Cricut Explore 5 Review

The Explore 5 is the right machine for most people buying their first cutter. It handles every material a beginner actually uses, at the full width shirt designs need, and it costs meaningfully less than the Maker line whose extra blades most hobbyists never touch. Buy the Maker instead only if you will cut unbacked fabric or basswood.

What it is

The Explore 5 sits in the middle of Cricut's current line, above the compact Joy models and below the Maker line. It is a blade cutter: a small blade in a carriage drags across material held either on a sticky mat or, with Smart Materials, fed directly into the machine with no mat at all. It cuts an 11.5 inch working width from 12 inch material, and takes two tools at once — a blade plus a pen or scoring tool — so you can draw and cut in a single pass.

It runs on Design Space, Cricut's design application, which works on a computer, tablet or phone and requires an internet connection to set up and sync. Material presets are named, so selecting "Premium Vinyl" applies a known pressure and blade depth rather than making you work it out.

What it cuts, honestly

Cricut publishes a long materials list, and the practical version for a beginner is shorter and more useful.

Who it is for

Someone making shirts, decals, stickers, cards, tumblers, signs and organization labels — which is to say, almost everyone. The full 11.5 inch cut covers an adult shirt front design with room to spare, which is the specification that quietly determines whether a machine frustrates you. Print-then-cut means printed sticker sheets work. And the sheer volume of beginner tutorials filmed on Explore machines means that when something goes wrong at an inconvenient hour, somebody has already documented the fix.

Who it is not for

Three groups should buy something else. If you sew or quilt and want to cut unbacked fabric, the rotary blade is a Maker-only feature and no accessory adds it to an Explore — the comparison is here. If you want basswood signs, the knife blade is likewise Maker-only. And if a cloud-connected application that repeatedly offers you a subscription would genuinely bother you every time you sat down, Silhouette's offline software is the answer rather than a compromise.

The limitations worth knowing before you buy

• Design Space needs an internet connection. There is limited offline capability once a project is loaded, but the workflow assumes you are online. If your craft space has poor signal, this matters more than the spec sheet suggests.
• The subscription prompting is persistent. You never have to pay it, and you can upload your own files indefinitely — but you will be asked. What Cricut Access actually buys.
• Smart Materials are proprietary. Matless cutting only works with Cricut's own Smart range. Ordinary 12 inch vinyl from any brand works fine, but it needs a mat.
• Mats and blades are consumables. A tired mat lets material shift mid-cut and a dull blade tears rather than cuts, and both present as a machine fault when they are not. Mat guide · blade guide.

How it compares to the obvious alternatives

The verdict

This is the machine we would point a first-time buyer at without hesitating, and the reasoning is unglamorous: it does the things beginners actually do, at the width those things need, with more available help than anything else in the category. The Maker's extra blades are real capability, but they are capability for two specific materials — and paying for them speculatively is the most common way people overspend on a first machine.

If you want to sanity-check the decision against your own projects, which Cricut should I buy is a straight decision flow, and the beginner roundup puts it in context against everything else on sale.

1. Best for most first-time buyers

Cricut Explore 5

Cricut · Currently sold · Verified 2026-09-27

The value point of the Cricut line for a beginner: full-width cutting, every everyday material, matless Smart Material support, and the largest tutorial library of any machine in the category. The capability it lacks is specific and narrow — no rotary blade, no knife blade — and for most people that capability would never leave the box.

What works

• Cuts every material a beginner's first ten projects will use
• Matless Smart Material cutting means long banners and decals without a mat
• Cheapest current machine that still handles full 12 in wide vinyl
• Huge community of tutorials aimed at exactly this machine

What does not

• No rotary blade, so unbacked fabric is out
• No knife blade for basswood or thick leather
• Still needs Design Space, which needs an internet connection to set up

Not for you if

You already know you want to cut quilting fabric or thick leather. That is the Maker line's rotary and knife blades, and no accessory adds them to an Explore.

Key specs

Cuts

Vinyl, heat transfer vinyl, cardstock, paper, iron-on, faux leather

Max material width

12 in (11.5 in cut width)

Matless cutting

Yes, with Smart Materials

Tool slots

Two — blade plus pen or scoring tool

Rotary / knife blade

No — Maker line only

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