Which Cricut Should I Buy? All 3 Cricut Machines Compared

Wondering which Cricut machine is best? Here’s a detailed comparison of the Cricut Joy, Cricut Explore Air 2, and Cricut Maker, including pros and cons of each and a “bottom line” to give you a quick idea of which machine is best for your crafting needs!


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One of the most common questions I’m asked is “Which Cricut machine should I buy?” or “Which is the best Cricut machine for beginners?” The good news is that all 3 Cricut machines currently available share the same basic features: they are all digital die cutting machines that can cut out and write one a wide variety of materials. But there are some key differences between the specific features and price points of the machines.

This post explains the differences between the 3 current machines (the Cricut Maker, Cricut Explore Air 2, and the Cricut Joy) to help you decide which Cricut machine is best for you!

Which Cricut Machine Should I Buy?

Introduction

Which Cricut machine should you buy? The answer depends on what types of projects you want to do with your machine, how often you plan to use the machine, and how much you want to spend on a new machine.

In the article below I’ll discuss the common features and key differences across all 3 Cricut models, and then go into detail about each machine individually. For each machine I give an overview of the machine, list the pros and cons, and give you my “bottom line” opinion on who will get the most out of that machine!

Machine Similarities

All Cricut machines have some capabilities that are the same across all machines. No matter which Cricut model you buy, you will be able to do all of the following things.

Cut and Write

Every Cricut machine can cut and write (or draw.) No matter which machine you buy, it will come with the standard Fine-Point Blade for cutting a wide variety of popular crafting materials, and all of the machines are compatible with Cricut pens and markers.

Which cricut model is best

Cut a Variety of Materials

All Cricut machines can cut SO MANY materials; the only real limit is your imagination! Cricut’s website lists hundreds of different materials that can be cut with the Fine-Point Blade that comes standard in all machines. And those are just the ones that are actually written down!

However, some of the machines have the ability to use alternate blades or tools, which allow you to cut even more materials like fabric, leather, wood, etc.

Cricut Design Space Software

All of the Cricut machines use Design Space software to allow you to design and create projects to make with your machine. Design Space is free for anyone to use and can be used on a Windows or Mac computer, or as an iOS or Android app. No matter which machine you have, Design Space works the same way, and you always use it to send projects to your machine for cutting or writing.

Finding Pre-Made Images or Uploading Your Own Images

Within Cricut Design Space is a GIANT library of pre-made images, fonts, and graphics that you can use for your projects. Or you can upload your own image to use with your Cricut machine. It doesn’t matter which machine you have; finding images through Design Space or uploading your own will be the exact same process for all of them.

Wireless Cutting Using Bluetooth

When you first set up a new Cricut machine (especially if you are setting it up via your computer instead of a tablet or mobile device) you may be asked to plug it into your computer using a USB cable. But after the initial setup, all of the Cricut machines can be used wirelessly so you don’t have to be tethered to the machine with a cable.

Machine Differences

Next up: a quick overview of the key areas where the machines differ.

Machine Size

The Cricut Maker and the Cricut Explore Air 2 are desktop machines; they are about 2 feet across and 8″ to 10″ tall and 8″ to 10″ deep. The Maker is about 24 pounds and the Explore Air 2 is about 16 pounds, so they’re really designed to be set up and stationary on a desk or table somewhere.

The Cricut Joy is much smaller and designed to be portable. It’s 8 inches across and 4″ tall and 4″ deep, and it weighs less than 4 pounds. You can easily pick it up, move it around, and create anywhere you want; no craft room required!

Cutting Mats vs. Mat-less Cutting

The Maker and Explore Air 2 both require the use of a cutting mat. Currently there are four different cutting mats available for these machines: the LightGrip mat for delicate materials like tissue paper, the StandardGrip mat for regular materials like paper and vinyl, the StrongGrip mat for thicker materials like leather, and the FabricGrip mat for fabric. Each of the four mats is available in 12″x12″ or 12″x24″.

Unlike the larger machines, the Cricut Joy can cut with a mat or without a mat. The Joy has a narrower cutting base, so the LightGrip and StandardGrip mats also come in a smaller size that works with the Joy machines (4.5″x6.5″ and 4.5″x12″.)

The Cricut Joy can also cut Smart materials, which are rolls of material designed to be fed directly into the machine and cut without a mat. Currently Cricut makes Smart Vinyl, Smart Iron-On, and Smart Labels (a writable vinyl.)

Cutting Size

Because the Maker and Explore Air 2 require a cutting mat, the largest single piece of material they can cut is 12″ x 24″ (the longest cutting mat available is 24″ long.)

When cutting without a mat, the Cricut Joy can cut unique designs on material that is 4.5″ wide and up to 4 feet long, or it can cut a repeating pattern on rolls of material up to 20 feet long! (When cutting with a mat the Joy can cut materials up to 4.5″ x 12″.)

Single vs. Double Tool Holder

When you open the lid of a Cricut machine you’ll see the main tool holder on a carriage that moves back and forth. The Cricut Maker and Cricut Explore Air 2 both have a double tool holder, meaning there is a clamp to hold the blade and a second clamp for holding accessories like pens or the scoring stylus. This allows the machine to write and cut all in one step! The Cricut Joy has a single tool holder, which means if you want to write on your project and cut it out, you will have to switch out the blade for a pen halfway through the process.

Adaptive Tool System

The Adaptive Tool System is a new innovation that is only available on the Cricut Maker.

The tool holder carriage on the Explore and Joy machines can only move up and down. That means the carriage is either “down” and touching the material on the mat below it, or it is “up” so the entire carriage can move to a new position before going “down” again to cut.

The Adaptive Tool System is different in 4 ways:

  1. It delivers much more power, with up to 4 kg of cutting force – 10x more than the other machines.
  2. It uses a steering system to rotate and turn the blade so that it is actively controlling the direction of the blade at all times.
  3. It automatically adjusts the pressure of the blade with each cut pass to get a clean cut even through tough materials.
  4. It allows the machine to use a whole new suite of tools and accessories (like the Rotary Blade, Knife Blade, Debossing Tool, Engraving Tool, etc.) so you can work with hundreds of new materials.

Overall, the Adaptive Tool System provides much more control over the tools, allowing for much more intricate cuts, cutting through thicker materials, the ability to expand and use new types of tools, and clean, crisp cuts every time.

Compare cricut machines to see which model is best

Insert Cards With The Card Mat

Another feature that is unique to the Cricut Joy is the ability to personalize Insert Cards with the use of the Card Mat. Normally when making cards with a Cricut you would load a flat sheet of material into the machine to cut it down to card size, then you would fold the cut card to fit it inside an envelope. With the Card Mat you can load a pre-folded card onto the mat to allow the Joy to cut out just the front of the card, even though it is folded! This means you can personalize greeting cards even with a small machine where a flattened out card would normally not fit through the machine.

Print Then Cut

The Maker and the Explore Air 2 have the ability to use Print Then Cut, which allows you to add multi-colored images or photos to your projects. Design Space will send the image to your home printer, and then you can load the printed image into your Cricut to have it cut out; no scissors required! The Cricut Joy machine does not have the “eye” sensor that reads the registration marks to help the machine line up the cuts on your printed design, so it cannot use the Print Then Cut feature.

Fast Cutting Mode

When writing or cutting standard materials like paper, cardstock, iron on, and vinyl, the Cricut Maker and Cricut Explore Air 2 can use “fast mode” which allows the machine to cut and write up to twice as fast! This is especially useful when you’re making a lot of copies of something, like cards or party favors. The Cricut Joy doesn’t have the “fast mode” option.

Linking Physical Cartridges

The original Cricut machine models (like the Cricut Expression, Cricut Personal, and the Cricut Create) used physical cartridges that plugged into the machine and contained digital files for cuttable images, graphics, and fonts. The current suite of Cricut machines uses images and fonts from the digital Design Space library instead of from physical cartridges.

But if you do have cartridges that you purchased for an older Cricut model, don’t worry! There are still ways to use those images and fonts even if your machine is not compatible.

The Cricut Explore Air 2 has a slot in the machine where you can plug a cartridge in. Then you can “link” that physical cartridge to your digital Design Space account so that you can still access your cartridge graphics. The Cricut Maker and Cricut Joy do not have slots for physical cartridges, so if you want to use cartridge content with your Maker or Joy, you will have to purchase a separate USB cartridge adapter for your computer to allow you to link your cartridge to your Design Space account.

Styles, Bundles, & Price

The other major difference between machines is the colors they come in, whether the machine is bundled with additional materials and accessories, and the price.

Prices vary from retailer to retailer (especially if someone is having a sale) but in general the Cricut Maker is the most expensive and the Joy is the least expensive, with the Cricut Explore Air 2 somewhere in between.

The machine bundles are great for those just starting out because you can get some additional accessories for your machine, plus cutting materials at a discount, all in one go. There are tons of different bundle options available, so just see what looks good to you when you’re ready to buy a machine!

As far as color goes, Cricut is always coming out with new colors for their machines, and some of those colors are specific to certain retailers or certain limited edition models. But once you’ve decided which Cricut machine is right for you, you can browse through the available colors online before purchasing.

Which is the best cricut cutting machine

Machine Overviews

This section has detailed reviews on each of the 3 available Cricut machine models, so you can decide for yourself which one best fits your needs!

Cricut Joy

MSRP: $179.99

Overview

The Cricut Joy is Cricut’s newest machine. Cricut calls it a smart little cutting and writing machine that makes it easy to personalize almost anything, and I can’t help but agree. It is a quality digital die cutting machine at a super affordable price, which makes it a great entry-level option for people just getting started. It can cut 50+ materials from simple paper or cardstock to vinyl, iron-on, and more.

The Cricut Joy currently has just two tool capabilities: the fine-point blade and Cricut Joy pens and markers. But the amount of projects that can be done just with cutting and writing is practically endless! For quick and simple projects, cards, and personalization, the Cricut Joy can do everything you need.

Pros

  • Cuts and writes automatically. No need to do any of it by hand; this machine can do it all!
  • Cuts over 50 materials. The standard Fine-Point blade makes clean, crisp cuts in a wide variety of materials.
  • Mat-less cutting. The Cricut Joy can cut Smart materials, which come in long rolls that auto-feed into the machine for long, continuous cuts without needing a mat.
  • Card Mat. The card mat allows for quick custom cards that can be cut out and personalized, even while folded.
  • Compact size. The Cricut Joy is cute and compact, so it’s very portable, and easy to leave out in a cubby or on a bookshelf for easy access.
  • Affordable. The Cricut Joy is a fully functional digital die-cutting machine at an entry-level price.
  • Built-in bluetooth. Connect wirelessly to your machine for easy cutting.
  • Free Design Space software. Access to over 100,000 cuttable graphics and fonts plus thousands of ready-to-make projects, or easily design your own project.
  • Use your own images. Easily upload your own images and Design Space will automatically convert them into cuttable images.

Cons

  • Max material width. The Joy has a max material width of 4.5 inches. If you want to do large or complex projects, you’re better off with one of the larger machines.
  • Single tool holder. If you want to write and cut with a Cricut Joy, you have to manually switch out the blade and the pen halfway through the cut.
  • No fancy tools. This machine only works with the Cricut Joy fine-point blade and Cricut Joy pens and markers; you can’t score, engrave, perforate, etc. like you can with the larger machines.
  • No Print Then Cut. The Cricut Joy doesn’t have the sensor “eye” required to read the printed registration marks for a Print Then Cut project.
  • Can’t cut fabric. The Cricut Joy isn’t designed to cut fabric.
  • No built-in cartridge slot. You must purchase a separate adapter to link your physical cartridges to your Design Space account.

The Bottom Line

The Cricut Joy is perfect for people who want to be able to do quick and easy projects without a lot of fuss. It sets up in seconds, and its compact size means you can set it up anywhere; no craft room required!

Cricut Explore Air 2

MSRP: $249.99

Overview

The Cricut Explore Air 2 is a full-sized cutting machine (12 inch max material width) at a reasonable price. It comes with the standard Fine-Point Blade which allows you to cut hundreds of materials, and it’s compatible with the Deep Point Blade and the Bonded Fabric Blade (sold separately) to allow you to cut even more materials. It also has Fast Mode, which allows the machine to cut and write up to 2x faster on standard materials like cardstock, vinyl, and iron-on. This is really helpful for people who make multiple copies of their projects (like teachers) or people who make things to sell who will appreciate the amount of time they save.

Unlike the Cricut Joy, the Cricut Explore Air 2 has a double tool holder, meaning it can hold both a blade and an additional accessory. The second clamp is compatible with accessories like the Scoring Stylus and Cricut Pens so you can cut and write or score all in one pass without having to switch tools in the middle. The Cricut Explore Air 2 also has built-in bluetooth capabilities so you can cut wirelessly.

Pros

  • Cuts, writes, & scores automatically. No need to do any of it by hand; this machine can do it all!
  • Double tool holder. Cut and write all in one pass without having to switch out tools.
  • Cut over 100 materials. The standard Fine-Point blade cuts a wide variety of materials. Compatible with the Deep Point Blade and Bonded Fabric Blade to cut additional materials.
  • Built-in bluetooth. Connect wirelessly to your machine for easy cutting.
  • Fast Mode. Cut and write up to 2x faster on cardstock, vinyl, and iron-on.
  • Free Design Space software. Access to over 100,000 cuttable graphics and fonts plus thousands of ready-to-make projects, or easily design your own project.
  • Print Then Cut. Easily incorporate printed photos or graphics into your projects.
  • Use your own images. Easily upload your own images and Design Space will automatically convert them into cuttable images.
  • Cartridge slot built-in. Link your physical cartridges to your Design Space account using your machine.

Cons

  • Not designed for cutting fabric. You have to stabilize the fabric with a backer fabric before cutting. Blade drags over fabric potentially causing tears and rips.
  • Not compatible with Adaptive Tool System accessories. Cannot use Rotary Blade, Knife Blade, Scoring Wheels, or any other future Adaptive Tool System accessories.
  • Not portable. The machine is too large to be easily portable.
  • Requires a cutting mat. You must put your material on a cutting mat before loading it into this machine.
  • Limited to 24″ cuts. Because this machine requires a cutting mat, it can’t cut material longer than 24″ long.
  • No Card Mat. Currently the Card Mat is only available for the Cricut Joy.

The Bottom Line

The Cricut Explore Air 2 is a good fit for people who make A LOT of stuff with their Cricut (teachers, business owners who sell their crafts, etc.) who will appreciate how much time Fast Mode saves them.

Cricut Maker

MSRP: $399.99

Overview

The Cricut Maker is Cricut’s professional-level machine. Cricut calls it the ultimate smart cutting machine, and I can’t help but agree. It is a top-of-the-line digital die cutting machine that delivers professional-quality results at a personal machine price. It can cut hundreds of materials, from the most delicate fabric and paper to matboard, balsa wood, and leather.

The Cricut Maker uses the brand new Adaptive Tool System, which allows for more precise control over the tools, including rotating, lifting, and varying pressure throughout the entire cut. The Adaptive Tool System also allows the machine to utilize new types of tools later on as Cricut expands their tool offerings.

Besides the Fine-Point Blade, Deep Cut Blade, and Bonded Fabric Blade that are compatible with all Cricut machines, the Maker can also use the following tools that are compatible with the Adaptive Tool System:

  • Rotary Blade – This lets you cut fabric with a Cricut Maker and it’s a huge improvement over using the standard Fine-Point blade. You can cut tough fabric like burlap or denim, and also delicate materials like crepe paper or satin. This blade lets you make intricate cuts on fabric without fraying or bunching (which is why you need a stabilizer backing when using the Fine-Point blade).
  • Knife Blade – This lets you easily slice through thicker and denser materials such as balsa wood, leather, matboard, and Cricut Chipboard. You can make some pretty intricate cuts without worrying that the blade will snap.
  • Scoring Wheels – These tools make crisp creases on thin, thick, and even coated paper materials. They allow you to make extra-deep score lines on any material that don’t crack when you fold it.
  • Engraving Tool – This tool lets you make intricately engraved dog tags (human or canine), name plates, inscribed art and decor, jewelry, monograms, keepsakes, and more.
  • Perforation Blade – This blade creates uniform, finely perforated lines that give you clean, even tears without needing to fold first. It’s perfect for tear-out booklet pages, raffle tickets, homemade journals, shapes with curves, or for any project that demands a clean tear.
  • Fine Debossing Tool – This tool allows you to create crisp, detailed debossed designs. The wide range of motion of the rolling ceramic ball gives you free reign to create your own custom decorative flourishes, patterns, monograms, logos, seals, and more.
  • Wavy Blade – This blade gives you a fun wavy edge on a variety of popular materials; use it on any material the Maker can cut!

The Explore Air 2 and the Joy cannot use these blades and tools because they rely on the Adaptive Tool System. The standard tool holder carriage in the other machines just doesn’t have the necessary precision or power.

As the name implies, the Adaptive Tool System is designed to easily switch between tools, adapting the drive system to whichever tool is loaded into it. This allows for TONS of new types of tools to be created in the future, to do new types of crafts with the machine that we never could before. I think the Adaptive Tool System is a HUGE benefit and I think it makes the Maker more “future-proof”; I suspect we’ll see a ton of cool new tools for the Adaptive Tool System soon!

Pros

  • Cuts, writes, & scores automatically. No need to do any of it by hand; this machine can do it all!
  • Adaptive Tool System. New drive technology allows the machine to have greater control over the tools. More pressure and more intricate cuts!
  • Expandable suite of tools. The Adaptive Tool System is built to allow for new types of crafting tools other than basic blades in the future.
  • Cut over 250 materials. The standard Fine-Point blade cuts a wide variety of materials, and the Rotary Blade and Knife Blade can cut even more!
  • Access to sewing patterns. Get access to hundreds of sewing patterns that are ready to cut using your machine.
  • Double tool holder. Cut and write all in one pass without having to switch out tools.
  • Built-in bluetooth. Connect wirelessly to your machine for easy cutting.
  • Fast Mode. Cut and write up to 2x faster on cardstock, vinyl, and iron-on.
  • Free Design Space software. Access to over 100,000 cuttable graphics and fonts plus thousands of ready-to-make projects, or easily design your own project.
  • Print then cut. Easily incorporate printed photos or graphics into your projects.
  • Use your own images. Easily upload your own images and Design Space will automatically convert them into cuttable images.

Cons

  • Price. MSRP is $399.99, the most expensive of any Cricut machine.
  • Not portable. The machine is too large to be easily portable.
  • Requires a cutting mat. You must put your material on a cutting mat before loading it into this machine.
  • Limited to 24″ cuts. Because this machine requires a cutting mat, it can’t cut material longer than 24″ long.
  • No Card Mat. Currently the Card Mat is only available for the Cricut Joy.
  • No built-in cartridge slot. You must purchase a separate adapter to link your physical cartridges to your Design Space account.

The Bottom Line

The Cricut Maker is perfect for people who want to be able to do everything with their machine (especially sewists, quilters, woodworkers, or anyone else who cuts a lot of fabric or thick materials), and who want to “future-proof” their purchase as much as possible.

Older Cricut Machines

These machines aren’t available from Cricut anymore, but they are sometimes available through private party sales like on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, or Craigslist.

Cricut no longer supports these older models, so be careful if you want to purchase one from a private party. But that said, every Cricut machine I’ve ever used (since way back in 2006!) has been a quality machine that does pretty cool things. You obviously need to be careful when making private party purchases, but I think that it is possible to find a used Cricut that will work for the occasional crafter.

As of the time I last updated this article (date at the top of this post), the Cricut Design Space software still allows you to connect to your Design Space account and cut out projects using one of these older machines. But that could change at any time, so always be careful before buying an outdated model!

Cricut Explore One

Overview

The Cricut Explore One was Cricut’s entry-level budget machine. It came with the standard Fine-Point Bladeis compatible with the Deep Point Blade and the Bonded Fabric Blade.

As its name implies, the Explore One has a single tool holder, so if you want to cut and write in the same project you will have to switch out the blade for a pen mid-way through the cut. It’s really easy to switch out the blade or accessory, and the Design Space software will pause the cut and walk you through it when it’s time, but if you do a lot of projects that combine cutting, writing, or scoring, it can get tiresome after a while.

And actually, the single tool holder is compatible with the standard sized blades (Fine-Point, Deep Point, and Bonded Fabric), but to use other tools and accessories like the Scoring Stylus or Cricut Pens in the Cricut Explore One, you’ll need to purchase a separate adapter to fit in the single tool holder.

The Explore One doesn’t have built-in bluetooth capabilities, so you have to plug the machine into your device with the USB cable provided. Or you can purchase a bluetooth adapter separately to allow the machine to cut wirelessly.

Pros

  • Cuts, writes, & scores automatically. No need to do any of it by hand; this machine can do it all!
  • Cut over 100 materials. The standard Fine-Point blade cuts a wide variety of materials.
  • Free Design Space software. Access to over 100,000 cuttable graphics and fonts plus thousands of ready-to-make projects, or easily design your own project.
  • Use your own images. Easily upload your own images and Design Space will automatically convert them into cuttable images.
  • Print then cut. Easily incorporate printed photos or graphics into your projects.
  • Cartridge slot built-in. Link your physical cartridges to your Design Space account using your machine.

Cons

  • NO LONGER SUPPORTED BY CRICUT! This machine is an out-dated version of a Cricut cutting machine, and since Cricut no longer sells this model, they also no longer support it.
  • Single tool holder. Have to manually switch the blade or accessory if cutting, writing, and scoring within the same project.
  • Bluetooth not built-in. You have to purchase a separate adapter to use this machine wirelessly.
  • Writing and scoring not built-in. You need to purchase a separate adapter to use the scoring stylus or Cricut pens.
  • Not designed for cutting fabric. You have to stabilize the fabric with a backer fabric before cutting. Blade drags over fabric potentially causing tears and rips.
  • Not compatible with Adaptive Tool System accessories. Cannot use Rotary Blade, Knife Blade, Scoring Wheels, or any other future Adaptive Tool System accessories.
  • Not portable. The machine is too large to be easily portable.
  • Requires a cutting mat. You must put your material on a cutting mat before loading it into this machine.
  • Limited to 24″ cuts. Because this machine requires a cutting mat, it can’t cut material longer than 24″ long.
  • No Card Mat. Currently the Card Mat is only available for the Cricut Joy.

The Bottom Line

The Cricut Explore One is still a workable version of a Cricut cutting machine if you can find an inexpensive one through a private party.

Cricut Explore Air

Overview

The Cricut Explore Air was the next step up from the Explore One. It also came with the standard Fine-Point Blade and is compatible with the Deep Point Blade and the Bonded Fabric Blade.

One big upgrade over the Explore One is that the Cricut Explore Air was the first model to have a double tool holder. The second clamp is already compatible with accessories like the Scoring Stylus, Cricut Pens, etc. so there’s no need to purchase an additional adapter.

The Cricut Explore Air also offers built-in bluetooth capabilities.

Pros

  • Cuts, writes, & scores automatically. No need to do any of it by hand; this machine can do it all!
  • Double tool holder. Cut and write all in one pass without having to switch out tools.
  • Built-in bluetooth. Connect wirelessly to your machine for easy cutting.
  • Cut over 100 materials. The standard Fine-Point blade cuts a wide variety of materials.
  • Free Design Space software. Access to over 100,000 cuttable graphics and fonts plus thousands of ready-to-make projects, or easily design your own project.
  • Print then cut. Easily incorporate printed photos or graphics into your projects.
  • Use your own images. Easily upload your own images and Design Space will automatically convert them into cuttable images.
  • Cartridge slot built-in. Link your physical cartridges to your Design Space account using your machine.

Cons

  • NO LONGER SUPPORTED BY CRICUT! This machine is an out-dated version of a Cricut cutting machine, and since Cricut no longer sells this model, they also no longer support it.
  • Not designed for cutting fabric. You have to stabilize the fabric with a backer fabric before cutting. Blade drags over fabric potentially causing tears and rips.
  • No fast mode. All cutting, writing, and scoring happens at standard speed.
  • Not compatible with Adaptive Tool System accessories. Cannot use Rotary Blade, Knife Blade, Scoring Wheels, or any other future Adaptive Tool System accessories.
  • Not portable. The machine is too large to be easily portable.
  • Requires a cutting mat. You must put your material on a cutting mat before loading it into this machine.
  • Limited to 24″ cuts. Because this machine requires a cutting mat, it can’t cut material longer than 24″ long.
  • No Card Mat. Currently the Card Mat is only available for the Cricut Joy.

The Bottom Line

The Cricut Explore Air is still a workable version of a Cricut cutting machine if you can find an inexpensive one through a private party.

The Final Verdict

Here’s the bottom line: In my opinion, any of these machines will work for the majority of people.

I know that’s not super helpful, but Cricut has such a wide variety of cutting machines that I really do think that everyone can find one that fits their needs perfectly.

The Cricut Joy is perfect for the occasional crafter, or people who want to do small quick projects without a lot of fuss. The affordable price makes it a great entry-level machine that packs a lot of power into such a small, portable body.

The Cricut Explore Air 2 is a great option for people who want to do full sized projects. It’s a great value and is the perfect machine for the casual crafter. As long as you don’t cut a lot of fabric and don’t need access to tools other than cutting, writing, and scoring, the Explore Air 2 will be a great machine for you!

For serious crafters, sewists, quilters, woodworkers, etc. (or if you get the chance to splurge a little!) I definitely recommend the Cricut Maker. The Cricut Maker is the top of the line machine and the only machine that can cut thick materials like leather and wood. Plus it can cut fabric with a rotary blade, meaning it can make crisp, clean, intricate cuts on fabric without needing a backer fabric. And the Adaptive Tool System helps make the machine more “future-proof” since new types of blades and tools can easily be added in the future and you won’t need to upgrade your machine in order to use them.

Your Turn!

If you have any questions, leave them in a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer them!

And if you have a Cricut machine of your own, chime in with your opinions so everyone can benefit from your experience too!

Jessi Wohlwend

I believe that anyone can do crafts and DIY projects, regardless of skill or experience. I love sharing simple craft ideas, step by step DIY project tutorials, cleaning hacks, and other tips and tricks all with one goal in mind: giving you the tools you need to “do it yourself”, complete fun projects, and make awesome things!

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Reader Interactions

  1. Vickie Maloy says

    4 years ago

    Looking to purchase a Cricut Maker but I don’t know what this pro/con means” “No built-in cartridge slot.”

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      4 years ago

      The original Cricut machines used physical cartridges with designs and fonts contained within them; there was no Design Space software where you could design whatever you wanted. The Explore machines have a cartridge slot still so that you can use those older designs that can be found on the cartridges (which is great for people who had older Cricut machines and want to upgrade to a new machine without losing all of the designs they previously purchased), but the Maker does not have a slot for a physical cartridge. If you have physical cartridges that you want to use with a Maker you will have to purchase a small adapter that allows you to plug the cartridge into your computer via USB.

  2. Houston says

    4 years ago

    I have a couple questions about the print then cut options. If I upload a picture of, lets just say my dog for example, will the Cricut Maker actually put the picture of my dog on a piece of vinyl and cut out the said picture, so when I go to do the heat press and put it on a shirt, it will be the exact picture I uploaded to design space? Or will it just cut out the shape I set to be cut out? Or would I need to use a material other than vinyl to actually put an uploaded picture on it so I can put it on a shirt?

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      4 years ago

      The way Print Then Cut works is Design Space will first send your design to your home printer to be printed. It will also print some registration marks around the margins. Then you load the printed material onto a mat and into your Cricut, and your Maker “reads” the registration marks to know exactly where to cut around the outside edge of your design. So if it’s a photo of your dog, you would need to put printable heat transfer vinyl into your printer, then print from Cricut. Then load the htv into your Maker and the machine will cut out the printed photo for you and you can press it onto a shirt. The Maker will just cut out the outline of the photo, but it will cut it out exactly because of the registration marks that were printed along with the photo.

  3. Thea says

    4 years ago

    I hope I didn’t miss this in searching, do you know if its possible to do gold embossing with the Maker? Say on the leather? I want to make a journal cover and love the idea of it being gold embossed rather than heat pressed.

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      4 years ago

      It sounds like you’re thinking of heat embossing using gold powder; the Maker doesn’t really do that. You can deboss using the debossing tool, but that will just indent the leather in the shape you want, it won’t also add color.

  4. James says

    4 years ago

    Will the Cricut Maker etch glass?

  5. JD says

    4 years ago

    Just curious as to which Cricut machine would be good for cutting thinner leather. I have a fair few little circles and blanks that are only 3-5mm thick that I want to start making and painting things with. Cheers!

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      4 years ago

      The Maker is the best for cutting leather because it can use the knife blade. But the Maker is limited because only materials 2.4mm or thinner will fit under the rollers so it can be rolled into the machine. But it can certainly cut leather that is 2.4mm or thinner, like tooling leather!

  6. AC says

    4 years ago

    Thanks for the review. Very helpful. Do you have any recommendations on which bundle is the best for the Maker? And if I am buying this as a gift, is there any other tools, materials, storage systems you would recommend purchasing at the same time?

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      4 years ago

      Any of the bundles are usually a great deal, it just depends on which types of material you plan to cut most often. For example, if you plan to make a lot of shirts or bags, a bundle with heat transfer vinyl is a good idea; if you plan to make a lot of cards, a bundle with cardstock would be a better idea. As for additional tools etc., the Maker comes with everything you need to get started right in the box! There are a few additional tools and materials I recommend for beginners (https://www.practicallyfunctional.com/cricut-accessories-supplies/) that are just helpful, plus that article talks about some of the other cool things that are “nice-to-haves” which you can splurge on later if you’d like.

  7. Farin Fazle says

    5 years ago

    Hi i am a cake decorator. I am mainly looking to create stencils to decorate on cake and also make acrylic cake toppers. Which one should I get?

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      4 years ago

      If you plan to cut a lot of acrylic, I’d suggest the Maker.

  8. carol says

    5 years ago

    Will the cricut engrave on metal?

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      5 years ago

      Yep, the Cricut Maker can! There is an engraving tool that can be loaded into the Maker to engrave on whatever material you want, it just has to be no wider than 12″ and pretty flat so that you can load it into your machine.

  9. Jennifer says

    5 years ago

    HI! I am looking to purchase a Cricut asap. I hand crochet custom dolls, mostly military and police. These require very tiny, detailed work for their patches and uniform decor. I currently do this by hand – I copy, paste and print via my computer. Then I laminate and have to recut by hand the laminate off the exterior and interior of each letter. Then I adhere it down onto the crocheted doll. Which Cricut would help me to efficiently do this best? I would like to be able to pull any logo from online and have the Cricut print and cut out that logo. Thank you!

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      5 years ago

      Any of the Cricut machines should be able to handle that level of detail! If you’re cutting fabric, the Maker can do much cleaner cuts than the Explore machines, but for paper and then laminate, any of the machines should work fine in terms of the intricacy of the cuts. The Print Then Cut method works on all the current machine models so it mostly depends on your budget and what other types of projects you are interested in doing with your machine, but you can’t go wrong no matter which you choose!

  10. Chris says

    5 years ago

    Hi very comprehensive review however I’m still unclear if there is any cost when using my own designs. Some other reviews suggest that even if you create your own design that there is a charge when you upload and send to cut.

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      5 years ago

      Good question Chris! It depends on if you are using images and graphics from the Design Space library or not.

      If you have an image file like a jpg or png, or you have an SVG file and you want to upload those files into Design Space, it is always free. Any file that you upload into Design Space is free.

      If you create your own design within the Design Space software, that is also free. You can use text, shapes, etc. to make your own designs totally free. The only place where you might run into something with a charge is if you are creating your own design inside of Design Space and you insert an image that isn’t free.

      When you go into the image library you can filter by graphics and images that you already own (free) or ones that cost $0, or if you have a Cricut Access subscription then all of the Cricut Access images are also free. If you insert an image that says it costs $0.99, it will let you insert the image into your design so that you can resize it or modify it and build text around it or whatever else you want to do. But then before you can actually cut out a project using that 99 cent image it will charge you to purchase the image.

      When you’re looking around at images in the Design Space library, you can see the cost in the bottom left corner of each image. It will either say “Free” or “Subscribed” if you have a Cricut Access subscription. Those images are all free. If it has a dollar amount, then you can totally put that image in your design and work with it, but it will charge you when you go to cut it out. I hope that helps!

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