The Best Printers for Home

The Brother MFC-L2820DW is the best printer for most homes if you mainly print forms, homework, and shipping labels: it scored highest across our five criteria on speed, setup, and toner cost, and its 50-page auto document feeder makes scanning a stack of paper painless. If you need color prints or photos, skip the laser and go with the Canon PIXMA G3270 MegaTank instead: it scored second overall and has the cheapest ink per page of any color printer here.

Between those two, the rest of the field covers the gaps. The Epson EcoTank ET-2400 is the cheapest printer on this list at $189.99 and prints at up to 5,760 x 1,440 dpi. The HP Smart Tank 7303 is the priciest pick at $449.99, but it is the only ink tank printer here with a document feeder, plus up to 3 years of ink in the box. If you are setting up the rest of the room around any of these, see our home office guide for desks and chairs.

How we picked

We scored every printer on five weighted criteria: print quality (25%), speed and paper handling (15%), setup and connectivity (15%), ink or toner cost per page (30%), and reliability and warranty (15%). Ink cost carries the heaviest weight because it is what actually decides what a printer costs you over three years, not the sticker price.

We read each product’s own listing on its brand’s store (Epson.com, Brother-usa.com, HP.com) or on a major retailer (Staples, Target) for price, specs, and ink or toner page yield, plus separate ink and toner cartridge listings to price each printer’s running cost. These are researched picks: we did not print a page on any of these four printers ourselves. See how we score for the full method.

What to look for

• Ink or toner cost, not sticker price. A tank printer around 160 to 450 dollars can run under a few cents a page in ink, while a cartridge printer under 100 dollars can run 10 to 15 cents a page once you buy replacement cartridges.
• An automatic document feeder (ADF) if you scan multiple pages. Only two of the four picks here have one: the Brother’s 50-page ADF and the HP’s 35-page ADF. The Canon and Epson are flatbed-only.
• Auto duplex printing. Printing both sides automatically saves paper and time. Confirm it is listed before you buy, since some budget inkjets make you flip the page by hand.
• Print resolution of at least 4,800 x 1,200 dpi for sharp text and usable photo prints. Look for 5,760 x 1,440 dpi or higher if photo printing matters to you.
• Dual-band Wi-Fi. A printer that supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz connects more reliably on a crowded home network than a 2.4GHz-only model.
• Warranty length and registration extensions. Most printers here carry a standard 1-year limited warranty, but Epson extends the ET-2400 to 2 years if you register it. Check the brand’s page for the same offer before you buy.

FAQ

Is a laser printer or an inkjet tank printer cheaper to run at home?

It depends on what you print. A monochrome laser like the Brother MFC-L2820DW costs about 3 cents a page in toner for text, while a tank inkjet like the Canon PIXMA G3270 can cost under a cent a page for ink. For color or photos, only the tank inkjets are an option, since a laser like the MFC-L2820DW prints black and white only.

How much ink or toner comes in the box?

HP says the Smart Tank 7303 ships with up to 3 years of ink, up to 8,000 color or 6,000 black pages. Epson says the EcoTank ET-2400 ships with about 2 years of ink at typical home volumes. The Brother MFC-L2820DW’s starter toner cartridge is rated for only about 700 pages, well short of the replacement TN830XL cartridge’s 3,000-page yield.

Do any of these printers have an automatic document feeder?

Two do. The Brother MFC-L2820DW has a 50-page ADF and the HP Smart Tank 7303 has a 35-page ADF. The Canon PIXMA G3270 and Epson EcoTank ET-2400 use a flatbed scanner only, so you load and scan one page at a time.

Why is a monochrome laser printer ranked as the best overall pick?

Because it won on three of the five criteria we scored: speed, setup and connectivity, and reliability, and it costs less to run per page than a typical cartridge inkjet, even against the HP tank’s ADF and included ink. It loses ground only on ink and toner cost against the tank printers, since it cannot print color at all. If color or photo printing matters to you, the Canon PIXMA G3270 MegaTank is the better pick.

Is the HP Smart Tank 7303 worth the higher price?

Only if you want the document feeder and the longest included-ink claim of the four. At $449.99 it costs over 2.5 times what the Canon or Epson tank printers cost, and our scoring put it behind the Brother and roughly even with the Canon once ink cost is weighted in. If you do not need to scan multi-page documents, the cheaper Canon or Epson tank printers cover the same core job.