this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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Great move by Snapmaker. In considering buying a new printer soon I am very annoyed by how difficult it is to know beforehand how much functionality of a printer is locked behind cloud connectivity that can be remotely disabled at any point. I know Bambu is to avoid absolutely thanks to the very public backlash they got but what about the others?
I know Prusa is a shining example of letting their customers own their devices but they are pricy. I didn't know Snapmaker had the same kind of mentality until now thanks to that move.
Another reason to avoid Bambu is that they use their own proprietary printer code file type (.bgcode instead of .gcode). Blatant attempt at userlocking/walled garden ecosystem.
I have an Anycubic and I never connected it to the internet. It calibrates offline and prints fine from a USB.
I don't use their official apps, just OrcaSlicer which is open source (and "stealth mode" disables telemetry). The printer works great though.
The only functionality that seems to require internet (besides printing from the app or networking with the slicer) is the camera which is supposed to detect misprints and pause/cancel a project to avoid waste or skip an object so the spaghetti doesn't ruin the rest.
But I don't use that feature and it's fine, just watch your first few prints so you know what tends to fail and what needs extra support, and watch any projects that might be iffy until you get a good idea of what doesn't adhere well. But keeping your print plate clean goes a long way for good adhesion (avoid touching the center where projects print, and use dish soap to wash it when projects stop sticking).
You might check out the Consumer Rights Wiki, also started by Rossman. It's crowd sourced, and lists anti-consumer BS like forced cloud subscriptions for a lot of companies.
Just find a printer, look up the company there, and see how legit they are. There's even a browser plugin that pops up on any website that has an entry on the wiki.
Wish they had the opposite. I feel like most people want to know who to go to, less so on who to avoid. I can see the usefulness in the list, but it's backwards when people want to find someone
Nnowing who's bad is cool. Knowing who's right is better.
Prusa is pricy because they make the de facto standards - including PrusaSlicer which is the base of OrcaSlicer/Bambu Studio.
Bambu can sell cheaper for two reason:
PrusaSlicer itself is just a fork of Slic3r, anyway.
Source
So you really have no idea about these printers. Bambu has a dozen patents for novel IP.
"copying open patents" no such thing as an open patent, IP is either patent, or open domain. All printer companies exploit expired patents, including Prusa.
Stratasys is suing Bambu over: Purge Towers, Force Detection, Networked Systems & Smart Spools, but Stratasys are cunts who try to sue anyone. How did they get a patent for purge towers.
Bambi's contributions are marginal compared to all the prior IP they use (and wasn't Prusa actually suing them for using a number of their patents without the rights?).
as for open patents: any patent that is expired or where the owner isn't interested in enforcing uniqueness (many a things are patented yet in public domain!). by open I simply mean no licensing is required.
And yes, that's precisely what Bambu does. Take open designs, public domain parts and bang them together until they got something working. Which is why I recommend people buy Prusa, not Bambu - reward with some extra spending the people who actually do the hard work, not the ones who swoop in at the end and try to undercut the actual innovators.
Knowing what I know now, I' trade my Bambu P1S for a Prusa. Buy once, cry once.
My Prusa was tucked in between the cushions of my couch for a cross country move, left in storage for one year, and moved again before I just blew the first off and smashed out a perfect print from an SD card. That's a solid enough performance I don't think I'd consider any other brand.
The worst thing about Prusa is the knowledge that no matter what you buy, there will be an upgrade available to an even better one WAY too quickly, and then you'll want that one too. It's a trap, I tell you!
j/k I still love my Prusa MK3S+, though the relentless upgrade temptation is real.
any printer will do that.
Some require retentioning belts, readjusting the bed level, or other maintainance items before you can get a perfect print again.
Not in my experience. They are tools like any other tool.
And some tools are worse than others.
I knew about the problems with Bambu long before I bought my new printer back in December. I ended up going with an Elegoo Centauri Carbon. It works out of the box without ever requiring you to set up an account, install an app on your phone, or connect to a cloud service. I just use mine with a USB stick.
I wanted to go with Prusa but the cost difference was too great for me at that time (I'm sure it still is).