On 10 November 2026, a 54-card deck of playing cards cost $7.64 on AliExpress at its regular price. The three Alibaba printers in our cost model for Spite House Games' decks list from $0.39 to $0.59. Across six products we priced on both sites, AliExpress's regular prices ran from 1.3 to 19 times the factory prices in our margin models. Its eye-catching deal prices, many of them $1.09, were real, but each was limited to one piece per shopper.
This page compares the two sites on real products sold by Amazon brands we track, using listings we read on that date. The short version: Alibaba.com is where you buy stock; AliExpress is where you buy a sample.
Alibaba vs AliExpress: the difference
Both belong to Alibaba Group (AliExpress is listed among the group's sites in Alibaba.com's own footer), but they sell in different ways.
| Alibaba.com | AliExpress | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it sells to | Businesses | Consumers |
| How much you buy | A minimum order, usually hundreds or thousands of units | One unit and up |
| How you get a price | A listed range, then a quote for your quantity and specification | A fixed retail price, often with a one-per-shopper deal |
| What the price includes | The goods at the factory (EXW) or at a Chinese port (FOB) | The goods delivered to your door |
| Custom products, your logo, your packaging | Yes, often with a mould or setup fee | No; you buy what is listed |
| Buyer protection | Trade Assurance, if you pay through Alibaba.com | AliExpress's own refund and return commitments |
On the AliExpress listings we read, the commitments shown included free shipping, a $1.00 coupon if delivery is late, refunds if a package is lost, damaged or not delivered in 30 days, and free returns within 90 days. Trade Assurance on Alibaba.com covers orders that do not ship as agreed or arrive defective, with claims within 30 days of delivery; we cover it in is Alibaba legit.
The same products, priced on both
For each product we took the factory price from our margin model for the business that sells it, and the closest AliExpress listing with sales, read logged out from the US on 10 November 2026. "Deal" is the promotional price AliExpress showed us, which each of those listings limited to one piece per shopper; "regular" is the price it showed alongside, which is what it charges beyond that one piece.
| Product | Factory price (Alibaba) | AliExpress deal (1 per shopper) | AliExpress regular | Regular ÷ factory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle (White Mountain Puzzles) | $1.26 | $1.09 | $24.18 | 19× |
| Deck of playing cards (Spite House Games) | $0.47 | $3.25 | $7.64 | 16× |
| 2-in-1 rotary can opener (the existing model quoted for Draft Top) | $0.99 | $1.09 | $8.85 | 9× |
| Silicone jar spatula (OTOTO) | $0.38 plain, $1.40 custom | none shown | $2.32 | 6× plain, 1.7× custom |
| Bird-shaped wine pourer (Songbird Specialties) | $2.87 | none shown | $10.69 | 3.7× |
| Bat-shaped corkscrew (OTOTO) | $5.54 | $4.57 | $6.98 | 1.3× |
Where the factory prices come from:
- Puzzle: three Alibaba suppliers' lowest listed prices, averaged, read in September 2026. White Mountain says it makes its puzzles in America; this is what a new seller buying from China would pay.
- Playing cards: three printers' lowest listed prices ($0.59, $0.43, $0.39), averaged, read on 11 October 2026.
- Can opener: Huizhou Yongli's October 2026 quote for its existing 2-in-1 rotary opener, $0.99 each at 5,000. Draft Top's own Lift is a different design; our model uses $1.37, averaged from two quotes.
- Spatula: $0.38 is Sheng Jie's listed price for a plain silicone jar spatula at a 300-piece minimum, read on 10 November 2026. $1.40 is the average of two quotes for OTOTO's own two-colour animal-shaped spatula at 5,000, plus a one-time mould.
- Wine pourer and corkscrew: two quotes each, averaged, from October 2026, for products made to the brands' designs. The AliExpress listings are similar products, not the same ones: a zinc-alloy bird pourer with no whistle, and a smaller bat-shaped opener rather than OTOTO's winged lever corkscrew.
Alibaba's prices are per unit at a factory or Chinese port. AliExpress's include delivery to a US address. That narrows the gap, but not by much: in our margin models, ocean freight to a US port costs 7 cents a deck, 19 cents a can opener and $2.14 a puzzle box.
What AliExpress prices would do to the margin
Here is what is left of each sale after Amazon's referral and FBA fees, from each business's margin model, then after paying for the product at its landed factory cost (factory price, tariff and freight; White Mountain's model has no tariff line) or at AliExpress's regular price.
| Product, Amazon price | Left after Amazon's fees | Left at landed factory cost | Left at AliExpress regular price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spite House deck, $12.99 | $7.18 | $6.55 | −$0.46 |
| White Mountain puzzle, $19.99 | $10.97 | $7.57 | −$13.21 |
| Draft Top can opener, $25.99 | $18.23 | $16.40 | $9.38 |
| Songbird wine pourer, $29.99 | $21.14 | $17.05 | $10.45 |
| OTOTO spatula, $9.95 | $4.60 | $2.84 | $2.28 |
| OTOTO corkscrew, $19.95 | $12.61 | $4.30 | $5.63 |
Before advertising, storage and returns. On the deck and the puzzle, AliExpress stock loses money on every sale. On the can opener and the wine pourer it cuts what is left by around 40%; on the spatula, by a fifth.
The corkscrew is the one row where AliExpress looks better, and it is worth reading closely. The AliExpress item is a smaller, simpler opener than OTOTO's. And our landed cost carries a 38.7% tariff on the factory price, because our model treats it as a steel kitchen tool from China, a category on the 25% Section 301 list; the AliExpress price shows no duty at all. Since 2026 that duty no longer disappears on small parcels: CBP has suspended the $800 de minimis exemption, for courier shipments from 24 June and for mail from 24 July 2026. How AliExpress collects it on a US order was not shown on the listings we read. The rates are explained in how much tariffs add to an Amazon product.
Why the deal prices do not change the answer
Most AliExpress search results showed $1.09 for us, on puzzles, can openers, corkscrews and spatulas alike, with a line saying "New shoppers save". On every listing we opened that showed a deal, the page said "Max. 1 pcs/shopper at this price". It is a welcome offer, not a wholesale price. A $1.09 puzzle is a good way to see what a factory's print quality looks like. It is not a way to stock an Amazon listing that sells hundreds a month.
The regular prices deserve some scepticism too. Sellers set them, and a $24.18 puzzle "discounted" to $1.09 says more about the promotion than the product. They are still what the listing charged for a second unit on the day we read it.
When AliExpress makes sense for an Amazon seller
- Samples and competitor research. Buying one unit of a product type, or a competitor's likely factory version, costs a few dollars and arrives in a week or two.
- Testing demand at tiny volumes. A handful of units to photograph or show to buyers, accepting that the margin will not survive at scale.
- Finding factories. Some AliExpress stores are run by manufacturers that also sell on Alibaba. A product you like on AliExpress is a lead to quote on Alibaba.
For stock, every business in our data buys from a factory, and the factory price is a fraction of the retail one.
Alibaba vs AliExpress vs Temu
Temu is a consumer marketplace like AliExpress: single units, delivered, with its own promotions. We tried to price the same products there on 10 November 2026, but Temu sends logged-out visitors to a sign-in page before showing search results, so we have no Temu prices to compare. The logic above applies to it the same way: a retail price includes the retailer's margin and delivery, and buying stock that way leaves little for you after Amazon's fees.
How to price a product on both, yourself
- Search AliExpress for the product, sort by orders, and note the regular price, not the first-order deal.
- Search Alibaba.com for the same product, note the price range and minimum order on three or more listings, then ask those suppliers to quote your quantity.
- Add freight and duty to the Alibaba price to get a landed cost.
- Run both through our Amazon FBA fee and profit calculator at your selling price.
For the full list of Amazon fees those numbers go up against, see Amazon FBA fees 2026. For how buying in bulk fits the main Amazon business models, see private label vs wholesale vs dropshipping.
Caveats
AliExpress prices change daily and depend on who is looking; ours were read logged out from a US address. Each row compares one AliExpress listing with our cost model, and three of the six are similar products rather than identical ones. The Alibaba figures are listed prices or quotes for research, not invoices. The direction of the gap is consistent; the exact multiple for your product will not be.