Creality Ender 3
Ranked 14 of 18 3D printers by recommenders
Cheap, hackable entry into 3D printing that people enjoy building, but critics say it needs constant tuning and fails often.
Cheap, hackable entry into 3D printing that people enjoy building, but critics say it needs constant tuning and fails often.
30 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 20
- approval share
- 33%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 5 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Affordable entry into 3D printing
“these machines are an affordable step into the additive manufacturing world”
Comment from 22 Jan 2026 in “A Year of 3D Printing” “They would rather buy a $200 Ender and spend a lifetime tinkering with it.”
Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “An ongoing 3D-printer AGPL violation” “also happy with my bottom of the barrel ender 3”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Restore full BambuNetwork support for Bambu Lab printers” Fun to build and tinker with
“They would rather buy a $200 Ender and spend a lifetime tinkering with it.”
Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “An ongoing 3D-printer AGPL violation” “I also came from an Ender and its just so much fun”
Comment from 22 Jan 2026 in “A Year of 3D Printing” “It worked pretty good, and building it was fun.”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “The Year of the 3D Printed Miniature (and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves)” Good printer for the price
“also happy with my bottom of the barrel ender 3”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Restore full BambuNetwork support for Bambu Lab printers” “which is a great little printer”
Comment from 29 Aug 2026 in “Experiments with Plotter Art”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Finicky, needs constant tinkering
“sat in the closet gathering dust because of how much of a pain it was trying to dial in the bed to level”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “New York Wants to Ctrl+Alt+Delete Your 3D Printer” “Previously I had an Ender and it was, endlessly frustrating (pun intended).”
Comment from 22 Jan 2026 in “A Year of 3D Printing” “I almost never used the Ender, since it always resulted endless tinkering”
Comment from 22 Jan 2026 in “A Year of 3D Printing” - Comment from 24 May 2026 in “'Fuck you, Bambu': How one private message could change the face of 3D printing”
- Comment from 22 Jan 2026 in “A Year of 3D Printing”
Unreliable, prints fail often
“The Ender 3 had a huge role in democratizing 3D printing, but a 20% failure rate was kind of expected.”
Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Sherline Tools Is Going Out of Business” “I had to junk a perfectly working machine because it became something not worth putting filament into.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract” “IIRC Some enders shipped with a faulty marlin firmware that had faulty thermal shut off code”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract” - Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”
Upgrades and repairs add up
“the time and money I spent into my ender to keep it barely alive is all wasted”
Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'” “my $300 ender was a years long pain with >$800 in upgrades and replacements”
Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “An ongoing 3D-printer AGPL violation” Newer printers work much better
“Replacing my old ender with something that actually works”
Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “An ongoing 3D-printer AGPL violation” “a massive step up from the Creality Ender it replaced”
Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”
Other 3D printers people recommend
The four most recommended other 3D printers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bambu Lab 3D printer | 124 | 150 | 45% | 12 | — | — |
| Prusa 3D printer | 68 | 25 | 73% | 9 | 5 yrs5 owners | Approved |
| Bambu Lab P1S | 29 | 9 | 76% | 6 | 1.5 yrs10 owners | Approved |
| Prusa MK3 | 28 | 9 | 76% | 7 | 6 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Creality Ender 3This page | 10 | 20 | 33% | 6 | 5 yrs3 owners | — |
What people said
33 of the 36 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“but layer lines are definitely still visible”
“Bed flex can become a problem if it's heavy.”
“The Ender 3 had a huge role in democratizing 3D printing, but a 20% failure rate was kind of expected.”
“which is a great little printer”
“Crappier (Ender, Creality)”
“I blame the other 3d printer makers: Anycubic, Ender, Creality, etc.”
“They would rather buy a $200 Ender and spend a lifetime tinkering with it.”
“Replacing my old ender with something that actually works”
“my $300 ender was a years long pain with >$800 in upgrades and replacements”
“the old Ender 3 I used to have demanded attention every other print”
“IIRC Some enders shipped with a faulty marlin firmware that had faulty thermal shut off code”
“also happy with my bottom of the barrel ender 3”
“I had to junk a perfectly working machine because it became something not worth putting filament into.”
“continually fix design flaws in the printer”
“It paid for itself on the first print job where I repaired some Samsung stove knobs”
“Never did get it to work.”
“you basically brought an unreliable low quality piece of garbage into your house”
“it's just not worth the headache”
“the time and money I spent into my ender to keep it barely alive is all wasted”
“a massive step up from the Creality Ender it replaced”
“my buggy, annoying Ender 3 Pro”
“after using the creality ender 3 for a long time I'm excited to see how much easier things can be”
“bed changing its shape during printing”
“sat in the closet gathering dust because of how much of a pain it was trying to dial in the bed to level”
“the firmware update did make quite a bit of difference”
“these machines are an affordable step into the additive manufacturing world”
“I also came from an Ender and its just so much fun”
“I almost never used the Ender, since it always resulted endless tinkering”
“I would not use them for production. We evaluated a couple but came away unimpressed.”
“My Ender 3 was so finicky, I only got a few out before I gave up.”
“Previously I had an Ender and it was, endlessly frustrating (pun intended).”
“It worked pretty good, and building it was fun.”
“even something as simple as an Ender 3 can be set to pause at a set layer in GCODE”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.