TL;DR: My Our Recommendations
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| If you want: | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| General purpose printing | Mandala Firethorn |
| General purpose runner-up | Darkmoon Satin |
| Budget PLA/PETG plate | Fysetc Cryonix |
| Smooth bottom surfaces | Eibos Krios* |
| PLA & PETG cool plate | Darkmoon ICE |
| PLA-only cool plate | Juupine Geco * |
| Engineering/fiber-filled materials | Darkmoon CFX |
| Mirror finish | Darkmoon LUX |
About this guide #
My recommendations are based on my personal experience with these build plates; I own every plate I recommend. Additional information and perceptions are crowd-sourced from 3D printing Discord servers, including the Bambu Official Discord. I have clearly marked below when I’ve mentioned a plate I don’t own. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all available build plates.
What’s with all the Darkmoon plates? #
Darkmoon makes great plates, and where I’ve recommended them, I think they’re the right plate for most people. Folks in the Bambu Discord seem to agree.
I do not receive any sort of compensation from Darkmoon for mentioning or getting you to buy their plates.
Darkmoon plates are still great, especially Satin, CFX, and LUX, but their support has slipped a bit lately. If you run into issues, be ready for slower response times and potentially unsatisfying answers compared to what folks have historically come to expect.
Some of the support responses I’ve seen, especially around the G10 plates, also give me the impression that the newer batches may not be quite as good as the older ones.
A Note on the Stock Textured PEI Plate #
The stock “gold” textured PEI plate that comes with your printer is fine, and is likely all most people need.
I personally hate the texture it leaves on prints, and that PETG can over-adhere to it.
The plates on this list are what are considered “upgrade” options.
My plate recommendations take these preferences into account:
- excellent adhesion, without glue or release agents as much as possible
- printing without brims
- a matte smooth or textured bottom surface
Plate Details #
You can compare the surfaces that different plates leave on printed objects by checking out WillItStick’s Plate Comparison tool. This website is another project from me :).
General Purpose Plates #
#1 Recommendation: Mandala Firethorn #
Get it from Mandala Rose Works
The Mandala Roseworks Firethorn is the new GOAT of general-purpose build plates, taking over from the Darkmoon Satin. If you want one plate that does everything and you don’t need a smooth or shiny plate surface, this is the one to get.
For a lot of materials, Firethorn acts like a cold plate. I run PLA at ambient or 40C, PETG at 40-50C. It even prints Bambu PA6-GF (nightmare filament) without glue, something no other plate I’ve tested can do.
Mandala points to my community-science site willitstick.fyi for additional temp recommendations and material support info.
It also just barely ever needs to be cleaned, so it has that going for it. I absolutely abuse it by printing very different materials on it one after the other and getting my fingers all over it. It doesn’t care so far, after hundreds of hours of mixed usage.
Darkmoon Satin #
The Darkmoon Satin is now my runner-up for general-purpose printing. It works with almost every material. It prints PLA almost like a cool plate, and PLA Matte adheres extremely well. PETG self-releases when cooled. It has a very nice textured surface finish that is less “shiny” than the stock plate.
It earns it’s increased price over alternatives like the Fysetc Cryonix or Biqu Glacier because it has many fewer reports of issues in the community.
Still a great plate, and the best option if you want that “satin” plate texture on your prints.
BIQU Glacier #
Probably the most common third-party plate. Prints PLA and PETG well, and supports lots of other materials. PETG releases easily when cooled. Another general-purpose alternative. The Satin wins out because it has great QC, and can print materials >= 300C, unlike the Frostbite.
If you can’t get a Satin, this is a good alternative.
Fysetc Low Temp Plate / Cryonix #
Basically a Darkmoon Satin at a fraction of the price. Nice matte textured surface. Calls for some heat for PLA and PETG. You could buy almost four of these for the price of a single Darkmoon Satin, which makes it a great budget option.
I’ve only tested it with PLA and PETG, so I can’t personally vouch for other materials, but it isn’t limited to those filaments. I assume it’s a clone of the Biqu Glacier, and so should be fine up to 300C as well.
“Smooth” Plates #
EIBOS Krios #
Krios has become my go-to ‘smooth’ plate.
It has a really interesting smooth-but-matte texture I haven’t seen on any other plate.
A double-sided cool plate for a wide range of materials. EIBOS suggests starting at 40C for PLA and 55C for PETG without glue, then letting the plate cool before flexing it to release prints.
Interstingly, can be reversed in printers, a kind of neat way to ‘wear-level’ a bit, especially on printers with wipe tabs like the p1/x1/a1. Additionally, oth sides have the same coating.
Darkmoon G10 #
Great adhesion and easy self-release when cooled. Awesome for PETG, works well with other materials. Smoother than most. White G10 is slightly more textured than black, and looks amazing in your timelapses. Not for use with high-temp filaments like nylon.
Q1 2026 batches generated lots of Support requests in the Darkmoon Discord. Update: Darkmoon found a manufacturing defect in some batches of plates, but G10 still generates more support requests in the Darkmoon Discord than other plates. It’s also reportedly the best-selling Darkmoon plate, so that volume might be expected. Mine works great, but others have had to scuff theirs lightly to get reliable adhesion, and that appears to be the official recommendation if your plate has adhesion issues.
“Cool” Plates #
“Cool” plates require lower bed temperatures than regular plates. They’re a great choice for open printers, or models that have a high chance of warping off the bed.
Darkmoon ICE #
Works with PLA and PETG only. Really good adhesion (better than the Frostbite in my experience). Do not use with TPU. Has a shiny texture that I don’t love. But if you want a cool plate that can print PETG, this is my only recommendation.
Juupine Geco #
PLA ONLY, but is the only cool plate that actually doesn’t need any heating*. If I were trying to save energy and only printed PLA, I’d get this plate. It has a matte texture.
* Caveats:
- Parts printed at ambient temp have the highest warp amount in my testing.
- If ambient temperature is <= 20C, heat to at least 20C.
- If printing models that take up a lot of the plate (opengrid/multiboard/gridfinity base plates come to mind), you might need to add heat (<=40C) to prevent warping.
Specialty Plates #
Darkmoon CFX #
Excellent for engineering filaments, especially anything fiber-filled. Benefits from pre-heating for most materials. The CFX is not a “carbon fiber effect” plate, it’s a sheet of carbon fiber attached to a spring steel plate.
This is the only plate I print high-temp materials on. It’s also the only plate I’ll use glue with. A little bit of Vision Miner Nano-polymer adhesive↗ cut with IPA works amazing, and tends to not leave any visible marks on the part.
Printing flexibles on CFX is amazing. TPU and PEBA both come off like a slightly more sticky post-it note.
Both the CFX and the Mandala Firethorn have documented support for polypropylene filament.
Darkmoon LUX #
Unmatched mirror finish. If you are printing light boxes or something else where you want the bottom surface to reflect lights or be extremely smooth, this is the only plate for you.
Works great with PLA and TPU without glue. TPU printed on this resists sliding, great for printed “feet” for objects. I wouldn’t bother with it for other materials personally, but they are supported.
The mirror surface can be easily scratched, so be careful with it.
Non-Recommendations / Caveats #
Bambu Cool Plate Supertack #
The Supertack’s a fine plate, but it’s a gamble now. The initial batches of this plate (including mine for my X1C) performed well. Reports of poor adhesion were abundant about the time the H2 and P2 series printers came out, though.
There have been too many reports of new plates having adhesion issues for me to recommend it. Don’t bother rolling the dice; get something else.
Bambu Lab Smooth PEI Plate #
It’s a fine plate, but needs glue for everything but PLA, so why bother? Darkmoon G10 is a better plate in every respect, imo.
Bambu Engineering Plate (2025) #
I don’t own this plate.
The plate that needs glue for every material. I don’t understand why this plate was brought to market. Use a Darkmoon CFX instead. The CFX wants adhesive for some filaments but at least it can print some without.
BIQU Frostbite #
PLA and PETG only. I really dislike the texture it leaves on prints. Gave mine away. Had very inconsistent adhesion across the bed. Took 3 prints to get the small chip for the YouTube video. Get a Darkmoon ICE instead.
TODO: Interactive Plate Selector #
I’ll be adding an interactive plate selector soon. Needs a little more coding.
TODO: MOAR PLATES #
There are other plates I’d like to test or get some some sentiment about. If you have a plate you’d like to see added, please let me know!
- Juupine ESP
- Darkmoon PPX (when released)
- Tyson T-95 (need H2D plate first)
- Tyson T-6436 (need H2D plate first)
- KDEAVI Textured
- Phaetus Arkfly Conweb
- Biqu Pyrogrip
- Mellow Mintpad
- Numakers IceGrip
Acknowledgments #
Thanks to all the folks in the Bambu and Darkmoon Discords for their help and recommendations!
Changelog #
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2026-09-09:
- Added Mandala Firethorn as the top general-purpose recommendation, with Darkmoon Satin moving to runner-up.
- Added EIBOS Krios to the cool plates, with temperature and cleaning guidance.
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2026-04-20:
- Added a caveat about Darkmoon’s recent customer support slowdown.
- Moved the Fysetc Cryonix back to General Purpose Plates as a budget PLA/PETG option, with notes on coating durability.
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2025-12-31:
- Added Mellow Mintpad and Numakers IceGrip to TODO list.
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2025-12-10:
- Added caveats for the Frostbite and Glacier.
- Moved Fysetc Low Temp Plate to not recommended.
- Moved Glacier out of “Cool Plates” section to “General Purpose Plates” section.
- Moved Frostbite to not-recommended status.
- Added note about Glacier reported QC issues.
- Expanded info on Darkmoon LUX.
- Added TODO list for more plates to test.
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2025-11-30: Initial version.