Silhouette vs Cricut: which should you get for stickers?

So I've gotten a lot of questions about which machine to use for making stickers at home. If you didn't know, I recently bought a Silhouette Cameo 4 after having used my Cricut Explore Air 2 for the past year and a half.

Why the change suddenly? I'll tell you right away because it's pretty simple - you can cut more stickers per sheet using the Silhouette rather than the Cricut.

Both Silhouette and Cricut come with their own software that you have to use to set up your stickers. To make sticker sheets in either program using the print and cut method, the process typically goes something like this:

1. Lay out stickers in the cutting program

2. Print out your sticker sheet with your printer

3. Cut using your machine

However, there is a major limitation in the first step when using the Cricut software. Cricut's maximum cutting area is only 6.75" x 9.25" (17.1 cm x 23.5 cm). Whereas, Silhouette can print and cut up to 12" x 24" (30.5 cm x 61 cm).

When you're running a sticker business, the cost of each page is significantly important and not being able to use the whole paper basically equates to a financial loss. I use A4 sticker paper (8.25" x 11.75" or 21 cm x 29.7 cm) and because of Cricut's size limitations there is at least 2" (5 cm) not being used.

For those using Letter size sticker paper, the limitation may not be as noticeable since Letter size paper is shorter. But for those who use A4 paper or even want to use A3 paper to make stickers, then you'll be out of luck with the Cricut.

There are hacks I have seen to make the Cricut cut a larger area. I have tried those, but they are exactly that - hacks. Some people seem to get it to work for them, but I've found them to be hit and miss, often times with slightly misaligned cuts which are extremely noticeable when making sticker sheets. The gamble, paper waste and time lost is not worth it for me.

There are definitely other differences between the two (notably how significantly louder the Silhouette is), but I'll hold off on those for now and likely put that into a more in depth review video.

If you have a Cricut already, don't be discouraged because I do think that the hardware for the Cricut is actually better than the Silhouette's and there is hope that they will fix this limitation in the future.

But if you're someone who has yet to buy a cutting machine, I would highly recommend buying the Silhouette Cameo 4 simply because it can cut more stickers per sheet.