Can you use Cricut Design Space without a subscription in 2023?

Cricut Design Space is a web-based program that you use to operate your Cricut machine. Design Space also has some basic design features that let you make your own images. And you have the option to browse lots of premade designs and use some of their images.

There is both a free version and a subscription version of the app. You can use Cricut Design Space without a subscription even in 2022.

You might want to upgrade to the subscription if you want to use one of the premium images or fonts. But you don’t need the subscription to upload and cut your own designs.

Is Cricut charging to upload?

Cricut will not charge for uploads in either 2021 or 2022. You can upload an unlimited amount of your own designs and images.

On the 12th of March 2021, Cricut released a bombshell blog post in which they announced that they would make some changes to Design Space.

The most important change was that you would only be able to upload 20 of your own designs per month on the free plan.

So for anyone that uses their Cricut a lot, that would mean you would be pretty much forced to pay for one of the subscriptions.

Of course, this resulted in a huge backlash from the community. Especially considering that most Cricut machines are already expensive to buy, and now you would have to pay extra to even use them.

Fortunately, four days later the CEO of Cricut came out with a second announcement stating that they would reverse their plans.

So Cricut won’t charge you for uploading your own designs or images. Let’s hope they won’t change their minds again.

Is Cricut going to charge for Design Space?

There has always been a free and paid version of Cricut Design Space. You can use your Cricut machine perfectly fine without paying for the subscription.

With the free version, you can upload your own designs and send them to the machine to be cut. If you like to make your designs inside of Designs Space, you can make use of the 1000+ free images and 15+ free fonts.

Over 1000 images might sound like a lot. But if you know exactly what you are looking for, you’ll probably realize pretty quickly that you won’t be able to find it among the free images.

By signing up for the paid subscription, you’ll get access to 200,000+ images and 700+ fonts. This is great for anyone that makes their designs inside of Design Space.

However, most people like to make their designs outside of Cricut Design Space using different software such as Photoshop or Procreate. In that case, signing up for the subscription makes little sense, since you won’t be using the additional images and fonts anyway.

Alternatives to Cricut Design Space

When Cricut initially announced that they would only allow up to 20 monthly uploads, many dissatisfied customers started to look for alternatives to Cricut Design Space.

Unfortunately, there are no real alternatives for Cricut Design Space because Cricut doesn’t allow third-party software to communicate with the Cricut machines.

This means that you can make your designs using other software programs such as Photoshop, Make The Cut, or Sure Cuts A Lot. But in the end, you’ll have to save your design and upload it to Design Space to cut it.

What does the Cricut membership include?

There are two types of memberships: the Standard version and the Premium version.

Both memberships will give you the following benefits:

• Access to 200,000+ images
• Access to 700+ fonts
• 10% discount on licensed images
• Access to 1000+ premade projects
• Unlimited collections
• Priority Member Care
• 10% discount on purchases from Cricut.com

For most people, the biggest reason for signing up will be access to the huge library of images and fonts.

If you go with the Premium membership, you also get 20% discount on all materials, and free economy shipping if you order for more than $50. However, the premium membership is also roughly $25 more expensive on an annual basis.

Summary

You can use Cricut Design Space without a subscription. The paid plan will give you access to additional design features, but these are completely optional.

Earlier in 2021, Cricut mentioned they would start to charge anyone that wanted to upload more than 20 designs per month. But they quickly reverted this decision after the negative feedback from the community.