The affordable all-rounder: engraves and cuts wood, leather, cardboard and dark acrylic, and engraves coated metal. Can't cut clear acrylic or mark bare metal. Slower cutting than CO2.
Typical: 10–40 W output, $300–$2,000The cutting machine: faster, cleaner cuts in wood and every color of acrylic, plus glass etching. Bigger, needs water cooling and serious venting. Can't mark bare metal without a compound.
Typical: 40–55 W desktop, $2,000–$7,000The metal specialist: marks and deep-engraves stainless, aluminum, brass, silver and gold, and many plastics. Poor at wood and useless for clear acrylic or cutting sheet goods.
Typical: 20–60 W, $1,500–$5,000Mirrors steer the beam instead of a moving gantry, so it's extremely fast over a small field — ideal for personalizing many small items. Often dual-source (diode + IR) in hobby machines.
Typical: ~100 × 100 mm field, $500–$2,500How the matching works
We start from what each laser type can physically do (the same rules as our material checker): clear acrylic and glass need CO2 or UV; bare metal needs a fiber, infrared or dual-source laser; coated metal works on almost anything. "Mostly cutting" needs a machine the maker rates for at least 6 mm of wood; "some cutting" at least 3 mm. "Inside the home" keeps only Class 1 machines, which contain the beam with the lid shut. Then we check the work area against your piece size, rotary support and budget, and rank by our Guide score, nudged toward cheaper machines that do the job. For small pieces we give fast galvo lasers a small edge, since they are much faster over a small field.
Every laser makes smoke, enclosed or not, so budget for venting or a purifier (see our ventilation guide). For the full picture, read the best laser engravers of 2026.
A worked example
Start with the defaults: wood only, engraving and some cutting, a garage, pieces up to about 12 inches and no budget limit. Every laser rated to cut at least 3 mm of wood with a work area of at least about 200 mm on its short side passes, which rules out small-field machines such as the xTool F2 and the ComMarker B4 fiber marker. Change "Where it will live" to "Inside the home" and the open-frame diodes drop out, leaving enclosed Class 1 machines.
Now add "Clear acrylic": only CO2 machines remain, because blue diode light passes through clear acrylic. Add "Bare metal / jewelry" and nothing fits, since none of our CO2 machines marks bare metal and the fiber and dual-source machines can't cut acrylic. The tool then shows what changes if you drop one material, which is usually the answer: people who need both own two lasers. The matcher is a shortlist, not a verdict; read the reviews before you buy.