Top pick

The Cricut Explore 3 cuts cleanly and is easy to use, and its Design Space software is great at guiding beginners through their first projects. Cricut’s customer service is excellent if you need troubleshooting, and the company offers a wide array of YouTube tutorial videos.

It makes precise cuts. In our testing the Explore 3’s blade settings were extremely accurate. It made perfectly clean cuts in cardstock and vinyl, and designs we made using the pen tool were precise, as the strokes within lined up neatly throughout the entire design.

The Explore 3’s cuts were just as clean as those from the more expensive Maker 3 in every test, and the Explore 3 even finished one project — cutting an intricate doily from cardstock — three minutes faster.

The software is easy to use, even for absolute beginners. A cutting machine’s software makes or breaks the experience for beginners, and in our tests, Cricut’s software was by far the most intuitive. The company’s Design Space suite has a big on-screen workspace and well-labeled icons, which together make it easier to navigate than Silhouette Studio and Brother’s CanvasWorkspace.

You can quickly find your existing projects or start something new, or you can pick a project from the Cricut store with just a few clicks. If you’re drawing instead of cutting, the software shows all of the Cricut pen colors, so you can get a clear sense of your finished project.

The Explore 3 comes with access to about 100 free images. For about $10 per month, a Cricut Access subscription lets you use almost everything in the company’s catalog (some fonts and images cost extra), expanding your selection to more than 200,000 images. You can even use these images commercially, within the limits of the company’s Angel Policy, which is similar to a Creative Commons license but has some additional restrictions.

You can use the machine wirelessly from any device. The Design Space app is also available for smartphones and tablets (iOS, Android), and this mobile version works with all of our picks.

The mobile app is a simplified version of the desktop version, but you can still browse all the projects in the library and filter by the kind of machine you have. It then walks you step by step through the cutting process.

Cricut’s bundles are typically a good value. The company offers a variety of bundles focused on the kinds of projects you plan to make. These bundles include extras such as tools, cutting mats, paper trimmers, additional blades, different kinds of blades, and starter craft materials like vinyl and cardstock.

A bundle gives you everything you need to craft the projects you have in mind, and it minimizes the chances of your missing a specific tool to finish a project.

Cricut’s customer service is reliable, helpful, and quick to respond. During one round of tests, we ran into a few connectivity issues while testing both the Explore 3 and Maker 3. Each time we contacted Cricut customer support, we never had to wait longer than 10 minutes to get in touch with someone, and each representative was able to resolve the issue. They even went as far as to ship us replacement supplies for whatever materials we used while troubleshooting.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It’s not as quiet as our other picks. Although the Explore 3 is faster than the Maker 3 and every bit as precise, it’s significantly louder, issuing a constant beeping as it moves the blade from spot to spot. If you have a dedicated craft room, this sound might be a nonissue, but if you plan to have the machine running in a main living area, it can be annoying. In our one-bedroom apartment testing space, the Explore 3 sat on a bookcase right next to our desk, and the beeping was loud enough to cut through noise-cancelling headphones.

It doesn’t come with a cutting mat. With the company’s introduction of Smart Materials, new Cricut machines can now cut certain materials, including special vinyl and cardstock, without a mat. However, we found that cutting anything even slightly more complicated than a basic sticker outline — including the doily design we used in our testing — still required a cutting mat. Without a mat, the machine could only cut Smart Materials that were 6 inches or longer. Ultimately, we think cutting mats ($17 for a pack of three at this writing) should still be included in the box.

The software can be limiting for people who want granular control over their projects. One of the things we love about Cricut’s software — its simplicity — is also one of its drawbacks. Unless you’re working with basic shapes such as circles and squares, Cricut’s software isn’t designed to help you create your own images. If you want to make complex designs and be able to customize them, we recommend the paid Business Edition of Silhouette Studio (about $100 at this writing). This more powerful software allows you to save designs in SVG format for use on any machine. Alternatively, you could use Adobe Illustrator, but at this writing that requires a $23-per-month subscription.

The auto-arrange feature wastes a lot of material. When you’re loading a project that requires cutting several pieces and using the auto-arrange feature, Design Space leaves a wide amount of space between the pieces. This results in a lot of scraps and waste. To save on materials, it’s best to arrange the parts design on the cutting mat yourself.