The Best Home Printers: 4 Compared (and One to Skip)

RBE top pick

Epson EcoTank ET-4950

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The EcoTank ET-4950 is the pick if you print enough to care about ink cost, thanks to refillable tanks and no subscription strings. The Brother MFC-J4355DW is the smarter value if you'd rather spend less upfront and still print cheaply.

An all-in-one inkjet still earns its keep at home: print, scan, copy, and usually fax from one box. But the sticker price hides the real story, which is what the ink costs you over years and whether the machine locks you into buying supplies its way. We weighed a cartridge-free tank printer, a hybrid tank, a photo-friendly cartridge model, and a fast office unit. Two are easy buys, one suits a specific household, and one we'd steer most people away from.

RBE top pick

Epson

Epson EcoTank ET-4950

Buy it

A cartridge-free tank that makes cheap-per-page printing the default, not a subscription.

Best for: Households and home offices that print enough to care about long-term ink cost and want zero subscription strings.

$$$ · premium

Why we like it

• Refillable ink tanks cut running cost dramatically versus cartridges, and Epson rates the bottles in the box at up to 3 years of ink at about 150 pages a month, or up to 6,600 black and 5,500 color pages
• Full feature set: auto document feeder, auto two-sided printing, a 250-sheet tray, 2.4-inch color display, Ethernet, and fax
• Refills come in keyed EcoFit bottles with no subscription or enrollment required

Know before buying

• Highest upfront price of the group, so the savings take time to pay back
• Epson's own fine print says included-bottle yields are lower than replacement bottles because part of the ink goes to initial setup

Check price on Amazon Read our detailed assessment ↓

Brother

Brother MFC-J4355DW

Buy it

The low-cost document workhorse: full office features and high-yield INKvestment cartridges for far less upfront.

Best for: Anyone who mostly prints documents and wants the least fuss and lowest cost without a big upfront outlay.

$$ · mid-range

Why we like it

• Ships with one 1,800-page black cartridge and one 750-page cartridge for each color, per Brother
• Auto two-sided printing, a 20-sheet single-sided document feeder, a 150-sheet tray and fax
• Dual-band Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct and a 2-year limited warranty

Know before buying

• Small 1.8-inch color display feels dated next to rivals
• Still a cartridge printer, so it cannot match a tank's cost per page

Check price on Amazon Read our detailed assessment ↓

Canon

Canon PIXMA TR8620a

It depends

The best-looking prints of the bunch - as long as you don't print in high volume.

Best for: Lower-to-moderate volume homes that value photo quality and a full feature set over rock-bottom running cost.

$$ · mid-range

Why we like it

• Independent testing and owners praise its photo and glossy-paper output for the price
• Well-equipped: touchscreen, document feeder, fax, dual paper feeding, and an SD card slot
• Reliable wireless connection in owner reports

Know before buying

• Cartridge-based, so cost per page climbs quickly if you print a lot
• Small individual cartridges mean more frequent replacements than the tank printers

Check price on Amazon Read our detailed assessment ↓

We'd skip it

HP

HP OfficeJet Pro 9125e

Skip it

Fast and sharp, but the supply lock-in and subscription math undercut it for most homes.

Best for: Buyers who genuinely want a managed ink subscription and won't mind being tied to HP supplies.

$$ · mid-range

Why we like it

• Quick, with crisp text and a solid build
• Full office feature set: document feeder, auto two-sided printing, fax, and a touchscreen

Know before buying

• Dynamic security firmware is designed to block non-HP cartridges, limiting your supply choices
• Its best-case ink cost leans on an ongoing Instant Ink subscription, and owners cite connectivity quirks

See our pick instead See it on Amazon anyway Read our detailed assessment ↓

How we judged the field

We don’t run our own print lab. Instead we synthesize independent testing and a large volume of owner reports, then weight the factors that actually shape years of ownership rather than a spec sheet. Four things did most of the deciding.

First, total ink cost, not the purchase price - the cheapest printer to buy is often the most expensive to feed. Second, supply freedom: whether you can buy ink from anyone or are steered toward one brand’s cartridges or a subscription. Third, the everyday feature set - an automatic document feeder, two-sided printing, a usable screen, and fax still matter in a home office. Fourth, reliability and connection stability, because the most common owner complaint about any inkjet is a dropped Wi-Fi link or a clogged head, not print quality. All four machines here print, scan, copy, and fax; the differences are in how they charge you and how little they get in your way.

This is the one that changes the math. Instead of cartridges, it has refillable tanks you fill from bottles, and Epson rates the bottles in the box at up to 3 years of ink at about 150 pages a month, or up to 6,600 black and 5,500 color pages, with replacement bottles it says save up to 90% against cartridges. You also get the full office kit: an automatic document feeder, auto two-sided printing, a 250-sheet tray, a 2.4-inch color display, Ethernet, and fax, at 18 black and 9 color ISO pages per minute. There’s no plan to enroll in; refills come in keyed EcoFit bottles that only fit the right tank. The catch is the highest upfront price of the group, so it rewards people who print enough to earn the savings back, and Epson’s own fine print notes that the included bottles yield less than replacements because some ink goes to setup. For most homes that print regularly, it’s the soundest long-term buy here.

If the EcoTank’s upfront cost gives you pause, this is the value answer, and it is the model Brother now points buyers to from the discontinued MFC-J4335DW. It uses INKvestment cartridges, which Brother says hold more ink than traditional ones, and ships with one 1,800-page black cartridge and one 750-page cartridge for each color. You get the full office set: auto two-sided printing, a 20-sheet single-sided document feeder, a 150-sheet tray, a manual feed slot and fax, plus dual-band Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct, backed by a 2-year limited warranty. Compromises are modest: the small 1.8-inch color display feels dated, it is still a cartridge printer so it cannot match a tank on cost per page, and as a newer model it has a shorter owner record than its predecessor. As a document-first workhorse at a friendly price, it’s hard to argue with.

The Canon is the picture-maker of the group. Reviewers and owners single out its photo and glossy-paper output as the best here, and it’s generously equipped with a touchscreen, document feeder, fax, dual paper feeding, and an SD card slot, with a reliable wireless connection to boot. The reason it’s a conditional pick rather than a flat buy is running cost: it uses standard cartridges, and smaller individual tanks mean the cost per page - and the frequency of buying ink - climbs if you print in volume. Match it to the right household and it’s excellent; use it as a high-volume document printer and the ink bills will nag.

On raw performance the HP is easy to like: it’s quick, text is crisp, and the build is solid, with the same document feeder, duplex, and fax as the rest. Our hesitation is about ownership, not output. Its firmware uses dynamic security designed to block cartridges that lack an approved HP chip, which narrows your ink choices and has, on HP printers generally, refused cartridges after updates. And its most attractive ink cost leans on staying enrolled in an ongoing subscription rather than simply buying supplies as needed; owner reports also cite connectivity quirks. If a managed subscription is exactly what you want, it can work - but for most people the strings attached make it the one to pass on.

Epson EcoTank ET-4950 vs Brother MFC-J4355DW: which should you buy?

These are the two we’d hand most people, and the choice comes down to how you’d rather pay. The Epson EcoTank ET-4950 costs the most upfront and gives back the lowest running cost of anything here, with bottled ink, no subscription and Ethernet. The Brother MFC-J4355DW flips it: spend far less today, get the same document feeder, duplex printing and fax, and buy high-yield cartridges as you go.

Buy the Epson if you print enough that ink cost dominates the decision and you want the lowest possible cost per page for years, with no subscription. Buy the Brother if you want to spend less now and mostly print documents where a bigger screen and top photo quality don’t matter. Neither is a wrong answer - the Epson wins on long-run economics, the Brother on upfront value and simplicity.

What to look for

• Cost per page, not sticker price - a cheap printer with pricey ink is the classic trap; tank systems win the long game.
• Supply freedom - check whether the printer restricts third-party ink or pushes a subscription before you commit.
• An automatic document feeder - the most-used extra in a home office for multi-page scans and copies.
• Auto two-sided printing - saves paper and hassle; all four here include it.
• Connection reliability - read owner reports for Wi-Fi complaints, and plan to keep the printer near your router.
• Photo needs - if you print images often, prioritize a model rated for photo output rather than one tuned only for documents.

Our final take

Buy the Epson EcoTank ET-4950 if you print regularly and want the lowest long-term ink cost with no subscription - it’s the best all-around value once you look past the higher purchase price. If you’d rather keep the upfront spend low, the Brother MFC-J4355DW is the smart choice that keeps the office features for less. Choose the Canon PIXMA TR8620a only if photos matter and your volume is modest. And unless you specifically want a managed ink plan, we’d skip the HP OfficeJet Pro 9125e - it prints well, but the supply restrictions and subscription-dependent pricing make it the weakest fit for most homes.

Deciding between the top two? See our head-to-head: Epson EcoTank ET-4950 vs Brother MFC-J4355DW.

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