this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
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Is there a good european alternative to Digikey? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by neidu3@sh.itjust.works to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
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I've been using digikey for quite a while, mainly because of three factors:

  • They have "everything", meaning whenever I have a project, they probably have the transistor, connector, and Adafruit board I need.
  • Fast and cheap shipping, and free over a certain order size.
  • VOEC compliant

...but I'm trying to move away from US companies where possible due to *gestures broadly*, so are there any good European alternatives?

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[โ€“] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

No. I am an Electronics engineering and believe me, I try...

Any sort of embedded size-constrained sensing where you need an AFE from maxim/analog/TI. Absolutely forget about it. Even mouser and digikey are export restricting those now. Mouser canceled an AFE and PPG sensor hub on my last order.

RS components in the UK: pretty no MCUs outside of a pitiful selection of STM and some outdated AVRs, missing a lot of key brands, decent/good for industrial stuff. Pretty much no NXP stock at all (Dutch company). Bad transceiver selection of outdated things. They only get new products like a year later. Good selection of power resistors though. Not good for opamps, but they have a decent Wurth selection of LEDs and Inductors. They are also good for connectors, e.g. they are the only European distributer with Wisblock compatible Panasonic connectors

TME Poland: high prices, better stock than RS for MCUs, but they still only have mostly microchip PICs, only 500 ARM processors so a very limited selection. In general they have a ton of microchip and less of a selection of other things. Chances are, if you found a perfect IC that isn't microchip, it is a 50/50 if it will be there. I have very often found chosen parts from manufacturer sites and catalogs and built out a design and check by TME and >2/3 of the parts are out of stock or non-stocked. Horrific site UX also. Finding anything is a crapshoot, so use other sites to find them and enter the MPN to check if it is available. They also have a strange selection of passives if I remember right. Like a lot of pieces from different lines, but missing most of the values in the specific manufacturer line.

Farnell: they don't sell to people without a VAT number in mainland Europe because of some stupid "people were asking too much support" bullshit excuse years ago. They have the best selection of the 3, they actually have nRF MCUs and a decent selection of interfaces, opamps, and ICs like fuel guages. IIRC their inductor selection is worse than others. You can order from UK farnell in the EU I believe. Owned by an american company. They are the only ones with sparkfun/adafruit board of the major distributers IIRC and only a small selection.

Sinuss.nl "alternative" to farnell apparently. Literally 3-4x the price of almost everything. A dirt cheap stm32C011F6U6 that is 0.80โ‚ฌ on all other shops is 3.50โ‚ฌ there without shipping included and the only time I have ordered from them, they messed it up. Stay away!!!

Also, the fucking STM webshop from the European company doesn't have a warehouse in Europe or east Asia and ships from damn Texas. Getting a sample of a cheap part is like 50โ‚ฌ

If I am being honest, we have a TON of electronics and IC intellectual property in Europe, but the manufacturing and distribution of those designs is disgraceful and almost all goes through the US first.

If you are looking for modules and not PCB design: Tinytronics.nl, opencircuit.nl, and kiwi-electronics are the best