Cricut Vs Silhouette 2023 – Which One Is Better?
When it comes to cutting machines, there are 2 major brands to choose from: Cricut and Silhouette.
Both brands have a variety of different models, each with their own pros and cons. The newest models from both brands are the Cricut Maker 3 (released in 2021) and the Silhouette Cameo 4 (released in 2019).
Both of these cutting machines are great, but each of them comes with its own features and benefits.
By the end of this article, you’ll be able to decide whether to buy Cricut or Silhouette
Differences between Cricut Maker 3 and Silhouette Cameo 4
The most important features to look for when comparing cutting machines are the dimensions, cutting force, cutting width/length, cutting depth, available tools and blades, software compatibility, and the price.
I’ll go over each of these one by one later in this article to explain what everything and what to look for.
But for a quick comparison between the Cricut Maker 3 and Silhouette Cameo 4 you can look at the table below.
| Cricut Maker 3 | Silhouette Cameo 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | 22.1″ x 7.1″ x 6.2″ | 22.4″ x 7.7″ x 6.7″ |
| Cutting Width | 12″ | 12″ |
| Cutting Length | 24″ (with mat) 12 feet (no mat) | 24″ (with mat) 60 feet (no mat) |
| Cutting Thickness | 2.4 mm | 3 mm |
| Cutting Force | 4000 gr | 5000 gr |
| Available Tools | Fine-point blade Rotary blade Scoring wheel Fabric blade Knife blade Perforation blade Wavy blade Debossing tip Engraving tip Deep point blade | AutoBlade Rotary blade Kraft blade Punch tool |
| Software | Cricut Design Space | Silhouette Studio |
| MSRP | $399.99 | $299.99 |
| Latest Price* | Check Latest Price | Check Latest Price |
* The MSRP is based on the price listed on the official websites of Cricut and Silhouette. The latest price will send you to the current price on Amazon, which can differ from the MSRP.
Cutting force
The cutting force indicates how much pressure your blade can apply. As you can imagine, cutting cardstock requires a lot less force than cutting balsa wood or engraving metals.
Any cutting machine will be strong enough to cut cardstock or vinyl. But if you want to work with harder materials, it’s important to choose a model with enough force.
Below you can see how much cutting force every Cricut and Silhouette machine has.
The Silhouette Cameo 4 has a cutting force of 5 kg, whereas the old Cameo 3 only had a cutting force of 210. So that’s a huge improvement!
In contrast, the new Cricut Maker 3 and the old Cricut Maker both have a cutting force of 4 kg.
So in terms of raw power, the Cameo 4 is definitely stronger than the Maker 3.
But keep in mind that for most materials you don’t need that much force. And having a stronger machine doesn’t necessarily make the cutting speed up either.
You won’t really notice the difference if you are planning on cutting common materials like cardstock, vinyl, or leather.
So for most practical purposes, I would say that the Cameo 4 and Maker 3 perform similarly.
However, both of these machines are a significantly more powerful than the old Silhouette Cameo 3, Portrait 3, Curio, and Cricut Explore 3.
Blades & tools
To be able to cut a large variety of different materials, you’ll need more than just raw power.
You also need the right blades and tools!
If you try to cut fabric with the standard blade provided in a Silhouette or Cricut machine, you’ll probably run into problems.
You could rip the fabric or the fabric might get stuck on the blade.
If you ever tried to cut fabric with a regular blade, you’ll probably know what I mean.
So if you want to work with challenging materials, you need to check if your cutting machine is strong enough AND if you need a special blade for it.
Currently, the available blades and tools for the Silhouette Cameo 4 are:
- AutoBlade
- Rotary blade
- Kraft blade
- Punch tool
And the available blades and tools for the Cricut Maker 3 are:
- Fine-point blade
- Rotary blade
- Scoring wheel
- Fabric blade
- Knife blade
- Perforation blade
- Wavy blade
- Debossing tip
- Engraving tip
- Deep point blade
As you can see, the Cricut Maker is compatible with more blades and tools. This makes the Maker more versatile and well suited for specialty work than the Cameo.
Of course, the Cameo 4 is still relatively new and it’s possible that they will release more blades in the future as well.
Also keep in mind that all these blades don’t come with your cutting machine for free, and they aren’t cheap either. Most of the Cricut blades will cost you between $20 and $50 each, and Silhouette blades roughly cost between $10 and $20 each.
So if you want to pick up two or three of these blades, that’s a significant extra sum of money you’ll need to pay on top of the cutting machine itself.
Cutting size
Most projects such as stickers, keychains, and birthday cards are only a few square inches in size.
But sometimes you want to make something bigger.
Maybe a large welcome sign? Or a wall decal in the living room?
In those cases, it’s important to realize you can’t cut as wide or as long as you want.
The maximum width is determined by the width of your cutting machine, and for both the Cameo 4 and the Maker 3 the maximum cutting width is 12″.
As you can see below, this is a lot wider than the other Silhouette and Cricut models such as the Joy or Curio.
The maximum length that you can cut depends on the size of your cutting mat.
Most cutting mats are either 12″ x 12″ or 12″ x 24″. So the maximum cutting length is 24″ for both the Cricut Maker and Silhouette Cameo. This is almost double the length you can achieve with the other models.
However, both the Cameo 4 and the Maker 3 can also cut certain materials without a mat. In that case, the mat no longer is the limiting factor and you can cut a lot longer.
The Silhouette Cameo 4 can cut up to 60 feet long without a mat, and the Cricut Maker 3 can cut up to 12 feet long.
So the Cameo 4 can cut up to 5 times longer than the Maker 3.
However, it’s important to realize that you can’t use the matless cutting feature with all materials.
For example, the Maker 3 can only cut iron-on, vinyl and paper sticker cardstock without a mat. For everything else, you will still need to use a mat and can only cut up to 24″ long.
Moreover, cutting up to 60 feet sounds amazing. But you have to ask yourself how often you would actually be using that feature.
Cutting depth
As you saw above, most cutting machines can cut materials up to 12″ wide and at least 24″ long.
But there is one dimension missing: the thickness!
And if you never owned a cutting machine before, you might be a little surprised to learn that most of these machines can only cut materials that are a few mm thick.
This is due to the limited cutting force, size of the cutting blades, and the clearance of your cutting machine.
The Silhouette Cameo 4 can cut up to 3 mm deep, while the Cricut Maker can handle materials up to 2.4 mm thick.
So the Cameo 4 definitely outshines the Cricut Maker and the older models here.
Of course, most cardstock is less than 0.3 mm thick and most leathers are below 1.5 mm as well. So for most projects you will work on, you won’t have to push your machine to the limit.
But for thick pieces of acrylic or wood, it’s definitely nice to have that extra 0.6 mm of cutting depth.
Software
One major difference between Silhouette and Cricut machines is the software that comes with it.
Since you can’t directly operate a cutting machine with some kind of touch screen, you need to use the software on your computer to control the machine.
So if this is your first time buying a cutting machine, it might be a good idea to buy a model that comes with beginner-friendly software.
The Cricut Design Space software is pretty minimalistic. So Cricut is the way to go if you simply want to open files and cut.
But this software programs aren’t only for operating your cutting machine. You can also make your own designs in these programs.
And when it comes to tools and features to help make your own designs, the Silhouette Studio software offers a lot more options than the Cricut software.
But to be completely honest, neither of these two programs can be compared with dedicated design software such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.
If you want to cut a more complex pattern, it’s easier to make a design in one of these programs first and open it in the Silhouette/Cricut software afterwards.
It’s also important to note that the basic features in the Cricut and Silhouette software programs such as opening files and cutting are free.
But most design features are behind a paywall. So you’ll have to join their subscription to access all these features.
Personally, I prefer the Cricut software because it’s more intuitive and simple to use. And because I make my designs using different programs.
But I do know people that signed up for a monthly membership and they love it. So if you don’t own special design software and want to keep things simple, paying a small monthly fee might be the way to go.
Membership models
As mentioned before, both the Cricut software and the Silhouette software have free and paid options.
So let’s look at how much they cost, and what you get in return.
With the free Cricut plan, you get access to all the design feature in the app, around 1000 images, 250 projects, and a handful of fonts.
This might sounds like a lot. But if you are looking for a specific design of pattern, you probably won’t find it among these free resources.
For roughly $10 per month, you can get access to all the 200,000+ images and 700+ fonts in Cricut Design Space.
The Silhouette membership works a little different.
As mentioned before, Silhouette Studio has more advanced design features than Cricut Design Studio. But unfortunately, you don’t get access to all these features in the free Silhouette Studio plan.
You’ll have to pay a one time upgrade fee to access some of these features. And although the price isn’t super high and I don’t really need those features, I feel like they should just come with the basic edition.
In addition to unlocking the extra designs tools, you also have to pay for most of the designs, fonts, projects, and patterns in the Silhouette Design Store.
If you are a frequent user, you can sign up for one of the monthly membership programs that will give you a certain amount of “credits”.
You can then use the credits to buy whatever you want in the Silhouette Design Store.
So if you pay for the monthly plan, you don’t get access to all design like with the Cricut plan.
It’s a little difficult to say how many designs or plans you can buy with these credits, because each design has a different price.
If you don’t want a monthly membership, you can also buy a “credit boost” in the Silhouette Design Store.
This will give you a certain number of credits. But beware that the price per credit is much higher than with the monthly plan.
Finally, you also have the option to buy most things in the Silhouette Design store directly with a credit card. But in that case, you can end up paying double for a project/design compared to using credits to buy it.
So as a quick summary, the Cricut membership gives you access to all the images, fonts, and projects for the duration of the membership. But the Cricut membership gives you credits that you can use to purchase specific designs and projects that you get to keep permanently.
Price
The suggested retail price is $399.99 for the Cricut Maker 3 and $299.99 for the Silhouette Cameo 4. So the Maker 3 is considerably more expensive than the Cameo 4.
And you’ll also have to add the cost of any extra blades or tools that you would need, which are normally more expensive for Cricut as well.
Although the Cameo 4 might be 2 years older, it doesn’t feel super outdated compared to the Maker 3 either.
If the Cricut Maker 3 seems a little too expensive, you can also go with the old Cricut Maker version which costs around $349.00.
I mentioned it in my review of the Cricut Maker 3 before, but the new Maker 3 and the old Maker are actually very similar.
So if you want to go with a Cricut machine but the Maker 3 is too expensive, you should definitely consider buying the Cricut Maker.
Summary
Both the Silhouette Cameo 4 and Cricut Maker 3 are great cutting machines. And for most projects you could use either of them.
The Silhouette Cameo 4 can cut longer projects, cut thicker materials, and has more cutting force. So in terms of raw power, the Cameo 4 outshines the Maker 3.
However, the Cricut Maker 3 has access to more specialized blades which makes it more versatile. And the Cricut Software is more simple to use.
Moreover, the other Cricut and Silhouette Models such as the Explore 3 or the Portrait 3 are also worth considering.
These cutting machines aren’t nearly as strong or versatile, but are sufficient if you only want to make small cardstock or vinyl based projects.
