Prusa 3D printer

What hackers pick instead

• Bambu Lab 3D printerRecommended as reliable, polished 3D printers that just work at a strong price, letting you print instead of tinker; critics object to cloud lock-in and features removed by firmware.124recommend
• Bambu Lab P1SRecommended for reliable, easy printing that works out of the box and needs little maintenance. Critics object to the closed ecosystem, cloud and account concerns, and the company's direction.29recommend
• Prusa MK3People recommend it for reliability, repairability and easy printing out of the box, and it can be upgraded as the line evolves. The common caveat is its price, which critics say is high for what it offers.28recommend
• Bambu Lab A1 MiniRecommended as a cheap, reliable printer that works out of the box. Critics object to Bambu Lab's closed servers and its conduct toward open source.27recommend
• Bambu Lab A1People recommend it as a reliable, easy-to-use budget 3D printer that works well for beginners. Most common caveat: closed, proprietary software.24recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 109 comments. Each links to the original.

1. It has been absolutely great and low-effort. I haven't needed it yet, but their printers seem to be focused on easy maintenance by their owners.

   Recommends · May 2026 · in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”

2. Most commenters here will value the openness of Prusa, but most lambda users will have limited budgets that Prusa does not cover.

   Mixed · May 2026 · in “Restore full BambuNetwork support for Bambu Lab printers”

3. they started making efforts to stop commercialization of their designs, stopped sharing source/design material for their PCBs

   Mixed · May 2026 · in “Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract”

4. for a printer that just prints things as a tool there's absolutely nothing close to Prusa and they're worth every cent

   Recommends · May 2026 · in “'Fuck you, Bambu': How one private message could change the face of 3D printing”

5. Prusa printers are great too, especially if you care about supporting a company that invested heavily in open source

   Recommends · Mar 2026

6. those old Prusa's excel at precision work, we can do stuff on those that we can not touch with any of the others

   Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Modifying FileZilla to Workaround Bambu 3D Printer's FTP Issue”

7. The machine is simple, keeps working, parts are available, and you can understand and repair it if you need to.

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “An ongoing 3D-printer AGPL violation”

8. I picked Prusa 3D machines over Bambu because of the potential for losing critical proprietary IP with Bambu.

   Recommends · May 2026 · in “BambuStudio has been violating PrusaSlicer AGPL license since their fork”

9. I think they have a good balance of ethics, openness, product quality, innovation, availability and price

   Recommends · May 2026 · in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”

10. support Western 3D printer vendors like Prusa who share our values and contribute back to the community

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”

11. Prusa is, of course, the gold standard, and their more recent printers are super easy to use

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract”

12. They're an excellent company, and the complete opposite of Bambu when it comes to Openness.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract”

13. if I was in the market to get a user-friendly printer, or recommend one, I'd get a Prusa

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”

14. And the Prusa is a real workhorse. I've only had a couple problems in almost a decade.

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “New York Wants to Ctrl+Alt+Delete Your 3D Printer”

15. Prusa is for people who really want their 3D printers supported for a very long time.

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”

16. Prusa are clearly tools: you can fix it, modify it, and still have warranty apply.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”

17. Prusa are pretty much plug and play these days, especially the Core One line-up.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract”

18. Sure prusa are cool too, but much more expensive and still more maintenance.

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “An ongoing 3D-printer AGPL violation”

19. a Prusa can't crank out perfect first layers without breaking a sweat

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”

20. I personally prefer Prusa as a bit more open and good for hacking on

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Modifying FileZilla to Workaround Bambu 3D Printer's FTP Issue”

21. Prusa is still kicking... if open source hardware is your priority.

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “New York Wants to Ctrl+Alt+Delete Your 3D Printer”

22. Prusa is king. High quality. Open source. EU made and engineered.

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “New York Wants to Ctrl+Alt+Delete Your 3D Printer”

23. it is so incredibly precise, even if it is terribly slow as well

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Grid: Forever free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer”

24. Their machines are priced more or less only for US export, and not really something most people here can reasonably buy.

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract”

25. Their printers are no longer open source hardware, according to the definition endorsed by a certain Josef Pruša

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract”

26. It's really hard to recommend Prusa for the average person when non-enclosed printers go for 1k usd

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Fuck You, Bambu Lab. Go Ahead, Sue Us”

27. Prusa seems to have mostly forgotten about consumers as their industrial business is booming.

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?”

28. had been moving towards proprietary licensing (if they release files at all) for a while now

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “New York Wants to Ctrl+Alt+Delete Your 3D Printer”

29. none of them made any progress on making the hobby more accessible to someone like my dad

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”

30. You will get absolute shite prints if you skip the manual, eyeballed, first layer cals

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “An ongoing 3D-printer AGPL violation”

31. it's a constant nightmare of debugging, print issues, and manually changing filaments

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Restore full BambuNetwork support for Bambu Lab printers”

32. Prusa's prices (not just the machines, but also parts like nozzles and thermistors

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract”

33. I have 3 different Prusa printers, few of which have gone through several upgrades, and I love working with them

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “BambuStudio has been violating PrusaSlicer AGPL license since their fork”

34. Prusa has attracted its own valid criticisms, but I think they are closer to being right on these issues.

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “An ongoing 3D-printer AGPL violation”

35. Prusa is of similar quality in my experience, or both machines have their problems for different reasons.

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”

36. I was recommending Prusa to everyone who inquired about 3D printers for many years before Bambu launched

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”

37. We cannot talk all the time about open source, consumer friendliness, the right to repair, etc.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “'Fuck you, Bambu': How one private message could change the face of 3D printing”

38. the well designed machines (Bambu, Prusa, and many other vendors) don't have these issues

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract”

39. Prusa supports that, you can use the printer without ever connecting it to internet.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Louis Rossmann tells 3D printer maker Bambu Lab to 'Go (Bleep) yourself'”

40. I really like what Prusa is doing for the community and how they drive it forwards

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “A Year of 3D Printing”