Pros
- Faster than its predecessor
- Reliable apps
- Great selection of supported materials
Cons
- Little to no accuracy improvements
- No new supported materials
When Cricut’s previous generation of cutting machines was released in 2021, the company faced little actual competition. Cricut’s industry-leading software, impressive collection of uniquely supported materials and a growing household brand name made it clear this was the place to be. Nearly four years have passed, and in that time, competition has arrived from new corners of the creator market.
Cricut’s response is the new Maker 4, and its sole improvement is faster cutting for everything that isn’t made by Cricut for the same price as its predecessor.
Where the Cricut Explore series sits as a budget-friendly cutting machine ideal for the most popular uses of these machines, the Cricut Maker series is designed to be limited only by your imagination. It supports over 300 materials, allowing you to do anything from making your own puzzles out of chipboard or basswood to custom leather jewelry, in addition to everything the Explore series is capable of. Its versatility is what made the Explore 3 such a great option in 2021, because you could have one machine that didn’t take up a ton of room and could do more than just about anything else on the market.
Today, the Maker 4 isn’t really competing with traditional cutting machines from Silhouette or Brother and the cutting machines made by those companies. Over the last couple of years, the biggest competition has been coming from companies like xTool and Glowforge. Both companies have released laser cutting and engraving machines designed to offer more than you can do with a Cricut, at much lower prices than previous generations. The Glowforge Aura and Spark can cut stickers and make iron-on designs or cut PVC-based vinyl for whatever you need. The same is true of the xTool F1 Lite, and all three of these machines are $800 or less.
If you have used the Cricut Maker 3, you have also used the Cricut Maker 4. Aside from being available in different colors, the outer shell and inner tool kits are nearly identical. All of my accessories for the Maker 3 immediately connected and worked with the Maker 4, which is nice if you’ve already spent the money on additional cutting tools or spools for holding big rolls of vinyl. It took me no time at all to “move in” to this new version, in fact I went from opening the box at 3:30 p.m. to having a silly fake label to put on a bottle of hot sauce I was giving a friend at 4:15 because it felt so familiar.
Like the new Explore 4, the Maker 4 is noticeably faster than its predecessor when cutting anything that isn’t a part of Cricut’s Smart Materials line. It can handle multiple projects on the same mat, allowing a small business or skilled home crafter to spend less time waiting. A speed improvement like this can be a big deal for anyone with limited time, and when combined with support for cutting mats that are twice as long as the standard square mat, it’s a great way to improve your existing creative process.
This Cricut Maker 4 did not arrive properly calibrated, requiring the user to go through the lengthy process before being able to use any of the print and cut functionality.
That improved cutting speed is incredibly valuable, but it is met with a lot of the same limitations Cricut has always had. The ability to print something and cut it precisely, for example, still requires a lengthy manual calibration process despite having an optical sensor for detecting the edges of your design. And if you’re using the print and cut feature, especially for stickers, the cutting part is the only part that is faster. Detecting the edges of the design is still the longest part of that process, though Cricut is working on a new algorithm set to be released in the coming months to improve this process.
While the improved speed when cutting vinyl, paper and iron-on materials is a fantastic move forward, especially with materials not made or controlled by Cricut, that same speed improvement is still pretty slow on thicker or more complex materials. It still takes a while to make a puzzle or cut leather, especially compared with Cricut’s new competitors.
A silly label I made for a bottle of hot sauce using the Cricut Maker 4.
If you have only enough room in your home for a single machine to do as much as possible, I’m not sure Cricut’s Maker 4 is the best option in 2025. If you really love using Cricut for cutting vinyl and making iron-ons or stickers, the Explore 4 is only $250 and will work as fast as the Maker 4. If you aspire to make more than the things Cricut does best, the $400 price tag for this new machine is a big ask when the price of the competition is so much lower than it was even two years ago.
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