The best cheap printers make it simple and easy to print out your work or photos without breaking the bank.
1. Best overall
2. Best small
3. Best affordable
4. Best for speed
5. Best for features
6. Best all-in-one
7. Best for low print cost
8. Best laser printer
9. Best photo printer
10. Best entry-level
11. FAQs
12. How we test
These prove that you don't need to spend a small fortune if you're looking to do some printing out in your home office. Most of the printers on our list sell for less than $100.
We've compared these printers across various aspects, like the price, print speed, print quality, design, ease of installation, and color fidelity, among other aspects. One important thing to remember when buying a cheap printer is that some manufacturers lower the price of the printer to entice people to buy but keep the price of its consumables (such as ink cartridges) high, making their money back that way. This means some cheap printers end up being quite expensive over the course of their lifetimes. We've kept this in mind while compiling this list of the best cheap printers.
Because home printers don't need to handle large amounts of print tasks like a printer in an office, you can invest in a budget printer that can handle those requirements. We'd recommend spending a bit more for busy home offices.
So, read on to find the best budget printers available now, and check out the included price comparison tool to find the best deals and save money.
And if you're looking for a quality desk for your home office, check out our guide to the best standing desk.
Another thing to note is that more people than ever are working from home, and some of these printers are out of stock, so check out our constantly updated stock checker below for some great alternatives you can buy today.
We've also listed the best printer.
Top cheap printer deals of 2024
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The best cheap printer of 2024 in full:
Best overall
Canon has stripped all but essential functionality from this all-in-one, leaving a portable-sized printer that works surprisingly well. There’s no Ethernet port or scanner bed, but its gridded flat top is perfect for scanning documents using your smartphone and Canon’s iOS/Android companion app. Including Bluetooth and AirPrint makes it easy to connect wirelessly, so the printer does not need to have its own touchscreen.
It prints on glossy photo paper or plain paper with room for sixty sheets of A4 in the main tray. Canon bundles the printer with two small inkjet cartridges, one black, and one combined color. There’s no auto-duplex mode, but that may not be a problem if your print jobs are small and infrequent. There's also a quiet mode to lower the printing noise for home office use.
Best small
When we tested it, this was the smallest laser printer and likely to remain so. The two trays fold away neatly so that the footprint is only a little larger than a sheet of A4, and it stands no taller than the average smartphone.
Being as small and inexpensive as an inkjet, yet with all the speed, economy, and consistency of a laser, the LaserJet Pro M15w is, in many ways, the ideal cheap printer. The LaserJet Pro M15w can print a thousand documents consistently and quickly on a single toner cartridge. It manages to hold one hundred sheets of paper and print on them at the respectable rate of 19ppm. Sadly, there’s no duplex mode and no display, but at this price, it’s hard to argue.
Read the full review: HP LaserJet Pro M15w.
Best affordable
The HP Deskjet 2755 (known in the UK as the HP Deskjet 2710) is a smart-looking small-in-one with an even smaller price tag. It can print, copy and scan in color and accept any size media from envelopes up to A4. It cannot auto duplex, but it has self-healing Wi-Fi and is compatible with AirPrint and Google Cloud Print.
This printer's printed photos are not great, and the color fidelity and page yield for both color and black documents are low.
As with every other cheap inkjet printer, the cartridge cost is the kicker, but this model is eligible for an HP Instant Ink subscription, which could bring your consumables bill down by around 70%. It also means your replacements will be sent to your letterbox before you run out.
Best for speed
The Pantum P2200W proves that laser printers don’t have to be expensive. This basic black-and-white print-only device costs less than a lot of inkjets but prints much faster at 22 pages per minute, and the bundled starter cartridge is good for 700 pages. A standard cartridge will yield 1,600 pages at a lower per-page cost than any inkjet cartridge.
Unfortunately, it cannot auto-duplex print, but Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi Direct is built for a ready wireless connection. It’s small enough to sit on your desk and big enough to hold 150 sheets in its input tray and 100 in the output tray.
Best for features
HP’s oddly shaped all-in-one includes every feature from a fax facility to an SD card slot, giving you easy access to them via a colorful touchscreen interface. The colored inks are combined in one cartridge, and if you subscribe to HP’s Instant Ink service, it will be automatically replaced just before you run out. But it makes sense to subscribe only if you're regularly printing.
It feels a little flimsy, but photo prints, in particular, look vibrant, and the print resolution is high enough to make the photos appear sharp and colorful when printed on glossy photo paper.
The Envy Photo 7855 is versatile because it can print, copy, scan, and fax. It can auto-duplex print at a decent rate, but what's problematic is the high replacement cost of the cartridges.
Best all-in-one
The HP Deskjet 2130 All-in-One printer is another great example of a cheap all-in-one printer. It's cheaper than the HP Envy 5540 (above), but the lower price does mean you don't get quite as good a print quality as HP's other printer.
It's also a bit slower and feels a little cheap at times. However, if you only want a cheap printer for occasional use (rather than heavy-duty printing), and also need a scanner and photocopier, then the HP Deskjet 2130 All-in-One printer is probably the best cheap printer for you.
The Deskjet 2130 isn't large and won't eat up your desk's real estate. It's also fairly lightweight, so you won't have any difficulty shifting it around when you're not using it. A major problem is the expensive ink cost — if you plan to print regularly with this machine, it's wiser to opt for HP's Instant Ink subscription.
Best for low print cost
The competent Canon PIXMA TS705 is an all-in-one that will not break the bank. It can print, scan and copy in color despite lacking its own flatbed scanner. You use your smartphone instead, thereby decreasing the cost of this simplified device and making more room for paper. You can fit 250 sheets in the main tray and another 100 in the rear tray.
It is very flexible in what it can print onto with blank CDs and even fingernail stickers featured on the list of compatible blank media. It can auto-duplex and achieve enhanced print quality by using five discrete ink cartridges instead of the usual four.
The PIXMA TS705 also supports Canon's XXL ink cartridges, so you won't have to refill often (but it will cost more than a regular ink cartridge).
Best laser printer
Brother has stripped this laser printer right back to basics to bring the price down to that of the average inkjet printer. It may have lost a few features, such as an auto-duplex mode, a Wi-Fi module, and a covered paper tray, but the Brother HL-1112 is conveniently compact and efficient. It can print at a speedy 20 pages per minute, and there is room for 150 pages in the open paper tray.
This printer is compatible with both Windows and macOS and is fairly lightweight so that it can be moved around easily. There is enough toner in the box for 700 pages, and a new standard cartridge will give you 1,000 pages. For cheap and fast mono laser printing without the frills, this is the Brother you want by your side.
Best photo printer
The Canon Pixma range has always been rated especially well for photo printing, and the Canon Pixma MG3650S doesn't let the team down. The budget model in this range is even better, so you won't have to break the bank to get high-quality photos and other images printed.
Another big plus is that it's a wireless printer, so there is no having to mess about with leads and cords. With a print resolution of 4800 x 1200dpi and a color print speed of almost 10 pages a minute, this is a model that can surprise and impress, especially at this price range. It also has a scanner and copier option to boot.
Owing to the high price of Canon's black ink cartridge, this printer isn't ideal for those who only want to print plain text documents. But it'll be a decent investment if you're going to print color photos.
Best entry-level
Epson’s entry-level all-in-one looks as smart as the rest of its stylishly simple Expression Home printers, and it shares almost all the same features. It can print in color using individual ink cartridges, scan A4 pages at high resolution, and photocopy. The printer's four-color individual ink set is also 50% more efficient in comparison to combined color cartridges. Wi-Fi is built-in for a network connection or a Wi-Fi Direct link with your smartphone.
It can print envelopes and glossy photo paper and hold a hundred sheets of A4 in its main paper tray. The only feature missing is the auto duplex, which is a pity, but with Epson’s aggressive discounting, we think this model is well worth the money. Another potential problem with the printer is that it's not the easiest to set up and can eat up your time.
Best cheap printer FAQs
How to choose the best cheap printer for you?
To select from the best cheap printers for yourself, begin with assessing where you’ll be using the printer — for an office or for home use.
You’ll want to consider what kind of printing you majorly need — is it image oriented or text-heavy? It’s essential to check the price of the printer's ink cartridge because if it’s too steep, you’ll end up spending a lot on printing in the long run.
Other than evaluating the print speed and auto duplex functionality, you’ll also want to look at the printer’s connectivity options, control panel usability, and Wi-Fi functionality.
The best cheap printers: how we test
To test the best cheap printers, we’ve looked at the prices of the printers and their ink cartridges. If the price of the printer’s low but the ink cartridge’s expensive, then users will end up spending more in the long run, depending on usage and printer efficiency.
We analyzed the printers’ print quality by printing the same bunch of text documents across all the machines and checking how they perform when printing color and black and white documents. We assessed the quality, vibrancy, and overall fidelity of the color prints.
We also considered the build quality, design, and dimensions of the printers and included both, compact and large printers in our list.
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