Small Business Printers of 2019 All in One and Mfps for Soho and Smbs
Small business printers of 2019 : All in one and MFPs for SoHo and SMBs
If you're looking for the best small business printers in 2019, all in one or single function, then you've come to the right place, as we've gathered together the very best printers that suit the needs for small and medium sized businesses.
Getting the best small business printer for your needs involves making sure that the device can cope with the demands of a small office, while also being capable of increasing its output as your business grows. You don't want to buy a printer for your small business, then have to upgrade too soon when your business expands.
The best small business printers are economical to run – so they won't cost a lot in electricity bills or going through ink or toner cartridges – and they should also offer fast print speeds that's not at the expense of image quality.
The small business printers on this list can also cope with handling multiple tasks from multiple people throughout the day. Even the smallest of businesses will be sending documents from networked PCs all day – and if they can also offer photocopying, faxing and scanning features as well, that's even better.
All in One printers: Yes or no?
We've got some brilliant multi function printers on this list which are space and money saving devices for the smallest of offices. All-in-one printers that offer photocopying and scanning not only can save your small business money compared to buying the devices individually, having them all in one compact device will save space as well.
If you're not sure about what type of small business printer you need, head to the bottom of our guide, where we explain the best ways to find and buy the best small business printer that suits your needs.
- These are the best printers of 2019 from an overall perspective
So where do you need to start? Even the most modest office will likely be networked, and sharing a resource as useful as a printer is an essential. So you should only be looking at printers that are capable of networked use. Wired offers speed and robust function for a fixed office. Wireless is flexible, cheap to deploy but not as fast in use.
Here are the best 10 printers for businesses - as chosen by the Techradar Pro team - large and small, from a basic monochrome lasers suitable for a small business and a home office through to a small departmental multifunction printer.
Image Credit: Oki
1. Oki C542dn laser printer
Snappy and secure laser printing for the small business
Category: colour laser printer | Print speed: 30ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 300 | Weight: 24kg
Fast duplex printing
7-inch display
Expensive
Wi-Fi costs extra
This robust and surprisingly heavy unit prints quickly and in mono and colour and duplex modes. It also prints privately thanks to range of security features and it flaunts an unusually large touchscreen display that makes it refreshingly easy to operate. It doesn’t come with Wi-Fi as standard but it is well suited to servicing a busy workgroup in a small to medium sized business.
Read the full review: Oki C542dn
Image Credit: Xerox
2. Xerox VersaLink C405 all in one printer
Substantial laser all-in-one for heavy workloads
Category: 4-in-1 colour laser MFD | Print speed: 35ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 550 + 150 | Weight: 33kg
Very fast
Excellent interface
Expensive
Heavy and bulky
This is a heavy-duty high-spec four-in-one laser printer and it will be able to keep up with a fairly large work group with heavy print demands. Xerox quotes a monthly duty cycle of 80,000 pages, which should be enough for most small to medium sized businesses. The deep main paper tray holds 550 sheets of paper with another 150 in its multipurpose tray. It photocopies and prints very quickly and reliably. There are no features missing here and you can access them all through an excellent touchscreen.
Read the full review: Xerox VersaLink C405
Image Credit: Kyocera
3. Kyocera Ecosys FS-2100DN
Small, but expandable premium printing
Category: mono laser printer | Print speed: 40ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 500 | Weight: 13.5kg
Many upgrade options
Rapid print speed
No touchscreen
No inbuilt Wi-Fi
This premium mono printer is compact enough to slot into a small office, but is also easy to upgrade with extra paper trays as your print demand grows. You can fit 500 sheets inside as it comes, or up to 2,600 with all the options added. It prints very quickly at 40ppm, and offers useful duplex and draft modes. The display and circular button keypad aren’t as convenient as a touchscreen, but with Kyocera’s lifetime drum and a high-capacity toner cartridge fitted, this is a cost effective way of printing a lot of high-quality pages.
Image Credit: TechRadar
4. Brother HL-L5100DN
Fast and affordable printing in the small office
Category: mono laser printer | Print speed: 40ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 300 | Weight: 10.7kg
High print speed
Compact unit
No inbuilt Wi-Fi
Tiny display
It looks rather drab and unassuming in its battleship grey livery, but this little mono printer can really churn out the paper. The print speed is fast at 40ppm and duplex pages are not much slower. Despite the deceptively small size, you can fit 500 sheets of A4 paper inside. It is rather light on features with no Wi-Fi or a front USB port, but the quality is consistent and the per page print cost is attractive making it a good choice for the small to medium-sized business.
Read the full review: Brother HL-L5100DN
Image Credit: TechRadar
5. Xerox VersaLink B600DN
Turbo-charged printer for heavy print loads
Category: mono laser printer | Print speed: 55ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 550 | Weight: 22.3kg
Record breaking speed
High paper capacity
Expensive
Wi-Fi is extra
At 55 pages per minute, this is the fastest printer we have tested so far, which makes it a good choice for the busy SMB. It is a premium machine and for a monochrome print-only device might seem expensive. However, the per page cost is competitive because the price of Xerox’s high-capacity toner cartridges is so competitive. The intuitive five-inch touchscreen is high quality, just like the printed pages it puts out.
Read the full review: Xerox VersaLink B600DN
Image Credit: Oki
6. Oki C824dn
Super compact A3 with plenty of options
Category: A3 colour laser printer | Print speed: 26ppm | Paper sizes: up to A3 | Paper capacity: 300 | Weight: 37kg
Smallest A3 printer
Upgradable
Expensive
Not the fastest
A3 printers that can meet the needs of a small to medium-sized business usually demand their own corner of the office, but not this miniaturised laser printer. And despite its impressively small footprint, its appetite for paper is considerable. You can fit 300 sheets in the main paper tray, 100 more in the multi-purpose tray and another 535 if you buy an additional tray. It’s also possible to add up to four of these and a paper roll accessory for printing long banners. This Oki isn’t the fastest laser out there, but it is the smallest A3 printer and one of the most flexible.
Image Credit: Epson
7. Epson EcoTank ET-M2140 all in one printer
A refillable ink tank cuts the print cost of this 3-in-1
Category: 3-in-1 mono inkjet printer | Print speed: 20ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 250 | Weight: 6.4kg
Economical to run
Prompt duplex printing
Expensive to buy
No fax facility
This three-in-one printer/scanner might seem expensive for an inkjet, but as with its other cartridge-free solutions, Epson includes a generous amount of ink. The bottle of black ink in the box is good for 11,000 pages and Epson recons you’ll make savings of around 90% compared with cartridges. You can fit 250 pages in the main paper tray, scan at high resolution and print crisp duplex pages with a very quick first page out time. The fairly large LCD screen makes it easier to use and the distinctive design picked up a Red Dot award.
Image Credit: HP
8. HP PageWide Pro 477dw all in one printer
An inkjet printer that performs like a laser
Category: 4-in-1 colour inkjet printer | Print speed: 55ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 500 | Weight: 22.2kg
Very fast print speed
2-sided copying
Noisy in operation
Expensive
HP’s PageWide technology uses inkjets, but because the print head is the full width of the paper, your documents don’t need to stop and start like a normal inkjet. Instead they glide through like more a laser. Because of this, the quoted print speed of 55 pages per minute is no exaggeration. Bing an inkjet, it can handle photo paper and deliver vibrant colour images up to A4 size. It can also copy duplex pages by scanning both sides of the paper automatically. The paper capacity is a generous 500-sheets with upgrade options available, but even without them, this fast and innovative four-in-one will suit a busy small to medium sized business.
Image Credit: Brother
9. Brother HL-L8360CDW
Fast colour printing with touchscreen convenience
Category: colour laser printer | Print speed: 31ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 300 | Weight: 21.9kg
Intuitive interface
Fast print speed
Bulky unit
Expensive
Brother has brought this colour laser printer bang up to date with the addition of a large touchscreen interface. This makes it much easier to access the cloud printing features and to check the toner levels at the machine. It prints quickly in duplex mode and comes with security features essential for a shared office printer. The paper capacity is moderate at 300-sheets, but Brother offers plenty of optional units to upgrade this capacity. This would suit a small to medium sized business with room to grow.
Image Credit: TechRadar
10. Ricoh SP C261DNw
An affordable colour printer for the SMB
Category: colour laser printer | Print speed: 20ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 250 | Weight: 23.8kg
Vivid colour pages
Duplex and Wi-Fi
Noisy and slow
Unintuitive interface
At a competitive price point, Ricoh has kitted out this colour laser printer with all of the key features, including Wi-Fi connectivity, auto duplex mode and essential security features such at PIN identification when picking up your print job. It looks a little dated with that tiny display and the print speed is somewhat slow for a laser, but the print quality is strong when it comes to both mono and colour pages.
Read the full review: Ricoh SP C261DNw
How to buy a business printer
Multi-function features can be found across the board and at all cost scales. Basic features start with USB Key and card readers for PC-free printing, moving to scanner and copier functions. At the higher end, automatic document feeders (ADF) can manage 50 copies in a single go and produce booklets including duplex printing, stapling and folding. Often the basic ADF features will accommodate most medium-sized offices.
In the past there has been a marked difference in Cost Per Page (CPP) between lasers and inkjets but in recent years, inkjets have managed to drop their prices to compete. Either way it's important you carefully assess the CPP of each device.
Manufacturers measure the toner or cartridge yields with an industry standard ISO rating. So you can safely assess the total price of replacing all the cartridges or toners divided by the print yield across all the potential models.
The total volume of prints you're going to make also needs to be taken into account. Devices often quote a "duty cycle" monthly maximum and recommended figures. These are the total number of prints it's designed to handle per month. If possible assess the number of prints per employee for the office and ensure the device is capable of meeting your current and future demands.
Finally in the past colour especially for laser printers has demanded a premium, that's not so much the case these days. However these models are still more expensive due to the additional materials required for the toners and printer manufacture. There's still a big enough differential that if you don't need regular colour you should opt for a mono model, perhaps using a cheaper inkjet or even out-of-house printing for occasional colour requirements.