3D Printer Recommendation in 2025?

Question

I am finally ready to buy a 3D printer since I feel like a lot of my hardware stagnation projects are due to the incredible amount of work that it requires to handcraft stuff with wacky materials, so I'm looking for a 3D printer, and thought other people here might have great tips!Ideally, something that is very easy to setup and reliable, I want the printer to 3D print things not to mess with the printer itself. I understand as a newbie I probably want a traditional additive one (not resin). I don't live in the US but I'm asking here, but something price-wise mid-range ($500~$800 sounds mid-range). On speed vs quality I'm not sure/I don't think it's too important for me right now as a newbie. Not sure of what the deal is with multiple rolls? I'd probably sand+paint the stuff I want to print later so not a big deal if it's multi color or not (unaware of the possibilities of multi-material right now, but for my 1st one just 1 material seems fine).

daviddever23box · Accepted Answer

Single-material printing is perfectly fine if your intent is to use it as the base for further finishing. In general, I've found the Creality stuff to be pretty decent for the price; in particular, I use an Ender-3 series device (mine's a bit of an odd duck), along with an RPi3 running OctoPrint (with camera). I use Shapr3D for commercial interchange purposes, though everything just works.

jsheard · Answer

I can't really help with choosing a 3D printer to buy, but are you aware you can order 3D printed parts pretty cheap nowadays? Depending on the volume and turnaround time you need it might be more economical, and the companies which offer those services have far more advanced capabilities than any printer you can probably afford.JLC3DP and PCBway are popular options.