The days of the best 3D printers costing a few thousand dollars are long gone. In 2024, 3D printers have become more affordable than ever, and right now is a perfect time to learn about 3D printing. 3D printing can be a fun hobby, used to produce miniature figurines for tabletop games, or can ignite a new career path in 3D production. If you're looking for the best 3D printers in 2024, look no further. We've combed through our favorite 3D printers to pick out the best of 2024, whether you are a beginner maker or have been 3D printing for years.

Our picks for the best 3D printers in 2024

The Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ is one of the most celebrated 3D printers on the market, and for good reason. The Prusa i3 MK3s+ packs a wide swath of features, such as a quiet printing mode with silent stepper drivers and an easy-to-use interface and software that provides a best-in-class printing experience for 3D printing at any skill level.

The MK3S+ comes with spring steel sheets that are easy to remove and maintain. These sheets make removing printed objects from the printer's surface a breeze. Prusa also offers three types of print surfaces for the MK3S+: textured, smooth, and satin, covering various needs when printing with different filament types.

The Prusa MK3S+ comes with a SuperPINDA probe, which is used for hands-free build platform leveling. The SuperPINDA probe and the included Prusa software suite allow 3D designers to set up the Prusa once without worrying about re-calibrating the printer on every print. Overall, this is a great 3D printing solution for both beginner and highly experienced makers and is designed to save you time. The aesthetic may appear a bit outdated, but in terms of performance, this is one of the best 3D printers on the market in 2024.

The FlashForge Adventurer 4 is an excellent option for anyone searching for a great-performing 3D printer that doesn't break the bank. It offers a user-friendly design and robust hardware and features a spacious build volume that measures 200x200x250mm, providing enough room for large and intricate prints.

Temperature control is no problem with the Adventurer 4's fully enclosed chamber, ensuring stable temperature conditions during printing. It also features a built-in HEPA air filtration system, which reduces odors and captures small particles that are released during the resin printing process, providing a cleaner printing environment in your studio or workshop.

The Anycubic Photon Mono X2 is a 3D resin (SLA) printer that is great for 3D printing miniatures and precise parts and is one of the most affordable options on the market in 2024 at just $350 MSRP. The printer features two precise prints thanks to two linear rails along the Z-axis with low X/Y precision and an easy-to-use LCD screen. This makes the Mono X2 a great 3D resin printer for printing small, precise mechanical parts.

Mechanical parts aren't all the Mono X2 excels at, though. This is an excellent printer for anyone who wants to print custom Warhammer miniatures or miniatures for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. It offers a decent amount of print space, with the fully enclosed space measured at 200 x 196 x 122 mm, meaning it can print multiple minutes simultaneously.

Connection-wise, you can use any of the best laptops to connect to this 3D printer's USB ports. Just be warned that the Photon Mono X2 only features USB Type-A ports, and at that, only Gen 2.0 ports, so the connection will feel slow, especially if you are accustomed to USB Type-C connections in 2024.

This is an excellent solution for any 3D maker looking to create their parts or miniatures but doesn't want to spend too much. At under $400, this is one of the most precise 3D printers at its price, and it is a great buy for the budget maker.

With a design that's similar to our favorite overall printer, the Original Prusa i3 MK3S+, the Kobra 2 takes a simpler industrial, open-frame design. Don't let the simple design fool you, however. This is a serious 3D printer that's the best to learn, thanks to its accuracy, speed, and auto-bed leveling features.

Anycubic rates the Kobra 2's default print at a speed of 150mm per second, with a peak speed of 250mm, making this one of the fastest 3D printers on the market. It's an impressive feature for such an affordable 3D printer, and the machine is able to produce smooth, precise parts at great speeds. There's LeviQ 2.0, an automatic bed leveling system that Anycubic introduced with the Kobra 2 that provides hands-free leveling on the LCD touchscreen.

It's not a perfect 3D printer, of course. There are no input shaping features, meaning it won't produce the most precise prints and might not be the best option for part printing. Some larger prints will show signs of vibrations in the final print, but it's important to recognize that input shaping is a firmware issue and could be improved in the near future.

The Creality CR-30 3D printer is a unique machine that features a conveyor belt design, allowing to print models longer than itself. Unlike many of the 3D printers on this list, which feature a fixed build volume, the CR-30 has an infinite Z-axis, meaning you can print objects of virtually any length by continuously feeding the belt.

The conveyor belt features a heated nylon belt platform, ensuring good adhesion and preventing warping during the printing process. It's also compatible with a wide range of materials, such as PETG, PLA, TPU, and more. The conveyor belt also allows for batch printing of parts or long models, and you can load your 3D models in via USB or SD cards and run prints for extended periods of time without interruption. We wrote the article for SD cards to use with the Raspberry Pi, but they will be applicable to any 3D printer with an SD card slot.

The Creality CR-30 is a great 3D printer for designers, both big and large, as well as anyone who is looking for a 3D printer with hands-free continuous printing capabilities. It's an innovative solution for creating long objects without limitations on height.

The da Vinci Jr. 3D Printer from XYZ is a simple-to-use, consumer-oriented 3D printer that offers an excellent balance of affordability, ease of use, and versatility. It's a 3-in-1 3D printer that caters to beginners and students who want to explore more advanced 3D prototyping methods. It combines 3D printing, scanning, and optional laser engraving capabilities all in one desktop-sized machine.

The da Vinci Jr. is easy to set up, and its compact design can easily fit on a desktop. It's a great choice for those new to 3D printing or those looking for an all-in-one system for 3D printing. The printer uses a smart 9-point calibration detection system to determine the distance between the extruder and the print bed, ensuring optimal print quality without requiring manual adjustments.

There's also built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, allowing you to print directly from a laptop or desktop computer. There's even an XYZ gallery app available for Android tablets and phones, as well as iOS devices that you can print from. In addition, there's an SD card slot that allows for convenient printing also.

The da Vinci Jr 3D Printer offers a straightforward experience for beginners and intermediate 3D makers alike, while providing essential features like scanning capabilities, a safe extruder, and compatibility with a wide range of filament materials.

If you are looking for one of the best 3D resin printers on the market, look no further than the Saturn 3 12K 3D printer from ELEGOO. This 3D printer is an improvement over its predecessor, the Saturn 2. Now, instead of 8K printing, the Saturn 3 provides a 12K screen resolution printing experience. It won't make much difference if you print larger models, but in smaller figurines or parts, it provides an extremely precise printing experience.

The 2.18 x 122 x 260mm build volume allows you to print multiple minis at once, making it a great 3D printer for tabletop games. Thanks to resin printing, this printer can also produce multiple 3D models at the same time as it takes to build a single model. This is an incredibly speedy 3D printer, and ELEGOO has developed a new type of film that allows your models to peel off faster, decreasing overall print times.

It's not a perfect printer, however, with a lockable and removable lid. While the lid provides a great deal of safety and filtration during the resin printing process, it can be difficult to reattach. Lift-off mechanisms require you to click out all the plastic holdings simultaneously and are known to be much more difficult to use than competing tilt-up lid systems.

The Prusa Mini+ 3D printer is an FDM printer and is one of the best 3D printers you can buy, especially for anyone who needs a compact printer. This one is designed with entry-level makers in mind and is a great 3D printer for an educational space. Its compact footprint was designed with laboratories and classrooms in mind.

The Prusa Mini+ 3D Printer has a lot of documentation that features detailed guides on optimizing your prints, with multiple explainers about what is occurring during the printing process. Following Prusa's process will allow any maker to experience precise prints with accurate and smooth lines, but this is something that is also largely dependent on which filament you use.

Thankfully, the Prusa Mini+ supports a wide range of filaments, and the company makes their own Prusa brand filament which they recommend for the best quality prints. The printer is able to handle part production easily and produces screws and bearings with minimal to no stringing. If you work in an educational space and are looking for a great printer with an auto-leveling bed system to teach 3D printing, the Prusa Mini+ is a great option, especially if the desk or tabletop space is sparse.

The best 3D printers in 2024: Everything you need to know

3D printing is a great hobby that has become more mainstream, and in turn, prices have fallen significantly for 3D printers. On average, you'll need to spend at least $500 on a quality 3D printer, but we were able to find a few great budget-level picks for this list that are below $500. Before you commit to purchasing a 3D printer, you'll want to make sure you have some resin or filament on hand, and you'll want to make sure you purchase a printer that supports whichever filament or resin you buy.

Our favorite printer was the Original Prusa i3 MK3S. It's not as feature-rich as a few of the other printers on the list, such as our second favorite 3D printer, the ANYCUBIC Photon Mono X2, but the Prusa i3 MK3S we found to be the best 3D printer for most people. It's an excellent, open-bed system printer for beginners and advanced makers alike and offers a semi-modular design and fast prints that are highly accurate.