Cricut has announced in a new blog post that its automated cutting and printing craft machine will no longer require a subscription for unlimited uploads next year. The company took a step back when it announced it would postpone the change until 2022. But now Cricut CEO Ashish Arora is reversing the company’s plans entirely, guaranteeing Cricut machines will work how they’ve always worked.

“We’ve made the decision to reverse our previously shared plans. Right now, every member can upload an unlimited number of images and patterns to Design Space for free, and we have no intention to change this policy. This is true whether you’re a current Cricut member or are thinking about joining the Cricut family before or after December 31, 2021,” Arora writes.

Limits on uploads to Cricut’s required Design Space app were a contentious issue for regular Cricut crafters. While Design Space can work as separate creation software, many users prefer to create their art in other applications and bring them into Design Space to finalize them, before their Cricut cuts them out of paper, fabric and other materials.

In Cricut’s controversial plan, the company offered 20 Design Space uploads per month for free, and locked unlimited uploads behind a paid Cricut Access subscription. The move did not go over well with users, who were not only used to having unlimited uploads for free, but also wanted to avoid additional costs, or being forced to use Design Space for the entirety of their projects.

Cricut’s original response seemed to satisfy a lot of its customers, but now the company has gone a step further and made its subscription plan what it started out as, an add-on, rather than a requirement for normal use.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/18/22338801/cricut-crafting-machines-backlash-no-more-subscription-needed