Best budget printers in 2023 – our top 5 options (September)
Wondering what the best budget printers are? Look no further.
Finding a high-performing printer on a budget can sometimes be overwhelming. We’ve put together a guide to the best budget printers you can buy in 2023. Printers play an often underappreciated role in our lives. As an interface between the digital and physical world, it’s important to have a reliable printer that performs consistently.
I’m sure we’ve all experienced the frustration of a broken and unreliable printer. You seem to spend endless amounts of time and money trying to fix it. This is why it’s so important to have the best printer you can buy within your budget.
Let us guide you through some of the best home printers you can buy, to ensure that your printing tasks are as hassle-free as possible. Don’t forget to check out our best printer for homes guide. Or, if you have specific printing needs, check our best printer for stickers, our best cardstock printer, and the best printer for art prints guides.
Products at a Glance
How we picked the best budget printers
Nowadays, there is a huge range of cheap printers available on the market. It’s not uncommon to find printers that will do everything you need and more for an astoundingly low price. However, not all budget printers were created equal. For this reason, we have based our selections on a number of key criteria that’ll make sure you get the best cheap printer for your money.
First, we compared the range of features between all these models. Many manufacturers offer all-in-one printer functionalities in their range of budget models. This means the printer can print, scan, copy, and sometimes send and receive faxes. A second criterion is whether it supports integration with USB, Bluetooth, smartphone, and wireless printing. This allows you much-needed printing flexibility across your devices. And the final benchmark for these printers is most importantly the print quality and print speed. All of the previous features will seem of little importance if you can’t produce high-quality print jobs at a reasonable speed.
With that, let’s dive in and take a look at some of the best printers you can buy for under $100!
5 Best Budget Printers in 2023
Best budget printers in 2023 – our top 5 options (September)
- All-in-one functionality
- Great color accuracy
- Low cost per print
- Uses ink quickly
- No wireless connectivity
The Canon Pixma MG2522 is one of the most wallet-friendly picks on this list. It produces surprisingly great-quality prints for a unit that costs just $29.99. It supports color scanning and copying functionalities which is rare to find in a printer at this price point. The quality of the document printing is great, it’s also able to produce detailed and colorful photo prints with a high degree of color accuracy, and can print on glossy paper up to 8.5″ x 11″.
Unfortunately, this Canon Pixma printer doesn’t support wireless printing, meaning that you’re restricted to sending prints from a computer or laptop via a USB cable. It also lacks a couple of useful features such as an automatic document feeder. The build quality also leaves a bit to be desired, but this can be expected from any printer at this price point.
- Supports wireless printing
- Great photo quality
- All-in-one functionality
- Low paper capacity
- Quite Slow
HP boasts that the DeskJet 4155e is the smallest all-in-one printer out there. There’s no denying that this might be true. This tiny printer is affordable and produces stunningly high-quality prints. It supports wireless printing, which really gears it towards consumers looking to print out photos from a mobile device, as opposed to people looking for it to do heavy-duty office work. As a photo printer, the DeskJet 4155e excels, producing great-looking prints on glossy photo paper. The DeskJet 4155e forgoes the traditional flatbed scanner in favor of what HP calls a ‘Scan Beam’ which is a strip that goes across the top of the printer and scans documents as you feed them through. The only drawback of this printer is that it is quite slow, which isn’t a problem for many home users but could pose issues if you’re looking for it to carry more demanding workloads.
- Supports wireless printing
- Great quality prints
- Easy to maintain
- Not as many features as the other printers
- Poor color accuracy
The Epson Expression Home XP-4200 is a printer designed for casual use or as a companion in your home office. It’s able to produce high-quality documents and it is relatively economical to run. Its sturdy build and full WIFI printing capabilities make it a great and durable choice for a range of diverse uses. The layout is intuitive, with the features like the input tray and LCD display being where you’d expect them to be. This makes it accessible and easy to setup and get started with.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t boast as many features as the other printers listed in this run-down, but the flatbed scanner is a useful touch and generally speaking, what this printer does, it does well. Furthermore, it’s not great at producing fast prints, but its print economy does mean that it doesn’t require you to replace the ink cartridges as often as in some of the other printers mentioned here.
- Supports wireless printing
- Great quality prints
- Fast printing speeds
- No scanning or copying features
- Monochrome printing
The Canon imageCLASS LBP6230 is a super quick monochrome printer that boasts speeds of up to 26 pages per minute. Its compact build makes it super space efficient in a small office, and you could even put it next to your desktop computer without sacrificing any considerable desk space. The all-in-one cartridge combines the ink and toner cartridges into one, making maintenance incredibly straightforward. The major drawback of this printer is that it’s monochrome, meaning that it can’t print color. However, this may not be an issue for general home office use. The fast print speeds are really the standout feature of this unit, and sacrifices scanning and copying capacities for this. With that being said, this is a great printer for anyone handling large amounts of documents and is a real workhorse in the office.
- Spacious 4.3-inch touchscreen
- Full all-in-one capabilities
- Fast printing speeds
- High cost per page
The Epson Workforce Pro WF-4820 is a quick and multifaceted printer, that offers full-color printing, copying, and scanning capabilities in a super straightforward and intuitive workflow. Designed for use in home offices and small workplaces, this wireless printer is sturdy, quick, and reliable. The paper tray can hold up to 250 sheets at a time and it is able to print double-sided, saving paper and money. The print quality is great and the ability to print either wirelessly or via the numerous connection ports that it offers makes it really flexible for general use. While it is relatively expensive to run, its performance is consistent and high quality.
Things to Consider
While it’s often tempting to opt for the cheapest model you can find in order to maximize your budget, it’s always worth remembering that paying a bit more when you purchase your printer will reduce your maintenance costs further down the line, and can therefore often be cheaper in the long run. While this is often more true than not, it is especially applicable to printers who often require lots of replacement ink tanks and general maintenance.
Our Verdict
The budget printer that best suits your needs ultimately comes down to what you want to use it for. If you’re after a printer that will thrive printing photos then the Canon Pixma MG2522 would be our recommendation. But on balance, for a multipurpose printer office and home use, the Epson Workforce Pro WF-4820 is the standout choice for us.
Looking for something slightly more niche? Check out our guide to the best cheap printer for photos here.