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Something important to know about 3D printing is that, as it becomes more widespread, all kinds of models with a massive price range have become available, allowing you to jump into the field at any level. Of course, as with just about any hobby or professional pursuit, there is a correlation between the price and quality of your equipment. If you tried both a cheap and expensive 3D printer, you would definitely be able to tell the difference, from the former's simpler hobbyist-friendly design to the latter's more feature-rich professional-level setup.

While all levels of 3D printers do the same basic job of dispensing filament to create various nifty objects and gadgets, the price range will give you an idea of the complexity of jobs the printer can realistically manage, how many extra helpful features you can expect, and the printer's general efficacy at doing its work. If you purchased a cheap printer with the intention of performing professional work, you'd be in for a rough time, and if you purchased a top-of-the-line model for simple hobby work, you'd feel some major buyer's remorse.

If there were a definitive sign of how accessible 3D printing has become, it would be the fact that you can get a brand-new 3D printer off of Amazon for around $180, a relative drop in the bucket, filament costs notwithstanding. While this level of 3D printer is very accessible, though, you shouldn't expect this kind of introductory gadget to be able to do the same kind of work that a professional-level printer would do.

Cheap 3D printers are relatively bare-bones in terms of function and features, which is why there are some cheap printers you should buy, and some you should skip. For one thing, while this isn't always the case, the cheapest printers are often open-design, as opposed to fancier, fully-enclosed printers. In fact, depending on the model, you may even need to assemble the whole thing yourself out of composite parts, rather than having it ready for action right out of the box.

Any cheap printer can dispense filament in a designated shape or design, but whether it'll do this quickly and efficiently is another matter entirely. If you give your cheap printer an extremely complex, large-scale job, the overall printing time could last hours, even days, and it's anyone's guess as to how good it'll look when it's finished. For all these reasons, cheap 3D printers are best used by those just getting into the field and needing something to practice on, or casual hobbyists who just want to make a fun project as a gift for a friend or family member once in a while.

3D printing isn't just something you do for fun; it's also a full professional field, with ambitious users making and selling prints in large quantities. If you're looking to get into this kind of work, you would naturally need a printer that can handle larger quantities of printing safely and, ideally, quickly. This is where higher-end printers start to become more appealing.

In addition to being physically larger than their cheaper counterparts and sporting enclosed designs, more expensive 3D printers sport a multitude of quality-of-life features, all designed to make printing as painless as realistically possible. For example, rather than having to manually level the printing bed, higher-end models have automatic, self-leveling beds that handle the minute adjustments for you. Expensive printers may also come pre-loaded with more elaborate software and support for features like Wi-Fi connection, which may have to be installed separately on a cheaper model. You may even get nonessential, but helpful features like automatic reminders when your filament is running low.

Of course, the obvious downside to an expensive printer is the fact that it is expensive. Compared to the couple of hundred dollars of a cheap model, a high-end, professional 3D printer could run you as much as $1,000 or more. It's a big investment, but for that investment you will get all of those features, plus a generally higher rate of successful prints. Expensive printers are best left for those who want to utilize them in a real moneymaking capacity, or at least those who want to print every day.