Cricut is limiting the use of its craft machines with a monthly subscription

Cricut machines offer a customizable and automated way to speed up the precise cutting needed in design projects, but the capabilities of these devices are about to be limited by a future update. Cricut is updating the software that comes with the machines, Design Space, placing limits on uploads that can restrict the number of projects that Cricut owners are actually able to do.

Preparing a Cricut for cutting requires using pre-made patterns or uploading original designs to an application called Design Space. This was free and unlimited for all users in the past, but now Cricut is limiting users to 20 free uploads per month. To charge more, homeowners will soon have to subscribe to Cricut’s Access Standard plan for $ 9.99 per month / $ 95.88 per year or the Access Premium plan for $ 118.88 per year.

Anything that has been loaded previously can remain in Design Space without any changes or limits, but it is important to understand that to use a modern Cricut, you need to use Design Space in some way. And the Cricut machines themselves can cost anywhere from $ 179 to $ 399, before the potential subscription.

Image: Cricut

Basically, Design Space is necessary to load designs created in other applications so that they can be formatted to work with Cricut machines. For example, a pattern for a paper flower made in Adobe Illustrator or a logo sketched in Procreate can be loaded so that the Cricut machine knows where to cut whatever material is being used, be it paper, fabric, vinyl or even wood. Design Space works on its own as a creative software, but if you sign up, it will become more complete, with access to exclusive fonts, images and patterns. Even with the optional subscription for more features, many users still choose to create their work elsewhere and use only the Design Space for preparation before cutting.

Now, with this new upload limit, a subscription is required to restore the functionality that the original creators purchased a Cricuit to: create as many projects as needed, with the only limit being the materials, instead of an arbitrary number defined by an update software.

In addition to the ever-present and frightening reality that companies can limit the capabilities of a product you “own” after the fact, several Cricut owners have contacted The Verge about an even more glaring problem: projects can often require multiple uploads to complete, which means that the 20 upload limit can be reached even faster. This may be due to a user error or a complex design that requires multiple parts, but for anyone who uses a Cricut in their business, it means that they may well be forced to sign up if they want to maintain their normal level of productivity .

In a statement provided to The Verge, Cricut said he remains committed to his plan and “creating the best possible experience for [its] members “:

Cricut announced changes to our Design Space software, including new Offset and Project Collection features, as well as an update for personal uploads, limiting image and pattern uploads to 20 per month for members without a Cricut Access subscription. All users will still be able to design and cut, regardless of uploads. Cricut remains dedicated to creating the best possible experience for our members and we will continue to support our community of creators as our top priority.

The response to Cricut’s planned move is also simmering on the company’s unofficial subreddit. Cricut users shared contact information for Cricut employees and launched a Change.org petition to protest the next update. Cricut says he will start asking users to sign up for Design Space in the coming weeks until the upload limit goes into effect on an unspecified date.