AliExpress is a Chinese website that provides a platform for Chinese sellers to sell thousands of products. AliExpress can be browsed in many languages and you can select almost any currency to display prices.

So what are the good and bad things about AliExpress?

These are my personal experiences and views, somewhat cynical at times, when I read reviews I am looking for honesty so that’s what I write in my reviews.

Good things about AliExpress

Price. The price of items on AliExpress is amazingly low. The price can be so low that it’s hard to believe the items can be sold and the postage paid.

Here are a couple of real examples . . .

As an example let’s look at NE555 timer integrated circiuts, this is a well-know component in lots of electronics projects and can be bought everywhere.

Typical prices for the NE555 timer IC

CPC (a major supplier in the UK) 32p each (minimum 5) or 25p each buying 50 or more. Orders under £21 subject to handling charge of £6

AliExpress price for 10 36p + £1.22 postage total £1.58; 50 for 84p plus £1.75 postage total £2.59

Comparing those prices 50 NE555 chips will cost you £18.50 from CPC or £2.59 from AliExpress, both prices include VAT and carriage. The difference is delivery time, from CPC the delivery will be two or three days whereas AliExpress will be anywhere up to 50 days – but normally it will be 12 to 20 days – see delivery section.

Another good source of electronic components is eBay, at the time of writing the NE555 timer IC could be purchased there, one £0.99, five £1.45, ten £1.95 or 20 for £2.99 including delivery. All from UK suppliers with the cost of postage included.

There are plenty of choices of where to buy, as always the best buy depends on how many of the item you want and how quickly you need them.

Selection or variety of suppliers. AliExpress has hundreds of different suppliers for any particular item. Looking again at the NE555 timer chip, a search on AliExpress for ‘555 timer is’ produced 169 results, that gives a choice of over 150 suppliers, you can choose different quantities, delivery costs etc, there are ways of picking the best deal that I’ll describe in detail in another section.

AliExpress website speed and flexibility.  The AliExpress website is fast, very fast. The AliExpress website also remembers what you search for, so next time you log in you see lots of deals on things you looked for previously.

Buyer protection. Yes buyers are protected on AliExpress. The terms are interesting and designed to protect buyers from unscrupulous sellers, let’s be honest, there are bad sellers on every platform. Firstly, the seller does not get paid for the goods until you, the buyer, confirms that they have arrived or the expected delivery time has elapsed. The delivery time quoted depends on the item, but is usually 30 to 50 days. At the time of writing (April 2021), most items are arriving in 12 to 20 days. Even when you confirm receipt you can still raise a dispute during the next 15 days if the goods are not as described or do not work.

My experiences have been good, around 2% of orders have been late or never arrived, and in every case a refund has been given very quickly. More in a later section.

AliExpress sends an email if to buyers if the protection time is nearly expired so that the buyer can contact the seller and ask for the time to be extended.

Feedback. Buyers can leave feedback including photographs of what they receive. Personally I find the photos the most useful aspect of feedback, especially when there is more than one photo. Sometimes I suspect that the feedback is overgenerous in its praise, so in those cases I wonder whether it is genuine feedback.

Try AliExpress:

Click this link (opens in a new window), sign up for AliExpress and you will get $17 US in coupons to get you started. AliExpress website

Hopefully it will provide some useful information for someone and save them some money or encourage them to try something new.