Resin printing is known for its highly detailed models, often easy usability, fast hardening, and wide variety of available materials.
Here we’re going to look at two different resins from well-known resin 3D printing companies Anycubic and Elegoo, to give you a good idea of which one you should choose.
Specifically, we’ll look at odor, safety, color options, material variety, price, and general performance between the two.
Selecting which 3D printer resin is right for you is important. No one wants to be let down with failed prints or sub-par materials or other disadvantages. Even if you trust and love your resin 3D printer, it doesn’t mean the company you bought it from manufactures quality materials.
So, we’ll run through the major factors for Anycubic’s resin range, and Elegoo’s to help you pick which is best for you.
Elegoo vs Anycubic Resin — An Overview
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While we will be looking over the particulars later, here we’ll look at the key features of Elegoo and Anycubic resins at a glance.
Both Anycubic and Elegoo resins are affordable and reliable resins, so while either one is a good choice, the main differences are color variety and available range of materials, all of which we’ll look at today to help you make your decision.
Elegoo Resin
- Price: Check latest price at Elegoo here / Amazon here
- Colors: 11 color options
- Resin range: mostly geared towards hobbyists
Pros
Simple and no-nonsense.
Available in a wide variety of colors.
Great price of under $20 for 500g bottles.
Cons
Lots of cleanups are needed.
Elegoo resins are simple, no-nonsense resins that are compatible with just about any resin 3D printer.
Their standard resins come in a wide variety of colors from white, red, green, and even translucent, and they offer a plant-based resin for anyone looking to be more eco-friendly with their 3D printing.
As an affordable 3D printing manufacturer, Elegoo often has sales on their resins that bring the prices under $20 for 500g bottles of standard colored resins, which is a very difficult price to beat. This includes their run-of-the-mill photopolymer resin, their plant-based resin, and even their highly sought-after water washable resins.
Overall, opting for an Elegoo resin won’t leave you disappointed in price or quality, and their wide range of available colors is great news for those of you who are sick of the white and gray options many of us had to start with.
The key reason many people go for Elegoo resins is their low odor. Where many types of resin tend to stink up the room, Elegoo has managed to adapt its formula to be both relatively odor-free and have a surprisingly long shelf life of up to 12 months if stored correctly.
Anycubic Resin
- Price: Check latest price at Anycubic here / Amazon here
- Colors: 7 color options
- Resin range: professional and hobbyist resin options
Pros
Extensive variety of resins for both personal and professional use.
Tough and durable.
Highly compatible with most resin 3D printers.
Cons
More expensive on average than Elegoo resins.
Anycubic has a surprisingly extensive variety of resins for both personal and professional use. As a very well-known and trusted manufacturer, you’ve likely heard of them and their resins before.
Anycubic resins mainly deal in toughness and durability, and that’s not even specifying their Flexible Tough resin. They have good bed adhesion which makes them easy to pry from your printer with minimal risk of bending or damage, and are praised for their high-resolution prints.
While more expensive on average than Elegoo resins, the price difference is negligible for their more standard resins.
Like Elegoo, Anycubic resins are highly compatible with most resin 3D printers. While they don’t offer as much color variety as Elegoo resins, Anycubic makes up for this with stronger, more resilient prints that don’t sacrifice quality for rigidity.
Anycubic resins are also relatively odorless, arguably more than Elegoo. While neither option should require the use of a clothespin, Anycubic is the better option if you have a particularly sensitive sense of smell.
Due to their massive range, choosing Anycubic resins for your 3D printing needs won’t be the end of your decision-making. If you want to know more about each Anycubic resin and what they offer, you can check out our full buyers’ guide here.
Now that you have a general idea of what both Elegoo and Anycubic resins offer, let’s take a closer look and the particulars of each to help you get an even clearer picture of what you’ll be getting into with each.
Smell/Safety
Winner: Anycubic
Many 3D printer resins have a frankly obnoxious smell, especially while printing. Because of this, many manufacturers have made waves in perfecting their formulas to reduce this problem. Both Elegoo and Anycubic are examples of such manufacturers.
This is linked largely to their toxicity. Unpleasant smells are generally how our bodies warn us to not get too close (or worse, consume) something that would do us no favors. The same goes for resins.
Annoying as these unpleasant odors are, the worse the smell, the more toxic the fumes.
Fortunately, both Anycubic and Elegoo resins are low-odor and are much better for air quality. This is especially good news if you happen to work in an enclosed or otherwise poorly ventilated space.
Despite low-odor being a key feature of both, Anycubic is more odorless than Elegoo, even if only slightly. While this means there’s little difference between the two, Anycubic is the marginally better option if you’re particularly sensitive to smells or are understandably worried about the air quality of your workspace.
Color Choice
Winner: Elegoo
While it may be possible to create a masterpiece with a single color, there’s a reason most painters have palettes. Color variety is important for creativity, and it’s always good to have plenty of options even if you’re only buying one bottle.
While both Anycubic and Elegoo resins come with a choice of colors, Elegoo has noticeably more options. Looking at their standard resins alone, Anycubic offers a choice of 7 colors while Elegoo offers 11, which includes clear resins.
The differences here are also noticeable in other kinds of resins each offers. Elegoo’s water-washable resin has 10 colors to choose from, while Anycubic only offers 5. That’s not to say Anycubic resin has worse color choices, there simply isn’t as much of a range, which can be a dealbreaker for many.
If you want more options when it comes to the hue of your prints, Elegoo is the superior choice regardless of what specific kind of resin you’re looking for.
Price
| Volume | Elegoo | Anycubic |
|---|---|---|
| 500g | $16.15 | $20 |
| 1kg | $28.50 | $36 |
Winner: Elegoo
Cost is often a deciding factor when choosing between different brands, and you’ll be happy to know that both Elgoo and Anycubic resins are highly affordable.
Overall, Elegoo resin is the cheaper option, with their standard, water-wash, plant-based, and even ABS-like resins costing less than $20 per 500g. Compare this to Anycubic’s standard resin starting at exactly $20 per 500g, and you’ve got a clear winner in terms of cost.
However, the price difference between the two isn’t so simple. The cost of $20 stated above is for Anycubic’s Resin+, which boasts higher viscosity, better resolution, and a longer shelf life of 18 months (compared to Elegoo resin’s 12 months).
In fact, Anycubic offers their colored resins at $16 per 500g, a very similar cost to Elegoo’s $16.15. The only reason Elegoo really wins here is that Anycubic’s standard colored UV resin is only available in 1kg bottles for $32, meaning Elegoo is still the better choice if you’re on a budget.
Environmental Friendliness
Winner: Tie
Environmental concerns are more common than ever these days, and many people are opting for more plant-based and ecologically-friendly materials.
Both Elegoo and Anycubic offer plant-based resins that promise the same great quality prints with more eco-conscious ingredients like soybeans.
Elegoo’s plant-based resin is a newer addition to their collection, meaning Anycubic have had more time to create an odor-free, biodegradable, and safe version. Though both are praised for low shrinkage, high compatibility, and great quality prints you’d expect from any good resin.
Whichever you choose, you can feel confident that you’ll be getting a truly eco-friendly resin at an astoundingly great price. While I personally recommend Anycubic for this race due to its longer tenure in environmentally friendly options, Elegoo is an equally good choice in its own right.
So just like before, which one you go for may come down to price. Again, Anycubic only offers their ‘eco-resin’ in 1kg bottles for $36, while Elegoo offers 500g bottles for around $19 for 500g.
Material Options
Winner: Anycubic
Like with color, having a good range of choices for what kind of resin you want is important when it comes to narrowing down exactly which resin you’ll add to your cart. While a larger range does mean a little more research, it’s good to have different choices.
Elegoo’s range focuses entirely on personal, home-based 3D printing, while Anycubic resins also allow for professional applications like their castable resin for dental work.
If you’re reading this as a hobbyist, then this likely makes little difference to you. Both Elegoo and Anycubic resins are available as standard color, plant-based, and water-washable variants at competing prices.
Anycubic, however, offers more choice with their Resin+, castable and non-castable resins for professionals, Flexible Tough resin, and resins specializing in translucence, making them the clear winner in material variety.
Performance
Winner: Tie
The very reason we’re comparing the particulars of both Anycubic and Elegoo resins is because, on the surface, they’re both equally reliable and high-quality options for anyone looking for great 3D prints at an affordable price.
Both Elegoo and Anycubic offer low odor, low shrinkage, and great printer compatibility in their resins. All-in-all, they’re pretty great, but only really if you’re focusing on their standard resins.
While I’m considering performance in both to come out as a tie, it’s worth mentioning that Anycubic does offer their Resin+, which is an upgrade to their standard resins that boasts better print quality, higher durability, and longer shelf life.
Anycubic’s resins are also tougher than Elegoo’s on average, making them easier to work with and post-process. However, Elegoo makes up for this with faster hardening times, which is better for those of you who don’t like to wait around.
In general, I personally recommend Anycubic over Elegoo if general performance is your main priority, though I must say I’m confident you’ll be disappointed in neither.
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