I know: printers aren't exciting, but they are still necessary. Whether you want to scan important documents, print important letters or shipping labels or quickly make copies, the best all-in-one printers make your life easier.
But after spending years testing printers, we know what makes a good one; easy to set up, works with multiple devices and cheap to run. If you just want a quick tip on the best all-in-one printer for most folks, I recommend the Brother INKvestment MFC-J995DW because it's affordable, has a low cost per page and delivers quality prints.
The best all-in-one printers you can buy today
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The best all-in-one printer overall
I tend to recommend the Brother INKvestment MFC-J995DW most often as the best all-in-one printer because it's reliable, effective and, most importantly, affordable.
See, there's much more to the cost of a printer than just the purchase price: Ink costs can eat away the savings you expected from your affordable inkjet device.
The Brother INKvestment MFC-J995DW bucks the trend of printers gouging you on ink costs by coming with roughly a year's worth of ink (depending on how much you print) pre-loaded in the extra-large ink cartridges, so you get a great price-per-page right out of the gate.
On top of that, the Brother INKvestment MFC-J995DW offers solid printing, scanning and copying. Print speeds beat the category average and two-sided printing is among the fastest we've seen.
And it did all of this while delivering high print quality across the board. That same zippy speed and above-average quality was found in scans and copies, making it a great choice for anyone, even if you aren't buying it for the affordable ink.
- Read our full Brother INKvestment MFC-J995DW review
Best budget all-in-one printer
The Canon MegaTank Pixma G3290 is the best value all-in-one printer for home use around right now. It's a budget option with fewer additional features, but it excels where it matters: print quality and affordability.
It's a modest printer; it has just one paper tray and no document feeder, and it's not the speediest option. But for home use, it's an excellent choice, you'd just be better off with the Brother MFC-L2750DW XL if you regularly print large documents.
But for the rest of us who only need to print occasionally (say, homework and permission slips) this is a great choice because it delivers reliable, high-quality prints with the versatility to do documents, photos and double-sided print jobs.
While the Canon MegaTank Pixma G3290 prints at pretty average speeds, it actually excels at double-sided documents. In our testing it printed single-sided pages at an average of 9.2 pages per minute, but double-sided text documents that cranked up to 7.2 pages per minute, the fastest duplex print speed we've recorded of any recent ink tank printers.
And thanks to its easy setup process, robust wireless support (this thing can print via Wi-Fi or a smartphone app) and low ink costs (we estimate color prints cost roughly 0.9 cents per page, significantly lower than the 1.9 cent per page category average), I recommend the Canon MegaTank Pixma G3290 for anyone seeking a cheap, reliable ink all-in-one printer.
- Read our full Canon MegaTank Pixma G3290 review
Best all-in-one laser printer
I think the Brother MFC-L2750DW XL is the best multifunction laser printer we've reviewed in years for everything but color prints.
This printer is packed with useful features, including a quick ADF, fast duplex printing and copying, fax capability, and a second paper tray. This device is monochrome laser printer that lends itself well to fast document printing that looks sharp and clear every time.
It's easily one of the best all-in-one printers overall, and one of our favorite laser printers — so long as you don't need to print in color, as it can only handle monochrome prints, thanks to the single black toner cartridge.
The MFC-L2750DW XL turned in great document quality, and the fastest speeds to date for text and mixed text/graphics files. The printer even made two-sided prints faster than some models can handle one-sided documents.
Using its high-capacity toner cartridge, the MFC-L2750DW XL offers a cost per page of just 2.7 cents (based on in-depth testing), the lowest we've seen in the laser category. That's a tough deal to beat.
- Read our full Brother MFC-L2750DW review
Best all-in-one home office printer
The Epson EcoTank ET-7460 is a great choice for busy offices, thanks to its combination of solid performance, generous feature-set and impressively low ink costs. The EcoTank earns its name by not only printing thousands of pages a month, but also keeping ink costs low with refillable high-capacity ink tanks.
The printer comes with the first set of ink bottles, and enough ink for an estimated 7,500 pages (black) and 6,000 pages (color) before ever worrying about refills. Even when you buy new ink, you'll get plenty of bang for your buck, with costs of less than a cent per page.
Speedy printing and copying make it a smart pick for any busy home office or small team, though you might miss having a second paper tray. Regardless, the printer's relatively compact footprint and convenient two-sided printing make it a winner for day-to-day productivity.
- Read our full Epson EcoTank ET-4760 review
Best all-in-one printer for photos
I like the the Canon Pixma TR8620 photo printer because it's easy to use and offers plenty of office features, from scanning and faxing to a 20-page automatic document feeder (ADF), a duplexer for two-sided printing, and two paper trays for keeping two types of paper at the ready.
A big 4.3-inch color touchscreen makes it easy to control, and the printer supports smart home integration with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
It's also a great printer, with faster-than-average print speeds and high print quality overall. Text and color graphics all look great, but during testing we noted that glossy photos printed impressively fast, and the use of a five-ink cartridge system with two types of black ink resulted in photos with high-quality accuracy, natural-looking colors, sharp details and smooth transitions.
Really, my only big complaint with the Pixma TR8620 is the above average cost of ink, due partially to the expense of the extra ink cartridge.
- Read our full Canon Pixma TR8620 review
Best all-in-one printer for business
I recommend the Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5850 as the best all-in-one for business because it combines impressively low ink costs with a device capable of handling more than 3,000 pages per month.
And the EcoTank design uses refillable ink tanks and comes with enough spare ink bottles to print thousands of pages. The printer scsan scan, copy and fax, uses dual 250-page paper cassettes, and has a 50-sheet automatic document feeder.
In our timed printer tests, the Epson ET-5850 delivered some of the fastest printing we've seen, and produced crisp, clear text that nearly rivals laser printer quality. That same quick, high-quality performance was also seen in copying and scanning, making it the printer of choice for offices that need a full featured multifunction printer.
But I think the real draw is the ink savings, extremely low per-page costs of 0.4 cents for text pages, and 1.6 cents per color page. The upfront price may be high, but the combination of quality, features and super-low operating expenses make this one of the best investments you can make for your office.
- Read our full Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5850 review
How to choose the best all-in-one printer for you
Not sure which all-in-one printer to buy? No worries, I'm here to help.
Obviously you want a printer that performs well, so all of our reviews and rankings discuss a printer's output quality and speed, but there's more to an all-in-one printer than just how quickly it can crank out documents.
Price: All-in-one printers sell for as little as $60 (£45/AU$90) for inkjet models, and $150 (£170/AU$200) for laser printers, with high-end models costing hundreds of dollars, but offering better print quality, durability and features. And don’t forget ink and toner, which can range from 1-5 cents per page for basic documents (photos will cost more).
Inkjet or Laser: Next, it helps to determine whether you need an inkjet or laser printer. Inkjet printers are generally better suited to producing the full range of colors, making them better suited to printing graphics and photos. Laser printers can quickly produce professional looking text documents, often at a lower cost per page.
Home or Office: Home and office printers differ greatly in their handling of large print volumes. Some printers are built to offer great quality and value for the home user that prints a few pages a week, while others are built for busy offices where multiple users print dozens or hundreds of pages every day. Find the one that’s right for you to avoid paying for features you don’t need.
Use case: Additional use cases, like photo printing, are addressed in our selections above, while specific features are discussed in every printer review we do. Portable printing is another niche area where the right printer can make a world of difference. Though if you need quick images on paper, the best photo printers or best portable printers might be a better fit for you.
Operating expenses: Finally, consider the cost per page. Whether it’s using ink cartridges or toner, printers cost money over time. Check our reviews for a breakdown of the costs to print individual pages as a good measure of how expensive operating costs will be over the life of the printer.
Some companies even offer subscription services that save you money while sending you ink just in time to replace that empty cartridge. Learn more in our article HP Instant Ink vs. Canon vs. Epson: Are ink subscriptions worth it?
How we test the best all-in-one printers
To help you find best all-in-one printer, we put each model through an extensive range of printer tests, including timed prints of text, mixed text and graphics and color photos. The resulting prints are carefully examined for errors and issues, and compared with samples from other printers to determine the print quality.
We time every test print to see how quickly the machine handles document printing, and closely examine the finished product to determine how well different printing tasks are handled.
We also test the scanning and copying functions of the printer, timing how quickly it captures a page and comparing the results to the original images to determine how well it captures color and detail.
To measure the cost of owning and operating a printer, we look at the current street price of ink refills and the estimated number of pages that each cartridge can produce, and calculate the cost for printing a single page.
