There are dozens of lists of Chinese wholesale websites, and most of them are the same eight names in a different order, written by somebody who has never bought from any of them.
This one is written from inside China, by people who buy from these platforms every week on behalf of sellers abroad. So it is organised around the question that actually matters, which is not “which is biggest” but which of these can you actually buy from, and what is each one genuinely for.
The split that explains everything
Every platform here falls into one of two groups, and knowing which is which saves a lot of wasted time.
Domestic platforms were built for buyers inside China. They are cheapest, because nothing in the price pays for export paperwork, international shipping or English-speaking sales staff. They also expect a Chinese account, a Chinese address and a Chinese payment method, and many sellers on them have never shipped anything abroad.
Export platforms were built for you. English, international payment, suppliers used to overseas buyers, and often an escrow service. You pay for that convenience in the unit price.
Neither is better. They are different tools, and the whole game is knowing which one your situation calls for.
| Platform | Group | Buy from abroad? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1688 | Domestic | Not directly | The lowest unit price |
| Taobao | Domestic | Not directly | Variety, oddities, samples |
| Pinduoduo | Domestic | Not directly | Very cheap, very basic goods |
| Alibaba.com | Export | Yes | Bulk with escrow protection |
| Made-in-China | Export | Yes | Finding real manufacturers |
| Global Sources | Export | Yes | Verified suppliers, trade shows |
| DHgate | Export | Yes | Small wholesale, export built in |
| HC360 | Domestic | Not directly | Industrial and niche categories |
| Yiwugo | Export facing | Yes | Small commodities in huge variety |
The domestic platforms, where the prices are
1688
Alibaba’s domestic wholesale platform, and the one Chinese businesses actually buy from. For the same item you will usually find it cheaper here than anywhere else on this page, sometimes dramatically so.
The catch is everything about access. Chinese interface, Chinese account, Chinese payment, domestic delivery address. Sellers quote for delivery to a warehouse in Guangzhou or Yiwu, not to Manchester. This is not hostility to foreign buyers, it is simply a platform that never expected one.
Who uses it well: anyone with an agent or forwarder in China who can buy domestically and ship on. That is the normal route, and it is why sourcing agents exist at all.
Taobao
The consumer-facing sibling of 1688. Enormous selection, including a long tail of products that never reach any export platform. Prices are consumer rather than wholesale, so it is not where you buy a thousand units, but it is excellent for finding an unusual product or buying a single sample before you commit.
Pinduoduo
Domestic group-buying, extremely cheap, and the sibling of the Temu app your customers already know. Useful to understand what rock-bottom pricing looks like in a category. Rarely the right place to build a business, because the goods at that price point are usually built to it.
The export platforms, where the access is
Alibaba.com
The international B2B platform, and the sensible starting point for most people. English, international payment, and Trade Assurance, which holds your payment and gives you a route to a refund if the supplier misses the agreed shipping date or the goods fall short of the terms set in your contract. It is a claims process you apply to rather than an automatic release, and that protection is the main reason to use it.
The catch is minimum order quantities, and the fact that a large share of “manufacturers” are trading companies. Neither is disqualifying. Both are worth knowing.
The other thing people underestimate is time. Production runs on Alibaba are quoted separately from shipping, and the two added together are usually longer than the number you were given. We break the real timings down in how long Alibaba takes to ship.
Made-in-China.com
A directory rather than a shop. Fewer listings written for beginners, a higher proportion of genuine factories, and supplier audit reports you can request. Better than Alibaba for the specific job of identifying who actually makes a thing.
Global Sources
Similar in purpose, with a longer history in verified supplier reports and a strong link to its trade shows. Worth using in parallel with Made-in-China rather than instead of it, since the supplier bases overlap only partly.
DHgate
Sits between AliExpress and Alibaba. Export-ready, international payment, and quantities smaller than a factory would entertain. Good for small wholesale where you want export handled for you, with the same caveat as any marketplace, which is that quality varies by seller and nobody inspects anything on your behalf.
HC360
A domestic B2B platform, running since 1992, strongest in industrial, hardware and niche categories that the consumer-facing platforms cover poorly. Chinese-language, so the same access problem as 1688, but worth knowing about if your product is not a consumer good.
Yiwugo
The online face of the Yiwu International Trade City, the enormous small-commodities market in Zhejiang, covering roughly 75,000 physical booths. If you sell stationery, party goods, kitchen gadgets, small tools, accessories or anything else in that family, this is a better hunting ground than any general platform, because you are browsing an actual market rather than a search index.
The two places that are not websites
Worth stating, because they still beat the internet for some jobs.
The Canton Fair, held in Guangzhou twice a year, remains the fastest way to meet a large number of manufacturers in a short time. You see, touch and compare products in a morning that would take a month of emails.
The physical markets, Yiwu above all, where you can walk a category end to end. Anyone with someone on the ground in China has this option, which is part of what you are buying when you use an agent.
Three traps, in order of how much they cost people
The listed price is not your landed cost. A price on 1688 is for delivery to a Chinese address. To reach you it still needs domestic freight, consolidation, packing, export handling and international shipping, and if you want it checked, inspection. People compare a 1688 price against a delivered AliExpress price and conclude they have found a bargain, which is a comparison between two different things. The real transit times and what they include are worth reading before you plan around any of it.
The factory that is not a factory. Most listings that look like manufacturers are trading companies. A good one is genuinely useful, managing several factories and handling paperwork competently. A bad one is a markup and a slow telephone. The tells, and the questions that expose them, are in how to find suppliers in China.
Paying with no way back. Use escrow where the platform offers it. Pay company accounts rather than personal ones. Buy a sample before you commit to a run. None of this is exotic, and skipping it is where almost every horror story starts.
Which one should you actually use
You want the lowest possible unit cost and you have someone in China. 1688, bought through your agent.
You want bulk with protection and no Chinese-language problem. Alibaba.com.
You want to find the actual manufacturer for a product you intend to own. Made-in-China or Global Sources, then verify properly.
You sell small commodities and want variety. Yiwugo, or the Yiwu market itself.
You want small wholesale quantities with export already handled. DHgate.
You are testing single units for a dropshipping store rather than buying wholesale. None of these. That is a different job, and it is covered in AliExpress alternatives.
Where we fit, briefly
We buy from these platforms daily on behalf of sellers who cannot, particularly 1688 and Taobao, where the prices are best and the access is worst. We buy the goods, inspect them at our own warehouse, consolidate orders from several suppliers into one shipment, and send it on to you or straight to your customers.
You do not need us to use any platform on this page. Plenty of people manage alone, and for a simple product from Alibaba with a supplier who answers properly, doing it yourself is entirely reasonable. If you are not sure which side of that line you fall on, the honest test is When you do not need an agent yet.
Where it stops being reasonable is the domestic platforms, the consistency problem on repeat orders, and anything that needs somebody to physically look at the goods before they ship. That is the whole of what we sell, and it is described on the China sourcing agent page. If you want a delivered price for a specific product, send us the link and you will have it within 24 hours.