Mouser Electronics
Ranked 2 of 3 electronics distributors by recommenders
Online electronics distributor trusted for authentic parts and strong parametric search. Critics point to slower service during supply disruption and high shipping costs.
Online electronics distributor trusted for authentic parts and strong parametric search. Critics point to slower service during supply disruption and high shipping costs.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 64%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Authentic parts from direct manufacturer relationships
“Counterfeits don't happen when you buy parts from reputable distributors (digikey, mouser, Newark, TTI, arrow, etc)”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts” “Just buy it on mouser or other providers that have direct relationships the manufacturers.”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “How to Spot a Counterfeit Lithium-Ion Battery” “they buy directly from manufacturers, so the supply chain is solid”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “What Happened to Fry's Electronics” - Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “We X-Rayed a Suspicious FTDI USB Cable”
Strong parametric search and filters
“the parametric searches on digikey, mouser, etc are pretty good for the standard components”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Designing and assembling my first PCB” “you can filter by MOQ so you only see things that are available individually”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Designing and assembling my first PCB” Easy to find common parts
“Go to mouser.com. Type ESP32 into the search bar. There's your part.”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “The newest ESP32 can run Linux and it's getting close to a Raspberry Pi” “mouser (good for connectors)”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Designing and assembling my first PCB”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slower service during supply disruption
“by mid summer 2025 the supply chains had become so disrupted that getting parts from mouser and digi-key was difficult”
Comment from 7 Aug 2026 in “Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks” “their services are much slower than they used to be”
Comment from 6 Aug 2026 in “Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks” High shipping costs and minimum orders
“shipping from the big western parts suppliers (Digikey, Mouser, Segger) costs a lot of money”
Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “A 3rd World Embedded Engineer Responds to "RISC-V They Should Have Known Better"” “companies like mouser and RS have huge minimum order amounts”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “EU Council gives final green light to new 3 EUR customs fee for small parcels”
Other electronics distributors people recommend
The two most recommended other electronics distributors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DigiKey | 23 | 6 | 79% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Mouser ElectronicsThis page | 18 | 10 | 64% | 9 | — | — |
| LCSC Electronics | 10 | 1 | 91% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
27 of the 28 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Go to mouser.com. Type ESP32 into the search bar. There's your part.”
“Mouser is so bad at leaking memory”
“it leaked memory like crazy, taking sometimes tens of GB of RAM”
“it keeps crashing on MacOS 27 beta for me”
“shipping from the big western parts suppliers (Digikey, Mouser, Segger) costs a lot of money”
“by mid summer 2025 the supply chains had become so disrupted that getting parts from mouser and digi-key was difficult”
“their services are much slower than they used to be”
“Too bad it couldn't see my digikey/mouser carts.”
“there is an open-source alternative”
“the parametric searches on digikey, mouser, etc are pretty good for the standard components”
“mouser (good for connectors)”
“you can filter by MOQ so you only see things that are available individually”
“companies like mouser and RS have huge minimum order amounts”
“At least with open source alternatives like Mouser you can just bypass the whole thing.”
“Mouser has become unreliable. Most of the analog parts we've ordered get cancelled and customer service has no clue why.”
“they plainly charge a 10-15% tariff fee”
“If we lost Digikey, Mouser, and AVNET, it would be catastrophic.”
“This is a perfectly acceptable app size for a modern macOS or Windows system.”
“44MB compressed for a mouse control panel applet (at least it's not an Electron app?) is still quite disturbing”
“they buy directly from manufacturers, so the supply chain is solid”
“Mouser (electronics parts distributor) just charges you an itemized tariff rate.”
“the usual trusted sources for an authentic one”
“Integrating Digi-Key or Mouser API support for finding parts pricing and inventory is also super handy.”
“have opted to put everything behind bullshit captchas because of the DDoS (nee AI) bots”
“Mouser et al also do it right for mixed unit lists”
“Just buy it on mouser or other providers that have direct relationships the manufacturers.”
“Counterfeits don't happen when you buy parts from reputable distributors (digikey, mouser, Newark, TTI, arrow, etc)”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.