Creality Brand Overview
Brand At a Glance
| Year Founded | 2014 |
| Category | Midrange |
| Country of Origin | China |
| Size of Online Community | Extensive |
| Manufacturer Support | Poor |
| Availability of Parts | Widely available |
Creality is the largest manufacturer of consumer 3D printers, and is a well-known brand in the 3D printing industry, offering a range of printers for various budgets and needs. Creality, based in Shenzhen, China, was founded in 2014. Their initial product was the CR-3, followed by the CR-10 in 2017 with a much larger build volume than anything else in the same price range. The Creality Ender 3, released in 2019, greatly expanded the market for low cost 3D printers.
Creality has an extensive lineup of 3D printers, covering budget, midrange, premium, and professional categories. Their cost-effective approach includes using off-the-shelf components, open design, shipping printers in kit form, and aluminum extrusions for frames and gantries. Creality offers so many options that it can be overwhelming to choose between all of the available models, so its important to have an understanding of what features are important to you when shopping for a Creality 3D printer.
Getting Started Experience
Creality’s consumer-level 3D printers are becoming more beginner-friendly, addressing some of the earlier models’ shortcomings, by including features such as automatic bed leveling on the new Neo series printers and shipping most 3D printers almost fully assembled. After assembly, Creality does not provide a lot of guidance on how to get started, so you will need to use online resources to learn to set up slicing software and get printing.
Support and Online Community
Creality’s 3D printers have a large user base. However, their official online community forums are not very active. More extensive community support can be found on Reddit and Discord, though these are community-led, with no corporate involvement.
Manufacturer support is available, but not highly regarded. Creality printers, especially the Ender series, are seen as very “DIY,” with users largely left to resolve issues on their own. However, more recent printers work well out of the box, so the lack of manufacturer support is less of an issue.
Recommended Creality 3D Printers
Creality is best known for the Ender and CR series 3D printers. The latest version of the iconic Ender 3, the Creality Ender 3 V2 Neo, includes an entirely new hotend, an all-metal extruder, and a magnetic PC-coated spring steel bed.
While the CR-10 is no longer actively sold, Creality has released the new Smart series, which adds many premium features and moves the series into the premium printer space. The latest version in the CR series is the CR-10 Smart Pro, which features numerous upgrades, including wireless and wired network connections, full probeless auto bed leveling, dual Z-axis motors, dual diagonal support bars, and a touchscreen display.
Type of User
Creality is well-suited to beginners new to 3D printing. Their printers are accessible and affordable, and the large user base makes up for the relatively poor manufacturer support. Additionally, the ease of use and improvements in beginner-friendly features in more recent printers contribute to their appeal for new users.
More experienced users who are comfortable with repairing and upgrading 3D printers may also appreciate the lost cost and large available print volumes on Creality’s printers, as well as the wide range of community-created upgrades and modifications for their machines.
Pros and Cons of Creality 3D Printers
Pros:
- Affordable, readily available 3D printers capable of good quality prints
- Large user community
- Wide assortment of compatible upgrade parts
Cons:
- Some quality control issues
- Slow firmware development
- Late to market with new technology and innovation
- Incomplete or missing documentation and firmware for upgrades
- Poor instructions and assistance for certain upgrades
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