FAQs

What is NextFab?

NextFab is a network of membership-based makerspaces that provide access to tools, technology, education, events, and services for professional makers.

Where are you located?

We currently have 2 locations in Philadelphia, PA.
2025 Washington Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19146
1800 North American Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122

How do I take a tour of NextFab?

Schedule a tour of any of our makerspaces here. For more questions contact us here.

Do I have to be a member to visit NextFab?

Nope. Anyone is welcome to take a tour of NextFab, attend events, or hire our Product Development team. Members are also allowed to bring guests for a visit lasting no more than 4 hours. However, in order to use NextFab software, and tools, and take the majority of our classes, you must be a member.

Can anyone be a member?

Absolutely! We welcome members of all skill levels and backgrounds. Our only membership requirement is for age – you must be at least 10 years old for a junior membership, and at least 18 years old for regular membership.

What services does NextFab offer?

NextFab offers membership, educational classes and workshops, hardware incubator and accelerator programs, and professional product development services available for hire.

Do you supply materials for projects?

For certain classes, NextFab will provide the materials needed. We also have raw materials for sale, including wood, metal, print media, hardware, etc. Members are always welcome and encouraged to bring in their own materials.

How can I work at NextFab?

Interested in becoming part of the team at NextFab? Check out our current openings on our Careers page.

How do I become a member?

Joining NextFab is easy! Sign up online under our Join page or by contacting us for more information. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll receive a welcome email to help guide you through the next steps – virtual new member orientation and classes.

Can I pause or cancel my membership?

Membership may be “paused” for up to two sequential months per calendar year without needing to cancel membership, and without the loss of any member benefits. You may cancel or temporarily pause your membership at any time by contacting member-services@nextfab.com.

Is my membership good for all locations?

Yes! Your membership provides access to all NextFab locations. Just check in at the front desk when you go to a new location for the first time.

Can I change my membership?

Yes, you can change your membership level at any time by contacting us. If you downgrade your membership level in the middle of the month, the changes will take place on the first day of the next billing cycle.

How much does membership cost?

NextFab offers a variety of membership levels at different costs to help you find the option that works best for you. Memberships start at $219 per month, depending on how much access you’re looking for. Learn more on our Join page.

Note, discounts are available for artists, students, recent graduates, senior citizens, educators, veterans, first responders, and members of CEFVA.

How old do you have to be to be a member?

While our members are young at heart, you must be 18 years of age or older to use our shops and be a member. We also offer junior memberships for kids ages 10-17, but junior members must be accompanied by a parent or other adult member at all times. For more information on junior memberships, see the Join page.

Can I pay month-to-month?

We do not currently offer a month-to-month payment option. We kindly ask you to sign up for autopay and your card will be charged monthly on/from the date of signup.

Do I need to reserve machine time?

Yes. Members who would like to reserve machine time may do so online. The reservation calendar should only be used by those who have obtained unsupervised access to that particular machine. Please note that based on power consumption, operating costs, and maintenance some machines require hourly reservation fees.

Does NextFab have storage for in-progress projects?

Yes. In addition to locker storage, we offer larger storage areas for keeping your works in progress, tools, and materials for a fee. You can rent a storage space on a monthly basis. The fee varies depending on size and any special requirements. For pricing and more details, please contact us.

Can I bring my own tools?

You can bring in your own hand tools if you would like. However, you will need to obtain permission from a manager to bring in power tools or anything unusual. If you are looking for a particular tool that we do not have, let us know what tool you want to bring in – we may decide to purchase it for the studio.

Is there anything I can’t use at NextFab?

Members have access to all of the tools at NextFab, provided that they have completed the proper prerequisite classes, or demonstrated proficiency. For more information, please ask your shop manager.

Can I join NextFab and take classes if I have a disability?

All NextFab facilities are ADA accessible to members and the public, but some workshop areas and equipment may present environmental barriers to members with certain physical disabilities. We aim to accommodate members with access concerns and special needs. Contact us with inquiries.

Can I join NextFab if I do not speak English?

Anyone, regardless of English comprehension, can join NextFab as a member. Access to equipment in shops depends on our existing competency check. To take classes at NextFab, members must have an independent working verbal and written comprehension of English.

When and where are NextFab’s Product Development Services available?

NextFab’s Product Development team is based out of our 2025 Washington Ave location in Philadelphia. Our hours are Monday through Friday 10 am-5 pm. We will make every effort to respond to your inquiry within two business days.

What if my project does not qualify as a Product Development job?

We can still find someone to help you out, even if we don’t take on the job ourselves! We have plenty of members eager to take on projects using our online Jobs Board. You can also become a member and learn how to create your project yourself.

What’s the difference between the Jobs Board and NextFab’s Product Development Services?

The Jobs Board allows you to work directly with NextFab members whereas hiring our Product Development team lets you work with our team of skilled staff.

If you’re looking to work with a local artist, designer, or fabricator, the Jobs Board is the place for you.

Our Product Development team loves a good challenge, so we’re usually looking for projects that are advanced, large-scale, or boutique design/production. Check out our portfolio of case studies for a sample of our latest work to see if your idea aligns, and then get a quote here.

We typically do not take on projects where the idea is not clearly defined enough, nor do we do mass-production jobs.

What type of space do you have available?

Will I get 24/7 access to my studio space, office, or private workspace?

Does my company need to be incorporated?

What differentiates the RAPID hardware accelerator from other programs?

What is NextFab looking for in a hardware accelerator applicant?

Will you sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)?

How many applicants will be accepted for each cohort of the RAPID Hardware Accelerator?

What if I can’t apply for the next cohort?

Will I/we get a mentor?

Do you provide funding?

Do you take equity?

Does my company need to be incorporated?

Where is the RAPID program going to take place?

What are your refund policies for membership and reservations?

For monthly or annual membership payments without a contract, cancellations will be processed for the upcoming billing period if requested prior to the next billing date. Refunds will not be issued for any part of the current billing period.

If you cancel a machine, space, or room reservation we will refund the reservation fee (if any) as credit to your account.  If you need to cancel a class or private training session, we require at least 24 hours notice to process a refund as credit. If a reservation is cancelled with less than 24 hours notice your fee will be forfeited and no refund will be issued.

What are your privacy and security policies?

Our full privacy and security policies are below.

NextFab is committed to transparency regarding the data we collect about you, how it is used and with whom it is shared. This Privacy Policy applies when you use our Online Services (described below). 

Introduction

NextFab Studio, LLC (“NextFab” or “we” or “us”) provides various services (“Services”) including online (“Online Services”) and also in-person at our facilities (“In-person Services”). Our Services may be used by persons who have executed a NextFab Membership Agreement (“Members”) as well as by persons who have not (“Nonmembers”, and together with Members, “Users”). Nonmembers generally have access to fewer of our Services. Our Online Services are intended to help you stay informed about our Services, to use our Services, to communicate with other Members and with NextFab employees (“Staff”), to find and share knowledge, and to discover opportunities to conduct business. Our Privacy Policy applies to any Member or Nonmember who makes use of our Online Services.

Content and data on some of our Services is viewable to Nonmembers.

Services

This Privacy Policy, including the Cookie Policy, which is incorporated by reference into this Privacy Policy, applies to nextfab.com including, but not limited to the Forum, the Library, the Jobs Board, and the Account Info Dashboard, but excluding services that state that they are offered under a different privacy policy.

 

Changes

Changes to the Privacy Policy apply to your use of our Online Services after the “Last Modified” date above.

NextFab can modify this Privacy Policy at any time and from time to time, and if we make material changes to it, we will provide notice through our Online Services, or by other means, to provide you the opportunity to review the changes before they become effective. If you object to any changes, your choice is to stop using the Online Services.

You acknowledge that your continued use of our Online Services after we publish or send a notice about our changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy, which means that the collection, use, and sharing of your personal data is subject to the updated Privacy Policy.

 

1. Data We Collect
   1. Data You Provide To Us
      1. Registration
         1. To create an account you need to provide data including your name, email address, and a password. When you become a Member who pays for membership, you will need to provide payment information (e.g., credit card obfuscated and not retained outside of payment processors such as Stripe), billing information including address, birthdate, emergency contact and phone, preferred NextFab location, and signature image. 
      2. Profile
         1. You have choices about the information on your profile. You may choose to complete a separate Forum and/or Jobs Board profile. You don’t have to provide additional information on your profiles; however, profile information may help you to get more from our Services, including connecting with other members. It’s your choice whether to include sensitive information on your profile and to make that sensitive information public. Please do not post or add personal data to your profile that you would not want to be publicly available.
      3. Posting and Uploading
         1. We collect personal data from you when you provide, post or upload it to our Online Services, such as when you fill out a form, post messages, post jobs or bid on the Jobs Board. 
   2. Data From Others
      1. Content and News
         1. You and others may post content that includes information about you (as part of articles, posts, comments, videos, complaints, compliments, etc.) on our Online Services. 
      2. Partners
         1. Customers and partners may provide data to us. We receive personal data about you when you use the services of our customers and partners, such as employers, prospective employers and applicant tracking systems providing us job application data.
      3. Related Companies and Other Services
         1. We receive data about you when you use some of the other services provided by us or our affiliates.
   3. Use of Online Services
      1. We log your visits and use of our Online Services.
         1. We log usage data when you visit or otherwise use our Services, including our sites, app and platform technology (e.g., our off-site plugins), such as when you view or click on content (e.g., learning video) or ads (on or off our sites and apps), perform a search, install or update one of our mobile apps, share articles or apply for jobs. We use log-ins, cookies, device information and internet protocol (“IP”) addresses to identify you and log your use.
         2. We track and manage Member-related data in order to better serve our Members and assist them in achieving their goals safely and efficiently.  This type of data includes class certification history, Staff interaction notes, photos, physical access card swipes and NextFab location visits, class reservation and attendance, private training, machine certifications, machine reservations and use history, material sales, and subscription history. 
   4. Cookies, Web Beacons and Other Similar Technologies
      1. We collect data through cookies and similar technologies.
         1. As further described in our Cookie Policy, we use cookies and similar technologies (e.g., web beacons, pixels, ad tags and device identifiers) to recognize you and/or your device(s) on, off and across different Online Services and devices. We also allow some others to use cookies as described in our Cookie Policy. You can control cookies through your browser settings and other tools. 
   5. Your Device and Location
      1. We receive data from your devices and networks, potentially including location data if you allow it.
         1. When you visit or leave our Services (including our plugins or cookies or similar technology on the sites of others), we receive the URL of both the site you came from and the one you go to next. We also get information about your IP address, proxy server, operating system, web browser and add-ons, device identifier and features, and/or ISP or your mobile carrier. If you use our Services from a mobile device, that device may send us data about your location based on your phone settings. We will ask you to opt-in before we use GPS or other tools to identify your precise location.
   6. Messages
      1. If you communicate through our Services, we learn about that.
         1. We collect information about you when you send, receive, or engage with messages in connection with our Online Services. We may use automatic scanning technology on messages. Staff acting as moderators may review your messages
   7. Others Buying Services for You
      1. When another party, such as your employer or school, buys our Services for you to use, they give us data about you.
         1. Others buying our Services for your use, such as your employer or your school or as a gift, may provide us with personal data about you and your eligibility to use the Services. 
   8. Sites and Services of Others
      1. We get data when you visit sites that include our plugins, ads or cookies or log-in to others’ services with your NextFab account.
         1. We receive information about your visits and interaction with services provided by others when you log-in with NextFab or visit others’ services that could include our plugins, ads, cookies or similar technologies.
   9. Other
      1. We are improving our Services, which means we get new data and create new ways to use data.
         1. Our Services are dynamic, and we often introduce new features, which may require the collection of new information. If we collect materially different personal data or materially change how we use your data, we will notify you and may also modify this Privacy Policy.
2. How We Use Your Data

We use your data to provide, support, personalize and develop our Services. How we use your personal data will depend on which Services you use, how you use those Services and the choices you make in your settings. We use the data that we have about you to provide and personalize, possibly including with the help of automated systems and inferences we make, our Services (including ads) so that they can be more relevant and useful to you and others.

1. Services

We use your data to authorize access to our Services. 

1. Find and Communicate with Others
   1. Our Online Services allow you to look for other members who might be interesting to you. If you provide a profile, other Members will be able to search your profile in order to evaluate potentially communicating or collaborating with you.
      
      We will use data about you (such as your profile, profiles you have viewed or data you have provided) to help others find your profile (should you choose to provide it), suggest connections for you and others (e.g., Members whose skills and interests that might align with yours).

It is your choice whether to invite someone to our Services, or to contact another member.

1. Stay Informed
   1. Our Online Services allow you to stay informed about events, technical topics, and other topics of interest to you within and outside of our community. Our Services also allow you to improve your skills, or learn new ones. We use the data we have about you (e.g., data you provide, data we collect from your engagement with our Online Services and inferences we make from the data we have about you), to recommend relevant content and conversations on our Services, suggest skills you may have to add to your profile and skills that you might need to pursue your next opportunity. So, if you let us know that you are interested in a new skill (e.g., by watching a learning video), we may use this information to personalize or recommend content or connections to you. We use your content, activity and other data, including your name and picture, to provide notices to your network and others. For example, subject to your settings, we may notify others that you have updated your profile, posted a blog, took a social action, made new connections or were mentioned in the news.
2. Work Opportunities
   1. Our Services allow you to explore work opportunities, evaluate learning opportunities, and seek out, and be found for, work opportunities. Your profile can be found by those looking to hire (for a project or a specific task) or be hired by you. You can share information with those interested in getting quotes for work that they need to have completed. We will use your data to recommend work opportunities to you and you to parties interested in outsourcing work. We may use automated systems to profile and provide recommendations to help make our Services better for our Users. Keeping your profile accurate and up-to-date may help you better connect to others and to opportunities through our Services.
3. Productivity
   1. Our Services allow you to collaborate with colleagues, and to search for potential clients, customers, partners and others to do business with. Our Services allow you to communicate with other Members and schedule and prepare meetings with them. 

1. Communications
   1. We contact you and enable communications between Members. 
      1. We will contact you through email, phone, notices posted on our websites or apps, messages to your Forum inbox or Jobs Board inbox, and other ways through our Services, possibly including text messages and push notifications. We will send you messages about the availability of our Services, security, or other service-related issues. We also send messages about how to use our Services, network updates, reminders, job suggestions and may send promotional messages from us and our partners. You may change your communication preferences within the Forum and Jobs Board at any time. Please be aware that you cannot opt-out of receiving service messages from us, including security and legal notices.
      2. We also enable communications between you and others through our Online Services, including for example messages between Forum users and also between Jobs Board users (including Jobs Board users who are Nonmembers).
2. Advertising
   1. Overview
      1. We reserve the right to serve you tailored ads both on and off our Services.
         We target (and measure the performance of) ads to Members, Nonmembers and others both on and off our Services directly or through a variety of partners, using the following data, whether separately or combined:
         
         Data from advertising technologies on and off our Services, like web beacons, pixels, ad tags, cookies, and device identifiers;
         Member-provided information (e.g., profile, contact information, and interests);
         Data from your use of our Services (e.g., search history, content you read, posts, page visits, videos you watch, clicking on an ad, etc.), including as described in Section 1.3;
         Information from advertising partners and
         Information inferred from data described above (e.g., using data from a profile to infer other interests and behaviors; using pronoun usage to infer gender).
         We may show you ads called sponsored content which may look similar to non-sponsored content, except that they are labeled “ads” or “sponsored.” If you take an action (such as like, comment or share) on these ads, your action is associated with your name and viewable by others, including the advertiser. Subject to your settings, if you take a social action on the NextFab Services, that action may be mentioned with related ads.
   2. Info to Ad Providers
      1. We do not share your personal data with any third-party advertisers or ad networks for their advertising. However, if you view or click on an ad on or off our site or apps, the ad provider will get a signal that someone visited the page that displayed the ad, and they may through the use of mechanisms such as cookies determine it is you. 
3. Marketing
   1. We promote our Services to you and others. We use data and content about Members and Nonmembers for invitations and communications promoting membership, engagement and use of our Services.
4. Developing Services and Research
   1. Service Development
      1. We develop our Services and conduct research. We use data, including public feedback, to conduct research and development for the further development of our Services in order to provide you and others with a better, more intuitive and personalized experience, drive membership growth and use of our Services, and help connect Members to each other and to valuable information.
   2. Other Research
      1. We seek to help Members be more fulfilled, creative, productive, and successful. We use the personal data available to us to research topics of importance to our customers and our business.
   3. Surveys
      1. Polls and surveys are conducted by us and others in person, and through our Online Services. You are not obligated to respond to polls or surveys, and you have choices about the information you provide. You may opt-out of survey invitations.
5. Customer Support
   1. We use data to help you and fix problems. 
      1. We use the data (which can include your communications) to investigate, respond to and resolve complaints and Service issues (e.g., bugs).
6. Aggregate Insights
   1. We use data to generate aggregate insights. 
      1. We use your data to produce and share aggregated insights that do not identify you. For example we may use your data to generate statistics about our members.
7. Security and Investigations
   1. We use data for security, fraud prevention and investigations. 
      1. We use your data (including your communications) if we think it’s necessary for security purposes or to investigate possible fraud or other violations of our User Agreement or this Privacy Policy and/or attempts to harm our Members or Nonmembers. 

1. How We Share Information
   1. Our Online Services
      1. Profile
         1. Any data that you include on your profile and any content you post or social action (e.g., likes, comments, shares) you take on our Online Services will be seen by others.
            1. Your profile is fully visible to all Members who use our Online Services. Subject to your settings, and your election to use certain services such as the Jobs Board,  it can also be visible to others on or off of our Online Services (e.g., Nonmember Jobs Board users).
      2. Posts, Likes, Comments, Messages
         1. Our Services allow viewing and sharing information including through posts, likes, follows and comments.
            1. When you share an article or a post (e.g., an update, image, video, or article) it and your name (and possibly your photo, if you have provided one) can be viewed by other Members using our Online Services. 
            2. Any information you share through the Forum or Jobs Board will be viewable by others who visit those pages.
            3. We let senders know when you act on their messages.
            4. When you like or re-share or comment on another’s content (including ads), others will be able to view these “social actions” and associate it with you (e.g., your name, profile and photo if you provided it). 
   2. Others’ Services
      1. You may configure your profile with connections to other services so that other Members can view your profiles, post to you on such platforms, or start conversations with you on such platforms. 
         1. For example, you may link your Twitter or Instagram account to allow other Members to find you or to contact you on those services.
   3. Related Services
      1. We share your data across our different Services and NextFab-affiliated entities. 
         1. We may share your personal data with our affiliates to provide and develop our Services. We may combine information internally across the different Services covered by this Privacy Policy to help our Services be more relevant and useful to you and others. For example, we may recommend better content to you based on your  profile or the articles you read on our Online Services, and we may personalize content or recommendations based on your history of use of any of our Services, because we are able to identify you across different Services using cookies or similar technologies.
   4. Service Providers
      1. We may use others to help us with our Services.
         1.  We use others to help us provide our Services (e.g., maintenance, analysis, audit, payments, fraud detection, marketing and development). They will have access to your information as reasonably necessary to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for other purposes.
   5. Legal Disclosures
      1. We may need to share your data when we believe it’s required by law or to help protect the rights and safety of you, us or others.
         1. It is possible that we will need to disclose information about you when required by law, subpoena, or other legal process or if we have a good faith belief that disclosure is reasonably necessary to (1) investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities or to assist government enforcement agencies; (2) enforce our agreements with you, (3) investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations, (4) protect the security or integrity of our Service (such as by sharing with companies facing similar threats); or (5) exercise or protect the rights and safety of NextFab, our Members, personnel, or others. We attempt to notify Members about legal demands for their personal data when appropriate in our judgment, unless prohibited by law or court order or when the request is an emergency. We may dispute such demands when we believe, in our discretion, that the requests are overbroad, vague or lack proper authority, but we do not promise to challenge every demand. 
   6. Change in Control or Sale
      1. We may share your data if our business is sold to others, but it must continue to be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
         1. We can also share your personal data as part of a sale, merger or change in control, or in preparation for any of these events. Any other entity which buys us or part of our business will have the right to continue to use your data, but only in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy unless you agree otherwise.
2. Your Choices & Obligations
   1. Data Retention
      1. We keep most of your personal data for as long as your account is open.
         1. We retain your personal data while your account is in existence or as needed to provide you Services. This includes data you or others provided to us and data generated or inferred from your use of our Services. Even if you only use our Services once every few years, we will retain your information and keep your profile open until you decide to close your account. In some cases we choose to retain certain information in a depersonalized or aggregated form.
   2. Rights to Access and Control Your Personal Data
      1. You can access or delete your personal profile data.
         1. We offer you settings to create and manage the personal data we have about you on our Forum and Jobs Board. You may also contact us using the contact information below, and we will consider your request in accordance with applicable laws.
   3. Account Closure
      1. We keep some of your data even after you close your account.
         1. If you choose to close your NextFab account, your personal data will generally remain visible to others on our Forum and Jobs Board Services. We generally do not delete closed account information, except as noted below.
         2. We retain your personal data even after you have closed your account if reasonably necessary to comply with our legal obligations (including law enforcement requests), meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, maintain security, prevent fraud and abuse, enforce our Membership Agreement and/or User Agreement, or fulfill your request to “unsubscribe” from further messages from us. We will also retain de-personalized information after your account has been closed.
         3. Information you have shared with others (e.g., through the Forum and Jobs Board) will remain visible after you close your account or delete the information from your own profile or mailbox, and we do not control data that other Members copied out of our Services. Forum and Jobs Board content and ratings or review content associated with closed accounts may show your user or an unknown user as the source. Your profile may continue to be displayed in the services of others (e.g., search engine results) until they refresh their cache.
3. Other Important Information
   1. Security
      1. We monitor for and try to prevent security breaches. Please use the security features available through our Services.
         1. We implement security safeguards designed to protect your data, such as HTTPS. We regularly monitor our systems for possible vulnerabilities and attacks. However, we cannot warrant the security of any information that you send us. There is no guarantee that data may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards. 
   2. Cross-Border Data Transfers
      1. We reserve the right store and use your data outside your country.
         1. We process data both inside and outside of the United States and rely on legally-provided mechanisms to lawfully transfer data across borders. Countries where we process data may have laws which are different, and potentially not as protective, as the laws of your own country.
   3. Lawful Bases for Processing
      1. We have lawful bases to collect, use and share data about you. You have choices about our use of your data. We will only collect and process personal data about you where we have lawful bases. 
         1. Lawful bases include consent (where you have given consent), contract (where processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with you (e.g., to deliver the NextFab Services you have requested)) and “legitimate interests.” 
      2. At any time, you can withdraw consent you have provided by contacting us and requesting that we delete the personal and profile-related data we have from you. 
         1. Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you have the right to withdraw or decline your consent at any time and where we rely on legitimate interests, you have the right to object. If you have any questions about the lawful bases upon which we collect and use your personal data, please contact us.
         2. By using our Online Services, you consent to our Privacy Policy.
   4. Direct Marketing and Do Not Track Signals
      1. Our statements regarding direct marketing and “do not track” signals.
         1. Our systems are not enabled to respond to “do not track” signals.  However, we currently do not share personal data with third parties for their direct marketing purposes without your permission. 
   5. Contact Information
      1. You can contact us or use other options to resolve any complaints.
         1. If you have questions or complaints regarding this Policy, please first contact NextFab online. You can also reach us by physical mail. If contacting us does not resolve your complaint, you have more options.
         2. NextFab Studio LLC 2025 Washington Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19146 USA. member-services@nextfab.com