Slicers
UltiMaker Cura
The oldest and most widely installed slicer in the filament world: free, open source under LGPL-3.0 and with profiles for hundreds of printers.
Cura, developed by UltiMaker, is the slicer with the most years and the largest installed base. It is published under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 and distributed for Windows (exe and msi), macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Linux (AppImage). Its strength is coverage: it ships factory profiles for printers from practically every brand, including many old machines nobody else supports, and it has a plugin marketplace covering everything from mesh repair to OctoPrint integration. It is also the program with the most Spanish-language tutorials, which in Mexico makes it the usual entry point for someone who bought a second-hand Ender and is looking for help on YouTube.
Best for
- Old or unusual printers that other slicers no longer include
- Anyone learning from Spanish-language tutorials, which are plentiful for Cura
- Extending functionality with third-party plugins
- Classroom and educational workshop use
Limitations
- It uses a lot of memory with large models
- Generic profiles tend to be conservative on speed
- Setting organisation is less intuitive than in newer slicers
- No built-in calibration tools
Sources
- [1]Ultimaker/Cura — licencia LGPL-3.0, binarios para Windows, macOS y Linux (v5.13.0)UltiMaker · Manufacturer · accessed July 27, 2026