Printers are the appliance everyone resents buying and then relies on completely — for the boarding pass, the school form, the return label. The trap is the price on the box: a £39 printer can cost you far more over three years than a £150 one, because the money is in the ink. Get that sum right and a printer is a cheap, useful thing to own. These are the best home printers to buy in 2026, with UK prices checked on Amazon UK on 15 July 2026 — confirm the current figure before buying.
The Short Version
- Best overall — Epson EcoTank ET-2861. Refillable tanks make ink absurdly cheap, at £149.99.
- Best budget — HP DeskJet 2910. A cheap, capable all-in-one for occasional printing, at £39.00.
- Best for a home office — Brother HL-L2400DW. Fast, reliable mono laser, at £115.00.
- Best budget laser — Brother HL-L1240W. 20 pages a minute for under £100, at £99.99.
- Best all-in-one ink tank — HP Smart Tank 5107. Cheap ink plus scanning and copying, at £135.99.
Best Overall: Epson EcoTank ET-2861
The Epson EcoTank ET-2861 costs £149.99 up front and saves most households money within a year, which is why it is our pick. Instead of cartridges, you refill big tanks from bottles, and a set of bottles costs a few pounds and lasts for thousands of pages — the difference between dreading a colour print and not thinking about it. It prints, scans and copies over Wi-Fi, manages around 10 pages per minute in black, and the tanks are visible so you are never surprised. If you print more than a handful of pages a month, this is the one to buy. Check the price on Amazon
Best Budget: HP DeskJet 2910
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If you print rarely — a form here, a photo there — the HP DeskJet 2910 at £39.00 makes sense. It is a compact wireless all-in-one that prints, scans and copies, sets up from your phone in minutes and takes up almost no space. Cartridges are expensive per page, so this is false economy if you print often, but for a machine that sits idle for weeks and then prints a boarding pass, spending £39 rather than £150 is exactly the right call. Check the price on Amazon
Best for a Home Office: Brother HL-L2400DW
For anyone who prints documents in volume, a mono laser beats any inkjet, and the Brother HL-L2400DW at £115.00 is the sensible choice. It fires out crisp black text far faster than an inkjet, never clogs if you leave it for a month, and toner lasts for thousands of pages. Automatic double-sided printing saves paper, and it connects over Wi-Fi to everything in the house. There is no colour and no scanner, but for reliable paperwork it is the machine that just works. Check the price on Amazon
Best Budget Laser: Brother HL-L1240W
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The Brother HL-L1240W brings laser reliability under £100, at £99.99. It manages 20 pages per minute, connects over Wi-Fi and USB, and — like all lasers — will sit unused for months and still print perfectly when you need it, which is exactly where cheap inkjets fail. It is mono only and single-function, so no scanning, but as a no-nonsense document printer for a study or a spare room it is superb value. Check the price on Amazon
Best All-in-One Ink Tank: HP Smart Tank 5107
If you want cheap ink but also need to scan and copy, the HP Smart Tank 5107 at £135.99 is a strong alternative. It uses the same refillable-tank idea as the EcoTank — bottles instead of cartridges, thousands of pages per fill — while adding a scanner, copier and a slick app for phone printing. Colour output is good enough for homework and photos, and running costs are a fraction of a cartridge printer's. For a busy family that prints a bit of everything, it is a lovely balance. Check the price on Amazon
Who Should Buy Which?
The right printer depends entirely on how much you print. If that is more than a few pages a month, buy an ink-tank model — the Epson EcoTank or the HP Smart Tank — and accept the higher upfront price, because refill bottles cost pennies per page against cartridges. If you genuinely print only a handful of times a year, the £39 HP DeskJet is the honest choice; do not spend £150 to save on ink you will never buy. Anyone printing mostly black text — invoices, essays, forms — should choose a laser instead: the Brother HL-L2400DW for a proper home office, or the HL-L1240W to keep it under £100. Whichever you pick, it will connect to the machines in our best laptops guide. Check the price on Amazon
How to Choose a Printer
A few things decide the right printer. Running cost matters more than the sticker price: cartridge printers are cheap to buy and dear to feed, while ink-tank models cost more up front and then almost nothing per page — work out roughly how many pages a month you print before anything else. Inkjet or laser is the next call: inkjets handle colour and photos, lasers are faster and more reliable for black text and never dry out between jobs. Speed follows from that, running from around 5.5 to 7.5 pages per minute on budget inkjets, about 10 pages per minute on better ink-tank machines, and 20, 29 or even 34 pages per minute on lasers. Decide whether you need an all-in-one with a scanner and copier, or just a printer. Check for automatic double-sided printing to halve your paper use, a 150-page paper tray if you print in batches, and proper wireless support for printing from a phone. Finally, be wary of ink subscriptions — handy for some, an ongoing bill for others.
How This Guide Was Made
This is an editorial buying guide that curates the strongest home printers across budgets and printing habits, weighing running costs, print quality, speed, features and value. Recommendations are based on published specifications and current UK pricing. Prices change often, so check the current listing before buying.
This is an editorial buying guide based on published specifications and current UK pricing. Prices were checked on 15 July 2026 and change frequently.
