Open the box the day it arrives
AliExpress has the deepest catalogue in our comparison and it is not close. If a thing has a part number, a model code or an obscure spare, this is where it is.
It also gives you 15 days from receiving the item to say something is wrong. Temu gives ninety. Only the DHgate not-as-described route at seven days is tighter, and that is a wholesale platform rather than a general consumer marketplace of this size. It is the single most important thing to know before you order here.
AliExpress scores 7.9 under how we rate and it is our Best Value pick, which is a judgement about the catalogue rather than about the deadline.
Fifteen days, stated plainly
AliExpress publishes it on its own Buyer Protection page: your order qualifies if it "doesn't match the item descriptions or photos or arrived damaged/shortage, within 15days from receiving the item(s)". Free return runs on the same fifteen day clock. Change of mind is on you: "If the return is made due to change of mind, you shall pay for related return shipping fee".
Separately there is a guaranteed delivery window shown on each order, and a parcel that misses it is covered whether or not the fifteen days have started.
Work out what that means in practice. A parcel arrives while you are away. You open it a fortnight later, the item is the wrong size or does not work, and the route to a refund has closed. Nothing about the fifteen days is hidden, and almost nobody reads it before the parcel is already late.
EU buyers keep their statutory rights on top, which AliExpress states: a two-year conformity warranty and a fourteen day right to return in most EU countries, with return shipping on the buyer. Those are your rights against the seller rather than a platform service, and using them is slower.
The money stays put while you check
A short window is not the same as weak protection, and the mechanism underneath is genuinely good.
Money is held until you confirm receipt. Open a dispute and the funds have not gone anywhere. That is a structurally stronger position than Temu or SHEIN, where you have paid the platform and are relying on its refund policy, and it is the same model DHgate and Alibaba run.
There is 24/7 live chat and one of the longest-running dispute processes in the category. It works. It requires patience and evidence, and it works.
What nobody does is check the sellers. There are ratings and store history and no inspection of any kind, which is the difference between AliExpress and Alibaba, where Verified Suppliers are inspected by named third parties.
A customs help centre that has not caught up
AliExpress is the only platform in this comparison that states it holds an IOSS registration, and that its sellers include the AliExpress IOSS number in the EU import declaration so goods clear without VAT or handling charges at the border. That is better disclosure than any rival here manages and it deserves saying.
On duties it is blunt: "Customs duties and taxes are never covered by AliExpress." They are collected by the shipping company when the parcel is delivered.
And then the problem. Its EU guidance still reads: "Parcels with goods valued no more than EUR 150 can also enjoy customs duty exemption." That exemption is gone. The US sales tax page carries a state list whose most recent entry is dated July 2021 and says nothing about the suspension of duty-free de minimis. The comparison sets out both changes with dates and sources.
To be fair to AliExpress, not one of the six platforms here has updated its customs pages for either change. AliExpress is simply the one whose page states the old rule most explicitly.
Who should buy it
Use AliExpress when you need a specific thing: a component, a spare, a part number, anything where the catalogue is the point. Nothing else on this page comes close, the price competition between sellers on the same item is real rather than theatrical, and the money sits in escrow while you check.
Then set a reminder. Fifteen days is not long, the clock starts when the parcel lands rather than when you open it, and the single most common way to lose money here is a box left in a hallway.
Two things it will not do. It will not settle the import bill at checkout, so duties arrive from the carrier. And it will not protect you the way Temu does, which gives ninety days for the same money and a shallower catalogue.
Protection terms, IOSS and customs statements on this page were read from the vendor Buyer Protection page and help centre on . We placed no orders and publish no delivery times.
