Best resin 3D printers under £500
Updated 6 September 2026 · Live prices on every page load from United Kingdom marketplaces
Ranked off live United Kingdom marketplaces prices plus the specs that actually matter on a resin machine: XY pixel size (finer is better), build volume, and light-source technology. Bigger numbers don't always mean better prints - but they do mean more headroom for miniatures, dental work and jewellery casting. Resin is messier than FDM; expect to spend time on wash, cure and nitrile gloves.
- #1
ElegooMars 4 Resin 9K 3D Printe£190 MSLA · 18 µm XY · 2.1 L · 8520*4320 - #2
ElegooMars 5 Ultra 9K Resin£270 MSLA · 18 µm XY · 2.0 L · 8520 x 4320 - #3
ElegooSaturn 3 Resin 10-Inch 12K£280 MSLA · 19 µm XY · 6.7 L · 11520x5120 - #4
ElegooSaturn 4 Ultra 10"16K Resin and ELEGOO 8K£369 MSLA · 19 µm XY · 5.9 L - #5
Elegoo16K Monochrome LCD OEM & Aftermarket Spare£199 MSLA · 23 µm XY · 14.8 L - #6
MALYANS100 Mini Resin£120 SLA · 12 µm XY · 0.1 L - #7
ElegooMars 5 Resin 4K£190 MSLA · 35 µm XY · 1.9 L · 4K (6.6-inch LCD) - #8
AnycubicPhoton Mono 4 Ultra 10K Resin£249 MSLA · 2.2 L · 9024x5120 - #9
ElegooSaturn 4 12K Resin£310 MSLA · 5.9 L - #10
ElegooSaturn 4 Ultra 16K Resin£390 MSLA · 59.0 L · 14112x7936
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Matt's take on this budget
£500 gets you properly serious: Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra, Phrozen Sonic Mega 8K, Anycubic Photon M7 territory. 9-10K screens, larger beds, faster cure times. This is the tier where resin stops being a hobbyist-only tool and starts being viable for Etsy sellers and small commercial work. The caveat is still the workflow - a bigger build plate means bigger IPA baths and longer cure cycles.
Frequently asked
What is the best resin 3D printer under £500? +
Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra, Phrozen Sonic Mega 8K and Anycubic Photon M7 Pro are the current top-of-tier machines. The live shortlist above tracks price shifts as Amazon pricing moves.
Is £500 enough to start a miniatures business? +
Hardware-wise, yes. Many successful Etsy mini sellers run Saturn 4 Ultra-class machines. The bottleneck is not the printer - it is wash-and-cure throughput, packaging, and the resin hazards you have to manage at volume.
Mono or colour LCD at this price? +
Monochrome, always, in 2026. Colour LCD resin printers are obsolete - slower cure times, worse pixel alignment, shorter screen life. If a listing at £500 still shows colour LCD, move on.
Related reading
Ranking is driven by the spec sheet plus live price. Print quality on resin also depends heavily on the slicer, the resin itself, exposure tuning and post-processing - none of which are on the spec sheet. Treat this as a shortlist, read owner reports, then buy.