What Is the Best Printer? You're Asking the Wrong Question

Search “what is the best printer” and you'll get roughly 100 million results. That's the problem—or rather, that's the symptom. The problem is the question itself.

I'm the quality and brand compliance manager at Fellowes. In a typical year I review 200+ unique products—shredders, laminators, printer stands, ergonomic accessories, and other office equipment we're evaluating. I don't accept a spec sheet on faith. I open the box, measure the parts, and run the unit until it fails. After years of this, I can tell you with confidence: “best” is not a property a product has. It's a conclusion you earn after you define what the product needs to do for you.

That's why the search query “what is the best printer” makes me wince. It looks like a question, but it's a shortcut. It lets you skip the spec part and jump straight to an answer that probably doesn't match your situation.

Best Is a Specification, Not a Ranking

In Q1 2024, we tested a batch of shredders from a new supplier. Our internal spec says each unit should handle 100 consecutive sheets of 24-pound bond without jamming or overheating. We tested 20 units. Four of them failed at around sheet 80. The supplier's response: the failure rate was “within industry standard.”

I asked them to name the standard. After a long silence, it became clear there wasn't one. “Industry standard” was a phrase they used to avoid responsibility. We rejected the batch and made them rework it at their cost. That lesson stuck with me: vague words are dangerous in quality control, and “best” is one of the vaguest words in the English language.

Most printer guides are built on vague words too. The reviewer calls a printer “best overall” or “great for small businesses.” Which small business? The one that prints invoices, or the one that prints engineering drawings? The reviewer doesn't know. Under the FTC's Green Guides, advertisers have to substantiate claims like “recyclable.” If we applied that same standard to “best,” most listicles wouldn't survive it. What test did the reviewer run? How many pages? What paper weight? What happened when the printer jammed? If a review doesn't show its inputs, it's an opinion wearing a ranking's clothes.

Calculators Don't Guess. Neither Should You.

Maybe the best way to explain this is with calculators. Pull up the Dave Ramsey retirement calculator and you'll see a tool that asks for your age, your income, how much you've saved, and the return you expect. You can argue with the assumptions, but you can't argue with the math. Change the input and the output changes. A decimal calculator is even more honest: it calculates to the cent instead of rounding to “close enough.” Nobody blames the calculator when the result is bad. They check the inputs.

Product decisions deserve the same discipline. When someone asks me for the best printer, I want to ask them: how many pages per month? What paper size? What duty cycle? How long are you willing to wait on hold when it breaks? Those inputs matter more than the “best overall” label. A calculator forces you to think about them. A listicle doesn't.

The Machine Is Only Half the Story

Even a well-chosen printer doesn't exist in a vacuum. It sits on a surface. It shares space with paper, spare toner, and cables. I've seen offices spend $900 on a printer and then balance it on a wobbly folding table. The resulting vibration misaligns the paper tray and produces jams nobody can explain.

I work at Fellowes, and I test our products before they ship, so I'll admit my bias. The Fellowes Office Suites printer stand has a steel frame and an adjustable shelf. It solves a problem most people don't know they have until their neck or back starts hurting. That's not a product pitch—or rather, it's a pitch based on a spec. Put the printer at the right height and you won't spend years reaching for it.

Support is part of the same system. A machine that fails isn't automatically a bad purchase; a brand that disappears when you need help is a deal-breaker. I evaluate vendors by calling their support line before I buy. And since I work for a manufacturer, I do the same to us. If you search for “fellowes support,” you'll find troubleshooting guides, manuals, and contact options. I've tested that page many times. The answer isn't always instant, but the information is there. Support is part of a product, not an afterthought.

What a Bad Purchase Actually Costs

All of this sounds philosophical until you add up the cost. Let me give you a concrete example. According to USPS pricing effective January 2025, a First-Class Mail letter costs $0.73 and a 1-oz large envelope costs $1.50, with additional ounces at $0.28 each (source: usps.com). If you mail 500 large envelopes a month and your printer skews addresses on 10 percent of them, that's 50 wasted envelopes. At $1.50 in postage alone, you're losing $75 a month before you count paper, toner, and the time to reprint. The “best” printer isn't actually best if it fails at your most common task.

I've made buying mistakes too. I was one click away from approving a purchase order for 10 times the quantity we needed—a $9,000 mistake I caught only because I stopped to double-check the math. Another time, an unauthorized specification change slipped through our approval process and caused a $22,000 redo. Those failures taught me to ask one question before any significant purchase: what's not included here?

Vendors who show every fee upfront—shipping, setup, supplies, support—are rare. The ones who hide fees behind attractive base prices usually cost more in the end. I now ask “what is NOT included?” before asking “how much?” A transparent price, even if it's higher, builds trust. The lowest quote is often an incomplete quote.

How to Buy Like a Quality Inspector

Here's the practical version. You can do this without a test lab.

1. Write your spec first. Define the machine by numbers: pages per month, sheet size, speed, duty cycle, and support hours. If a feature can't be measured, it doesn't go in your spec.
2. Ask what's NOT included. Get the total cost—base price, shipping, supplies, setup, and anything that might become an “additional charge” later.
3. Call support before you buy. Send a question that a real user would ask. If the company takes three days to answer, that's your answer.
4. Think about the system, not just the device. A printer on a wobbly table will jam. A printer at the wrong height will hurt you slowly. If your setup is unstable, a printer stand like the Fellowes Office Suites model is worth considering before the new printer arrives.
5. Use tools that show inputs. The Dave Ramsey retirement calculator works because it makes assumptions visible. A decimal calculator works because it doesn't round. Apply that mindset to your product choice: write down your assumptions and test them.

So what is the best printer? I'd turn it around: what do you actually need it to do? “Best” isn't an attribute you find on a box. It's the result you get when the machine's specs, your workflow, your budget, and your support expectations line up. Do the work on the front end, and the answer tends to reveal itself.