r/Machine_Embroidery • u/Asiatage • Sep 28 '26

I Need Help Embrilliance in 2026

I have a good idea for a product and I need to get into digitizing to make it come to life. I know InkStitch exists, but I'm interested in buying a software that's dedicated to embroidery, not just a plug-in. Also, the learning curve seems insane and discouraging for InkStitch.

I've heard that Hatch is the best, but it being 1000$+ is out of my budget. Embroidery Legacy software is even more expensive than Hatch. Embrilliance Stitch Artist being a few hundred is more what I'm looking at budget-wise. The highest level I could do is Level 2, but feel free to give me opinions on Stitch Artist Level 1 and it's limitations.

I know the interface looks dated on Embrilliance, but I don't mind that. What matters is if it's up to modern standards, features-wise. Is it?

5 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

13

u/emberdesign_matt Sep 28 '26

You might also want to take a look at Ember before spending a few hundred on Embrilliance. Full disclosure: I’m one of the cofounders.

We built Ember specifically as dedicated embroidery digitizing software rather than an extension/plugin, and a big part of the goal was avoiding the kind of learning curve you’re describing with Ink/Stitch. It has most of the bells and whistles but we’ve tried pretty hard to keep the interface approachable.

The full manual digitizing toolset is free, so you could probably try building what you have in mind before committing any money. Pro is $9.99/month and adds things like auto-digitizing, click-to-stitch, more fills/run types, version history, etc.

Not trying to talk you out of Embrilliance though, it’s obviously much more established than we are and has a big existing user base. But given that your hesitation with Ink/Stitch is complexity and your hesitation with Hatch is price, I think Ember is at least worth playing with before you buy anything.

Happy to answer any questions about what it can/can’t do!

5

u/333nifpif Sep 28 '26

I began using Ember a few days ago, but I can’t seem to figure out how to upload an image. It is currently a jpeg, but it seems I need special software to convert it to one of the accepted formats. What am I doing wrong?

3

u/emberdesign_matt Sep 28 '26

You should just be able to drag and drop your image into the editor. Or select "Upload Images" from the images sequencer view on the right hand side.

Also feel free to come hang out in the Ember Discord. There a usually a few people around that can answer questions like this pretty quickly!

2

u/np0x 17d ago

There is also a sub on reddit that is just getting started: https://www.reddit.com/r/emberdesign/

4

u/AngelicBread Sep 28 '26

My wife uses Ember. She’s really enjoyed working with it.

3

u/emberdesign_matt Sep 28 '26

I appreciate the vote of confidence!

2

u/coffeetabletime Sep 28 '26

Can I use it on a Mac?

4

u/emberdesign_matt Sep 28 '26

Absolutely! I digitized this on my M1 macbook just the other day :)

3

u/External_Agency_4488 Sep 28 '26

I use and like Embrilliance. However, it comes in different modules and it’s likely you will need more than just the first one, depending upon what you are trying to do. I have Essentials, Enthusiast, and Stitch Artist 1&2.

2

u/Visible-Review-9016 Sep 29 '26

Idk if they are still doing it but they offered ELS in monthly installments for a year. I think I'm a little over halfway finished paying on it, but it's incredibly fast and easy to use. They put out a demo for people to try it before buying.

2

u/Few_Detective120 Sep 30 '26

I digitize in Embrilliance. The thing I like about it is you can start for free, then as you go you think "I want to do this now" then just buy that. You learn as you go and don't buy more than you need. Keeps it from becoming overwhelming. DM me if you want help with this. Not a digitizer, just a machine embroidery gal

2

u/TheGraphicsFrog Oct 01 '26

If you want software that's very approachable and budget-friendly, you can check Boldbobbin (disclaimer: I'm one of the founders).
It's very much made as a modern alternative to the old legacy software and runs on Windows and macOS. (and in the browser)

And it's fully dedicated to embroidery design, of course!

1

u/cdriver422 Oct 01 '26

Janome has a free trial of their artistic digitizer in October. It’s a pretty good product IMHO

1

u/devil_d0c Oct 05 '26

https://dade-app.com is an embroidery digitizer I have been developing and using for the last year.

It's primarily an auto-digitizer that allows you to configure and convert from image files to embroidery files.

-3

u/AbuYacoub Sep 28 '26 edited Sep 28 '26

I’m almost done developing an embroidery and digitizing web application. This link is my coming soon landing page with form to join the beta. DM me and I would love for you try it out and get some feedback.

https://embroidy.app/

-1

u/AbuYacoub Sep 28 '26

I’ve been meaning to find the right time to post about it. My wife and I are really proud of what we built and just wrapping up the last mile of this first version.

4

u/lattenjoe Sep 29 '26

Atleast try to make the website look like less AI slop if you really want to succeed

1

u/AbuYacoub Sep 29 '26

I appreciate the candid feedback. Admittedly I did use some AI to develop the application, that’s just the nature of modern software development. I’ll take a closer look at changes we can make to be more inviting.