Rather skip the agent account?
Send us a Taobao or Weidian link, or just a screenshot of something you saw in a spreadsheet. We reply with a price delivered to your country, send photos of the actual item before it leaves China, and pass you the tracking number. This is our own service, separate from DHgate and from every agent below.
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Pick an agent, a marketplace or your country
DHgate ships to you directly, so you never need an agent for a DHgate order. Agents matter for the other half of most spreadsheets: Taobao, Weidian and 1688 links, which those Chinese marketplaces do not ship abroad themselves. The cards below show every agent we track with its status on 6 October 2026. Green means the site works and recent reviews are coming in, amber means buyers are reporting real problems, and red means the agent has closed or gone offline. Each card opens a page with fees, storage, review data and what to do with old links.
Marketplaces people put in spreadsheets
Delivery and import costs by country
Is DHgate legit? What holds up and what doesn't
DHgate is a real company. It was founded in Beijing in 2004 as a cross-border wholesale platform and later opened to single-item buyers, and it says it reaches 225 countries and regions. When you pay, the money sits with DHgate rather than with the seller, and it is released only after you confirm delivery or after the protection window closes. That escrow is the strongest safety feature you have, and it is also what most DHgate scams try to talk you out of: a seller who asks you to pay by bank transfer, to close a dispute "so I can refund you", or to move to WhatsApp has just asked you to give up your protection.
The weak part is everything that depends on a single seller. DHgate hosts millions of independent shops, and its Trustpilot page reflects that spread: a TrustScore of 1.5 out of 5 from roughly 34,000 reviews when we looked on 6 October 2026. Reading the one-star reviews, the same three complaints repeat: items that do not match the photos, refunds offered as a token amount after a dispute, and support that sides with the seller once the order is marked received. None of that means you will be scammed. It means that "is DHgate legit" is the wrong question and "is this seller legit" is the right one, and our seller-vetting checklist covers how to answer it in about five minutes.
DHgate itself is legitimate; individual sellers are not all equal, so vet the shop and never pay outside the platform.
When to buy on DHgate and when an agent wins
Most people arrive here holding a spreadsheet that mixes DHgate links with Taobao and Weidian links, without realising those are two different ways of buying. A DHgate link is a finished listing: the seller quotes shipping to your door and posts the parcel. A Taobao or Weidian link is a Chinese domestic listing: the seller only ships inside China, so you need an agent to buy it, receive it in a warehouse, photograph it and send it on. The table compares the two on the things that change your total.
| Question | DHgate direct | Taobao / Weidian via an agent |
|---|---|---|
| Who ships to you | The seller, straight from China | The agent, after the item reaches its warehouse |
| Photos before shipping | Only what the seller chooses to send | Warehouse photos of your actual item, usually free |
| Combining several shops | Each seller ships separately | Everything goes in one consolidated box |
| Best for | One or two cheap items, unbranded basics | Hauls of four or more items, sizing-sensitive pieces |
| Main protection | DHgate escrow and disputes | Checking photos before you pay international shipping |
| Typical extra cost | Shipping per order, often "free" but priced in | Agent shipping by weight, sometimes a service fee |
The full comparison, with worked examples, sits on DHgate or an agent: which fits your order, and the cost calculator lets you put your own numbers in. A practical rule: if a single parcel would carry more than three items from different sellers, the agent route usually costs less per item, because you pay one international shipment instead of four.
DHgate suits small, simple orders; an agent suits hauls and anything where you want to see the item before it crosses the border.
What a DHgate spreadsheet is, and why old ones fail
A DHgate spreadsheet is a list someone has shared, usually on Google Sheets, Linktree, Beacons or a Telegram channel, with a photo, a price and a link for each find. People search for them because DHgate's own search is crowded with near-identical listings, and a sheet is a shortcut to sellers someone else has already tried. The catch is that these sheets age badly. DHgate sellers close shops and relist under new IDs, so a sheet from last year can have a third of its links dead. Sheets that mixed in agent links have a second problem: CNFans closed in August 2026 and Pandabuy in 2024, so any row built for those agents opens nothing, even though the Taobao item behind it may still be for sale.
That is why this site is organised differently. Instead of one giant list that rots, each category page explains what to look for and what to avoid, the photo grid under every heading pulls real product photos fresh from a 10,000+ item catalogue, and the agent pages tell you which agent can still open a given link. If you have an old sheet, the link sorter splits its links into DHgate listings you can open directly and Taobao, Weidian or 1688 links that need an agent. For the history of last year's lists, see the DHgate spreadsheet 2025 archive.
Treat any shared sheet as a starting point that needs re-checking, not as a shopping list you can trust as-is.
Why everyone heard of DHgate in 2025, and what tariffs changed
In April 2025, after the United States raised tariffs on Chinese goods, TikTok filled with videos from Chinese manufacturers claiming to sell the same goods as Western brands at factory prices. Within days DHgate jumped from around 350th place to second among free iPhone apps in the US App Store, behind only ChatGPT, according to Appfigures data reported by TechCrunch and others. Many of those videos made claims the brands denied, and many listings they pointed to were simply trademark-infringing goods, which customs can seize.
The lasting change for buyers is cost. The United States ended duty-free treatment for low-value parcels from China in May 2025 and for every country on 29 August 2025, so every DHgate parcel to a US address now owes duty, and the shipping method decides who pays it and when. Other markets work differently: the UK and Australia collect tax at checkout, Canada still lets very small parcels in tax-free, and the EU, including the Netherlands, added a €3 duty per item category on 1 July 2026. Each country page covers this in detail, starting with the US page.
The viral moment is over; the duty bill it coincided with is permanent, so price every order including import costs.
Browse by category
Every category page pairs DHgate buying advice with a photo grid filtered to that category where the catalogue has enough items. Start with clothing, shoes, bags, watches, jewelry or women's finds. If price is the whole point, the cheap DHgate spreadsheet page caps its grid at about ¥150 per item. For categories where buying from China is risky in itself, such as fragrance and electronics, the pages explain the shipping and safety limits honestly rather than pushing a list.
Two pages compare the best-known sheets rather than products: the best DHgate spreadsheet, which scores public lists on freshness and link health, and what Reddit says about DHgate spreadsheets. Neither recommends a sheet we cannot check.
Use the category pages for what to buy and the comparison pages for which shared lists still deserve your time.
Import costs at a glance
| Country | Small-parcel tax rule | What it means for a DHgate order |
|---|---|---|
| United States | No duty-free threshold since 29 August 2025 | Duty is owed on every parcel; duties-paid (DDP) shipping avoids a surprise bill |
| Canada | Up to C$20 free of duty and tax for most postal and courier imports | Above that, GST/HST and possibly duty, plus a courier brokerage fee |
| United Kingdom | VAT charged at checkout on consignments up to £135 | Duty can apply above £135; seized goods are not refunded |
| Netherlands | 21% VAT from the first euro; €3 per item category under €150 since 1 July 2026 | A haul of shoes, a hoodie and a cap counts as three categories |
| Australia | 10% GST collected at checkout up to A$1,000 | Above A$1,000, duty and GST are assessed at the border |
Know your country's rule before you compare prices, because the cheapest listing is not always the cheapest delivered.
DHgate spreadsheet questions
Is DHgate safe to buy from?
Safe enough if you stay inside the platform. Pay through DHgate, keep every message in DHgate's chat, open a dispute before the protection window closes, and choose sellers with many photo reviews. Most bad experiences start when a buyer pays outside DHgate or closes a dispute early.
Do I need an agent for DHgate?
No. DHgate sellers ship internationally themselves. Agents are for Taobao, Weidian and 1688 links, which only ship inside China. A few agents can also buy DHgate listings, but that rarely saves money.
Are the photos on this page DHgate products?
No. The grid shows real product photos from repbuysheet.com, a catalogue of Taobao and Weidian items you order through an agent or our WhatsApp service. DHgate listings are linked from the category pages instead.
Why is DHgate's Trustpilot score so low?
Reviews are about individual sellers as much as DHgate: mismatched items, small partial refunds and slow support are the common complaints. The score tells you to vet sellers carefully, not that every order fails.
Will I pay customs on a DHgate order?
Usually, yes. The US charges duty on every parcel since August 2025, the UK and Australia collect tax at checkout, the EU adds VAT and a €3 per-category duty, and Canada exempts only parcels up to C$20.