The Best Home Printers of 2026
For most people, I recommend the Brother HL-L2460DW. If that is not quite right for you, the Brother MFC-L2820DW is my all-in-one laser pick and the Epson EcoTank ET-2900 is my pick for ink costs.
The best home printers of 2026 are the ones you forget about, and that is harder to buy than it sounds. The printer market is full of 60 dollar inkjets that cost 300 dollars a year in cartridges, apps that nag you into subscriptions, and scanners that only work with one brand's software. I went through the current Brother, Epson, and HP lineups, checked what is actually in stock on Amazon at honest prices, and picked five home printers that cover the real use cases: a laser that never dries out, a laser all-in-one for a home office, a tank printer for cheap color, and two compact color all-in-ones around 110 dollars.
1. Brother HL-L2460DW: Best overall
The Brother HL-L2460DW is the printer I tell people to buy when they say they hate printers, because it is the one that removes the reasons to hate them. It is a compact monochrome laser: no ink to dry up, no clogged heads after a month of sitting idle, no color cartridges to replace because the cyan ran out. It prints up to 36 pages a minute, duplexes automatically, and connects over dual-band Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or USB with AirPrint and Mopria built in, so every phone and laptop in the house finds it without a driver hunt.
The economics are the real argument. A high-yield TN830XL toner runs for thousands of pages at a couple of cents each, and the drum is rated for about 15,000. This Amazon listing is around 145 dollars, a real discount from the 180 dollar list price. The only thing it will not do is print in color or scan, and for most households that print tax forms, school permission slips, and shipping labels, that is a feature, not a limitation.
Who it's for: Anyone who prints documents a few times a week and wants a printer that works the first time, every time, for years.
Check price on Amazon2. Brother MFC-L2820DW: Best all-in-one laser
The MFC-L2820DW is the HL-L2460DW with a scanner, copier, and fax bolted on top, and it is the laser all-in-one I would put in a home office. The flatbed handles single pages and the 50-sheet automatic document feeder chews through a stack of receipts or a contract without you standing there feeding it. Scans go straight to email, a network folder, or cloud services from the color touchscreen, and the print side is the same fast, duplexing 36 page a minute engine as its little brother.
It uses the same TN830 series toner and DR830 drum, so running costs stay low, and it supports the same dual-band Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, AirPrint, and Mopria. At around 185 dollars on this listing it costs only 40 dollars more than the print-only model, and if you ever scan anything that is the easiest 40 dollars you will spend. Monochrome only, same as above, which is the trade for toner that never dries out.
Who it's for: Home offices that scan and copy regularly and want laser reliability and toner economics in one box.
Check price on Amazon3. Epson EcoTank ET-2900: Best for ink costs
The EcoTank ET-2900 is the color printer for people who have been burned by cartridges. Instead of 30 dollar cartridges that hold a thimble of ink, it has refillable tanks that you fill from keyed bottles, and the ink in the box is rated for about 3,600 black pages and 6,500 color pages, which Epson frames as up to three years for a typical home. Replacement bottles cost a few dollars per thousand pages. It prints, scans on a flatbed, and copies, and it connects over Wi-Fi with Epson's app for phones.
It is not fast, at 11 black and 6 color pages a minute, and the 100-sheet tray and flatbed-only scanning mean it is built for a household rather than an office. There is also no automatic duplex. Those are the trades for color printing that costs almost nothing per page, and at around 195 dollars on this listing, the ET-2900 is the newest entry-level EcoTank and the cheapest way into the system. If you print photos, kids' homework, or anything in color more than once a week, this pays for itself inside a year.
Who it's for: Families and students who print in color regularly and are tired of buying cartridges that cost more than the printer.
Check price on Amazon4. HP OfficeJet Pro 8125: Best color inkjet for a home office
The OfficeJet Pro 8125 is HP's 2026 entry in the small-office class, and at around 110 dollars it packs in the features that normally cost twice that. You get fast color printing, automatic two-sided printing, a flatbed scanner plus an automatic document feeder, copying, a 225-sheet input tray, and a 2.7 inch color touchscreen that works like a phone. Dual-band Wi-Fi with HP's self-healing connection means it stays on the network instead of dropping off every time the router hiccups.
The catch with any HP inkjet is ink. The 8125 ships with a three-month Instant Ink trial, and HP's cartridges are priced to push you toward the subscription. If you print a lot, Instant Ink can actually be the cheapest option; if you print a little, it is not, and you should look hard at the EcoTank above. For a home office that needs an ADF, duplex, and color for the price of a monochrome laser, the 8125 is the better-equipped machine.
Who it's for: Small home offices that need an automatic document feeder, duplex color printing, and a real touchscreen for about 110 dollars.
Check price on Amazon5. Brother Work Smart 1360: Best compact budget all-in-one
The Work Smart 1360 is Brother's 2025 replacement for the long-running MFC-J1010DW line, and it is the color all-in-one to buy when the printer has to live on a shelf in an apartment. It prints, scans, and copies in a footprint not much bigger than a sheet of paper, with automatic duplex printing and a 20-sheet automatic document feeder, two features that almost never show up at this size. It connects over Wi-Fi or USB, and the Brother Mobile Connect app handles printing and scanning from a phone, including straight to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box.
It uses Brother's individual LC401 cartridges, so you replace only the color that runs out, and the standard-yield set is reasonably priced compared with HP's equivalents. It is slower than the HP OfficeJet Pro 8125 and the tray is smaller, which is the price of the compact body. At around 110 dollars on this listing it costs the same as the HP, so the choice comes down to space: the HP wins on speed and paper capacity, the 1360 wins on footprint and no-subscription ink.
Who it's for: Apartment dwellers and students who need a color all-in-one with duplex and an ADF in the smallest possible box, without an ink subscription.
Check price on AmazonCompare the picks
| Pick | Best for | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Brother HL-L2460DW | Best overall | Anyone who prints documents a few times a week and wants a printer that works the first time, every time, for years. |
| Brother MFC-L2820DW | Best all-in-one laser | Home offices that scan and copy regularly and want laser reliability and toner economics in one box. |
| Epson EcoTank ET-2900 | Best for ink costs | Families and students who print in color regularly and are tired of buying cartridges that cost more than the printer. |
| HP OfficeJet Pro 8125 | Best color inkjet for a home office | Small home offices that need an automatic document feeder, duplex color printing, and a real touchscreen for about 110 dollars. |
| Brother Work Smart 1360 | Best compact budget all-in-one | Apartment dwellers and students who need a color all-in-one with duplex and an ADF in the smallest possible box, without an ink subscription. |
How to Choose Home Printers
Decide between laser and inkjet based on what you print, not what the box costs. A monochrome laser like the two Brother machines prints text fast, never dries out, and costs a couple of cents a page; it cannot print color. Inkjets print color and photos, but cartridge inkjets cost a fortune per page and clog if they sit. A tank inkjet like the EcoTank splits the difference: cheap color per page, slow printing, and a higher price up front.
Count the pages. If you print a few sheets a week, buy the cheapest reliable printer that does what you need and ignore per-page cost, because it will never add up. If you print hundreds of pages a month, per-page cost is the whole decision, and the laser or the EcoTank wins by a mile over any cartridge inkjet. Ink subscriptions like HP Instant Ink only make sense in the middle, for people who print a steady medium volume in color.
Check for the two features that save the most time: automatic duplex and an automatic document feeder. Duplex halves your paper use and nobody misses manually flipping pages. An ADF lets you scan a stack of receipts or a signed contract in one pass instead of page by page on the glass. Four of the five home printers here have both; the EcoTank ET-2900 has neither, which is the trade for its ink costs.
The Bottom Line on Home Printers
Buy the Brother HL-L2460DW if you want the best home printers list to be one line long: it prints black text fast and cheap for a decade and that is what most people need. Get the MFC-L2820DW if you also scan and copy. The Epson EcoTank ET-2900 is the color printer for anyone who prints in color often enough to hate cartridges. The HP OfficeJet Pro 8125 is the full home-office inkjet with an ADF and duplex for 110 dollars, and the Brother Work Smart 1360 is the same money in a much smaller box with no subscription. All five home printers will still be working, and still findable on your Wi-Fi, in three years.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a laser printer better than an inkjet for home use?
For text documents, yes. Laser home printers are faster, cost far less per page, and the toner does not dry out if you only print once a month. Inkjets win when you need color or photos. If you want both low running costs and color, a tank inkjet like the Epson EcoTank ET-2900 is the compromise, with cheap ink but slower printing.
How much should I spend on a home printer?
Between 110 and 200 dollars covers almost everyone. Under 100 dollars you are usually buying a cartridge inkjet that makes its money back on ink. The five home printers here run from about 110 to 195 dollars, and each one is cheaper to run over three years than the bargain models that sit beside them on Amazon.
Do I need an ink subscription?
No, and most people should not get one. Subscriptions like HP Instant Ink help if you print a steady medium volume in color every month; they cost money for nothing if you print occasionally. The Brother and Epson home printers here run perfectly well on retail toner, bottles, or cartridges with no plan attached.
Related: A printer is only as useful as the laptop sending it work, and my best laptops under $1,000 guide has the ones worth pairing it with. If the printer keeps dropping off the network, the fix is usually in the best Wi-Fi 7 routers of 2026, and for the rest of the house, best smart plugs of 2026 will turn the printer off when nobody is using it.
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How I picked these
I start from research at RTINGS, Wirecutter, and PCMag, confirm each model is still in the maker's current lineup, then check every pick on Amazon for price, stock, and seller before it goes live. I re-check this guide every month and replace anything that dies, gets marked up, or is beaten by a newer model. More on how I pick products.