It is by far the most expensive paid directory of suppliers, but is Worldwide Brands actually worth the $299 membership fee – or are there better and cheaper alternatives that offer superior value for money?
Worldwide Brands is both the most expensive and the largest directory of certified suppliers on the Internet. With nearly 10,000 wholesalers, drop shippers and liquidators, Worldwide Brands has a product database of over 16 million – all available at trade prices to members only. However, the key feature that all free sources of wholesalers are missing, is that every one of the suppliers listed in the Worldwide Brands directory is fully researched and certified; they are guaranteed to be reliable to trade with. This is why some people are willing to pay nearly $300 for access.
By comparison, a similar directory called Salehoo only lists around 2.5 million products and – crucially – only screens them rather than fully researching suppliers. Salehoo is, understandably, cheaper than Worldwide Brands at only $67 for membership.
Then there are the free alternatives. Sites like Alibaba.com and AliExpress offer free access to millions of products, but these are nearly all from China whereas Worldwide Brands and Salehoo list suppliers from around the world. Moreover, none of them are certified or even screened.
So, while Worldwide Brands is expensive, it does offer more choice and a useful guarantee of reliability that no other directory does. At such a high price though, it's only worth joining if you really will make use of all the features on offer from Worldwide Brands.