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If you want to dip your toes into the water and start the additive manufacturing process, then you are at the right place.
As 3D printing goes mainstream and enters homes around the world, there are bound to be a lot of inquisitive heads popping out of the woodwork. That’s cause the tech is still virgin for the casual desktop user.
A dormant Reddit sub about the best 3d printers under $500 turned lively last week when some newbie printing enthusiast started ranting about the ineffectiveness of his Prusa I3 clone.
He eventually got more information than he bargained for. But it ended well for the kid. It must be fiddling with the Z-Axis and the extruder as we write this.
We have been dabbling in 3D printers since they were gargantuan-sized machines that guzzled UV resin and cost more than a Ducati Veyron. From that to today, 3D printers have been our mainstay, bread and butter, and the sole reason to exist. (Err…maybe not!)
Today, we will talk about the best 3d printers under 500 dollars. We will discuss the potential applications and the pros and cons of machines at this price point. More importantly, we will help you set realistic expectations.
What can you print from an under $500 machine, and at what quality?
So, sit back and enjoy this read.
| Model | Build Size | Filaments | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| FlashForge Finder | 5.5" x 5.5" x 5.5" | PLA | Check Price |
| Monoprice Select Mini | 4.7" x 4.7" x 4.7" | ABS, PLA & Others | Check Price |
| Qidi Tech X-One 2 | 5.5" x 5.5" x 5.5" | ABS, PLA | Check Price |
| Creality Ender 3 *Editors Pick* | 8.6"x8.6"x9.4" | ABS, PLA & Others | Check Price |
| Da Vinci mini | 5.9'' x 5.9'' x 5.9' | PLA | Check Price |
#1 – FlashForge Finder
If there were ever to be a 3D Printer beauty contest, the FlashForge finder would walk away with the crown. Thankfully, its credentials are not limited to the cutesy little cube-styled design.
This is an entry-level 3D printer with one of the most user-friendly interfaces we have ever seen.
It has a colored touchscreen control panel and an open-source environment. It comes at a very reasonable price point, making it well within reach of beginners looking to dabble into prototyping without breaking the bank.
Portable, Easy to use
The Finder is designed for consumer use. It is lightweight (16 kgs.) and easily fits on an office desk or in your classroom. Operation is as easy as it can get, thanks to the colored touchscreen with large icons that are easy to select.
It features a slide-in, non-heated build plate and an integrated calibration system that can be very helpful for beginners. The Finder guides you to level the building platform to perfection, helping you avoid irregularities in the prints. However, as you progress to bigger prints, you will discover that the automated leveling system doesn’t quite cut it.
You must grease your elbows, take the print head apart, and fiddle with the extruder gap to get the leveling right. No biggie, but it’s better to know this beforehand.
Wi-Fi Connectivity and USB stick
The Finder features FlashPrint, one of the best slicer programs for designs. As you get more adept with the software, you will be amazed at some of the advanced features that allow you to tinker with the motor, speed, and other features of the printer.
The designs can easily be imported through Wi-Fi connectivity as it has an inbuilt 4GB memory or the USB stick included in the package. So you don’t have to bother hooking it up to the computer.
Possible Limitations
- Sometimes, the X and Y axis tend to ram against the side casing.
- Non heated building platform limits the usage to PLA filament only. Not ABS.
#2 – Monoprice 115365 Select Mini 3D Printer
When the Monoprice Select Mini first arrived, the market was primarily dominated by obscenely priced printers with glaring design flaws and boring specs. The Select Mini, as it is fondly called, was a game changer.
It is built like a tank, speaks standard G-code (no proprietary nonsense), can be operated even by a third grader, is hackable, and, most importantly, costs less than $250 as I write this.
That’s an unbeatable package.
Let’s take a closer look.
Sturdy design with a reasonably sized print area
The first thing that catches your eye is the 120 x 120 x 120 mm heated print area. That’s much bigger than what’s on offer with most other printers at this price point. You have an impressive feature set with a print resolution of 100 microns and a top speed of 55mm per second.
It features a USB connection and a MicroSD slot for file transfer and is compatible with Cura, Repetier-Host, ReplicatorG, and Simplify3D for slicing objects. We hate closed proprietary software as much as you do, making the Select Mini one of our favorite consumer-grade 3D printers.
Compatible with ABS and PLA
Another neat feature is that the Select Mini is compatible with both ABS and PLA. The filament included in the pack is sub-par, as expected. So, you will need to order the material separately.
Print quality is decent if you don’t rev it up to top speed. At full speed, it just fails to print. But keep the speeds low, and you can churn out some fantastic top-quality designs. Bridging, finer details, overhangs, everything is top-notch.
You can do a couple of test runs with the cat, and elephant design bundled in the MicroSD card or slice up some designs yourself.
Possible Limitations
• Non-protected heated bed.
• There’s a notable temperature difference at the hot end. While a degree or two wouldn’t be bothersome, we noted that the difference could be as high as 5 degrees. That’s a recipe for disaster when working with heat-sensitive materials.
• It has a tedious calibration process.
#3 – Qidi Tech X-One 2
While most 3D printers under 500 are considered entry-level models, the Qidi Tech X-One 2 is the closest you can get to a $1000 professional-grade unit. This is a beast of a machine that can print to precision in very little time.
To top it off, it has a very user-friendly control panel that makes it a breeze to operate. Compatibility with QIDI Print, Cura, and Simplify 3D makes it easy to slice up designs of your choice.
All-Steel frame
Qidi retains the all-steel frame that made the first iteration, the X-One, so popular. It can take some abuse without having as much as a blemish to show for it. However, the extra brawn makes it slightly heavier than most consumer printers. It weighs close to 42 lbs. So, lugging it around isn’t going to be a cakewalk.
It comes pre-calibrated for use. So you can set it up and start printing in less than an hour. There’s a large touchscreen LCD interface with built-in presets and guides to get you going.
Exceptional print quality
We threw quite a few challenges at the Qidi in the form of round, diagonal, and even the dreaded Dodecahedron (scaled down) from Thingverse. It printed fast (150mm/s) with satisfactory results. Yes, there were a few stringing problems, but none were severe enough to cause us to cringe.
The build plate is heated, and we clocked it at 120 degrees at the hot end.
Coming to the tech specifications, the Qidi Tech X-One 2 boasts a 6mm CNC machined aluminum alloy build platform that, like the rest of the machine, is designed to take a beating. The X-One 2 supports both ABS and PLA. Connectivity options include an SD card slot and a USB drive.
Possible limitations
• No automatic build plate leveling
• It can be annoyingly loud when printing at top speed
#4 – Creality Ender 3
Editors Choice
Creality Ender 3 is built upon its ancestor, Ender 2. It is bigger than Ender 2 and is better in print output. Creality has always made some excellent FFF 3D printers, and Ender 3 is one of them.
Ender 3 is a modestly built 3D printer with a modest build volume of 220 x 220 x 250mm. The nozzle temperature reaches around 250OC, and the quick & responsive heated bed heats up to 110OC. 1.75mm PLA and ABS can be easily printed on the printer. However, the flexible prints (TPU) are not as perfect as they should be.
At under $200 and the specifications mentioned above, the 3D printer may seem an averagely priced product but wait till you hear its good features. These features make Ender 3 a must-buy 3D printer in its category.
FEATURES
The Creality Ender 3 boasts some great features. Features that users will appreciate and will help them encounter a satisfying printing experience. We have listed below some of the notable features.
- Fused plug to prevent thermal runaway (only in newer versions)
- Unique motion system design for a quieter travel of printhead.
- Ender 3 comes with a heated bed (Max. bed temperature is 110O C)
- It also comes with a print resume functionality which can significantly help in case of frequent power outages.
We make a note of some of the Pros and cons of the Creality Ender 3
| PROs | CONs |
| Great packaging | Absence of glass bed |
| Affordable | Poor TPU printing |
| Print resume functionality | Minimal test filaments |
Creality is a 3D printer targeted towards the DIY community since the very beginning. With Creality Ender 3, the company targets multiple stakeholders like new users, students, teachers, and even small businesses.
The Creality Ender 3 can be purchased for less than $200. And within its price range, few options come close to what it offers. We loved the Creality Ender 3 for its print quality and material versatility. Its affordable pricing makes it a desirable choice for hobbyists or beginners looking to experiment with 3D printing.
#5 – Da Vinci mini
We were not huge fans of XYZprinting until we got our hands on their newest prodigy, the Da Vinci Mini. This pocket-sized printer should undo some of the damage to their reputation, courtesy of dodgy quality printers that they churned out in the past.
The Da Vinci Mini is a beautifully designed, no-frills machine with an intuitive user interface and a very affordable price tag. Some of the features of the machine are comparable to much higher-priced models.
Let’s explore the mini up close.
Built-in Wi-Fi and storage memory
The Da Vinci Mini features Wi-Fi connectivity allowing you to connect it to your home or office network and download files onto the onboard storage memory. This is also how you access the control panel, which is integrated into XYZWare, the company’s proprietary software, which is to be loaded onto the computer.
The in-built memory allows you to store the design in the machine itself rather than constantly keep it connected to your computer.
At 5.9 in. cubed., the build area is decent for a machine this size. But it only prints using 1.75 mm PLA FROM XYZPRINTING!!! You heard that right. Filament locking in an otherwise flawless machine. Ugh!
Excellent print resolution
The Da Vinci mini packs an impressive performance in the prints. It prints at 100 microns with reasonably good detail. True, it can never beat a $1000 3D printer if you pit it against one. But for a sub-$200 printer (as of today on Amazon), the print quality is top-notch.
It is a tad slow for our liking. But once again, it all boils down to what one can realistically expect at this price point. For the money, the Da Vinci Mini is a lot of printer. Period!
Possible limitations
• No LCD Screen
• Filament Lock in with XYZWare, which prevents you from refilling the spool using a filament of your choice.
• Slightly slower than other pre-built printers
• Lack of adhesion on the build plate
The XYZ 3D printer is an excellent choice for beginners. For less than $300, it has superb print quality and a good resolution. If you are on a budget, this is one of the best options. The XYZ 3D printer is a perfect choice for beginners.
To sum it up
That’s it, folks. These are our favorite 3D printers in the sub-$500 range. Our choice would be the Ender 3, but it will require assembling and calibration before starting printing. There’s FlashForge Finder for absolute beginners.
The Qidi and the Monoprice are equally good choices. To make things easier, we have also listed their possible limitations.
We hope that this helps you make an informed choice, and if you have your favorite to add to this, then do write to us, and don’t forget to show us some love by sharing this post with your buddies.
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