LA is the most popular material used in consumer FDM 3D printing. It’s affordable, easy to print, and has outstanding material properties. You can use PLA filament for a wide range of applications, and it comes in an equally diverse range of composites and colors.
With so many brands offering their spin on the same material, it can be tricky to single out decent spools and reliable manufacturers, particularly when there’s a huge spread in price with no direct correlation to quality. You don’t want the cheapest filament if it means it’ll give you lousy print results, but you also don’t want to buy the most expensive filament when a cheaper one would have been just as good.
We’ve pulled together this list to inspire you in your search for the best PLA filament and help you narrow down your filament selection and make an informed purchase.
If you haven’t had your fill of fantastic filament here, take a gander at some of our other guides:
Overture PLA
Overture PLA (Source: Overture)
Overture is another producer of affordable, reliable 1.75-mm filament that has gathered thousands of positive reviews on Amazon.
Besides a wide variety of colors of PLA, there are also PLA variants ranging from the increasingly popular matte effect, to silky, tough, and, for budget-conscious buyers, an eco-PLA, which uses waste produced from the filament-making process.
What’s more, each spool comes with handy little indicators, showing you the length and weight of the filament left.
The basic PLA filament has a tolerance of ±0.05 mm and is available in 1-kg spools. Overture also offers a PLA Professional (formerly PLA Plus), which it claims is “five times tougher than regular PLA.”
Polymaker PLA
Polymaker PLA (Source: Polymaker）
Polymaker is a well-known filament manufacturer that sells a variety of different PLA options, among other materials. According to the consensus of user reviews, Polymaker’s PLA filament shows barely any stringing when printing and performs well when printing overhangs and bridges.
The PolyTerra PLA variety has gained popularity for its easy printing properties and vibrant range of colors. It also takes a unique approach to eco-friendly materials: Instead of just touting how PLA is compostable, PolyMaker offers compostability details, only ships filament on cardboard spools, and plants a tree for every purchase. You’d expect this would drive the cost up, but the material is still relatively inexpensive at just ~$20 per kg. For these reasons, it’s regularly in rotation in the All3DP print lab.
Besides this, Polymaker offers a general-purpose PLA filament known as PolyLite, and a more enterprise-focused PolyMax PLA. PolyMax has the desirable properties of ABS without the downsides, so you can expect the easy-to-print properties of regular PLA without the undesirable toxic fumes of regular ABS. According to PolyMaker, this PLA also has nine times greater impact resistance than standard ABS.
Each spool of Polymaker PLA ships in a resealable plastic bag and is available in 1.75- and 2.85-mm formats which can be purchased as 0.5-, 1-, or 2-kg spools.
Eryone PLA
Eryone PLA (Source: Eryone)
In addition to a couple of forgettable 3D printers, Eryone produces a wide variety of popular filaments that take in the run of finishes and effects including silk, marble, translucent, and multicolor.
Eryone PLA enjoys favorable reviews on Amazon, with plenty of users praising its quality, features, and smooth surface finish. We’ve chewed through a number of spools in the All3DP print lab and can attest to its qualities. Eryone PLA is available in 1-kg spools, in 1.75-mm diameter, with a stated tolerance of ± 0.03 mm.
It’s difficult to have a hard-and-fast rule for ideal printing temperatures – your own testing will be required to find the optimal settings for your machine.
eSUN PLA
eSun PLA+ (Source: eSun)
eSun’s larger PLA range spans a wide variety of colors, as well as an assortment of different properties and finishes.
While the company does still make “standard” PLA, PLA+ appears to be eSun’s bread-and-butter offering. A formulation of PLA with additives to enhance its toughness and layer adhesion properties, eSun’s PLA+ has a stated dimensional accuracy of ±0.03 mm and is available in either 1.75-mm or 2.85-mm diameter. Performance is claimed to be close to that of ABS, with the ease of printing typically associated with PLA.
Beyond PLA+, eSun offers a mind-boggling assortment of PLA types, including Matte PLA, wood-filled PLA, stone-like “eMarble” PLA, silk, rainbow silk, dichromatics, trichromatics… the whole kit and caboodle.
Sunlu PLA
Sunlu PLA (Source: Sunlu)
Sunlu is a popular filament manufacturer widely known for the large variety of materials it offers at affordable prices.
Standard Sunlu PLA is offered in a number of colors and variants, including Silk, Marble, and a special PLA-PETG blend, which it calls SPLA. Reviewers across the web attest to the excellent printing performance of Sunlu PLA: it prints with crisp detail, great adhesion, vibrant color, and little-to-no warping.
All Sunlu’s filaments come neatly packaged in vacuum-sealed bags and include desiccant packets to control moisture during shipping. The community notes these spools are neatly wound, assuring a tangle-free 3D printing experience (for those who have experienced mid-print filament tangles, this is a welcome feature). Sunlu’s PLA filaments conform to a standard tolerance of ±0.02 mm and are available in a 1.75 mm diameter. Spools are sold at a weight of 1 kg and are available in bundles of up to 5 kg.
