We consciously decided against Ikea five years ago. The quality is decent mid-range, but when I factor in the labor time (and sweat) for assembly and installation, it’s not as cheap as it seems.
At that time, we chose a brand kitchen that we selected and ordered through a small internet retailer specializing in kitchen planning. The kitchen is from Wellmann (a brand of Alno AG) and was pre-assembled cabinet by cabinet, delivered directly from the factory by truck. Surely, there are similar offers for other brands as well...
Planning the kitchen in the evenings by email and phone over about three weeks was enjoyable and worked out great; the contact person took a lot of time and had some good tips for us.
In the end, this way of buying a kitchen including appliances was cheaper than Ikea and significantly cheaper than all the offers from numerous kitchen studios, which drove us crazy with their discount battles and price games... Maybe worth a try sometime?