Cricut Explore 5 Review: The Machine That Turns “I Wish I Had” Into “I Made That”
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⭐ [VERIFY RATING] · [#] ratings · $[VERIFY PRICE] · Launched Feb 2026 · 65+ projects in the box
✨ Key Features
- 🌈 Cuts 100+ materials — vinyl, iron-on/HTV, cardstock, printable vinyl, sticker paper; basically anything flat and fun
- 🖨️ Print Then Cut — print a design on your home printer, and the machine cuts precisely around it. This is how you make real, full-colour stickers.
- 📏 30% more compact than the Explore 4 — it actually fits on a normal desk, which the old one really didn’t
- ♾️ Smart Materials, no mat needed — cut continuously up to 12 feet long. Giant wall decals. Banners. Whole-door designs.
- 🎨 Writes, draws, foils, and scores — it’s not just a cutter; it’s a whole craft studio in one box
- 📱 Free Design Space, no subscription — 3,000+ images, 100+ fonts, 1,000+ projects included, and new AI image generation
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The quick verdict: This is the machine that ends the gap between having an idea and owning the thing. Custom stickers, decals for your laptop and car and water bottle, iron-on designs for shirts, personalised everything. The Explore 5 is Cricut’s newest (launched February 2026), it’s 30% smaller, and the Essential Bundle gives you enough materials for 65+ projects on day one. Buy it if you’re new to cutting machines. Do NOT buy it if you already own an Explore 4 — I’ll explain.
Okay, so let’s talk about the thing that actually happens when you get one of these.
You buy it thinking cute, I’ll make some stickers. Then three weeks later, you’ve labelled every jar in your kitchen, put a decal on your car, made shirts for your friend’s birthday, personalised a water bottle, cut a six-foot vinyl quote for your wall, and you’re seriously wondering whether you could sell stickers on Etsy.
That’s not a slippery slope. That’s the whole point. A Cricut doesn’t make one thing — it changes your default from “I should buy that” to “I could just make that.” And that shift is genuinely addictive. 🌈
What it actually does (in normal words)
Forget the spec sheet for a second. Here’s what you’re really getting:
Stickers. Real ones. Full colour, any design, cut to any shape. Print Then Cut means your home printer prints it, the machine finds the printed image, and cuts exactly around the edges. Die-cut stickers, at home, on demand. This alone is worth the machine.
Custom apparel. Iron-on vinyl (HTV) means any design on any shirt, tote, hoodie, or hat. Your art. Your text. Your inside joke. On actual clothing.
Decals for everything. Laptop, car window, water bottle, phone case, mirror, front door. If it has a surface, you can put your design on it.
And genuinely big stuff. With Smart Materials, you cut without a mat, continuously, up to twelve feet long. That’s a full wall quote. A banner. A giant decal down a door. Most people don’t realise the machine can do this, and it’s the most fun thing about it.
The 2026 redesign is genuinely better
Two real improvements over the old one, and they matter:
It’s 30% smaller. The Explore 4 was a beast that colonised your whole desk. This actually fits somewhere. (It still needs about 10 inches of clear space behind it so material can feed through — plan for that.)
Design Space finally got better. The software had a genuinely rough reputation. The 2026 update adds Guided Flows (step-by-step walkthroughs for common projects) and Live Project Preview, plus AI image generation. It’s not perfect, but for a beginner, it’s dramatically less intimidating than it was.
And crucially: there’s no required subscription. You get 3,000+ images, 100+ fonts, and 1,000+ projects free out of the box. Cricut Access exists and unlocks more, but you absolutely don’t need it to make great things.
🚨 The honest part — read this before you buy
Do NOT buy this if you already own an Explore 4. I want to be really direct here, because Cricut will not tell you this, and neither will most reviews. The Explore 5 is smaller and slightly faster, but it does not cut anything the Explore 4 doesn’t already cut. Reviewers who’ve handled both say the upgrade isn’t dramatic enough to justify it. If your Explore 4 works, keep it. Spend the money on materials instead.
The scoring tool situation is an actual step backwards. This is the biggest catch, and it’s buried in most reviews. The Explore 5 has a single unified clamp — the cutting blade and the new Scoring Tool share the same slot. So if you’re making a card, box, or envelope (anything that needs scoring and cutting), the machine pauses mid-project and makes you swap tools by hand. The Explore 4 did it in one pass with two clamps.
It takes about ten seconds per swap. For most people, making decals and stickers, you’ll never notice. But if you make a lot of cards, this is genuinely more annoying than the machine you’d be replacing. Know that going in.
Your old Cricut tools may not fit. The Explore 4’s Scoring Stylus is not compatible — you need the new Scoring Tool. Some older pens need an adapter. If you’re coming from an older machine with a drawer full of accessories, check compatibility before you assume they carry over.
It cannot cut wood, leather, or unbacked fabric. That’s the Cricut Maker, a different (pricier) machine. The Explore line does thin, flat materials brilliantly and thick materials not at all. If you want to cut chipboard or basswood, you’re on the wrong page.
It’s cloud-dependent. Design Space needs high-speed internet, and it’s a web-connected app. No internet, no crafting. That’s a genuine limitation, and it annoys people fairly.
The Deep Cutting Tool is sold separately — so is a lot of stuff. The Essential Bundle is generous (65+ projects’ worth), but Cricut’s business model is materials, and you will keep buying them. Budget accordingly. That’s not a scam, it’s just the deal.
And the new design has an open top with no lid, so dust collects in the gap. Wipe it out occasionally.
Who it’s actually for
New crafters, sticker makers, vinyl people, HTV people, and anyone with a side-hustle itch. This is the best entry point into full-size Cricut cutting right now — smaller, cheaper than a Maker, and it does everything most people actually want.
It’s also a genuinely serious small-business starter. People run entire sticker shops, apparel brands, and custom-decal businesses on Explore machines. If part of you has been eyeing Etsy, this is the machine that makes it possible for a few hundred dollars instead of a few thousand.
Skip it if: you own an Explore 4 (seriously), you need to cut wood or leather (get a Maker), or you only make tiny things like labels and gift tags (get a Joy 2 for a lot less money).
The bottom line
The Explore 5 is the best beginner cutting machine you can buy in 2026 — smaller, easier, and with software that’s finally not scary. The Essential Bundle means you’re making things the day it arrives instead of waiting for a second order of materials.
Just know the two catches: the scoring tool swap annoys card-makers, and you should absolutely not upgrade from an Explore 4.
Everyone else — this is the one. Go make something nobody else has. 🌈
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I love you all — stay sparkly and stay vivid. Vivid Vicky for SparkTrove Trends. 🌈
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