The main difference between cutting and shaping machines lies in how much control you have over what you're doing.
With shape tools (Cricut), users are immediately given complete control over their product's appearance.
With cutting machines, this is not the case.
Because they're designed to move as quickly as possible, Cricut machines are sometimes built better for cutting large amounts of stock material at once (such as paper).
With Cricut's Shape tools, shapes have a definite shape that cannot be changed after being cut out, meaning you cannot make your product smaller or larger than designed initially.