this post was submitted on 31 May 2026
63 points (98.5% liked)

3DPrinting

23244 readers
3 users here now

3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or !functionalprint@fedia.io

There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml

Rules

If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe/ may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)

Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I feel conflicted. On the one hand, Prusa seems to be a good and reliable brand. On the other hand, it seems overpriced compared to the competitors. Bambu seems to be a no-go but mostly for ethical open source reasons, not for price or quality reasons. At the same time, I've seen this article that says Prusa is even falling back on their open source principles. But not sure how up to date that is any more.

If we look beyond Bambu or Prusa, there's a variety of smaller brands that I have trouble distinguishing. With these other brands, it's hard to tell whether they're worth anything or just cheap knockoffs.

If we do consider Prusa, there's also the question of MK4S vs Core One. The Core One is much more expensive, to the point where it is ridiculously expensive compared to the competitors. The MK4S is slightly cheaper, but it seems like Prusa is focused on the Core One development going forward, so I'd be slightly worried of being "left behind" with the MK4S.

What do you think? Which printer should you get in 2026? Or perhaps there is some upcoming release or something to wait for?

(page 2) 3 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

To me it all depends if the hobby is about the prints or the printer. If you just want to make stuff with minimal tinkering and effort, Bambu is what you want. If you want to customize, tweak, optimize, etc, then Prusa or Elegoo are both solid choices.

[–] Lee@retrolemmy.com 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

I don't know current best options, but last I was looking, the Voron design was where I was leaning. I'd suggest avoiding companies that violate open source licenses.

I used to be a Prusa evangelist, but I don't forgive them for the MMU2S. Huge amount of people never could get it to work. I'm curious as to the actual percentage working. I couldn't ever get it to work even with multiple complete rebuilds. That product should have been recalled or a free fix offered. Years later they released a new version that supposedly fixed the issues and you still had to pay to upgrade to it. Discounted if they had a support record for you. If not, full price.

From time to time I see a new Prusa printer and think "that looks good, I should buy it", and then remember the insane amount of time I wasted trying to get the MMU2S to work. Never buying Prusa again until they provide me the working MMU I paid for at no additional cost. As there's basically zero chance of that, my boycott continues and I suggest not supporting a company that fucked over their customers with an expensive poorly designed product that they then want them to pay to fix.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›