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The real cost of a bargain printer isn’t the sticker on the box—it’s the ink you’ll buy six months later. This guide cuts through marketing to show which budget-friendly models keep per-page costs low without sacrificing print quality or speed.
I’m Min — the founder and writer behind Gadgets Feed. This guide is built by comparing the manufacturers’ published specifications and the patterns across verified customer reviews, so you get each pick’s real strengths and trade-offs instead of marketing spin.
You want a printer that won’t drain your wallet now or later. This roundup of the best bargain printers weighs the upfront price against what you’ll spend on ink and toner over time, so you can pick the one that fits your budget and your workload.
Our Picks at a Glance
How To Choose The Best Bargain Printers
Shopping for a budget printer means looking past the initial price. The cheapest machine can become the most expensive if it guzzles ink or jams constantly, so a little upfront research saves you money and frustration down the line.
Understand the true cost of ink
Cartridge-based printers usually have a lower purchase price, but the replacement cartridges can cost nearly as much as the printer itself after just a few changes. If you print regularly, a printer with refillable ink tanks or a subscription service might deliver a much lower cost per page.
Match the speed to your needs
Print speed tells you how fast a printer churns out pages, measured in pages per minute (ppm). If you print a few pages a week at home, you won’t notice the gap between 10 and 20 ppm. But if you run a home office and print reports and contracts daily, that difference means waiting minutes longer. Check the black-and-white ppm number, because that’s the speed you’ll use most.
Quick Comparison
| Model | Best For | Max B&W Speed | Max Color Speed | Duplex Printing | Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canon PIXMA TR4720★ Best Overall | Home all-in-one value | — | — | Automatic | Amazon |
| Canon PIXMA TR7120Best Value | Compact hybrid work | 14 ppm | 9 ppm | Automatic | Amazon |
| HP OfficeJet Pro 8125 | Fast home office color | 20 ppm | 10 ppm | Automatic | Amazon |
| Brother MFC-J1410DW | Small office with cloud apps | 16 ppm | 9 ppm | Automatic | Amazon |
| Epson EcoTank ET-2400 | High-volume low-cost ink | 10 ppm | 5 ppm | Manual | Amazon |
| HP LaserJet Pro 3001dw | Fast black-and-white office | 35 ppm | — | Automatic | Amazon |
| Brother DCP-L2640DW | Compact laser all-in-one | 36 ppm | — | Automatic | Amazon |
In-Depth Reviews
1. Canon PIXMA TR4720 All-in-One Wireless Printer
Our pick — over 4.5★ from 200+ verified ratings; the strongest balance of quality and price.
The home all-in-one that handles print, scan, copy, and fax without breaking a sweat.
For a busy household, this Canon is the rare machine that does everything. It’s a true 4-in-1 printer—print, copy, scan, and fax—so you can retire multiple old devices and clear off your desk. The built-in fax feature alone makes it a standout for anyone who still needs to send documents to doctors’ offices or government agencies.
Setup is genuinely painless, which is the first thing most people worry about with a new printer. You get it running through the Canon PRINT Inkjet/SELPHY app, and swapping in the PG-275 and CL-276 ink cartridges is designed to be simple enough that you won’t need to wrestle with clips or levers. It also handles automatic two-sided printing, so you cut paper use without flipping pages by hand.
Real owners back this up—one runs a therapy business from it and reports it “works great for pictures and documents for remote work.” That blend of photo quality and sharp text is exactly what a home office demands. The verdict is simple: if you want a single machine that handles both photos and paperwork, this is your pick.
What Stands Out
- True 4-in-1 with fax built in
- Automatic duplex printing saves paper
- App-based setup is genuinely simple
Watch Out For
- Starter ink cartridges included are small
- Not built for heavy office volume
Reach for this if: you want a do-everything home printer without paying for a separate fax machine or scanner.
Look elsewhere if: you print hundreds of pages weekly—a tank or laser model will serve you better.
2. Canon PIXMA TR7120 Wireless Color Inkjet Printer
A compact hybrid-work companion with sharp output and a shockingly quick Wi-Fi setup.
The thing everyone raves about here is print quality—84 owners single it out as the top reason to buy, and it’s easy to see why. The 2-cartridge hybrid ink system delivers crisp text for documents and vivid colors for photos up to 8.5″ x 11″, with or without borders. For a budget-friendly machine, the output genuinely surprises.
Setup is the second big win, with 66 owners praising how fast it connects. The printer links up through dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz or 5GHz), meaning you can pick the clearer channel and avoid the congestion that slows other models. As owners put it: “I had no problems with the set up and it connected quickly to my wi fi.” The 1.42″ monochrome OLED screen lets you check ink levels and status at a glance.
Next to the OfficeJet Pro below, the TR7120 prints black at 14 pages per minute versus 20, so it lags on big document jobs—but it saves desk space at 14.8″D x 14″W x 8.2″H. Automatic two-sided printing and the Auto Document Feeder (a tray that scans or copies a stack of pages automatically) handle multi-page tasks without you standing there.
The trade-off: the paper tray runs a little small, and a few owners hit Wi-Fi drops that a fixed IP address solved. The recurring pinch is the small-ish tray—you’ll refill it more often on big jobs.
Grab it if: you want a compact color printer with excellent quality and easy phone/laptop connection.
skip it if: you routinely run long unattended print jobs and need a big paper capacity.
3. HP OfficeJet Pro 8125 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer
The speed king for a busy home office that cranks out professional color documents.
If speed is what you’re after, this HP leads the color inkjet pack here. It prints black at 20 pages per minute and color at 10 pages per minute—a 43% faster black rate than the Canon TR7120’s 14 pages per minute.. For reports, presentations, and client flyers, that pace makes a tangible difference when you’re racing a deadline.
Setup scores big with owners, too, with 43 praising how easy it is to get running. The 2.7-inch color touchscreen gives you a phone-like interface, so you navigate menus without hunting through a manual. As buyers report: “It’s really easy to use and set up, print relatively fast and is easy to connect to multiple devices.” The 225-sheet input tray keeps you printing longer between refills.
The included 3-month Instant Ink trial is the real cost-saver here—subscribe and ink arrives before you run out, with claimed savings up to 50% on ink costs.. Just know this printer is designed to work only with cartridges carrying original HP chips, and its dual-band Wi-Fi includes automatic issue detection to keep you connected.
Strong but not flawless: a minority of owners hit Wi-Fi drops when idle, often solved by switching to the Ethernet port. The touchscreen setup is fast, but the occasional connectivity quirk is the honest catch.
Choose it for: a home office that prints high volumes of professional color work and wants speed plus a large paper tray.
Think twice if: you dislike subscription ink plans—the Instant Ink value depends on staying enrolled.
4. Brother Work Smart 1410 Wireless Color Inkjet All-in-One Printer
A small-footprint workhorse that prints straight from your cloud drives.
This Brother earns its place with a defining trick no other pick here matches: direct cloud app connections. You can print from and scan to Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive straight from the clear 2.7″ color touchscreen. No need to transfer files to a computer first—just pull up the document on the printer and hit go.
Print quality is what wins people over, with 35 owners calling it excellent, and the setup process gets similar praise from 30 more. It connects over your wireless network or via USB, giving you flexibility depending on your setup. The 150-sheet paper tray and 20-sheet auto document feeder keep multi-page jobs moving without constant attention.
At 13.5″D x 15.4″W x 7.2″H, it’s one of the more compact all-in-ones here, making it a strong fit for a crowded desk. Brother’s LC501 genuine ink keeps running costs predictable, and the included fax capability rounds out a genuinely versatile machine.
The Wins
- Cloud app printing from Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive
- Clear 2.7-inch color touchscreen
- Compact enough for small desks
The Catch
- Wireless reliability gets mixed owner feedback
- Runs a bit loud during printing
Best suited for: students and small offices that live in cloud storage and want to print without touching a laptop.
Not ideal if: you need whisper-quiet operation or rock-solid Wi-Fi in a tricky network environment.
5. Epson EcoTank ET-2400 Wireless Color All-in-One Supertank Printer
The tank printer that slashes ink costs by replacing cartridges with refillable bottles.
This is the pick for anyone tired of the cartridge treadmill. The EcoTank uses refillable ink bottles instead of cartridges, and the math is dramatic: the set of bottles in the box is equivalent to about 80 individual cartridges. One bottle set yields up to 4,500 black-and-white pages and 7,200 color pages, with up to 2 years of ink included in the box.
Refilling is genuinely mess-free—the EcoFit bottles are designed so you can’t overfill, and you top up individual colors only when they run dry. Owners replacing old cartridge machines report “vibrant colors, deep blacks, crisp images” and call it “incredibly cost-efficient” for everyday home use. The Micro Piezo Heat-Free technology produces sharp text and photo-quality color on virtually any paper type.
For a nursing student printing diagrams and assignments, the value story is unbeatable, but this tank system isn’t perfect. The display is basic—just four LEDs and no full screen—and duplex printing is manual, so you flip pages yourself for two-sided jobs. Wireless connectivity draws mixed feedback, so a USB connection is the safer route for critical work.
Why It’s Worth It
- Dramatically lower cost per page
- Up to 2 years of ink included in the box
- Mess-free bottle refills by individual color
Where It Falls Short
- Manual duplex printing only
- Basic LED display, no touchscreen
- Wireless connection can be finicky
Pick this if: you print a lot—homework, photos, everyday pages—and want to stop overpaying for cartridges.
Pass it by if: you need automatic two-sided printing or a modern touchscreen interface.
6. HP LaserJet Pro 3001dw Wireless Black & White Printer
A black-and-white laser built for small teams that need speed without the color cost.
If your work is pure monochrome—contracts, forms, reports—this HP is the speed demon of the list. It cranks out black-and-white pages at up to 35 pages per minute single-sided, with a first page out in about 6.6 seconds. That’s more than double the pace of the color inkjets above, and it’s designed to serve small teams of up to 7 people.
Laser printers also shine on running costs and reliability compared to budget inkjets. The toner doesn’t dry out if you go weeks without printing, and pages come out smudge-proof and crisp. Automatic two-sided printing is standard, cutting your paper bill in half for multi-page documents.
Owners are quick to praise the print quality—118 rate it highly—and the setup works for all devices on the same Wi-Fi network, including iPhones and Android phones. Security-minded offices get HP Wolf Pro Security with customizable settings. The trade-off is that laser printers are larger, and some owners mention Wi-Fi that drops after a couple days, typically solved with an Ethernet cable.
The real-world read: fast, crisp, and economical for pure black-and-white work, with occasional wireless hiccups that an Ethernet connection neatly fixes.
Get it for: a small office printing high volumes of black-and-white documents that need to look sharp.
Choose something else if: you ever need color prints—this is strictly monochrome.
7. Brother DCP-L2640DW Wireless Compact Monochrome Laser Printer
A compact 3-in-1 laser that combines fast black-and-white printing with serious scanning power.
This Brother is the most complete monochrome (black-and-white only) package here. It’s a 3-in-1 that merges a laser printer, scanner, and copier into one compact unit, printing at up to 36 pages per minute. The 50-page auto document feeder (a slot that pulls in a stack of pages automatically) stands out—you can drop in a whole pile of paperwork for hands-free scanning and copying, a real time-saver for small businesses.
The quality and setup is what wins people over, with 431 owners praising build quality and 402 praising how easy it is to get running. Scan speeds reach 23.6/7.9 ipm in black/color, and the automatic duplex printing cuts paper use in half. Connection options are flexible too—dual-band wireless (2.4GHz / 5GHz), Ethernet, or USB for a single computer.
Toner economics are the long-term win. The TN830 and TN830XL cartridges keep running costs low, and a few owners note the toner works out to roughly a cartridge—far cheaper than typical inkjet refills. One honest hiccup: a minority of owners find the Wi-Fi setup and scan-to-PC software less intuitive, and the physical buttons take a moment to learn.
What Makes It Great
- 50-page auto document feeder for big scans
- Fast 36 ppm printing with fast scanning
- Low-cost toner keeps long-term bills down
The Minor Gripes
- Wi-Fi setup can frustrate some owners
- Scan-to-PC software occasionally freezes
Reach for it if: you run a small business that scans and copies stacks of paperwork alongside daily printing.
pass on it if: you need color output—this is strictly a black-and-white machine.
Understanding the Specs
Pages Per Minute (ppm)
This is the speed rating for printing, split into black-and-white and color figures. A higher ppm number means faster output. For home use, 10-14 ppm is plenty, but a busy office printing dozens of pages daily will notice the jump to 20 or 35 ppm. The speed you’ll use most is the black-and-white rate, since most document printing is monochrome.
Duplex Printing
This feature automatically prints on both sides of the page. You’ll see it listed as “automatic” or “manual.” Automatic duplex means the printer flips the page for you, while manual means you flip it yourself halfway through. It saves paper and money, and it’s worth seeking out if you print multi-page documents regularly.
Auto Document Feeder (ADF)
An ADF lets you load a stack of pages and have the printer scan or copy them all without you standing there feeding each sheet. It’s listed by its capacity, like 20-sheet or 50-sheet. This matters most if you regularly scan multi-page contracts, receipts, or paperwork—a machine without an ADF means placing each page on the glass one at a time.
Ink System: Cartridges vs Tanks
Cartridge printers use replaceable ink cartridges and usually cost less upfront, but replacements can be pricey. Tank printers like the Epson EcoTank use refillable bottles that hold far more ink, delivering a much lower cost per page. If you print often, the higher upfront price of a tank printer typically pays off quickly. Laser printers use toner instead of ink, which doesn’t dry out and costs less per page for black-and-white work.
FAQ
Is a laser printer or inkjet printer better for a bargain price?
How do I know which printer is cheapest to run?
What does an Auto Document Feeder do and do I need one?
Which printers support printing from a smartphone?
Is automatic duplex printing worth paying extra for?
How fast do these bargain printers actually print?
Can I use generic or third-party ink in these printers?
What size paper can these printers handle?
Are these printers good for a small business?
Which printer has the lowest ink cost over time?
Final Thoughts: The Verdict
For most people, the best bargain printers winner is the Canon PIXMA TR4720 because it delivers genuine 4-in-1 functionality—print, scan, copy, and fax—at a price that won’t strain your budget. If you want the fastest color output for business documents, grab the HP OfficeJet Pro 8125. And for the lowest ink bills over time, the Epson EcoTank ET-2400 is the one to reach for.
How We Picked
We do not accept paid placement. Every pick is matched to a real buyer and a real use-case; we do not hands-on test units.
Sources & Methodology
Specifications: manufacturer listings and product documentation. Review insights: verified customer reviews, as of August 2026. Pricing: not shown on this page (it changes often); check the current price via the retailer link.
As an Amazon Associate, Gadgets Feed earns from qualifying purchases. This does not affect which products we feature.