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?
I’m guessing the cheap, good quality, printers are cheap because they want to capture market share and enshitify (all the proprietary stuff they use is a hint).
I was looking for something to replace my old Creality CR10S a few months ago, Bambu and Qidi were tempting because of the price, but I didn’t like how proprietary everything was. The Prusa Core One looked nice, but looks like they’re going a little less “free” now with their Open Community License and locked boot loaders. I would have got a Troodon (Voron-derived pre-built printer), but they were out of stock. I settled on just getting a Formbot Voron kit. Took a very long time to build, but I’m very happy with it. I know the printer inside and out, so it’s easy to debug, modify, or repair if I need to.
In my opinion, if you’re already somewhat familiar with 3d printing, I’d build a Voron from a kit. If not, I’d get a Voron-derived pre-built like a Troodon or Sovol SV8 (I think the Sovol has a proprietary toolhead though). If you want an easy Apple-like experience, but still pretty “open,” I’d get a Prusa.
If you think you’re going to want to print higher-temp, warp-prone filaments like ABS/ASA/PA, I would not choose a bed-slinger (e.g. Mk4s), because they are harder to enclose nicely and take up a lot of space if enclosed. As one data-point, my core-xy Voron produces much higher quality prints (e.g. less artifacts) and is faster than my bedslinger CR10S.