Best 3D Printer Under $500

Comgrow Creality Ender 3 Pro 3D Printer

Best Overall Budget 3D Printer

The Comgrow Creality Ender 3 Pro is one of the best 3D printers under $500 you can choose. Tailored to meet the needs of beginners and create a fun, STEM educational experience, this printer is easy to use and install. It serves as an upgrade to the already popular line of Ender printers. The Ender 3 is more reliable, comes with a name-brand power supply, and features a huge surface area that allows you to bring your creativity to life. It comes equipped with some improved mechanical properties such as better bearing wheels to help reduce friction and stiffness and some broad rubber feet to minimize the noise level.

It’s designed with a removable magnetic surface plate that ensures all-around protection while providing the entire build surface with a consistent temperature. And since the surface plate can be removed, users will be able to remove their print jobs with ease. Additionally, the Ender 3 Pro features a new Y-axis design as well as a resume print function that can be quite beneficial in the event of power outages.

While this 3D printer is a semi-assembled machine, installing and assembling the parts isn’t a difficult task. If you’re looking for a budget 3D printer under the $500 price tag, the Comgrow Creality Ender 3 Pro is one of the best products you can choose.

FlashForge Finder 3D Printer

The FlashForge Finder is another inexpensive 3D printer that you’re going to love. While it doesn’t come with the Ender 3’s large design area, it sure comes with some amazing features that make it worthy of being our second-best 3D printer for under $500. Beginner-friendly and easy to use, this printer has remained popular thanks to its quality, flexibility, and usability. Unlike the Creality Ender 3 Pro, this little guy comes fully assembled right out of the box. It’s a silent printer that runs quietly and only becomes chatty when it’s turned on or if there’s an issue with it.

You get awesome prints thanks to straightforward WiFi, flash drive, and USB connectivity. What the FlashForge Finder seems to lack is capacity. Its print bed is small, and although this 3D printer can ease you into the 3D design world, you’ll definitely need to upgrade to a larger machine when you want to start making huge prints. Additionally, even though it comes with an intuitive full-color LCD touchscreen that makes it easy to operate, it lacks some important beginner features such as automatic bed leveling and filament detection.

However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a great 3D printer for beginners. If you’re a novice who’s looking for a safe, compact, and reliable 3D printer for under $500, the FlashForge Finder is one of the best machines you can choose.

ELEGOO Mars UV Photocuring LCD 3D Printer

If you’re looking for the perfect resin-based 3D printing machine under $500, then look no further than the Elegoo Mars UV Photocuring LCD 3D Printer. This machine offers a simple and interesting 3D printing experience that is unlike many machines in the same price range. It guarantees high-quality prints even with the smallest effort. This 3D printer uses masked stereolithography to provide a quiet and peaceful printing experience. You don’t have to deal with the filament wrangling, nozzle crackling, and messy hot ends that come with desktop fused deposition modeling.

The included CHITUBOX slicing software slices 30Mb .stl model files in just one minute and allows you to hollow out your model before slicing. This Elegoo printer is well-built and well-designed. While the unit is heavy, you get a well-balanced build that slides around easily whenever you need it to. The Z-axis assembly comes with enough clearance that makes it easy to sling the lid on and off without affecting the printer in any way.

And since the entire lid can be lifted off, you get unrestricted access to the resin tank, plus you’ll be able to remove your prints more cleanly than you can in a number of other printers. Endowed with a build size of 120 x 68 x 155mm, this may not be the largest printer on our list but it’s one of the best and most user-friendly 3D printers under the $500 price tag. Enthusiasts and hobbyists alike are sure to have fun using this 3D printer.

ANYCUBIC Photon UV LCD 3D Printer

When it comes to budget DLP printers, there are many different options to choose from. However, many of them don’t come close to the Anycubic Photon UV LCD 3D printer in terms of features and overall appeal. Sitting within the $300 price range, this budget 3D printer is reliable, affordable, and ideal for those looking for DLP/SLA desktop 3D printing. It’s no longer news that resin printers offer the most reliable print quality, but this 3D printer makes it clear that even budget printers can create noteworthy prints.

While there’s a learning curve here for beginners and those who haven’t used an SLA/DLP printer before, the clear documentation, online resources, and helpful community associated with this machine will help you overcome this issue easily. That being said, Anycubic Photon UV LCD 3D Printer does come with its downsides, too. The build volume is pretty small, though it comes with enough space to create most projects.

You’ll also have to worry about some of the common problems associated with resin 3D printers, including material handling, post-processing, sticky resin, and so on. Affordable and capable of producing high-resolution prints, this 3D printer is still one of the most ideal printers for beginners who are looking to delve into resin 3D printing.

Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer V2

The Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer V2 is another incredibly low-cost printer you’re bound to love. With a price tag just a little above $200, this 3D printer comes with a feature set that makes it well worthy of being on our list of top 3D printers under five hundred bucks. This is a hackable piece of gear, which means that you can pop it open and make your own upgrades. The Select Mini produces well-made prints that are comparable to what you get on many more expensive printers.

It comes with a 120 x 120 x 120mm build volume, a 55mm/s printing speed, and a heated build plate. This 3D printer is also compatible with many slicing software such as Cura, Simplify3D, and Replicator-G. Its standard 1.75mm spool uses both ABS and PLA filament and models can be loaded via a USB or microSD port. The Monoprice Select Mini, however, comes with its own downsides. It tends to run at unstable temperatures when the hot end is in use.

What’s more, the calibration process isn’t particularly straightforward and the power brick isn’t high-quality. Additionally, the machine tends to fail when it’s run at incredibly high speeds, and the WiFi connectivity has been known to drop out for no apparent reason. However, given the fact that it features a low price tag and churns out reliable and consistent prints once it’s up and running, this machine is sure to be one that you’ll much sooner love than hate

QIDI Technology X-Maker 3D Printer

Entry-level creators and those looking for an educational 3D printer should consider choosing the Qidi Technology X-Maker 3D printer. Featuring a 170 x 150 x 150mm build volume, this compact 3D printer offers a resolution of 50 to 100 microns. It comes with a print bed that has a maximum temperature of 120 degrees Celsius and a heated nozzle with a max temperature of 250 degrees Celsius. Just like the Comgrow Creality Ender 3 Pro, this 3D printer comes with a print resume function that allows you to continue printing from where you left off in the event of a power outage.

This is a silent machine that supports multiple filament types, including ABS, PLA, PETG, and TPU. Thanks to its fully closed red and black frame as well as its rounded edges, this 3D printer is considered to be one of the safest printers for beginners and students. The Qidi Technology X-Maker also comes with two different slicing software: one version for students and another for professionals.

Its WiFi connectivity is quite stable and you even get a textbook endowed with helpful information for beginners and students. While the brand has discontinued the onboard camera function, it has upgraded the main system, ensuring that users get better print quality. If you’re a student or a beginner looking for the best 3D printer under 500 dollars, this is one of the best machines you can work with.

Creality Open Source CR-10 3D Printer

The Creality Open Source CR-10 3D Printer is a large Cartesian-style printer with a build volume of 300 x 300 x 400mm. It comes with go-faster stripes, a separate control box, and is very easy to assemble. Sitting at the $400 price point, this budget 3D printer offers more build size than many other printers in its price range. It’s compatible with many standard slicing software and allows you to make huge prints easily. You get a full-frame that allows for more stabilization, and thanks to the fact that the control box is separate from the machine, the heat bed won’t overheat your control board.

The Creality Open Source CR-10 3D Printer also eats up filaments easily. It handles TPU and PLAs quite well with only a little bit of spool tangling on the PLA side. This machine also produces modest prints for a semi-assembled machine, but with the right tweaks, you’re sure to get awesome results. It’s hackable and can be modded with different parts to produce better printing results.

This machine has its downsides, though. For instance, it doesn’t seem to do well with materials that require consistent temperatures, such as ABS, and the print bed also takes time to get heated up. However, putting these annoyances aside, this 3D printer could easily become your daily driver.

ANYCUBIC Mega-S New 3D Printer

The Anycubic Mega-S New 3D Printer is a cheap 3D printer that offers an incredible print quality at a low price point. Serving as an upgrade to the i3 Mega, this machine comes with many enhancements that make it a worthy contender on this list of best 3D printers under $500. It comes with the same design and sturdy all-metal frame that the i3 is known for. Both the design and frame play an important part in helping it produce great quality prints. Unlike the i3, though, the Mega-S has its name inscribed on its face.

The huge base is home to a full-color touchscreen and a robotic mascot that looks like Ironman. Featuring a build volume of 210 x 210 x 205mm, this cheap 3D printer starts the first layer of each print on the popular Anycubic Ultrabase heated bed, ensuring that the print remains on the bed and comes off easily when the job is done. The Anycubic Mega-S New 3D Printer comes semi-assembled, which makes it a great option for creators and beginners who aren’t looking to build their machine from scratch.

Sitting around the $300 price point, this machine comes with some new upgrades that aren’t featured on the i3, such as filament run-out detection and power loss recovery. It also features a spool holder suspended on the side of the machine as well as a new filament sensor placement that helps enhance usability.

The extruder is now compatible with materials like TPU and users can now enjoy WiFi connectivity as well as automatic calibration. If you’re a beginner who doesn’t want to mount a spool holder or filament sensor, or an intermediate creator looking to experiment with flexible materials like TPU, the Mega-S is one of the most ideal 3D printers you can buy for the price.

FlashForge Adventurer 3 Lite FDM 3D Printer

As per the name, the Flashforge Adventurer 3 Lite is a watered-down version of the FlashForge Adventurer 3. Sporting a price tag $70 cheaper than its big brother, this small and compact printer comes with almost everything characteristic of the Adventurer 3 apart from the built-in camera and automatic filament run-out detector. With the Lite, you get a 3D printer with solid connectivity options, including Ethernet, WiFi, and USB. It also comes with the brand’s Cloud Print feature that allows you to remotely control your printer.

These extra features are quite uncommon in budget 3D printers. Thanks to its enclosed design, creators can easily work with tricky materials like ABS. You also get an enclosed space to hold your filament spool, and although the filament capsule doesn’t work with all spool sizes, you can simply create an external holder to resolve this issue.

Quiet and super easy to use, this printer features a removable print bed that also allows prints to pop off when the process is completed. And since the print bed is heated, you can also use materials other than PLA for your projects.

Monoprice Voxel 3D Printer

Monoprice is one of the largest players in the budget 3D printing industry. They provide some of the market’s top printers, including the Monoprice Select Mini further up in our review. The brand tends to focus on two main factors when making their products: usability and affordability. These two factors apply to both the Voxel and the Select Mini printers, which is why they are some of our top picks for the best 3D printer under 500 bucks. Endowed with WiFi connectivity, the Monoprice Voxel features an intuitive LCD screen and a simple installation process that allows it to get up and running in minutes.

Although this machine shares many similarities with the FlashForge Adventurer 3, it manages to stand out and differentiate itself from other cheap printers on the market. The Monoprice Voxel comes with a 150 x 150 x 150mm build volume, which is ideal for creating moderately-sized prints. The build plate is flexible and allows you to remove your prints without using any sharp tools. You get built-in LEDs that illuminate the inside and the clear plastic sides allow you to see what your machine is up to.

The Voxel also comes with a built-in camera that allows you to remotely monitor your printing process via a cloud app known as the Polar Cloud. Configuration and usage are easy thanks to the touchscreen and the FlashPrint MP software. The only con with this device is that it doesn’t support the standard G-code out of the box. You can work around this by using popular options like Slic3r or Cura, but they aren’t officially supported and the FlashPrint MP software is limited in functionality.