Tried made in china recently and had a smoother sourcing experience than expected

I've been sourcing products for a while, and like a lot of people here, Alibaba has usually been my starting point when researching manufacturers.

Recently, I decided to spend some time browsing Made in China as well, mainly to see if I was missing any suppliers that weren't showing up in my usual searches. The thing I noticed pretty quickly was that I was able to narrow down potential manufacturers faster than I expected. I wasn't really looking for the cheapest supplier. At this stage, I was more interested in finding companies that seemed established and worth having a conversation with.

What surprised me was how much time I normally spend trying to separate serious manufacturers from suppliers that don't seem like the right fit. Using a second platform gave me a few additional options that I probably wouldn't have found otherwise.

I'm still comparing suppliers and haven't placed any major orders yet, so this isn't a review or recommendation. It was just interesting to see how different sourcing platforms can lead you to completely different manufacturers for the same product. For those who have used both Alibaba, have you noticed any major differences in supplier quality, communication, or reliability over the long term?