LayerFlow3D vs SimplyPrint
SimplyPrint monitors, queues and controls printers, and it has a genuinely free tier for two of them. LayerFlow3D runs what sits around the machines: customer orders, costing, filament stock and a shop page. That is the whole of the difference.
Checked September 15, 2026
Choose SimplyPrint if
- What you want is to watch and drive the machines. Live control, a print queue on the hardware and AutoPrint are theirs, and they are better at it than we are trying to be.
- Two printers and a $0 bill is a real offer, not a trial, and it is hard to argue with when you are starting out.
- You want cloud slicing and a wide range of printer integrations in one place.
- You are a school or a lab rather than a shop. There are no customers to invoice, so most of what we add would sit unused.
Choose LayerFlow3D if
- You sell what you print, and the questions you cannot answer are about orders and money rather than about machines.
- You want one plan that covers the business around the machines - orders, costing, stock and a shop page - rather than paying per printer for control alone. Our plans count printers too, and orders and seats with them, so compare the whole bill.
- You want filament stock, order costing and the queue in one place rather than as separate tools.
- You need a shop page customers can order from without messaging you.
Side by side
| Feature | LayerFlow3D | SimplyPrint |
|---|---|---|
| Monitoring and controlling the machines | We read telemetry; we do not control them. | Yes - live monitoring, a control panel and AutoPrint 1 |
| Cloud slicing | No. | Yes, and sold on its own at $4.99 a month 2 |
| Filament tracking | Spool by spool with what you paid for it, drawn down as jobs consume it. | Filament Manager, also sold on its own at $5.99 a month 2 |
| Customer orders | The queue is built round them, with a public shop page feeding it. | Not in their feature list 1 |
| Quoting and invoicing | Automatic pricing from your own costs. Invoices are not built in. | Not in their feature list 1 |
| Cost and margin per job | Filament, machine hours and labour against the price, per order. | A cost per print in the history; no price, so no margin 1 |
| Shipping labels | Carrier integrations, from the order. | Not in their feature list 1 |
| What you pay for | The size of the shop: printers, seats and orders a month. Live telemetry is on every plan. | Printers; extra user seats on Print Farm and Enterprise 2 |
| Free tier | Free, no card: 2 printers, 50 orders a month, live telemetry and a shop page of your own. | Yes - 2 printers, 1 user, $0 2 |
What it costs
LayerFlow3D
Every plan counts printers, orders a month and seats. Free: 2 printers, 50 orders a month, no card. Base: $10 a month ($8 billed yearly), 5 printers, 500 orders a month. Pro: $25 a month ($20 billed yearly), 20 printers, 3,000 orders a month. Ultimate: $99 a month ($79 billed yearly), 50 printers, unlimited orders. US dollars; every limit is on the pricing page.
SimplyPrint
Free for 2 printers, then $5.99 a month for 3, $9.99 for 5 rising to 10, $39.99 for a 10-printer print farm with extra seats sold separately, and $299 for the enterprise tier with 10 users. About 15% less billed yearly. US dollar list prices; their page shows your own currency. 2
Questions people ask
Can I use both?
Yes - they do different jobs, SimplyPrint on the machines and LayerFlow3D on the orders and money around them. There is no integration between the two and we have not tested them side by side, so nothing passes from one to the other by itself.
Which is cheaper?
Both count printers, so it depends on what else you need. Two printers are free on both. Past that, theirs buys control of the machines and ours buys the orders, costing, stock and storefront around them, each with its own printer limits - the figures for both are further up this page. A shop that wants both pays for both, one for the machines and one for the business.
Does SimplyPrint do costing?
Their print history shows a cost per print, and their Filament Manager tracks spools. Quoting, invoicing and a margin per job are not in their published feature list, because nothing there carries a price.
Does LayerFlow3D control printers?
No. We read what Bambu Lab, Creality, Anycubic, Elegoo, Flashforge, Klipper and Prusa or OctoPrint machines are doing and cost their time. Sending work to them is left to the software you already use.
Sources
Every claim about SimplyPrint on this page came off their own public site, read on September 15, 2026. Prices move. If one of these is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
See it against your own numbers
Your spool prices, your printers, your rates. The free plan needs no card.