollars for the boards and a bit more for shipping, and wait a week. That is still a good answer for a lot of projects. It is no longer the only sensible one for people ordering from the EU, and on 1 July 2026 the numbers moved again.

This article compares eight manufacturers that engineers and makers actually use: three Chinese and American low-cost services and five European fabs. The figures come from the manufacturers' own sites (plus one comparison site where a fab does not publish its limits), checked on 23 September 2026. Prices change often, so treat them as a reference point and confirm them in the quote tool before you order.

The short version

Comparison table

Lead times below are manufacturing times as published by each fab, not door to door. Shipping from Asia or the US comes on top.

What the board price leaves out

A 2-dollar order is a real price for the boards, but it is rarely what reaches your bank statement. For a delivery from China into the EU, the total is the sum of four things:

1. Boards. The headline price, valid for the standard specification: FR-4, 1.6 mm, green solder mask, HASL, size limits. Changing the colour, the finish or the thickness is where quotes start to climb.
2. Shipping. Courier options usually cost more than the boards themselves on small orders. Slow postal options are cheaper and take two to six weeks.
3. VAT. Charged at your country's rate. Under the IOSS scheme the seller collects it at checkout, so the courier should not ask for it again.
4. Customs duty and handling. New since July: 3 euros per product type, plus the courier's disbursement fee if they advance it. On a small order that fee can be larger than everything else combined, which is why paying duty upfront with a DDP option is worth checking.

European fabs quote higher per board, but for an EU address the quote plus shipping is the final price: no import duty, no customs broker and no parcel held at the border. For a one-off prototype the gap is smaller than the headline numbers suggest. For 50 or 500 boards it grows again in favour of Asia.

Lead time is measured at your desk

A 24-hour build is impressive, but the board still has to cross half the world. With express courier, a Chinese quick-turn order typically arrives in about a week. A European fab with a 3 to 5 working day standard service lands in a similar window, and the express options at Multi-CB and PCB-POOL beat it when a respin has to be on the bench before Friday.

The less visible advantage of a nearby fab is predictability. Holidays such as Chinese New Year shut production down for one to two weeks, and customs queues are not something a project plan can control.

When a European fab makes sense

• You need the boards in two or three days and cannot absorb a customs delay.
• The order is small, so fixed costs like shipping and duty weigh more than the unit price.
• The design is under NDA or export rules and should not leave the EU.
• You want a single board, not five. Multi-CB and WEdirekt accept orders from one piece.
• You need a supplier invoice from inside the EU for a company or a funded project.

When China or the US is still the better choice

• Cost is the main constraint and a week or two of transit is acceptable.
• Larger quantities, where the per-board price dominates the total.
• Specifications outside the European pooling services: many layers at low cost, unusual colours, flex and rigid-flex at hobby prices.
• Assembly with parts from a large in-house catalogue, as JLCPCB and PCBWay offer.
• From the US, OSH Park remains a simple choice: three copies, ENIG finish and a price set by board area.

Before you press "order"

Whichever fab you pick, it will build exactly what the Gerber files describe. A missing drill file or an outline on the wrong layer costs the same everywhere, plus a second round of shipping. Five minutes of checking saves most of those mistakes:

• Load the ZIP in a viewer and confirm every layer is there, including both drill files if your tool splits plated and non-plated holes.
• Check that copper, mask and drills line up, and that the outline is one closed contour.
• Compare your smallest track, gap and drill against the fab's limits in the table above.

Our pre-order Gerber checklist goes through each step, and the PCB Tools viewer shows all layers of a ZIP or RAR in the browser without installing anything.

Sources

All figures checked on 23 September 2026. Prices exclude VAT unless stated otherwise.

• JLCPCB, EU Customs Reform (EUCR) July 2026, client FAQ
• JLCPCB, home page, PCB capabilities and production time
• PCBWay, 2-layer 100 x 100 mm prototype page
• OSH Park, services and pricing
• AISLER, home page; capabilities from PCB Fab Compare
• Eurocircuits, PCB proto and prototype and small batch services
• Multi Circuit Boards, PCB prototypes
• Beta LAYOUT, PCB-POOL and PCB-OVERSEAS
• Würth Elektronik, WEdirekt PCB online shop

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