The 9 Best Affordable Printers in 2027

If you want color without counting pages, this is the printer we'd buy. The ink is the reason. A full set of GI-21 bottles is rated for about 6,000 black and 7,700 color pages, and color ink costs sit well below average. That's the same ink and rating as the cheaper G3270 (#5), but this one adds auto duplex and a 2.7-inch color touchscreen.

Say it's 9 p.m. and your kid's 12-page book report needs printing in color, two-sided. The G3290 flips the pages itself, and its duplex text was the quickest of the ink tanks Tom's Guide had recently run. Setup takes patience: you fit two printheads, fill keyed bottles that only go in the right tank, and let the ink charge. Then the Canon PRINT app joins your Wi-Fi with no password typing, though there's no Ethernet port.

The trade-offs are paper handling and speed. It has one 100-sheet rear tray, no document feeder, and mixed color pages crawl along at about two a minute. So would we buy it? For a home that prints color every week, yes. If your pages are nearly all black text, the Brother HL-L2460DW (#2) is faster and never dries out.

Here's the printer for anyone who mostly prints words. It's a small mono laser rated at 36 pages a minute, and PCMag measured 37 on text. Toner is a dry powder, not liquid ink, so nothing dries out between jobs. That alone fixes the streaky-page problem that ruins cheap inkjets.

Picture 7:30 a.m., 50 pages of lecture slides, and an 8 a.m. class. Single-sided, it's done in under two minutes. Two-sided slows to about 8.5 pages a minute in Digital Trends' run, so start it while you pack your bag. Set it up through the Brother Mobile Connect app, because typing a Wi-Fi password on the one-line screen with arrow keys is tedious. Ethernet is there if your router sits close. The box has a 700-page starter toner and a drum rated for about 15,000 pages.

The limits are clear. It can't scan, copy or print color, and dark fills and photos show banding. Is it the right buy for a text-only desk? Easily. Need to scan and copy too? The Brother MFC-L2820DW (#4) adds a feeder and copier and takes the same TN830 toner.

So what if your house prints a little almost every day? Then this EcoTank earns its spot. Epson rates the bottles in the box for up to three years of average use, which PCMag puts at about 6,600 black and 5,500 color pages. The keyed bottles only fit their own tank, so a refill on the kitchen table stays clean.

Say your kid prints a history worksheet and goes straight at it with a yellow highlighter. Prints resisted both highlighter and water in PCMag's checks, so the words stay put. It prints two-sided by itself, and the control panel tilts up so you can read it from a chair. Text is good rather than the sharpest, and photos suit a school poster more than a frame. You connect over Wi-Fi or USB, with no Ethernet.

The everyday annoyances are small but real. WIRED saw a 30 to 45 second wait before wireless jobs start, the screen is thumb-sized, and there's no document feeder. Ink can also dry if it sits for weeks. So would we buy it? For steady family printing, yes. Want a big touchscreen instead? The Canon MegaTank G3290 (#1) has a 2.7-inch one.

Now, if you scan and copy as well as print, this is the Brother laser to get. The MFC-L2820DW is rated at 34 pages a minute and adds a 50-sheet document feeder, a copier, fax and a 2.7-inch color touchscreen. How-To Geek pushed just over 23 images a minute through that feeder.

Picture tax season. You drop a 15-page return into the feeder, tap scan, and it lands as one file you can email to your accountant. Ethernet and dual-band Wi-Fi keep it reachable, and the Brother app doesn't make you create an account. Inside you'll find a 700-page starter toner fitted to a drum rated for about 15,000 pages. Bring your own USB cable.

Here's the catch. The feeder reads one side at a time, so two-sided bank statements mean flipping the stack and running it again. The glossy screen catches overhead glare, and photos come out dark. Skip Brother's Refresh toner plan if you dislike subscriptions, because a cancelled plan can deactivate its cartridge. Our call? For text paperwork, it's an easy yes. Never scan? The Brother HL-L2460DW (#2) is all you need.

This one's for the small desk. The G3270 is a compact MegaTank at about 13 pounds, and its bottles are rated for about 6,000 black and 7,700 color pages, or more in economy mode. That's a lot of color on a student budget.

Say your dorm desk has one free shelf and your chemistry lab report is sitting on your phone. The G3270 fits the shelf, prints over AirPrint or the Canon PRINT app, and Digital Trends got a full-page borderless photo in about a minute. Speed is the price you pay, though: PCMag found it the slowest in its comparison group. Two-sided means the driver tells you when to flip the pages. There's no document feeder, and the app scans at only 300 dpi.

Wi-Fi is the bigger worry. G3270 owners on Canon's forum describe it going offline mid-job on Macs and iPhones, or after a Windows restart until they reinstall it. Canon's US store also marks it discontinued, though new units are still on sale. So would we buy it? For a cramped desk, yes. With room to spare, the Canon MegaTank G3290 (#1) adds auto duplex and a touchscreen.

But what if you need color and also go weeks without printing? An ink tank can dry out in that gap. This color laser can't, because toner is dry powder. That's the whole case for it, and it backs that up with excellent text and accurate color.

Picture a Monday after six quiet weeks. You need a color sales chart for a 9 a.m. Zoom call, and it comes out clean on the first try. PCMag measured 28.8 pages a minute single-sided, and Popular Mechanics got through its runs with no jams or software hiccups. Setup works from the 2.7-inch touchscreen or the Brother Mobile Connect app, and Gigabit Ethernet sits beside dual-band Wi-Fi. The starter toners come preinstalled, but there's no USB cable.

The trade-off is cost per color page. Color toner isn't cheap, it only prints, and at about 34 pounds it wants a sturdy shelf. So would we buy it? If you print mostly black text with some color, yes. If color is rare, the Brother HL-L2460DW (#2) handles the text for less.

Not ready for a big tank, but tired of cartridges that run dry by Friday? That's where Brother's INKvestment design fits. Its cartridges go much further than most, and the four starters in the box are rated for about 1,800 black and 750 color pages before you buy a thing.

Say it's tax season and a shoebox of receipts sits on the table. You load 20 at a time, and the feeder scans them into Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive at about 8 pages a minute. The fax covers the one office that still won't take email. Text is sharp, photos print borderless, and setup through Brother Mobile Connect is easy, though it asks for a Brother account. You get Wi-Fi and USB, but no Ethernet and no USB cable in the box.

The limits are paper and screen. The tray holds 150 sheets, the 1.8-inch display isn't a touchscreen, and two-sided originals go on the glass. Like any inkjet, it can clog if it sits idle. Worth it? For a family that scans and faxes now and then, yes. For heavy text, the Brother MFC-L2820DW (#4) costs less per page.

Here's the thing: you rarely get a document feeder at this price. This compact Brother adds a 20-sheet one plus auto duplex printing, and its document printing and scanning are excellent.

Picture a Saturday at the kitchen table with a five-page rental application. You drop the pages in the feeder, and they come back as one scan while you fill in the next form. The 150-sheet paper drawer slides in underneath, so it doesn't sprawl across the table. It works with Windows, Mac, Linux and phones, and the Brother app doesn't push you to sign up. Scans can come out slightly crooked, though, and the feeder reads one side only.

Running cost is the real catch. Starter cartridges are rated for about 200 pages each, and Printer Insider suggests it for homes printing under about 40 pages a month. Color is slow, photos look muted, and the printhead can clog if it sits idle. So would we buy it? For light forms and homework, yes. Want cartridges that go much further? The Brother MFC-J4355DW (#7) is the step up.

And if you barely print at all? Then the TR4720 is the one cartridge-hungry printer we'd still consider. It's a compact four-in-one with a 20-sheet feeder, fax, auto duplex printing and photos that look rich and accurate for the class.

Say this month you need one return label and one 4x6 photo for a birthday card. That's exactly its job. Setup from the Canon PRINT app took TechGearLab about six minutes, though Professor Printer needed Canon's separate setup software on Windows. Don't push paper too far into the front tray on the first start, or it can jam. Wi-Fi is 2.4 GHz only.

Everything else is slow and pricey. TechGearLab measured about 8 pages a minute in black, nearly five minutes for a full-page photo and the highest cost per page in its group, while text looked grayish. Would we buy one? Only for a few pages a month. Print documents weekly? The Brother HL-L2460DW (#2) costs far less to run.