Glowforge or xTool: which laser suits your SVG files

The short answer

Paper, card, thin wood and acrylic on a desk, up to 12 in: Glowforge Aura. It cuts a 12 × 12 in area, material up to ¼ in thick, and its Passthrough slot feeds pieces 12 in wide and as long as you like. The smaller Glowforge Spark cuts 8.5 × 11 in.

A laser and a blade in one machine: xTool M1 Ultra. Its laser works a 300 × 300 mm area (about 11.8 in square), and its blades work 300 × 300 mm (295 × 295 mm with the cutting blade): the fine-point blade cuts paper, stickers and vinyl, and the cutting blade takes sheet up to 2.5 mm thick. With the optional ink module it can also print.

Bigger signs and thicker wood: Glowforge Plus HD (40 W, material up to 20 × 12 in) or Pro HD (45 W, material 20 in wide and any length through Passthrough). Glowforge gives an 11 × 19.5 in print area for these Performance Series machines.

The widest areas here: xTool S1, at 40 W or 20 W, works 498 × 319 mm at 40 W and 498 × 330 mm at 20 W, or 470 mm wide and up to 3,000 mm long with the conveyor feeder and extra rails. xTool P2S, a 55 W CO2 laser, works 23.6 × 12 in on a 26 × 14 in bed.

Side by side

Figures from Glowforge’s and xTool’s own pages. Glowforge gives the Plus HD and Pro HD the material size they take; the print area inside it is 11 × 19.5 in.

Opening our SVG files

Glowforge: upload the SVG in the Glowforge app. Our designs are drawn as filled shapes, which the app sets to engrave, so change each step to Cut before you print. Each color of a layered design arrives as its own step, so you can cut each layer from its own material. DXF needs Glowforge Premium; SVG does not.

xTool: import the SVG into xTool Creative Space and give every object a cut, score or engrave setting; xTool warns that an object without settings may not be processed. The S1 also works with LightBurn.

Files for Glowforge →

Files for xTool →

Files for LightBurn →

What fits, from this site

Every design here lists its flat size. All but one fit Glowforge’s 11 × 19.5 in print area as they are; the exception is the large greeting-card envelope. On a 12 × 12 in or 300 × 300 mm area, most fit too; the exceptions are the largest envelopes and cards, two long boxes, the monogram alphabet sheet and the long sign bases, which you can scale down or cut on a wider machine.

Fit a design to your work area →

xTool and Glowforge on Black Friday

xTool’s 2026 sale is already running; last year’s ran from 3 November to Cyber Monday. On 3 November its Black Friday page offered up to $3,467 off, in weekly themes from 2 to 29 November, with limited 20%-off lightning deals on Thursday evenings and one-day deals on Black Friday, 27 November, and on Cyber Monday. The P2S is left out of that promotion, but it and the S1 already cost less than on Black Friday 2025. xTool’s sale page no longer lists the M1 Ultra: its entry-level laser there is the M2, from $499 for the 10 W model.

Glowforge started its 2025 Black Friday offers on 21 November, and by 26 November the Aura was $799 with its $399 Craft Air Filter free until 28 November, an extra worth counting if you have no window to vent through. The Plus HD and Pro HD stayed at their normal prices, which have gone up since. Glowforge’s site showed no Black Friday offer on 3 November 2026.

Check before you buy

Air: Glowforge’s Craft Series vents through a window with the included hose, or through its Craft Laser Filter where no window opens. Plan where the smoke goes before choosing any laser.

Vinyl and iron-on: a laser is the wrong tool. If those are most of what you make, a blade cutter suits you better.

Which Cricut? →

Which Silhouette? →