My Favorite 3D Printers of 2025 and Why I’m Hooked on the Top 2

I rarely find a product that impresses me, but the A1 Combo left me genuinely amazed with its performance and value. This 3D printer is excellent, with fast, quality printing at a great price. Adding the AMS lite elevates it to the best printer you can buy right now. Plus, its four-color printing for less than $700 is such a good deal; I'm still baffled by how the company pulls off that pricing.
There is a lot that I can say about this machine, most of which can be read about in my A1 Combo review, but the most important part of it is how simple it is to use. From opening the box to printing my first quality print took minutes and it continues to produce fantastic models months after my first try.
The A1 creates a lot of waste when printing in color, but that is not a good reason not to buy this machine. Whether it's your first printer or another one for your collection, the A1 Combo is the number one printer to buy right now.

Update: Prusa has released a new version of the Mk4, the Mk4S. It's an incremental upgrade but adds a lot of great features. It's faster -- it gets closer to that 500mm/s stated time in real life -- and the addition of an app and proper WiFi connections makes it a solid purchase for anyone.
No best 3D printer list is complete without the Prusa MK4. For nearly a decade, Prusa has dominated the market and the Mk4 continues the trend of excellent quality and customer care.

It is fast, though not the fastest, and always creates quality prints. I can count the number of print fails from MK4 on one finger, and I have been using it for months now. If you have the money, the Mk4 is well worth the investment.
Read more: Prusa Mk4 Review

The Anycubic S1 has been specifically designed to compete with the Bambu Lab P1S, a midrange powerhouse and one of the best 3D printers of the last few years. It does exceptionally well for its price, making it our top choice for the best budget 3D printer of 2025. After testing with the optional ACE color system, I've little to say in terms of complaints. The only real issue is the software, as it lacks some of the core features that other slicers have. Thankfully, most 3D printers work with third-party slicers, giving you plenty of options to customize your print as you please.

The print area is a good size at 250 by 250 by 250 mm, and the enclosure allows you to print different filaments like ABS and PETG without issue. The door and removable top also help ventilate the S1 when you're printing PLA, so you get the best of both worlds -- perfect for budget-conscious makers who want versatility without sacrificing quality.

The A1 Mini Combo is an almost perfect entry to the world of color 3D printing. It's well-priced, and while the build area is small, the quality of the print -- and the fact you can print in four colors straight out of the box -- is amazing. I've spent hours using it to make cool little things for kids and having them learn what all the pieces do, too.
The Mini Combo comes with an app that makes it simple to get started and allows you to monitor the print while you are away. The software on your computer is easy to use and can be set up immediately. If you are unsure about 3D printing and want a cheap way to get started, this is the printer for you.

Read more: A1 Mini Combo review

The Elegoo Saturn 3 is an almost perfect upgrade from its predecessor. It is bigger and more powerful, with better-quality prints. It's fast, too, printing models at what feels like twice the speed you'd expect. I can print an entire plate of D&D minis in less than an hour, which is just astounding.

It is my No. 1 choice for a midrange resin 3D printer. If you're looking to print serious details or a lot of tiny models, this is simply the best choice.

Anycubic's reputation for dead simple printers to use without being prohibitively expensive scales well to its updated Kobra 2 Max, making any large printing job a mostly set-and-forget affair. The sheer size of this machine requires some consideration.

To maintain speed with the massive build plate, this bed-slinger comes with some powerful motors, which caused even the sturdiest table in my workshop to wobble. The gyroscope in the print head helps combat most of this, but if you're printing something especially tall, be prepared for some imperfections.

And like any Anycubic printer, the software is nowhere near as sophisticated as its more expensive competitors. As long as you're right with those minor compromises, you'll get a lot of great prints out of this machine.

The Adventurer 5M and the 5M Pro are two excellent 3D printers from Flashforge. They aren't fancy, and you can see they take heavy influence from the P series from Bambu Lab -- but what they do, they do well, and they do it at an enticing price. A solid CoreXY printer that can print solidly at 300mm/s is not to be sniffed at, and one that's reasonably priced is well worth your time. I especially like the Flashprint software that allows you to network several printers at the same time effortlessly. Great for schools and small print farms.

Resin printers are the next step up in rapid prototyping design technology when you want your printing to look as high-quality as possible. Just be warned: Liquid resin is harder to work with, requiring good ventilation and a portable UV light to cure properly. D&D miniatures work perfectly on a resin printer like this, and I recommend this one to start making your own minis.

The Photon Mono 2 is Anycubic's latest upgrade to its popular Mono series and is a solid upgrade to the original. The prints are detailed, and the printer's size makes it easy to put safely in your workshop. If you want to get into resin printing, the Mono 2 is a great starting point.

Qidi has made a lot of good 3D printers over the years -- one of my first printers was a Qidi machine -- but the Q1 Pro is the first to hit the sweet spot of price and performance in such a meaningful way. It has a bi-metal hot end that allows you to print exotic filaments like carbon fiber and nylons and a heated build chamber to support those exotic filaments. Those unique traits on a sub-$500 make it a great starter-choice for engineers.