In case you have not heard, earlier this month Cricut announced it would limit free Cricut Design Space™ app accounts to 20 uploads per month. The announcement sparked an uprising by Design Space users and Cricut machine owners. Responding to the uproar, Cricut backtracked somewhat on the new policy, keeping free accounts truly free through December 31, 2021.
Here is the latest email I from Cricut regarding this policy
| “Dear Cricut Members, On Friday, March 12, we announced an intention to limit the number of personal images and patterns that members can upload to Design Space without a Cricut Access subscription. We updated this plan on March 16 and shared that we intended to study the matter further. My team has spent the week listening, learning, and taking in a lot of feedback. Not every decision we make is perfect, but we take every opportunity to learn and get better. |
| So, 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. |
| We care deeply about every single member of our community, and it’s your creativity that keeps us motivated, excited, and passionate every day about what we’re building here at Cricut. Thank you for your candor and your commitment to our company and community. We appreciate you. ashish arora (Cricut ceo) March 18, 2021″ |
Contrary to popular belief, people can make a difference. Current registered Design Space users are grandfathered in. New users who register and activate a Cricut device (new or used) on or before December 31, 2021 are grandfathered in. These users will have unlimited uploads with free accounts.
At the end of 2021, just like when the clock struck midnight for Cinderella, everything changes. Starting January 1, 2022, all free accounts are restricted to a certain number of monthly uploads (right now it is 20). Fair or not, this is how it is.
Personally, I think Design Space should be free to use and to upload to. It is required to use your Cricut devices. No Design Space and your machines become expensive paperweights. If uploading was not required for some functions, I would not have an issue with limiting uploads. If you could store your Design Space creations locally and have your Cricut machine read them locally, uploading would not be an issue. Charging for designs and artwork is fine, artists need to eat too. Charging for storage space would be okay if it was not required.
Cricut, if you are listening: Make changes to Design Space. Make it available offline to registered machine users. Let registered users have the ability to store and use their own designs locally. Then, you can charge for cloud space. You could charge for the use of Design Space by non-machine owners. Continue to charge for premium designs. Offer free projects too. Cricut will generate more from Design Space with this model than it will by forcing high volume users to pay for the use of their machine. Brother made their design tool available offline. It was a huge help, but it was still so awful I sold my Scan and Cut and bought a Cricut Maker.