Add me to the Cricut Maker owner’s group. 
It works well for the materials I play with. I typically cut adhesive or HT vinyl and various thicknesses of faux leather for sewing wallets, earrings, keychains, trinkets, doodads, and thingamabobs. I also don’t do the membership, just my own files.
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I have owned 2-3 machines from each brand and prefer the Silhouette Cameo in terms of reliability and business model. I also really like Silhouette’s software and sometimes use it for GF design. I upgraded to the Biz edition. The Cameo is just a really consistent machine and the Print & Cut works well, although it does waste some material. I have not used a Cricut Maker (yet), so I can’t compare at that level, but I do think that the Maker might be more versatile in terms of materials.
FWIW I don’t love the Curio - it has too many parts and it’s fiddly. It does have more consistency in terms of where you start cutting than the other machines I’ve used, but I got rid of it and just kept my Cameo.
One thing to keep in mind, Cricut is a heavily marketed brand. As such, more people have them, but that’s not a reflection of quality. Silhouette just tends to be more of a word-of-mouth brand. As long as Cricut doesn’t try to re-introduce their after-the-fact subscription model, you’ll likely have success with either one, so I’d factor in things like Cameo’s larger cutting area/mat-free cutting, Maker’s wide range of tool options (meaning more material options), and so on. I found a good comparison here: https://vinylcuttingmachines.net/comparisons/cricut-maker-vs-silhouette-cameo-4/ Some of it is pretty subjective, but you can more easily compare features and decide which would be more important to you.
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When I got my KNK it was between those two… I forget why I decided KNK but Silver Bullet is legit.
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I have the Silhouette Cameo 2 and purchased the Business Edition software. I use it to design for Glowforge.
Depending on the number of cards I’m making, I’ll stamp and then place the sheet on a Pix Scan Mat. Take a photo with my phone, and then it calibrates to the markings on the mat when inserted into the Silhouette to cut them out. Also have used to create stickers.
I’ve done a lot of paper and plenty of vinyl and heat transfer vinyl with mine. It hasn’t ever let me down. The last couple of days I’ve mentioned to my husband that I think I’m going to upgrade to the Silhouette 4. You can buy a roller blade for it … and I want to do a couple of smaller decorative quilts with insane amounts of appliqué cuts.
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I’m on my ?3rd? Silhouette model. I’ve always felt I could do anything I needed, although I am strictly a hobby user. If possible, I would suggest playing with the software for each one and see which one you like better. I did pay the upgrade for Silhouette Studio Business, but it was a one time fee.
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Thanks so much for your very helpful advice, all! I’ve decided to go for the Cameo 4, which I’ll do once I’ve offloaded these other machines (GX-24, Brother Scan n Cut, and I think I’ll get rid of the Tooli as well—anybody interested in any of these?).
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I used the silhouette business edition for use with cricut and Glowforge too, until I started using illustrator.
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Hey! While I see you’ve landed on the Silhouette, if it’s going to be a bit before you purchase, also consider the StarCraft SOLO. I say that because you mentioned wanting to do Print then Cut. The SOLO just came out late last year, so the ecosystem of tools and community are still building on it. However, we have the Cricut Maker (original) and the StarCraft SOLO, and the SOLO is way better at Print then Cut than the Cricut. It also cuts without a mat for most backed materials (vinyl, etc). Just thought we’d offer that as something to look at!
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Welcome to the forum.
Thanks for sharing your personal experience with vinyl cutters.
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Thanks for the warm welcome! This was actually so timely, as we just spent 2 hours yesterday trying to re-calibrate the Cricut do to Print then Cut properly. We gave up and recreated the design layout in the SOLO software. The SOLO cut like a dream. Cricut’s Print then Cut (on the Maker) used to be top notch, but one of the software updates in the last few months messed it up. We still love that machine, just not for Print then Cut. 
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Thanks! I’ll look into it.
oh no! I hadn’t heard about that update and admittedly haven’t used my Cricut for a while (too busy with the Glowforge, haha!). I wasn’t aware of the updates that have messed up Print then cut! That’s really a bummer.
Welcome to the forum!
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Thank you! We’re excited to be here.
Not sure which DS update did it (it’s been a while since we had done print then cut). We had heard others talk about how it got messed up, and that unfortunately held true for us.
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Hey folks, I thought I’d update y’all with what I ended up getting: A Silhouette Cameo 4. I also bought the Illustrator plugin, since I prefer to work in Illustrator anyway. (The plugin seems to work fine although to do print and cut you have to do a goofy workaround to get the registration marks to read–probably will be fixed in an update).
As we have an online business, we were able to get both the machine and the plugin for 20% off by joining the #silhouettehandmade program. That gives you access to a lot of the tools and things on the silhouetteamerica site for 20% off.
I’m very impressed by the capabilities of the machine and so far am very happy with my purchase. I can see I’m going to be going through a lot of blades as the ultra thick cardstock I use (Accent Opaque Digital 325gsm) seems to be hard on blades.
I was able to cut my tiny shoe boxes using the print and cut out of Illustrator; previously I had cut them on the laser but was not happy with the soot level, due to the super thick cardstock.
Oh- and the Silhouette Go app on my iPad works pretty well too, although it lacks some capabilities. But you can actually cut SVGs on the iPad, without upgrading the software. I can create files on Illustrator for iPad and send them to the Cameo.
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I might be in touch. I was planning on going that route as well. 
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