Aliexpress Keycaps – Good or Not?
If you have committed to building a custom keyboard one of the big questions you will have is what keycaps to use. While the other parts of your keyboard will define the feel and sound, the keycaps will define how good your keyboard will look.
The issue with buying keycap sets though is that these bits of plastic can end up costing hundreds of dollars with extended waiting times, especially if you also want a couple of artisan keycaps as accents to finish the look.
Aliexpress Keycaps – The Problematic Bit
When you are on a budget the main factor for your purchasing decision is the price, and since I have myself scavenged for the cheapest keycap sets possible I have concluded that buying 20-30$ keycap sets from AliExpress is most likely the best solution (same conclusion as with PTFE mouse feet).
When dealing with cheaper products there is also always a question of morality and respecting the people that have initially designed the keycaps, since the ones you are getting are most likely a clone of an existing set. While morals are important, if all you have to spend is 20$ your choices are quite simply non-existent beyond cheaper sets of keycaps.
In this specific case, you need a product, and you have found a cheaper alternative that is attainable for you – since there is no other possible solution, you should just go for it. There is also the question of how “moral” it is to charge people $100+ for a GMK set of keycaps.
Aliexpress Keycaps – The Quality
Another significant point of discussion when it comes to budget AliExpress (or similar sites) keycap sets is the quality of the product. In the end, the official keycap sets cost so much because they ensure that each keycap is shaped correctly and the legend is the best it can be.
While the quality of Ali sets will be lower, for the price you pay, you are still getting quite a good product. For example, after a quick search, I have found the official stores for womier, Akko, and epomaker (all well-known brands in the keyboard space) which offer plenty of keycap sets in different profiles that can be ordered anywhere in the world for free (availability for free shipping might differ from country to country but even paid shipping is a couple $ at most).
As with any other big platform you can find absolute junk on AliExpress, but if you look for the official stores (and confirm that these are indeed official stores) or buy from sellers on AliExpress with a lot of reviews and purchases you eliminate most chances of getting scammed or buying a low-quality product.
I have bought a couple of double-shot PBT keycap sets for $20-50 and the quality of these sets turned out to be surprisingly good. If you browse the BudgetKeebs subreddit you will find that a bunch of people have bought and tried budget keycap sets with varying degrees of success but the overall conclusion is that if proper research is done, you can get very good quality keycap sets for budget prices making $100+ purchases hard to justify.
TL;DR
Keycap sets can be ridiculously expensive and there is nothing wrong with being thrifty and buying budget sets from AliExpress or other sources. If proper research is done you can buy very good quality keycaps for 30$ in a bunch of colors/profiles making expensive sets hard to justify if you are on a budget.