If you’ve been intrigued by 3D printing but held off due to price, now’s your chance to get started. 3D printer prices continue to drop. One of the most exciting and innovative developments of recent decades, 3D printing technology has proved to be a great fit for a variety of great industrial and professional applications, from low-cost home fabrication to medical device design. As a hobby, 3D printing has become more accessible than ever. To help you get started and save some cash, we’ve put together a list of the latest cheap 3D printer deals ahead of Prime Day 2020. We’ve also included a short guide that gives you the basic information you need before you jump in.
Today’s Best 3D Printer Deals
- Longer Orange 10 SLA 3D Printer — $163, was $300
- ELEGOO Mars UV Photocuring LCD 3D Printer – $190, was $215
- Monoprice MP Mini SLA 3D Printer — $200, was $250
- Creality Ender 3 3D Printer — $207, was $300
- FastToBuy Pyramid A1.1 Titan 3D Printer— $349 with on-page coupon, was $599
- Bibo Dual Extruder 3D Printer with Laser Engraving — $599, was $839
Monoprice Maker Select Plus 3D Printer
$330 $390
Expires soon
Featuring an MK10 extruder and a heated aluminum printing bed, the Monoprice Maker Select Plus is a solid and versatile FMD 3D printer that can handle virtually all filament types.
Buy at Monoprice
FlashForge 3D Printer Creator Pro
$699 $899
Expires soon
With dual high-res extruders, a heat-resistant and virtually warp-proof aluminum build plate, and sturdy steel frame, the Flashforge Dreamer is a full-featured 3D printer for well under a grand.
Buy at Amazon
Monoprice MP Mini SLA Resin 3D Printer
$200 $250
Expires soon
The Monoprice MP Mini is one of the best cheap name-brand SLA 3D printers, capable of creating small and highly detailed resin-based projects.
Buy at Monoprice
Longer Orange 10 3D SLA Resin 3D Printer
$180 $300
Expires soon
With a 3.86′ x 2.17 x 5.5′ printing space, the Longer Orange 10 is a great beginner-friendly SLA resin printer for creating small yet highly detailed objects like figurines and miniatures.
Buy at Amazon
Anycubic SLA Resin 3D Printer
$230 $290
Expires soon
From miniatures to game pieces to small do-it-yourself projects, the Anycubic 3D printer is a great and affordable way to try out SLA 3D resin printing with its 4.53″ x 2.56″ x 6.1″ work space.
Buy at Amazon
Creality Ender 3 3D Printer
$250 $300
Expires soon
The Creality Ender 3 is an icon in the 3D printing world, and might be the best filament-based unit you can get for less than $300 right now.
Buy at Amazon
FastToBuy Pyramid A1.1 Titan 3D Printer
$399 $599
Expires soon
The Pyramid A1.1 Titan is a simple, straightforward, and affordable FDM 3D printer for larger projects thanks to its generously sized 15.75″ x 11.8″ x 11.8″ building area.
Buy at Amazon
Creality Ender 5 Pro 3D Printer
$410 $500
Expires soon
The Creality Ender 5 Pro 3D printer is a first-rate option that improves what the regular Ender 5 can do to make printing output even more accurate and precise.
Buy at Amazon
XYZprinting Da Vinci Full Color 3D Mini Printer
$1,599 $1,699
Expires soon
Most 3D printers are limited to printing one color at a time, but the XYZprinting Da Vinci Full Color 3D printer can create detailed and multi-colored objects thanks to its unique ink-fed extruder.
Buy at B&H Photo
Monoprice Maker Ultimate 2 3D Printer
$520 $550
Expires soon
The Monoprice Maker Ultimate 2 3D printer is fully enclosed and packed to the brim with features like mid-print pausing, filament sensors, and automatic bed leveling for consistent unblemished output.
Buy at Amazon
SparkMaker SLA 3D Printer
$230 $280
Expires soon
A highly efficient and incredibly stylish SLA 3D option, the Sparkmaker 3D printer is great at what it does while cutting on time and unnecessary costs without compromising quality.
Buy at Amazon
Anycubic Photon Zero 3D Printer
$180 $220
Expires soon
If you want great printing output while sticking to a budget, the Anycubic Photon Zero 3D printer makes it wonderfully simple to get started, with intuitive design and long-lasting durability.
Buy at Amazon
Creality Ender 5 3D Printer
$368 $400
Expires soon
Creality makes some of the best and most user-friendly 3D printers in its Ender line. The Ender 5 is an upgraded model with enhancements like a resume printing feature and a hot bed on a fixed Z-axis.
Buy at Amazon
Bibo Dual Extruder 3D Printer with Laser Engraving
$799 $839
Expires soon
It’s not a mind-blowing discount, the Bibo dual-extruder 3D printer is still a solid sub-$1,000 value if you’re looking for a full-featured unit that can also do laser engraving.
Buy at Amazon
XYZprinting da Vinci 1.0 Pro Wireless 3D Printer
$340 $360
Expires soon
Easy to set up and simple to use, the XYZprinting da Vinci 1.0 Pro is a versatile and no-nonsense filament-based 3D printer with a 7.8″ x 7.8″ x 7.8″ work volume for small- to medium-sized tasks.
Buy at B&H Photo
Nova3D Elfin SLA 3D Printer
$349 $499
Expires soon
SLA printers are the way to go for smoother, higher-resolution designs than filament-based units can usually provide, and the the Nova3D Elfin is a highly capable and user-friendly 3D resin printer.
Buy at Amazon
Monoprice Mini Delta 3D Printer
$176 $180
Expires soon
For a desktop-friendly 3D printer capable of handling smaller tasks, the Monoprice Mini Delta is arguably the best you’ll find for less than $200 with its 4.7″ x 4.3″ x 4.3″ work space.
Buy at Amazon
Creality LD-002R 3D Printer
$239 $340
Expires soon
The Creality LD-002R LCD 3D printer is a superb option that balances exceptional printing output while remaining affordable, with UV light, air filtering, and high speeds to boot.
Buy at Amazon
Anet ET4X 3D Printer
$179 $189
Expires soon
If you’re looking for a reliable entry-level 3D printer, look no further than the Anet ET4X 3D printer, with a reliable build that ensures flawless printing even if you run out of filament.
Buy at Amazon
How To Choose A 3D Printer
Three-dimensional printers cover a huge range of sizes and prices, with some industrial models capable of printing houses. Such equipment is naturally beyond the needs or means of most people, however, and the vast majority of consumer-grade units are designed to fit on a tabletop. Even these run the gamut when it comes to cost, so it’s worth it to spend some time to track down a cheap 3D printer (or at least a worthy 3D printer deal on a more expensive unit) that can meet your budget while also satisfying your needs.
Modern 3D printers employ one of two manufacturing technologies: Fused deposition modeling (FDM) or stereolithography (SLA). FDM printers are more popular and use a printing medium known as filament. This filament is heated to its melting point and then extruded through one or more printing heads, which move along three axes to create an object layer-by-layer from the bottom up on a heat-dispersing build plate.
FDM printers tend to be the most user-friendly and the filaments they use are also very common and quite affordable, making these cheap 3D printers good for household items and other common projects. Items made with an FDM 3D printer usually have a noticeably striated appearance due to this layer-by-layer building method, but filaments and the printers that use them are improving and growing more capable of handling complex tasks as this technology continues to mature. Most cheap 3D printers you’ll find will be of this design.
Stereolithography, while actually a decades-old technology, is less common due to the greater cost of SLA printers and their proprietary resins (there are a few cheap 3D printers that use resin, but they tend to be on the smaller side). Instead of filament as a printing substrate, SLA printers start with a resin liquid that is hardened via UV radiation as it is molded into the desired shape within the printing chamber. The UV laser is reflected off of mirrors to selectively target the resin that is to be hardened; this is also done layer-by-layer, but in a much different manner than in fused deposition modeling.
Resin-based SLA printers are therefore capable of creating smoother, more detailed, and higher-resolution objects than FDM printers. These resin objects also tend to be considerably more durable. The trade-off here is that SLA 3D printers (and the resins) tend to be more expensive than FDM units, and the proprietary resins are less flexible and messier to work with.
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