Most of the matchups in our Fabuwood comparison series put Fabuwood against a brand that costs more. This one runs the other direction. CNC Cabinetry is the cheaper cabinet, and it is the quote people carry into our Alexandria and Fairfax showrooms when they are trying to bring a kitchen budget down.
So the honest question is not “which is better.” At this price gap, of course Fabuwood is the better cabinet. The question is what you actually give up for the savings, and whether those things matter for your project. Some of them genuinely do not. One or two absolutely do. And as you will see in the pricing section, the gap is real but noticeably smaller than the advertised discounts make it look.
Written by
Hatice Halac, In Stock Today Cabinets
Hatice writes the Fabuwood comparison series and works with the showroom design teams in Alexandria, Fairfax and Columbia. We are an authorized Fabuwood dealer and we do not carry CNC Cabinetry, which we say plainly in the verdict below.
Published August 2026. Specifications drawn from the CNC 2026 Product Spec Book (V1.07), both companies’ published warranties, U.S. Customs and Border Protection determinations, and reseller product pages checked in August 2026.
The short answer
Which of these two is right for you?
- Rental, flip or multi-unit building. CNC. All-plywood boxes are standard on every line, lead times are fast, and both brands exclude rental use from warranty coverage anyway, so buy the cheaper box.
- A home you will live in and keep. Fabuwood. Blum hardware in the base price instead of a 10 percent upcharge, published KCMA and formaldehyde certifications, and a service record you can actually research.
- Frameless modern on a genuinely fixed budget. CNC Classic. Its 3/4-inch plywood sides are the best box CNC builds.
- A builder or inspector wants documented standards. Fabuwood. CNC publishes no certifications at all.
- You are holding both quotes right now. Find out which CNC collection is on yours before you decide anything. Bedford and Concord are very different cabinets under one brand name.
The sharpest difference is not a spec at all. You can research a Fabuwood purchase. You largely cannot research a CNC purchase.
Fabuwood vs. CNC at a glance
⅓–½
how much less a CNC Luxor 10×10 costs than a Fabuwood Allure 10×10
10%
CNC’s upcharge for Blum hardware, which Fabuwood includes free
0
certifications CNC publishes; Fabuwood publishes five
5 yr
warranty on CNC’s entry Bedford line, against lifetime elsewhere
½″
plywood on CNC’s framed lines, not the 3/4″ people repeat
0
inset door programs, at either brand
The two brands, and the CBP question
Fabuwood is a semi-custom manufacturer founded in 2008, headquartered in a one-million-square-foot facility in Newark, NJ. It assembles cabinets domestically from globally sourced components, which is what lets it ship stocked configurations in roughly five business days. In January 2025 it opened a second plant in Tijuana plus a Southern California distribution center; in September 2024 it acquired the 56-year-old luxury custom maker Plain & Fancy. Fabuwood has won the Kitchen & Bath Business Readers’ Choice Award in cabinetry five times in seven years. We cover the brand in depth in our Fabuwood review.
CNC Cabinetry is older than most people assume. It was founded in 1992 by Nathan Indig, who still runs it, and operates from South Plainfield, NJ with warehouses in Florida, Nevada, Texas and South Carolina. CNC’s own words are the clearest description of its model: “As pioneers in the industry, we were the first to import quality cabinets from Asia.” It is an importer and distributor, not a domestic manufacturer, and it trademarks the phrase “America’s Best Value In Cabinetry.” Its 2026 catalog runs four kitchen collections — Bedford (formerly Country), Luxor, Concord, and the frameless Classic — plus the Alvic door program and Vanguard vanities.
A note on the CBP cases, because they surface in search
Two U.S. Customs and Border Protection evasion investigations were opened into CNC, one in January 2021 and one in June 2021, asking whether Chinese-origin cabinets were being transshipped through Malaysia and Indonesia. CBP’s initial determinations in 2022 went against CNC, and both were then reversed on administrative review later that same year. CBP’s Regulations & Rulings office found the record did not contain substantial evidence of evasion. In the Indonesia case, a Department of Homeland Security site visit found the factories had sufficient production capability. CNC prevailed in both proceedings. So: CNC is imported from Southeast Asia, and it was cleared. Anyone citing these cases as proof of wrongdoing is misreading the record.
| Attribute | Fabuwood | CNC Cabinetry |
|---|---|---|
| Founded / Maker | 2008; Fabuwood | 1992; CNC Associates N.Y., Inc. |
| Built in | Newark, NJ + Tijuana, MX; assembled in USA from global components | Imported from Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia per CBP records); HQ South Plainfield, NJ |
| Construction type | Framed (Allure) + frameless (Illume, Ovela) | Framed (Bedford, Luxor, Concord) + frameless (Classic) |
| Product lines | Allure, Illume, Ovela, Quest, Value Premium, Valencia; Plain & Fancy custom | Bedford, Luxor, Concord, Classic; Alvic doors, Vanguard vanities |
| Box material | Allure 1/2″ plywood + one-piece 1/2″ plywood back; Ovela 3/4″ plywood frameless; Illume engineered furniture board | All plywood, every line, no upgrade fee — but 1/2″ on framed lines, 3/4″ only on frameless Classic |
| Door construction | Solid wood stiles/rails + 3/8″ MDF center, mortise & tenon | 5-piece solid wood + MDF veneer center; painted Luxor is a full MDF door |
| Wood species | Birch (“maple-look”) | Birch and oak only |
| Inset available | No | No |
| Drawer boxes | 5/8″ solid birch dovetail (Allure, Ovela) | Varies sharply: Bedford Country Oak is screwed plywood, Luxor 5/8″ dovetail, Concord 3/4″ dovetail |
| Blum hardware | Included in base price across main lines | Upgrade only — a 10% upcharge of cabinet price (CT-BLUM), or via Concord Plus / Classic Plus. Standard on Alvic doors; not available on Classic Maple Box |
| Lead time | ~5 business days on stocked configs | 2–3 days on Luxor, 7–10 on other lines, 6–8 weeks on Alvic |
| Warranty | Limited Lifetime — Allure/Illume from Jan 26, 2023; Quest/Value Premium/Valencia/Ovela from Oct 1, 2024 | Limited Lifetime on Luxor/Concord/Classic; 5-Year on Bedford |
| Certifications | KCMA, CARB2, TSCA Title VI, ICC-ES, AWI Premium Grade (Q12) | None published by CNC. Not listed in KCMA’s certified directory |
| Verified 10×10 (online reseller) | $4,261–$5,748 (Allure, the flagship line) | $2,817 (Luxor, the value line) |
Specs reflect the CNC 2026 Product Spec Book (V1.07) and Fabuwood’s published documentation, and can vary by line. Prices are online reseller listings checked August 2026, not offers, and exclude installation.
Box construction: CNC’s best argument, with an asterisk
Start with the box, because it carries the countertop and holds the hardware for the life of the kitchen.
CNC’s strongest genuine claim is that all-plywood is standard on every single line. There is no particleboard option and no “all-plywood upgrade” line item. At CNC’s price point that is unusual and it deserves credit. Plenty of brands in the same bracket ship furniture board and charge you to escape it.
Here is the asterisk, and it is the most common misunderstanding about this brand. You will see it repeated across designer forums that “CNC comes with 3/4-inch plywood construction.” That is true only of the frameless Classic line. CNC’s three framed collections, Bedford, Luxor and Concord, spec 1/2-inch plywood sides, backs and top/bottom panels, with 3/4-inch plywood shelving. The 3/4-inch sides and 3/4-inch full back belong to Classic alone.
There is also a joinery difference inside CNC’s own catalog worth knowing. Bedford and Luxor backs are rabbeted or dadoed and stapled into the sides, then screwed into top and bottom. Concord uses a dado interlocking system with a full 1/2-inch back and 3-inch hanging rails. If you are buying CNC framed, Concord is meaningfully the better-built box and it is worth the step up.
Fabuwood’s Allure series also uses 1/2-inch plywood throughout, but with a one-piece 1/2-inch plywood back. That single-piece back is a real structural advantage: it resists racking under heavy stone and gives a secure full-width mounting surface without depending on supplementary hanging rails. Allure is KCMA-certified to the 600-pound wall-load test.
Honest read on the box: on framed cabinets the two are closer than the price gap suggests. Both are all-plywood, both at 1/2 inch, and Concord’s dado system is genuinely good construction. Fabuwood’s edge is the one-piece back and the third-party load certification behind it, not raw panel thickness. This is the category where CNC’s value case is strongest.
The frameless question, and why the old advice is out of date
For years the standard designer answer to “frameless on a budget” was that CNC beat Fabuwood outright, because CNC’s Classic line ships 3/4-inch plywood sides while Fabuwood’s Illume frameless line uses engineered furniture board. That advice was correct, and you will still find it repeated on cabinet forums today.
It is now out of date. In November 2025 Fabuwood launched Ovela, an all-plywood frameless line with 3/4-inch plywood sides, top and bottom. So the comparison that used to be “CNC plywood against Fabuwood particle board” is now plywood against plywood at matching thickness, with Blum included and published certifications on the Fabuwood side.
Two things stay true, though, and we will say them plainly. If you are comparing against Illume specifically, CNC Classic still has the better box material. And CNC Classic remains cheaper than Ovela. If your frameless budget is genuinely fixed and low, CNC Classic is a sound 3/4-inch plywood box. It is the best cabinet CNC makes.
Holding a CNC quote right now?
Bring it to any IST showroom with your measurements. We will price the same layout in Fabuwood line for line, with the same hardware specified on both, so you can see the real gap rather than the advertised one.
Find your nearest showroomDrawers and joinery: read the collection name, not the brochure
This is where CNC’s catalog gets inconsistent, and where a buyer can get burned by assuming a general brochure claim applies to the specific model on their quote.
CNC’s “Why CNC” page lists, under Top-Notch Features, that the company offers “adjustable soft-close hinges and glides and dovetail drawer construction.” Read as a menu of what is available across the catalog, that is fair. Read as a description of every cabinet, it is not, and CNC’s own Compare Collections table is the accurate document. That table lists Bedford’s features as all-plywood box construction and 3/4-inch adjustable shelves, with no dovetail and no soft-close, while Luxor and Concord both show dovetail drawers.
The spec book confirms it. Bedford’s Country Oak door style specs drawer boxes of “1/2-inch plywood sides with 3/8-inch thick bottom fastened with screws,” riding on “high quality epoxy coated steel side mounted glides.” Not dovetail, not undermount, not full-extension. The Dover door style in the same collection also uses side-mount glides, though its drawer joinery is not specified. If you are weighing assembled against flat-pack more generally, our guide to RTA vs. pre-assembled cabinets covers that trade-off.
Move up the catalog and it improves quickly:
- Luxor: 5/8-inch solid wood dovetail, soft-close undermount, but 3/4-extension, not full. Oddly, the Glencove door style within the same collection gets full-extension.
- Concord: 3/4-inch solid wood dovetail on stainless full-extension soft-close undermount glides. A genuinely strong drawer, heavier than Fabuwood’s standard box.
- Classic: full-extension soft-close undermount, with either a metal drawer box (White Box) or solid wood dovetail (Maple Box).
Fabuwood specs 5/8-inch solid birch dovetail boxes on Allure and Ovela, with Blum full-extension soft-close as standard, plus a Blum Merivobox on Illume.
Honest read: Concord’s 3/4-inch dovetail box is the single best drawer box in this comparison, full stop. Fabuwood’s is thinner but rides on Blum in the base price. Bedford is a different class of product from everything else discussed here, so if a quote just says “CNC,” ask which collection and which door style before you compare anything.
Hardware: the clearest cost gap
Every comparison in this series has one category where the difference is unambiguous. Here it is hardware, but it is a pricing difference more than an availability one, and that distinction matters.
Fabuwood runs Blum in the base price across its main lines: Compact Clip hinges with Blumotion, full-extension Blum runners. Not an upgrade, not a premium package.
CNC offers Blum too, but you pay for it. Its spec book carries a modification line item, CT-BLUM, “BLUM Hinge & Glide Upgrade,” priced as a 10 percent upcharge of cabinet price. Blum is also bundled into the Concord Plus and Classic Plus programs and comes standard on Alvic doors. It is explicitly not available on the Classic Maple Box or the POS white cabinet box.
So the accurate statement is not that CNC will not sell you Blum. It is that Blum is standard equipment on a Fabuwood kitchen and a 10 percent line item on a CNC one, which on a $2,800 kitchen is roughly $280 of the price gap gone before you have addressed anything else.
Without that upgrade, CNC’s hardware is unbranded. Bedford’s hinges are described only as “heavy duty steel concealed adjustable hinge”; Luxor’s as “heavy duty steel concealed hinge, adjustable with soft-close mechanism”; Concord’s as six-way soft-close adjustable clip-on; Classic’s as six-way adjustable clip-on soft-close. None of those names a manufacturer. That does not make it bad hardware, and plenty of unbranded soft-close hinges perform fine. But you cannot verify what you are getting, there is no independent hardware warranty behind it, and sourcing a replacement in year eight is a different conversation when the part has no brand on it.
Worth flagging specifically: Bedford’s Country Oak door style does not specify soft-close hinges at all. The Dover style in the same collection does. Again: ask which door style.
Doors, finishes and the disclosure to read before you sign
Both brands build a 5-piece door with an MDF center panel, and both do it for the same legitimate reason: MDF resists the seasonal movement that cracks a painted solid-wood panel at the joints. So the headline is similar. The details are not.
Fabuwood’s Allure doors use solid wood stiles and rails with a 3/8-inch MDF center panel and mortise-and-tenon joinery. Its “maple-look” finishes are applied to birch, not true hard maple. The palette, Frost, Dove, Nickel, Indigo, Timber, Cobblestone, Kona, Mocha and a handful of others, is curated for high turnover, using Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore coatings.
CNC uses solid wood frames with an MDF veneer center panel across essentially the whole catalog. The important exception runs the other way: on Luxor, painted finishes are a full MDF door, not a solid-wood frame with an MDF center. Stained Luxor gets a birch frame. CNC’s material filter lists exactly four door materials across the whole line: birch, oak, low-pressure laminate and PET. There is no maple, cherry or hickory door in the catalog. Its Plus program adds ten paints and three stains at an upcharge, and the Alvic frameless door program offers 90-plus high-gloss, matte and textured finishes, which is the most visually distinctive thing CNC sells.
Neither brand offers inset doors. If flush inset is your look, neither of these is your answer. That is a different tier of cabinet entirely, and our Fabuwood vs. Shiloh comparison covers what inset actually costs.
The finish disclosure you should read before you sign
CNC publishes a Finish Awareness Statement that the customer must sign for stained finishes. It discloses in advance that you may get cracks in door and face-frame joint lines, center panels that shrink to expose unfinished wood, open grain showing as rough spots, and blotchiness when medium or dark stains are applied to light wood. It concludes: “These imperfections are normal and will not be considered as reasons for replacement.”
We are not going to pretend that is unique to CNC. Fabuwood’s warranty carries functionally the same position. Its text reads: “Painted finishes may exhibit visible joint lines, hairline cracks, or stress lines at seams and joints due to natural expansion and contraction of wood components in response to seasonal temperature and humidity changes. These conditions are normal and are not defects.” Owners whose white painted doors cracked in the first year have run straight into that clause, and they are rightly frustrated by it.
The difference is disclosure timing. CNC makes you sign the acknowledgement up front, which is arguably more honest. Fabuwood puts it in the warranty, which most people read after the problem. Either way: if you are buying a painted cabinet at this price tier from anyone, understand that joint-line cracking is contractually excluded before you choose the finish. That single piece of knowledge is worth more than any spec on this page.
Certifications: the most consequential gap
Fabuwood holds KCMA certification, including the 600-pound wall-load test, plus CARB2, TSCA Title VI, ICC-ES and AWI Premium Grade, packaged as its “Q12” program.
CNC publishes no certifications at all. Not on its website, not in its 308-page 2026 spec book, and not in its 2024 spec book either, so this is a consistent position rather than an oversight. CNC does not appear in KCMA’s certified-companies directory, and there is no certifications or sustainability page on its site.
Three fair caveats, because this is the claim most likely to be argued with:
- TSCA Title VI compliance is legally required for composite wood panels sold in the United States regardless of whether a company advertises it. The absence of a published claim is not evidence of non-compliance.
- Plenty of perfectly serviceable cabinets have never been KCMA-certified. Certification costs money, and CNC has evidently chosen to spend that money on price instead.
- Some CNC resellers do make KCMA-adjacent claims even though CNC itself does not. One certified reseller states the construction components in the Luxor line “meet or exceed the KCMA standards,” and Lowe’s, which sells CNC-built cabinets under its ReliaBilt brand, references KCMA certification on some listings. Those are reseller and private-label claims, not CNC-published certification, and we would treat them as such.
The practical difference: if a builder, architect, inspector or HOA asks for documented standards, or if you simply want third-party proof of the wall-load rating before you hang a cabinet full of dishes over a countertop, Fabuwood can hand you the paperwork directly and CNC cannot.
Warranty: read which collection you are buying
On paper these look similar. In practice there is a trapdoor.
Fabuwood’s Limited Lifetime Warranty covers Allure and Illume for purchases on or after January 26, 2023, and Quest, Value Premium, Valencia and Ovela for purchases on or after October 1, 2024.
CNC offers a Limited Lifetime Warranty on Luxor, Concord and Classic, but only a 5-Year Limited Warranty on Bedford, new for 2026. Bedford is CNC’s entry collection, the one most likely to be quoted to a price-shopping buyer, and it gets a fraction of the coverage.
Both warranties are non-transferable and parts-only with no labor. Fabuwood states plainly that it “will not undertake, or otherwise pay for the cost of removal of the defective cabinet or component, or the cost of transportation or installation of a replacement.” Both exclude normal wear, moisture damage, improper installation and seasonal wood movement.
If you are buying for a rental, read this twice
It applies to both brands. CNC’s warranty states it “does not apply to landlords, leasing companies or other commercial purchasers.” Fabuwood’s states it “does not apply to commercial, rental, or multi-unit common-area use unless expressly approved in writing by Fabuwood.”
There is a particular irony on CNC’s side: it markets Bedford directly at “the landlord renovating rental properties” and then excludes exactly that use. But the practical takeaway is identical for both. Budget as though there is no warranty, because functionally there is not one from either company. That should push you toward the cheaper box, which is a point for CNC, just for an honest reason rather than the one in the brochure.
Need cabinets this month, not this quarter?
We hold Fabuwood Allure, Quest and Value Premium in stock across six showrooms. Send your measurements and we will tell you what is available now and what needs a factory order.
See what is in stockPricing: what real quotes look like
This is the section where we would ask you to be most skeptical of what you read elsewhere, including the discount tiles on cabinet e-commerce sites. Advertised “starting at” prices frequently do not survive to the product page.
One CNC reseller’s category page advertises a Luxor 10×10 at $1,559. Click through to the actual product page and the same kitchen is $2,816.80, against a $4,864 list. That is the number to compare against, and it is what we have used.
| Verified 10×10 package (online reseller, August 2026) | Price |
|---|---|
| CNC Luxor Smokey Grey 10×10 | $2,816.80 |
| Fabuwood Allure Fusion Dove 10×10 | $4,261.05 |
| Fabuwood Allure Galaxy Indigo 10×10 | $4,874.99 |
| Fabuwood Allure Galaxy 10×10 | $4,916.92 |
| Fabuwood Allure Fusion Kona 10×10 | $5,747.99 |
So on this pairing, CNC’s Luxor lands roughly a third to a half below Fabuwood’s Allure. That is a real gap. But three things narrow it, and nobody selling you either brand will volunteer them:
- Blum costs 10 percent on the CNC side and nothing on the Fabuwood side. On a $2,817 kitchen that is about $280.
- Neither brand’s full range is in this table, and the two tiers do not match. Luxor is CNC’s value line; Allure is Fabuwood’s flagship. CNC’s better-built Concord collection costs more than Luxor, and Fabuwood’s Quest and Value Premium lines cost less than Allure. Compare Concord against Quest and the gap narrows considerably, so ask both dealers to quote the equivalent tier rather than the cheapest thing each one sells.
- CNC’s modifications are expensive relative to the cabinet price. A cut-down depth runs $400 to $500 and a chase cut $600 to $900. On a $2,817 kitchen, two modifications can erase a fifth of the savings. Modified cabinets also cannot be canceled or returned, and all modifications require assembled rather than RTA cabinets.
For context on installed cost, dealers including us typically quote Fabuwood Allure kitchens at $300 to $500 per linear foot including installation. That is a different measure from the cabinet-only package prices above and should not be compared directly against them.
The practical advice: do not compare brand to brand. Get both quotes itemized on the same layout, with the same door style tier, with Blum specified on both, and with every modification priced. That is the only comparison that means anything, and it usually lands closer than the headline numbers suggest.
What owners actually say
Showroom conversations are filtered. Forum threads are not. These are real comments from people who finished the process or sell these lines for a living, linked to the source discussions.
On Fabuwood, from people who install it:
“I’m a cabinet maker turned installer, and out of about 10 product lines fabuwood is what I’m putting in my own kitchen. Solid ½″ backs are a big deal. They feel more solid than some other semi-custom and full-custom box cabinets I’ve installed. Dovetailed solid wood drawers and Blum hardware.”
u/VbReefer, r/cabinetry
“For mid-level, we like our Fabuwood cabinets. Plywood boxes and Blum slides. Biggest knock on it is the dealer-model. As the homeowner/designer/installer it was annoying to go through the middleman.”
u/WordWithinTheWord, r/cabinetry
And the complaint we hear most, which we are not going to hide:
“From the beginning, we had issues with the paint quality (drips & dents / dings on arrival)… Now, less than a year in, I’m starting to see paint peeling, cracking and chipping.”
u/Rapunzel4life, r/kitchenremodel
That is the recurring Fabuwood theme, and it connects directly to the warranty language quoted above: joint-line cracking on painted doors is classified as normal rather than defective. Delivery damage and slow warranty claims are the other two patterns, and claims move noticeably faster through large dealers than small ones. Fabuwood currently holds a BBB rating of A-, with the stated reason being failure to respond to one complaint.
On CNC, the trade view and the owner view disagree:
“We only had one damaged cabinet out of 45 kitchens and they replaced the damaged cabinet within days to avoid any delays.”
Regent Street A., contractor, Yelp
“Cabinets came to my house all damaged. The paint is chipping off, the box frames are warped, the wood is cracked and they tried to hide the damage from the factory using touch up paint.”
Corn H., homeowner, Yelp
“Lowes sells CNC cabinets under their brand name Reliabilt. I sell the assembled stuff pretty frequently as it’s at a local warehouse so it’s fairly cheap, fairly decent quality, and delivered next day.”
u/SimplyTheApnea, r/cabinetry
The finding that matters more than any single review
The two brands are not remotely comparably documented. Fabuwood generates recurring threads across r/cabinetry, r/kitchenremodel and r/HomeImprovement, has an active BBB profile with published complaint text and company responses, hundreds of aggregated reviews, and owner video reviews. A search for CNC Cabinetry owner experiences turns up a handful of reviews, no BBB profile we could locate, and a single brand-specific Reddit thread in the past year, which was promptly derailed by people posting about CNC routers.
Fabuwood looks worse on complaint volume because Fabuwood is large, consumer-facing and heavily reviewed. CNC’s near-silence is not evidence of quality. It is evidence of low consumer visibility, a brand name that loses every search to CNC machining, and heavy distribution into flips, rentals and white-label channels. You can research a Fabuwood purchase before you spend $5,000. You largely cannot research a CNC purchase, and you should weigh that as a real risk rather than a neutral fact.
Five scenarios where the right answer flips
| Your scenario | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Rentals, flips, or a multi-unit building | CNC | Both brands exclude rental use from warranty coverage, so warranty length is a wash. Buy the cheaper box: Concord if budget allows, Bedford if not |
| A primary-home kitchen you will keep 10+ years | Fabuwood | Blum in the base price, KCMA load certification, and a service record you can actually look up |
| Frameless modern on a genuinely fixed low budget | CNC Classic | 3/4″ plywood sides and full 3/4″ back, the best box CNC builds, below Fabuwood Ovela |
| Your builder or inspector wants documented standards | Fabuwood | KCMA, CARB2, TSCA Title VI, ICC-ES and AWI Premium all published by the manufacturer; CNC publishes none |
| You are holding a CNC quote against a Fabuwood quote right now | Ask which collection, and price Blum on both | Bedford vs. Concord is a bigger gap than Concord vs. Fabuwood: screwed drawers and a 5-year warranty against 3/4″ dovetails and lifetime |
Questions to ask before you order either brand
- Which collection is actually on the quote? “CNC” is four very different cabinets under one name.
- Is the plywood thickness stated in writing? 1/2-inch and 3/4-inch are both “all plywood.”
- Are the drawer boxes dovetailed, and on full-extension undermount soft-close glides, or side-mount?
- Who makes the hinges and glides? A named manufacturer is a proxy for the rest of the build.
- If the hardware is unbranded, what does the Blum upgrade cost, and is it in this quote or not?
- Which certifications does the line hold? KCMA for construction, CARB2 and TSCA Title VI for emissions.
- Is the warranty limited lifetime or five years for the specific collection quoted?
- Does the warranty cover your use? If this is a rental, the answer is almost certainly no, at either brand.
- What does each modification cost, and are modified cabinets returnable?
- Is the quote itemized by cabinet rather than lumped, so you can see what each accessory costs?
What we see from the showroom floor
We have sold and installed Fabuwood since 2014, across our showrooms in Virginia, Maryland, Texas, Illinois and Delaware. We do not stock CNC, and we are not going to pretend we do.
What we see constantly is a customer walking in with a CNC quote that is a couple of thousand dollars lower and a reasonable question: what am I actually losing? The honest answer, most of the time, is Blum hardware in the base price, manufacturer certifications, and the ability to find out anything about the product before you buy it. Sometimes that is a fine trade. On a rental in Wilmington or a flip in Houston, we would make it ourselves.
Where it stops being a fine trade is a kitchen someone is going to cook in for fifteen years. Cabinet hardware is the part that fails first and gets used forty times a day, and “heavy duty steel” is not a spec you can hold anyone to. That is the whole argument in one sentence.
The second thing we see is people comparing a discounted CNC teaser price against a full-price Fabuwood quote and concluding the gap is bigger than it is. Price the same layout with the same hardware on both. It is a closer race than the ads suggest.
“Marco was great at helping me pick exactly what I needed. Working with him was hassle-free. The prices are very fair and the selection spans many colors and styles.”
Jason M., Google review
A spec sheet will not catch a measurement that is off or an appliance that will not clear a drawer once it is open. An experienced designer does, and that is the part of a kitchen you cannot download.
The verdict
Fabuwood is the better cabinet, and it is priced accordingly. Blum included rather than upcharged, a one-piece plywood back with a certified 600-pound wall-load rating, published KCMA and formaldehyde compliance, a lifetime warranty across every named series, and a public service record you can research are all real advantages that show up years after installation.
CNC is the better value, and its value case is more honest than most brands at its price. All-plywood boxes on every line with no upgrade fee is a genuine commitment. Concord’s 3/4-inch dovetail drawers on full-extension undermounts are better than Fabuwood’s standard box. Classic’s 3/4-inch frameless construction is real. Lead times on Luxor are faster than Fabuwood’s. It is a serious budget cabinet, not a throwaway one, provided you are buying Luxor or above.
Choose Fabuwood if…
It is a home you will keep, you want Blum hardware and third-party certification without a line-item upcharge, you need documentation for a builder or inspector, or you want to research the brand’s actual track record before spending five figures.
Choose CNC if…
It is a rental, flip or multi-unit project, the budget is fixed and low, you want all-plywood boxes at the lowest cost per box, or you want 3/4-inch frameless construction below Fabuwood’s price, and you are prepared to specify the collection carefully, price the Blum upgrade, and inspect every box at delivery.
Both brands sell through dealers, so the dealer you work with is most of the experience: the design consultation, the field measurement, the finish samples, and the warranty advocacy if something fails after move-in. That last one matters more than people expect. With both of these brands, owner reports show warranty claims moving smoothly through large, established dealers and stalling through small ones.
IST Cabinets is an authorized Fabuwood dealer with full-line stocking across the Allure, Illume, Quest, Valencia and Ovela series, plus Fabuwood’s vanity collection and the Plain & Fancy custom arm. Our showrooms carry physical displays of the most-specified door styles and finishes, so you can open a drawer and feel the difference between a Blum runner and an unbranded one before you commit.
We do not carry CNC Cabinetry, and we will not pretend otherwise. If after reading this you decide CNC is the right call for your project, and for a rental portfolio it may well be, their dealer network is not hard to find. If Fabuwood is on your shortlist, bring us your CNC quote and your kitchen dimensions and we will price the same layout line for line.
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Start my free designFabuwood vs. CNC Cabinetry FAQs
Is Fabuwood better than CNC Cabinetry?
Yes, on most measures that matter long term, but it costs more. Fabuwood includes Blum hardware in the base price, holds KCMA, CARB2 and TSCA Title VI certifications, and carries a limited lifetime warranty across every named series. CNC publishes no certifications, sells Blum as a 10 percent upcharge (standard only on its Alvic doors), and gives its entry Bedford collection only a 5-year warranty. Where CNC competes hard is price and its all-plywood-standard policy. For a rental or flip, CNC is the rational choice; for a home you will keep, Fabuwood is.
Which is cheaper, CNC Cabinetry or Fabuwood?
CNC, but by less than the advertising suggests. On verified online reseller product pages in August 2026, a CNC Luxor 10×10 runs $2,816.80 against Fabuwood Allure 10×10 packages at $4,261 to $5,748, so roughly a third to a half less. Note those are different tiers: Luxor is CNC’s value line, Allure is Fabuwood’s flagship. Be careful with category-page teaser prices, because one reseller advertises that same Luxor kitchen at $1,559 on the category tile while the product page charges $2,816.80. Three things narrow it further: Blum costs a 10 percent upcharge on CNC and nothing on Fabuwood; Fabuwood’s Quest and Value Premium lines sit well below Allure; and CNC’s modifications run $400 to $900 each.
Where are CNC cabinets made?
CNC Cabinetry is an importer, not a domestic manufacturer. It states on its own site that it was “the first to import quality cabinets from Asia.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection records identify manufacturing in Malaysia (Bagus Timber) and Indonesia (PT Aiwood Smart Home and PT Sunwell Manufacturing Indonesia). CBP opened two evasion investigations in 2021, issued determinations against CNC in 2022, and then reversed both on administrative review later in 2022, finding the record did not contain substantial evidence of evasion, so CNC prevailed in both. The company is headquartered in South Plainfield, NJ. By contrast, Fabuwood assembles in Newark, NJ and Tijuana, Mexico from globally sourced components.
Are CNC cabinets KCMA certified?
CNC itself makes no certification claim. It does not appear in KCMA’s certified-companies directory and claims no certifications anywhere in its 2026 or 2024 spec books or on its website. Fabuwood holds KCMA certification including the 600-pound wall-load test, plus CARB2, TSCA Title VI, ICC-ES and AWI Premium Grade. Two caveats: some CNC resellers do make KCMA-adjacent claims, since one states Luxor components “meet or exceed the KCMA standards” and Lowe’s references KCMA certification on some ReliaBilt listings of CNC-built cabinets, but those are reseller and private-label claims rather than manufacturer certification. And TSCA Title VI compliance is legally mandatory in the US regardless of advertising, so no published claim is not proof of non-compliance. It just means you have no manufacturer documentation to hand a builder or inspector.
Do CNC cabinets have dovetail drawers?
It depends entirely on the collection. Bedford’s Country Oak door style specs 1/2-inch plywood drawer boxes “fastened with screws” on epoxy-coated steel side-mount glides, not dovetail. CNC’s own Compare Collections table reflects this, listing no dovetail and no soft-close for Bedford. Luxor uses 5/8-inch solid wood dovetail on 3/4-extension undermounts. Concord uses 3/4-inch solid wood dovetail on full-extension soft-close undermounts, which is the best drawer box in this comparison. Fabuwood specs 5/8-inch solid birch dovetail on Blum full-extension soft-close across its main lines. If a quote just says “CNC,” ask which collection and door style.
Does CNC Cabinetry or Fabuwood have the better warranty?
Fabuwood, because its coverage is consistent across the line. Fabuwood offers a Limited Lifetime Warranty on Allure and Illume for purchases on or after January 26, 2023, and on Quest, Value Premium, Valencia and Ovela for purchases on or after October 1, 2024. CNC offers Limited Lifetime on Luxor, Concord and Classic but only a 5-Year Limited Warranty on Bedford, its entry line. Both are non-transferable and parts-only with no labor coverage, and both exclude rental and commercial use, so if you are buying for a rental, treat both as uncovered.
Do CNC cabinets come with Blum hardware?
Only if you pay for it. CNC’s spec book lists a Blum hinge and glide upgrade (CT-BLUM) priced at a 10 percent upcharge of cabinet price. Blum is also bundled into the Concord Plus and Classic Plus programs and comes standard on Alvic doors, but it is explicitly not available on the Classic Maple Box. Without the upgrade, CNC’s hinges and glides are unbranded and described only as “heavy duty steel” or “high quality stainless steel.” Fabuwood includes Blum in the base price across its main lines. Factor that 10 percent in before you compare two quotes.
Are CNC cabinets all plywood?
Yes, and it is CNC’s strongest genuine selling point, since all-plywood boxes are standard on every line with no upgrade fee. But the thickness varies more than the marketing suggests. The framed collections (Bedford, Luxor, Concord) use 1/2-inch plywood sides, backs and top/bottom with 3/4-inch shelves. Only the frameless Classic line uses 3/4-inch sides and a 3/4-inch full back. The widely repeated claim that “CNC is 3/4-inch plywood” applies to Classic only.
Is CNC Cabinetry good for a rental or flip?
It is one of the better choices in that bracket, and the trade uses it that way. All-plywood boxes, fast lead times and a lower cost per box make it well suited to properties where you need clean, functional kitchens at volume. Two cautions: CNC’s warranty explicitly excludes landlords and leasing companies, as does Fabuwood’s, so plan as if uncovered either way; and specify Luxor or Concord rather than Bedford if the budget allows, because Bedford’s screwed drawer boxes and 5-year warranty are a meaningful step down.
Does Fabuwood or CNC Cabinetry offer inset cabinets?
Neither. Fabuwood does not offer inset doors in its standard catalog, and CNC’s 2026 spec book contains no inset program at all, since every mention of “inset” in it refers to toe-kick dimensions. CNC’s overlay options run standard overlay (Bedford, 1-inch reveal), semi-full overlay (Luxor, 1/2-inch), full overlay (Glencove and Concord, 1/4-inch) and frameless (Classic, 1/8-inch). If true flush inset is your look, you need a different tier of cabinet than either of these brands.
Why do CNC cabinets have so few reviews compared to Fabuwood?
Three reasons, and none of them is quality. The brand name loses nearly every search to CNC routers and machining, so organic discussion never accumulates. CNC sells heavily into flips, rentals and multifamily, and those buyers do not post kitchen reveals. And a portion of CNC’s output is white-labeled, since Lowe’s sells CNC-built cabinets under its ReliaBilt name, so real-world experience gets filed under other brands. Practically, this means you can research a Fabuwood purchase in depth and you largely cannot do the same for CNC. Treat that as a risk to price in, not as a clean bill of health.
What is the most popular cabinet style in 2026?
A Shaker-style door in a warm off-white or light-stained wood remains the volume leader, working in both traditional and transitional kitchens, while flat and slab fronts continue rising for modern designs. Both Fabuwood and CNC offer Shaker as a core style, with CNC’s Dover, Luxor and Glencove doors and Fabuwood’s Allure Shaker families, which is why this comparison comes down to construction, hardware, certification and warranty rather than door shape.
What cabinet finish is trending for 2026?
Warm, natural tones are leading: light-stained woods, warm off-whites and earthy greens, with cool gray and stark all-white kitchens fading. CNC’s 2026 additions lean this way with new Saddle and Wheat stains, and its Plus program adds Sage and Evergreen. Fabuwood maps to the same shift through stained finishes like Timber and Mocha. One practical note if you are choosing a painted white at this tier from either brand: joint-line hairline cracking is contractually excluded by both companies, so a stained or warmer painted finish is the lower-risk choice.
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Browse finished projects in our gallery, see every door we carry on the cabinet doors page, or find the showroom nearest you.
About the author
Hatice Halac writes for In Stock Today Cabinets, an authorized Fabuwood and FIBO distributor with showrooms in Alexandria and Fairfax VA, Columbia MD, Bear DE, Roselle IL and Houston TX. She works alongside the showroom design teams and writes the Fabuwood comparison series, which judges Fabuwood honestly against brands the company does not sell.
