Eight open agents next to KakoBuy
These eight were reachable or behind a bot check, not behind a closure notice, on 18 October 2026. Open means the site loads and no credible closure report exists; it is not a recommendation. Terms are from our notes of 5 or 6 October 2026 (6 October from the agent's own pages, 5 October from third-party directories), and they change. KakoBuy's row is the benchmark: no handling fee beyond item and shipping, 100 days of storage, personalised photos at ¥2 each, and a free-photo count it does not publish.
| Agent | Service fee | Free storage | Photos | Link pattern in our notes | Trustpilot (date read) | 18 Oct |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KakoBuy | None beyond item and shipping | 100 days | Count not published; extras ¥2 | Yes | 4.2 / 329 (18 Oct) | Loaded |
| Oopbuy | None | 90 days, +¥10 per 30 days | Yes, incl. weight photo | Not in notes | Score withdrawn, 971 reviews (5 Oct) | Loaded |
| JoyaGoo | 0 commission | 90 days | Yes, count not stated | Yes | 4.6 / 3K (18 Oct) | Bot check |
| Superbuy | None on Taobao, Tmall, JD, 1688; second-hand ¥20 flat or 10% | 90 days, then ¥0.1 per item per day, max 180 | 3 free; detailed ¥2 | Not in notes | 4.5 / 1K (18 Oct) | Loaded |
| LitBuy | Free service | 90 days (max 120) | 3-6 free; custom ¥1 | Not in notes | Score withdrawn, 585 (5 Oct) | Loaded |
| LoongBuy | "No agent service fee" (third party) | 90 days | 3-6 | Yes | 3.2 / 9 (5 Oct) | Block page |
| Sugargoo | None; ¥8 packing per parcel | 100 days | 7 free | Yes | 3.4 / 643 (18 Oct) | Loaded |
| EastMallBuy | 8% of goods and 8% of shipping | 90 days | Yes, count not stated | Yes | 3.4 / 8 (5 Oct) | Loaded |
| LoveGoBuy | None; customs ~RMB 8 | 60 days | Yes, count not stated | Yes | 4.3 / 629 (6 Oct) | Bot check |
Two readings of the last column. A bot check means the site was up but our browser could not read it; we do not call such agents down. LoongBuy's block page is the weakest signal in the table, and it is one of the smallest agents here by reviews. Status labels for all 31 agents are on the agents hub. KakoBuy's own fee wording is on its fees page.
Seven of the eight state no service fee; only EastMallBuy charges a percentage.
What a percentage fee costs: EastMallBuy against KakoBuy
EastMallBuy's service agreement says 8% of the goods price and 8% of shipping. A hypothetical example, using the KakoBuy estimator quote of $39.28 for 1,000 g on the USPS Tax-Free Line (12 October 2026) and a ¥200 item (about $28):
Goods fee: ¥200 × 0.08 = ¥16, about $2.24 at ¥1 ≈ $0.14
Shipping fee: $39.28 × 0.08 = $3.14
Extra versus a no-fee agent: $2.24 + $3.14 = about $5.38 per order
EastMallBuy's own shipping price for that line is not in our notes, so the comparison shows only the percentage, not a total. On a cheap item the shipping fee dominates; a few orders add up.
An 8% fee on both parts adds about $5 to a $67 order.
KakoBuy against CNFans, ACBuy, MuleBuy and LitBuy
CNFans (Closed). A maintenance page, written as a cyberattack notice, was still up on 18 October 2026. rep.tools, which earns a KakoBuy affiliate commission, reported an owner-confirmed closure in August 2026. Its older terms (60 days, 3-5 photos) no longer matter. Search "kakobuy or cnfans" and the answer today is KakoBuy, because CNFans takes no orders. Our CNFans page covers rescuing its rows.
ACBuy (Hold). The homepage loaded on 18 October and ordering works, but it urges buyers to ship stored parcels, and rep.tools (affiliate-linked to KakoBuy) reported an August 2026 closure on a board verified 31 August, which our Hold label does not adopt while the site still loads. Terms on 6 October: 0 regular, ¥10 per special-platform item, ¥10-30 customs, ¥8 handling, 90 days of storage. Pay per order and do not store goods. See ACBuy.
MuleBuy (Hold). It could not load on 18 October (a 502), and it also failed on 6 and 12 October. A third-party directory (5 October) lists 0% and 90 days. We noted reviews between 29 August and 11 September that were all 1-star about stuck orders, yet the headline score is 4.7. MuleBuy is not where we would send a first order.
LitBuy (Open). The one head-to-head with an open agent. LitBuy's homepage advertises 0% markup, and its terms give 90 days (max 120) and 3-6 free photos. KakoBuy offers 100 days and an unpublished photo count, so storage favours KakoBuy by 10 days, photos favour LitBuy on transparency. Payment lists differ: LitBuy names Visa, Mastercard, Discover and PayPal; KakoBuy names PayPal, Alipay, WeChat Pay and Wise. See LitBuy.
CNFans is closed, ACBuy and MuleBuy are on hold, and LitBuy is the only live head-to-head.
KakoBuy against Taobao direct
Taobao is a marketplace, a place where shops list items. KakoBuy is an agent: it buys from Taobao, Tmall, 1688, JD.com and, as tested, Weidian, then receives, inspects and forwards the goods. They are not rivals, but two links in one chain, and the agents in this article all buy from Chinese marketplaces. KakoBuy's item pages say it purchases between 09:00 and 18:00 Beijing time after payment.
Going direct means dealing with the marketplace yourself: Chinese-language checkout, a domestic payment method and a mainland address. Some sellers do ship abroad themselves, which is general knowledge and varies by shop; when one does, the price, the QC and the returns are between you and the shop, with none of an agent's warehouse step. Where a seller will not ship abroad, an agent is the way in. Compare with the platform pages for how each marketplace behaves.
Taobao is where the item lives; an agent is how it reaches you.
Pick by what you need
- Lowest fee: Oopbuy, JoyaGoo, LitBuy, Sugargoo and LoveGoBuy all state none on regular items. Watch extras: Sugargoo's ¥8 per parcel and LoveGoBuy's ~RMB 8 customs line.
- Longest free storage: Sugargoo matches KakoBuy at 100 days. Superbuy goes to 180 days, but pays ¥0.1 per item per day after day 90. LoveGoBuy gives only 60.
- Most free photos: Sugargoo lists 7, LitBuy 3-6, Superbuy 3. KakoBuy does not publish its count.
- Payment methods: Oopbuy lists Wise, PayPal (4.5% + $0.30), cards and Klarna; EastMallBuy PayPal, Visa, Alipay and UnionPay. KakoBuy's list is on the payment page.
- Review count: JoyaGoo (about 3,000) and Superbuy (about 1,000) have the biggest scored Trustpilot samples among the eight.
Whichever you choose, pay per order: one payment per order and per parcel when you place it, with nothing left sitting with the agent. If you would rather skip a new account, scan the WhatsApp QR on our contact page.
Choose on the one thing that matters to the row: fee, storage, photos or payment.
Swapping a KakoBuy row to another agent
A spreadsheet row is usually a KakoBuy link wrapped around a Taobao, Weidian or 1688 address. The wrapper is KakoBuy's; the address is the item. Paste the KakoBuy link into our link converter to unwrap it and, where the agent has a known pattern, build the backup link. Where the table says "Not in notes", paste the original marketplace address into that agent's own search box.
Then check the item again: prices and shipping tables differ by agent, and the seller may have removed it. Our KakoBuy shipping page gives the benchmark line prices to compare. The row check CSV lists nine checks before you pay.
Unwrap the row to the marketplace address, then re-price it at the new agent.
Questions buyers ask
Which KakoBuy alternative is safest to try first?
None is guaranteed, but the ones with the most reviews and a reachable homepage on 18 October 2026 are the sensible start: Superbuy (Trustpilot 4.5 from about 1,000 reviews) and JoyaGoo (4.6 from about 3,000). Superbuy states no service fee on regular platforms; JoyaGoo is listed at 0 commission. Place one small order, pay per order, and judge the agent by that parcel before sending more.
Is CNFans still a KakoBuy alternative?
Not at present. CNFans showed a maintenance page on 18 October 2026, the same type of notice as AllChinaBuy, and we mark it Closed. Its Trustpilot score of 4.1 from about 13,000 reviews is an old record, not a promise. Do not send money to it; use an open agent for the same row.
Is MuleBuy better than KakoBuy?
We cannot say, because MuleBuy's site returned an upstream error twice on 18 October 2026 and we mark it Hold. Its Trustpilot score is 4.7 from about 3,000 reviews, but on 5 October we noted a run of 1-star reviews about stuck orders in late August and September. The score alone is not a reason to switch.
Which alternative charges nothing on top of item and shipping?
On pages read on 5 and 6 October 2026 (JoyaGoo's comes from a third-party directory), Oopbuy, Sugargoo, LitBuy, JoyaGoo and LoveGoBuy state no service fee on normal items, though small extras exist, such as Sugargoo's ¥8 packing fee per parcel. Superbuy charges on second-hand items. EastMallBuy is the exception at 8% of goods and 8% of shipping.
Can I move items stored at KakoBuy to another agent?
The KakoBuy help pages we read describe no transfer between agents, so assume goods in the Xiamen warehouse stay there until you submit a parcel. KakoBuy gives 100 days of free storage, with a ¥10 extension per order per 30 days. Ship them to yourself, and put new orders with the backup agent.
Is buying on Taobao directly cheaper than using KakoBuy?
Item prices are the marketplace's own, and KakoBuy states it adds no handling fee beyond item cost and shipping. The savings from going direct are therefore small, but the practical hurdles are typically large for overseas buyers: Chinese-language checkout, domestic payment and a mainland delivery address. An agent exists to remove those steps.