Best home printers 2024: Which? Best Buys and expert buying advice

You can use our independent, comparative test results to make sure you get the very best home printer that's perfect for your needs - whether that's for photos or the lowest possible printer ink costs.

The first decision you need to make when buying a good home printer is whether to get an inkjet or laser printer. Inkjet printers are generally recommended for printing photos. If you do lots of printing, laser printers are faster, but are more expensive to buy upfront - particularly if you're after colour printing.

You'll also need to decide if you need a printer with a scanner (an all-in-one printer) or if you're happy with a standard printer. 

Whatever type you need, our comprehensive lab tests reveal our expert pick of the very best home printers for all budgets.

Head to our full selection of printer reviews to find the perfect model for your budget from the hundreds we've tested

Best home printers for 2024

Below are our picks for the best home printers, plus the ones that aren't worth your money.

Every printer we review goes through rigorous lab testing - covering everything from print quality and speed, to ink/toner costs and premium features.

Only logged-in Which? members can view our best home printer recommendations, below.

If you’re not yet a member, join Which? to get instant access to our best home printers, as revealed by our expert lab test. You will also get access to all of our online reviews, including laptops, phones and electric cars.

Pricing and recommendations correct as of April 2024.

Looking for a more affordable home printer? See our guide to the best cheap printers.

Home printers to avoid

Without our expert reviews, there's no easy way to tell a good printer from a bad one – even if you don't get stung by disappointing prints from the off, you will over time with excessively thirsty (and expensive) demands on ink. That's why our comprehensive tests leave no stone unturned, so you can be sure you won't get caught out. The best home printers we recommend have great print results and lower running costs. 

Below we've selected three printers you should definitely avoid.

Only logged-in Which? members can view the printers you should avoid. If you’re not yet a member, join Which? to get instant access so you don't get stuck with a printer you'll regret buying.

How much should I spend on a home printer?

You can buy a new inkjet for less than £50, but will likely pay more over time due to high running costs. Our Best Buy printers start from just over £100, but will usually pay for themselves over time in rock-bottom printing costs. 

If you’re looking for an all-in-one printer to scan, print, and copy, you’ll need to pay more – but some great models cost less than £200.

Unless you're a very light user, the most important cost for a printer is actually its running costs. Some cheaper cartridge inkjets cost considerably more to run than ink tank printers and laser printers (see what type of home printer should I choose for more information on printer types). 

A cheap, ink-thirsty model could easily cost you hundreds of pounds more over the printer's life, even if it looks attractively cheap upfront. If you own or are buying a cartridge inkjet printer, see our best cheap printer ink cartridges recommendations to ensure you're getting the best value for money with the ink cartridges you buy.

It's also worth considering the features you need. You can buy an all-in-one printer/scanner with wi-fi and Apple AirPrint from £40. For premium features, such as an automatic document feeder or automatic double-sided printing, expect to pay £100 or more.

We test printers for every budget - from affordable inkjet models to business-ready laser printers. We assess their quality, speed and running costs, features and how easy they are to use.

Just need a decent model that won't cost a fortune in ink? We reveal the best cheap printers to buy and run

What type of home printer should I choose?

Printers can generally be split into two types, based on the ink technology they use: inkjet or laser.

We'd recommend picking a printer with low running costs, whether you opt for a laser or inkjet model. Our Eco Buy-recommended printers combine rock-bottom printing costs with great energy efficiency and good-quality printing. 

• Ink tank printers are more cost-effective over time, based on our independent tests. They have all the advantages of an inkjet printer (good for photos and colour prints) and let you refill the ink, as opposed to buying multiple cartridges. 
• Inkjet printers tend to be more compact and cheaper upfront than other types, but usually cost more to run.
• Laser printers can cost similarly to ink tank printers, but colour laser printers cost more. They're quick, so great for printing long documents, and are best suited for black and white or text-heavy documents. Text can be exceptionally sharp and, unlike an inkjet, laser prints don't run if the page gets wet.
• All-in-one printers will let you scan and copy documents as well as print. You can get all-in-one laser printers as well as all-in-one inkjet printers. They have more functions but can be bulkier. They don't necessarily cost much more.
• Photo printers are ink tank or inkjet models optimised for photo printing with precise nozzles, but might not be as flexible as an all-rounder. 
• A3 printers cost more and take up a lot of space, but are perfect for printing very large posters or documents.

 Want to print pictures from home? Check out our pick of the best photo printers.

 What is an ink tank printer?

Ink tank printers do away with cartridges. Instead, they have refillable tanks of ink, which you replenish with a special kit. You'll find colour tank printers as well as some mono ones, which just print in black and white. 

They have little windows that let you see into the tank on the front of the printer so you can easily check whether the ink is running low.

Tank models tend to be more expensive to buy than a traditional inkjet model. However, they can be extremely economical, costing just a few pounds a year to run. 

There aren't that many tank laser printers: HP's Neverstop Laser range were the first laser models to use cartridge-free technology.

• Pros Extremely low running costs, inkjet models can produce good colour prints
• Cons Can be expensive to buy. 

Find out which printers have the lowest running costs - see our pick of the best cheap printers to buy and run.

News, deals and stuff the manuals don't tell you. Sign up for our Tech newsletter, it's free monthly.

What is an inkjet printer?

Inkjet printers are great all-rounders. They can handle text-heavy documents, such as a student’s coursework or minutes from a meeting, but can also print photos – and do a better job of it than a laser printer. They’re quiet and take up less desk space than a laser. 

However, cartridge inkjets usually cost more to run than laser printers, costing more in ink per printed page than a laser toner. That’s not necessarily the case with ink tank printers (explained in what is an ink tank printer, above). But as a rule of thumb, inkjet cartridge printers cost you less upfront, but more in the long term due to their cartridges.

• Pros Smaller and cheaper than laser printers, can produce good-quality colour prints.
• Cons More expensive running costs (ink tank printers are the exception), slower to print black text pages compared to a laser.

Get the right home printer for you - use the handy filters on our expert printer reviews

 What is a laser printer?

Laser printers are great at printing a lot of black text. Colour laser models are more expensive than colour inkjets, but produce professional-looking business graphics. They’re normally faster than inkjets at this kind of job and can handle a heavier workload if you’re planning to print a lot of pages every month.

While the toner cartridges are more expensive than inkjets, most print a lot more pages than an inkjet cartridge. So the cost per black and white or colour page is usually much less. 

However, laser printers are usually noisier than the equivalent inkjet printer and will take up more space on your desk.

Colour laser printers can produce good graphs and charts but aren't much good at printing photos. Stick to an inkjet if you're likely to print your holiday snaps.

• Pros Fast prints and good-value printing for black and white pages.
• Cons More expensive to buy, bulkier and often noisier than inkjets.

Choose a model from our round-up of the best laser printers.

What is an all-in-one printer?

You can buy straightforward inkjet or laser printers, but a device that scans and copies as well won’t cost you a lot more. Most have wi-fi connectivity so you can print from any PC or laptops in your home, not to mention tablets or smartphones. 

Some all-in-one printers have an automatic document feeder on top, which is handy for scanning and copying multi-page reports.

• Pros Can scan, photocopy and fax as well as print.
• Cons Tend to be larger models that take up more space.

See the best all-in-one printers and other models in our printer reviews.

What is a photo printer?

The term photo printer covers a wide range of devices. Commonly, photo printers are A4 all-in-one inkjet models, with more precise ink nozzles and additional colour cartridges or tanks. 

To others, it’s a compact photo printer that only prints small photos. Or perhaps you want an A3 specialist model with photo cartridges and high-resolution print heads for lab-quality photo prints that you can display. 

Photo printers often have memory card slots and a USB connection on the front, so you can plug in your camera’s memory card or connect the camera and print away, with or without a PC.

• Pros: Optimised for photo printing.
• Cons: Can’t guarantee better print quality than a more flexible regular printer.

We test cameras as well as printers. See our expert digital camera reviews.

What is an A3 printer?

Ideal if you want to print large office documents, posters or photos to hang on your wall, but they cost more and take up more desk space than a standard A4 printer. Some have a strong photographic or design focus. 

• Pros: Perfect if you need to print at poster size.
• Cons: Take up significant space compared with regular printers.

We've rounded up the best A3 printers to help you quickly find the right model for you.

Black and white or colour: what should I go for?

Black and white inkjets are a dying breed, but you can still save a little money by opting for a mono (black and white) laser printer. These are cheaper to buy than colour models, and if you mostly print black text on white pages they'll be cheap to run. See all of our mono printer reviews.

Colour makes your printer much more versatile, so you'll need to weigh up the savings against how likely you are to print photos or colour documents. See all of our colour printer reviews.

How to connect your wireless printer over wi-fi

Almost all the printers we've tested let you connect wirelessly to your computer using wi-fi, so you can place your printer wherever you like in your home. 

Once connected, you can access online services including free mobile printing apps offered by the main printer brands – the apps are called Brother iPrint&Scan, Canon Print, Epson iPrint and HP Smart (HP also has other apps including its ePrint app for legacy devices). The apps usually also let you print files and items stored in cloud services, such as Google Drive and Dropbox. They also usually provide printer status information, such as how much ink you have left.

If you have an Android device or a Google Chromebook, we'd recommend downloading your printer's app in order to print wirelessly from the device.

Apple AirPrint

If you're an Apple user, look out for AirPrint - this lets you wirelessly print from Mac, iPhone and iPad devices without any drivers. You won’t need to install any additional apps or software. 

It's the easiest way to print on Apple devices, although you may find your printer manufacturer's app gives you more printing options.

It’s easy to set up – just ensure that your printer and Apple device are on the same wi-fi network. Then either click the Print option in your menu bar on a Mac, or the Share icon on an iPhone or iPad. The only disadvantage of AirPrint is that it only works with Apple devices.

Find out how to extend your wi-fi

Where to buy a printer

Only buy from a reputable retailer. Check the returns policy and pay attention to customer feedback and reviews. For more information about on shopping online safely and arranging refunds for faulty products, see our consumer rights guide to online shopping. 

Amazon, Argos, Currys and John Lewis are some of the most searched-for printer retailers. We’ve included links to these because of their stock availability, best-value price or warranty options. 

• Amazon has hundreds of printers in stock, but try to stick to models that are fulfilled by or sold by Amazon if you can – it’s much easier to resolve issues if something goes wrong.
  
• Argos offers a wide range of inkjet and laser printers. Great if you're on a budget – prices start around £30 and you can get free same day in-store collection at selected Sainsbury's stores. Brands include Brother, Canon, Epson and HP. 
• Currys stocks a reasonable range of home printers. Prices start as low as £25 and go up to a few hundred pounds for high-end printers. If you find the one you want cheaper elsewhere, Currys promises to match or beat the price of all other retailers. 
• John Lewis stocks lots of types of printers, including inkjet, colour laser, mono laser and all-in-ones. You'll get a free two-year warranty when you buy your printer and you'll also be offered technical support from its in-house team.

If you have an old printer to get rid of, be sure to either pass it on to a new owner or recycle it. Electrical items that are past their sell-by-date are classed as electronic waste and must be disposed of responsibly - see our guide on how to recycle electrical items.

Latest home printer reviews

These are the home printers that have most recently gone through our demanding printing tests.

Only logged-in Which? members can view the full reviews of the Brother printers we've tested most recently. If you’re not yet a member, join Which? to get instant access.

Which home printer brands offer the best software and security support policies?

Software and security support dictates how long the brand aims to continue updating the device with new features and security patches to guard against emerging threats.

We estimate the 'lifetime' of a printer – the average time we’d expect one to last before it breaks down or deteriorates significantly – is 13 years*. 

We asked the biggest brands about their support policies in September 2023. Only one gave us clear information, which fell far short of this estimated lifetime measure. 

• HP said it will supply updates for its printers for three years from launch 
• Other big printer brands, including Brother, Canon and Epson, either didn't reply or did not specify a minimum update period.

While you may not be at immediate risk if you're using a device that's unsupported, it's obviously desirable to buy and use a device you know will receive update support for a decent period. For more information, read our guide to smart devices and security.

New mandates for minimum product support in the PSTI Act, in force from 29 April 2024, require manufacturers to inform consumers about the length of a product’s security update support period prior to the consumer making a purchase via a manufacturer’s or seller’s website. The Act allows the regulator to issue fines up to £10 million or 4% of yearly revenue, whichever is greater.

*This is based on robust analysis of our survey of printer owners. To find out more about our survey and its results, go to the most reliable printer brands.

News, deals and stuff the manuals don't tell you. Sign up for our Tech newsletter, it's free monthly.