Are AliExpress and Temu better than Amazon?
Published on March 22nd, 2025For the USA and much of Europe, Amazon is the go-to online marketplace. However, some Chinese outlets (AliExpress, Temu, Banggood etc) have become known for promising significantly cheaper products. In this article I want to share my experience from buying from both AliExpress and Amazon for over 5 years now.
What is the difference with platforms such as AliExpress and Temu?
The single biggest difference in my opinion is standards/ethics.
With outlets based in the USA, Europe and many other countries, you expect quality control systems to ensure items are made to your nation’s standards (e.g. electrical safety standards), to identify any quality issues prior to shipping, and for delivered items to be as-described. Yes mistakes happen, but you would expect your nation’s minimum standards to be met and wouldn’t expect (generally) to be deliberately missold (lied to).
In my opinion, the significant differences versus USA and European suppliers are:
- Items may not meet the standards of USA and European nations, even when marked as such
- Poor quality replica items can be difficult to distinguish from genuine items
- Items are often packed with minimal packaging/protection
- Descriptions are not always clear, and can be confusing/misleading. This includes clothing sizes
- Sometimes poor/none-existent customer service exists from the seller themselves
- Items may not last as long as you might expect
- Shipping is often relatively slow
USA/European standards
AliExpress and Temu are vast platforms that operate within Chinese standards. As someone from the UK, this means goods often don’t target the same standards I expect from companies that operate in the UK, EU or USA. This can affect:
- Product longevity
- Safety
- Effectiveness (e.g. security aspects of a “secure” device)
- Ability to legally use an item in a business environment (due to no proof of compliance with local standards)
Safety is a particularly pertinent point here as there are many examples of safety issues with items bought from such platforms. This is a particular worry with electrical items (risk of electricution and fires) and those made for children.
I personally am particularly cautious regarding electrical goods from cheaper platforms such as Temu and Ali Express. I wouldn’t recommend leaving usch items unattended particularly if they involve heat or high energy use.
I would also advise to check the sellers compliance certificates if you are depending upon a standard that they claim the product complies with. It isn’t unknown for products to be marked with standards (e.g. the European CE mark) despite not complying with it. This is obviously unethical, but does appear to be relatively common.
Poor quality/replica items
Platforms like Temu and AliExpress are focused on low margins for high sales volumes. Quality is therefore not always a high priority. I would say the vast majority of the items I have bought from these platforms has been of “OK” quality (acceptable but the lower end of what you would expect in USA or European shops).
Then are some genuine bargains on these platforms, and it can be tempting to be drawn in by trademarks and brands. But beware, it is common to find replica or similar items for sale. This is common with clothing and SD cards in-particular. The example below looks very similar to Adidas, a popular sports brand, but if you look closer you may notice the brand is “Adiaos”! I find some of these quite entertaining, though review comments somethings suggest people bought the product without checking the image carefully enough.
Minimal packaging/protection
I use AliExpress the most, they ship items in generic grey plastic bags. For all my orders in the last 5-years, items were just placed in the bag as-is, or with very minimal protection (e.g. a single layer of 3mm foam around a glass item). Temu use branded orange bags, but a similar low or no extra protection applied. This contrasts with USA and European suppliers such as Amazon which use boxes that are filled with crumpled paper or other protection.
To be fair to AliExpress and Temu, whilst I’ve had some dead-on-arrival items, I’ve never had a physically broken item delivered yet. Any retail boxing the item was in has regularly however been significantly bashed.
Clarity of descriptions
To be fair, this can be an issue with USA and European suppliers too. Descriptions sometimes lack measurements, fabric details or similar. This can lead to a misunderstanding and ultimately disappointment from the buyer. I recommend checking the review comments on anything you’re looking to buy. These often have images that are more representative and give an insight into the thoughts of customers.
Clothing sizes are an interesting issue I hadn’t foreseen when I started using these platforms. Chinese sizes appear to be much smaller and may not even be available to fit common European sizes. Most clothing items appear to have sizing guides on, though both of my experimental purchases on clothing have been too small, even when I followed the size guides given for the products. This appears to be a common complaint in review comments too. Returns for incorrect sizing aren’t always possible or accepted, so this is an area I’ve minimised purchasing of.
Customer service issues
In my experience, customer service has been reasonable directly from the platforms, but sellers themselves rarely acknowledge or respond to communications. Where I’ve had issues I’ve usually been able to handle these directly with the platforms, who issue refunds accordingly. I wanted to flag this lack of customer service from sellers themselves however as those from the USA and Europe are likely to be used to a warranty period with items, should they fail within a short period (e.g. 1-year in the UK for most items). This doesn’t appear to be possible to apply with these platforms.
Items not lasting as long as expected
It goes without saying that the low-quality nature of the average item on low-cost platforms means they may not last long. Reading review comments has sometimes put me off products as it is clear they don’t last long at all (I was close to buying some screwdrivers when I read multiple reviews saying the head wore out after a few weeks of use!).
Slow delivery
To keep costs down, AliExpress and Temu tend to ship by boat. This leads to a much longer waiting time, which can be very frustrating for new customers. I regularly wait 3-4 weeks for deliveries. They do offer fast delivery options (which uses air freight), but this is not the case for most deliveries.
Would I recommend AliExpress and Temu?
In short, yes. This article obviously draws out the negative points, so you could be forgiven for assuming I didn’t like these vendors. I just advise caution in what you choose to order through these routes. I’ve had very mixed experiences despite taking a lot of time to order carefully. The low-cost associated with them makes these platforms great so long as you know what you’re getting.