Why 20,000 People Just Pledged $20M for the Snapmaker U1 3D Printer
Snapmaker’s vision of low-cost toolchanging 3D printing mixed with a savvy campaign that ticked all the boxes has set a new record for 3D printing hardware on Kickstarter.
So here we stand. Seven months on from a factory photograph leak, the Snapmaker U1 is now the most successfully funded 3D printer Kickstarter campaign ever, mustering a total of $20,161,265 from 20,206 backers.
In our last post about the printer, it had raised $7,391,239 in less than 24 hours, just shy of the then record-holder, the AnkerMake M5, which had raised $8,879,417 across it’s entire campaign. The U1 surpassed this in less than 48 hours. In the greater creative tech space, the EufyMake E1 personal UV printer still trumps all with its grand total of $46,762,258 raised.
Kickstarter campaigns in numbers
Data gathered from Kickstarter
Why Was the Snapmaker U1 Campaign So Successful?
The U1, a four-tool 3D printer running on Klipper and promising high-speed multicolor prints in part enabled by its SnapSwap 5-second toolchange mechanism, has proven a big draw. This is undoubtedly due to early-bird pricing putting the first units under $700 for backers (a $300 savings), an unprecedented price for fully independent extrusion tech like this.
Framing this sweet spot of “cheap-enough” and novel tech addressing a big issue in color printing – waste – was a masterfully managed campaign that saw the production-ready machine land on Kickstarter with the device already in the hands of beta-testers, influencers, and publications alike. A significant volume of content about the machine filled the void quickly, and on the campaign page itself, unambiguous presentation of the offer make it clear you were effectively just buying the machine, not backing an idea.
Backers of the U1 should be enjoying their new machines before the year is out. And as if to prove my point about Kickstarter really just being a shop without consumer protections in place, you can still back the U1 via Kickstarter through a late pledge for $849 – $150 off the expected retail price of $999 that Snapmaker has cited throughout the campaign. For everyone else, Snapmaker tells us it expects to be listing the U1 for preorder on its own site in the coming weeks, with stock in warehouses and by resellers in the first quarter of 2026.
Editor's Note – This article highlights a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. Kickstarter is not a shop; campaigns are under no legal obligation to deliver on crowdfunding promises, nor offer refunds on unfulfilled campaign rewards. For more insight, read our article 8 Things to Watch for When Backing a 3D Printing Kickstarter.
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License: The text of "Why 20,000 People Just Pledged $20M for the Snapmaker U1 3D Printer" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.