Best Home Printers 2024

Richard Baguley November 15, 2024

0 5 minutes read

A printer for the home has to be like your family: flexible, economical and adaptable. It should be able to handle anything from schoolwork to family photos, from childhood scrawls to flyers for the local PTA bake sale. My top pick for the best home printer for these different needs is the HP OfficeJet Pro 9125E, an incredibly flexible all-in-one that can scan, copy and print in high quality.

Our testing showed that the best home printers include models from HP, Canon and Brother.

Illustration: Forbes / Photo: Retailer

But because all printing needs are unique, I’ve also picked less expensive options, plus models that can handle bigger print jobs. These printers fit into the modern home, working with laptops, phones, tablets and other connected devices. I’ve focused on their role as printers here, but some can print, scan, copy and even fax. To find out more about these jacks-of-all-trades, check out my all-in-one printers roundup. If your printing needs go beyond the occasional into the habitual, check out my roundup of laser printers that can handle larger printing volumes.

Best Home Printer Overall: HP OfficeJet Pro 9125E
Best Midrange Home Printer: HP Laserjet Pro MFP 3101SDW
Best Value Home Printer: HP DeskJet 4155E
Best Laser Home Printer: Brother HL-L2460DW XL
Best Home Office Printer: Brother MFC-J5855DW

HP OfficeJet Pro 9125E

I’ve been reviewing technology since 1992 when I joined Amiga Format magazine in the UK. Since then, I have worked mainly in publishing but with sidelines in games production, website authoring, and photography. I was the VP of Editorial Development at Reviewed.com, where I created industry-leading test procedures for products such as televisions, dishwashers, washing machines, coffee makers, and digital cameras. As a freelancer since 2012, I have written for sites like CNET, Wired, Toms Guide, T3 Hackaday, and now Forbes.

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I’m a tech journalist living and working in New York City. As a Midwestern transplant, I worked at the University of Iowa English Department before diving head-first into tech journalism. I have spent over five years learning everything there is to know about consumer technology with a special focus on home entertainment.

My bylines include ZDNET, PCMag, Decider, Lifewire, NBC, and many more. After hours, you can find me packing my tech and grabbing my boarding passes, reading the latest nonfiction releases, or gaming on my MSI Stealth rig.

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Best for:

Homes and small offices
Rapid printing, scanning and copying
Anyone who thinks most office printers look ugly

Skip if:

You don’t print enough to get value from the ink subscription
You prioritize photo printing

The HP OfficeJet Pro 9125E is my top pick for the home: It can quickly print, scan, copy and even fax, if needed. It’s a great do-it-all package that should be able to handle all of your home and home office printer needs, from copying permission slips to printing family photos.

The printer is easy to set up. Just plug it in and follow the online guide, which takes you through installing the four ink cartridges, connecting it to your Wi-Fi and printing a test page that the printer itself scans to check that everything is working. This setup guide also links you to the HP Smart app, available for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. This simple app allows you to print, scan and copy documents over any internet connection. It also allows you to scan a document and send it straight to someone over email or to upload scans to Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or HP’s own Scan Cloud service.

The HP OfficeJet Pro 9125E prints with great color accuracy and detailing.

Richard Baguley for Forbes

The OfficeJet Pro 9125e also offers ethernet and USB connections, and the small but flexible 2.7-inch touchscreen provides easy access to these features on the device itself. You can also create shortcuts on the display, which is very useful for common tasks.

It’s a fairly large printer, occupying a sizeable 17 by 20 inches when the output tray is extended. It was also the fastest inkjet printer I tested, finishing a 10-page sample document in just 45 seconds. Overall, the print quality was excellent. Graphics looked crisp and vibrant, and the text appeared dark and uniform, though with just a trace of splotchiness on the default “Normal” quality setting. That vanished when I used the “Best” quality setting, but that does slow printing down: My test document took just under two minutes on that setting.

This printer’s one weakness lies with its photo printing. It produced smooth, passable images that I’d deem good enough for home projects, but not of the same caliber as others I tested. If you plan on printing a lot of photos, I’d suggest considering a dedicated photo printer.

The test page is in the scanner and the test copy is in the tray. Note the color accuracy.

Richard Baguley

Like most printers, the real cost is in the consumables, i.e., the ink it uses to print. A replacement set of four EvoMore ink cartridges sells for about $239: $80 for the large black and $53 each for the cyan, magenta and yellow. That’s more than the printer itself. HP claims the black will print 2,500 pages, while the color cartridges are good for 1,650 pages. That’s about 3 cents per black page and about 9 cents per color page.

You can bring those costs down by subscribing to HP’s Instant Ink program, which automatically ships new cartridges to you when the printer detects it’s close to running out. The program’s pricing ranges from 99 cents to $25 per month, depending on how many pages you print, and you get a free six-month trial so you can test the subscription waters. You must sign up for that trial within the first seven days of installing the printer, and doing so requires a credit card. As with many such trials, you’ll need to cancel to avoid getting billed once it expires. You also need to register for HP+ (at no charge) to unlock certain benefits, including a second year of warranty coverage.

The 2024 Forbes Vetted Best Product Awards are here: Explore our 150 top-recommended items across categories after extensive research and testing.

Amazon

HP Laserjet Pro MFP 3101SDW

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The HP LaserJet Pro MFP 3101SDW Printer is my midrange pick because it offers better print speeds—up to 35 pages per minute—than the average printer, plus ease of use from the 2.7-inch touchscreen and excellent app support. The HP Smart app is available for iOS and Android phones as well as Windows and Mac computers, so everyone can print and scan directly from their devices without bugging you. This is a mono laser, so you won’t get color prints. After testing, its print quality is great, with solid, streak-free blacks and great detail.

The 3101SDW is marketed as a small business device. Still, families need the same things: reliable, hassle-free printing and scanning. And if you’re printing plenty of school essays, permissions slips and more, it makes sense to consider spending a bit more on a printer that can handle a higher volume just before running for the bus.

Brother HL-L2460DW XL

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Best for:

Low-cost, low-volume printing
Printing the odd letter, label, etc.

Skip if:

You print more than a few pages at a time
You need the best quality

The Brother HL-L2460DW XL prints in acceptable quality at a good speed, and it comes with enough toner to keep you printing for years. The print quality isn’t great: I saw smudges, streaks and roller marks in dark areas of prints, but it’s definitely acceptable for everyday documents. Brother claims a print speed of 36 pages per minute, which I found accurate once it gets going. But it needs to wake up, taking 17 seconds from hitting print to the first page reaching the output tray. The HL-L2460DW XL comes with both a standard and XL TN830 toner cartridge, which together should be good for over 4,000 pages. For most users, that’s going to last several years, and with XL cartridges costing $85 each, it’s a great value for the money.

The HL-L2460DW XL is simple to set up: Just unbox it, slide in one of the included toner and drum unit assembly, then connect it via USB or Ethernet. The controls on the printer itself are another question, though: A calculator-style text display and a frustratingly button-press-button-press-button-press menu system will likely leave you wanting to hurl the thing out the window, especially when entering a Wi-Fi security code wrong for the third time. Fortunately, you can bypass the on-device menu and use the Brother Mobile Connect app to connect to Wi-Fi networks and manage other settings. The Brother printer drivers built into Windows and MacOS are very robust. Honestly, it would be better if Brother had just completely gotten rid of the on-device menus and used the app.

Amazon

Brother MFC-J5855DW

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Best for:

Large-format document printing
Long-lasting ink supply
Novice users who normally struggle with setup

Skip if:

You don’t have a lot of desk space
You don’t need to print 11 x 17-inch pages

The Brother MFC-J5855DW is an absolute beast of a printer, both in terms of physical size and print prowess. Its desk-swallowing footprint accommodates a 250-sheet paper tray that can hold media up to 11 x 17 inches. There’s also a bypass tray for feeding photo paper and envelopes, without having to swap out your main paper supply.

This machine was refreshingly easy to set up, with little packaging to remove and easy-to-install ink cartridges. A spacious touchscreen interface made quick work of the initial configuration, and I liked the detailed instruction manual, which included links and QR codes to set up videos online.

The Brother was one of the fastest inkjet printers I tested, at least for documents. Photos took longer to print and appeared a bit grainy, but they exhibited good color quality overall. In our test document, text looked a touch soft and overly dark, but images and graphics were solid overall. Brother’s mobile app puts print, scan and copy controls at your fingertips, but the desktop software is dated and limited, offering just basic scan tools.

Brother promises that the four included “Inkvestment” cartridges can last you up to one year (based on 300 pages per month). A replacement set costs about $100. That still translates to an extremely low cost per page, around 1 cent per monochrome page and 5 cents per color, making this a great fit for small offices that need to print big on a budget.

Amazon

Canon Color imageCLASS MF656CDW

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Best for:

Families that need a flexible device for general use and work from home
General color printing tasks

Skip if:

You need only monochrome prints
You need to print quickly

If you have a large and busy family, you need an all-in-one printer that can do everything: print in color and scan with phones, tablets and computers, and generally just push out documents quickly. The Canon Color ImageClass MF656CDW is my pick for those needing this flexibility. This excellent, reasonably priced all-in-one color laser printer can handle whatever you will need to throw at it, from kids’ artwork and family photos to permission slips and holiday cards.

The MF656CDW is affordable to run. A black-and-white print using high-capacity toner will cost about 3 cents per page, and color about 19 cents. That’s one of the lowest costs per print of all the printers I’ve tested, but it does have a significant up-front cost: Canon’s own 067H high-capacity toner cartridges will cost you almost $450 for a complete set of four, which is more than the printer itself. You get a lot of prints for the money, though. The high-capacity black cartridge is good for about 3,130 pages, while the color ones will last for about 2,350. The toner cartridges included with the printer are smaller, lasting for about 1,350 monochrome pages and 680 in color.

Canon doesn’t offer a subscription service for its laser printers. Still, you can opt into its automatic replenishment service, where the printer can automatically order new toner cartridges when required.

The only thing I don’t like about the MF656CDW: It’s a little slow to print, which might be a problem when everyone needs their schoolwork printed immediately. Canon claims a speed of up to 22 pages per minute on mono and color prints, which was borne out by my tests: I measured it at about 21 pages per minute. That’s a little slower than the other color laser printers I tested and a lot slower than the monochrome printers; even the Brother HL-L2460DW XL was 64% faster.

Still, the speed is acceptable for general use, and the cost per page is pretty low, making it an excellent pick for those who need the flexibility of an all-in-one color device that can handle a large volume of prints when needed.

Other Home Printers Tested

The standout printers left five other models by the wayside, though all of them have points in their favor. Here’s a look at the ones that didn’t make the cut—but that might still be worth your consideration.

Canon ImageClass MF462DW ($276 at Amazon): With its oversized touchscreen, dual input trays and sizable footprint, the Canon ImageClass MF462DW looks like something you’d find in a fancy office. Its standout features include a 250-sheet input tray, a 100-sheet multipurpose tray (for things like envelopes and labels), and a standard toner cartridge that lasts about 3,000 pages. A standard replacement costs about $120, while Canon’s high-yield cartridge (good for nearly 10,200 pages) costs around $250. It’s a strong pick if you are printing lots of black and white documents, but it is more expensive than the Brother for general use.

The Canon ImageClass MF452dw offers a large, color touchscreen display.

Rick Broida For Forbes

Brother MFC-J1010DW ($70 at Amazon): The second-best-value printer in the group, Brother’s versatile multifunction ink-jet includes an ADF and supports automatic duplex printing, but it suffers from complex setup and operation. Plus, although it was one of the quickest printers, text looked a bit soft and overly dark.

Canon Pixma MG3620 ($39 at Amazon): Canon’s Pixma is compact and also very affordable. Surprisingly, it can do automatic duplexing, though the lack of an ADF means you can scan and copy just one page at a time. Also, its text output lacked sharpness; it was among the worst in the group.

Canon Pixma MG3620 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer

Amazon

Epson EcoTank ET-2800 ($180 at Amazon): The ET-2800 impressed me with its low operating costs and infuriated me with its confusing mobile app setup, its control panel and “paper type mismatch” errors when switching to photo paper. Put simply, this is a competent but complicated all-in-one with large ink tanks.

HP Smart Tank 7301 ($280 at Amazon): The Smart Tank 7301 is expensive (it lists for $460 but is almost always on sale) hence its inclusion in this group, but it was among the fastest inkjet models, and it produced the best-looking text, graphics and photos of any inkjet printer tested here.

How I Tested The Best Home Printers

Since these printers are intended for home use, I capped the retail price at around $450. Since prices fluctuate, some printers have an MSRP above $450 when no retail discounts are in play, but the good news is that most of these go on sale at some point or another.

While print speed and quality are obviously key factors in evaluating any printer, I also focused on real-world considerations like ease of setup, ease of use (Does it have a convenient control panel? What software does it include?) and overall versatility. I checked whether it could copy, scan or fax as well, and how well it performed these tasks. In particular, I considered speed, print quality, and features like two-sided printing. Tech-challenged users, take note: A lot of these models are a pain to set up. I also considered the cost of replacement ink and the average print cost per page.

Testing Process

I tested all the printers via a Wi-Fi connection to a Windows 11 PC, at the default print quality settings using 20-pound copy paper. To gauge speed, I clocked how long it took each printer to output a 10-page PDF document containing a mixture of text, graphics and photos—from the time I pressed print to the time the last page finished. I examined the printed pages closely, looking at the text’s weight and sharpness and the images and graphics’ clarity and color.

Unsurprisingly, the monochrome laser printers were the fastest overall, with the Canon ImageClass MF462DW cranking out the document in just 22 seconds. Most of the inkjet printers completed the PDF test in anywhere from one to two minutes, which I suspect will satisfy the majority of home users’ daily requirements. While there’s not enough variance to warrant much debate over speed, the minor speed differences among the printers might add up if you’re printing a lengthy 100-page document, for example. For the record, the HP OfficeJet Pro 9125E won the day with an impressive 45-second print time. By comparison, the best value home printer, the HP DeskJet 4255E, printed that same document in 1 minute 53 seconds—more than twice the time required by the HP OfficeJet Pro 9125E.

For the eight color printers I tested, I ran three 4 x 6-inch test photos on standard glossy photo paper. I found these printers outputted photos of similar quality, with good (if not nuanced) color reproduction and clarity. Unlike the PDF, which I printed from a PC, I sent the photos to each printer via their respective companion mobile apps, an obvious decision given the prevalence of smartphone photography.

My Expertise

As a writer with over 30 years’ experience covering consumer technology, I’ve used or tested every kind of printer imaginable. My work has appeared everywhere from CNET to Yahoo, and I’m the author of the weekly newsletter Deal Secrets, which shares great bargains and unique ways to save money. My expertise there helped to inform this roundup, in which I paid close attention to each printer’s cost of consumables. (If the printer itself is cheap but the ink will put you in the poorhouse, that’s no good.) When I’m testing the best home printers, I’m testing the best laser printers and covering the best all-in-one printers. I also extensively cover smart home, having tested the best smart locks that you can install on your front door for peace of mind.

I updated this story in November 2024 to include a few new printer models and share insight to a few that didn’t make the final cut. I also added a few FAQs to help you make an informed buying decision. This story was updated in November 2024 by Richard Baguley, a veteran technology writer who has been reviewing tech since the early 1990s. He has tested hundreds of scanners, printers and other related products.