Whether you regularly work from home or your children need to print out school work, having one of the best home printers is going to prove to be incredibly useful. Not all home printers are the same, so when you're looking for yourself, you'll want to factor in reliability, efficiency and ultimately the cost – not just of the printer itself, but any ongoing costs for ink cartridges.
Home printers can often be called upon to do more than simply print out documents too, with many of us looking for other capabilities such as being able to print photos or scan and photocopy documents. Ultimately, the more versatile your home printer, the better prepared you're going to be for any eventuality.
Fortunately, the best home printers don't take up that much space. After all, your home office isn't going to have the same luxury of space afforded to office printers, so manufacturers need to make them relatively compact and lightweight, meaning they can be tucked away in a cupboard when not in use.
Regardless of how big your household is or what your home office demands are, we’ve got the best printer for your needs right here on this list. Plus, our price comparison tool will help you find the best deals on the printer of your choice.
Best home printers in Australia: the quick list
Below you can find a roundup of our choices for the best TVs in Australia right now along with our summarised opinion. You can jump to a more detailed review of every pick, along with a price comparison tool to help ensure you find the best deals.
The best home printer overall
The Canon Maxify GX7060 packs all the main features you’d need out of a home printer into a neat and tidy package, without compromising on style. Plus its ongoing costs are inexpensive and less wasteful than cartridge printers.
The best budget home printer
With both a low starting cost and high-yield cartridges, the Brother DCP-J1200W is the best option if you don’t want to spend too much money on a new printer. You’re compromising on ongoing costs with ink cartridges, but this multi-purpose printer will go the distance if you don’t want to spend too much money up front.
The best home printer for WFH
Offering the core functions of print, copy and scan along with the Epson EcoTank ink system, the ET-2850 is a fully-functional and relatively affordable home printer that will suit those who spend most of their working life at home.
The best home printer for photos
The initial cost of this Epson photo printer may be high, but if you regularly print your pics, it will serve you well in the long run. You get enough ink included to print over 2,000 photos, and replacements are high-volume and affordable.
The best home printer for speed
It may be a little more basic in terms of feature set compared to others on this list, but if you just need to print lots of pages quickly and efficiently, the Kyocera Ecosys P5026cdw's 26 ppm printing speed is the one for you.
The best home printer for SMBs
Delivering a large office performance in a compact, easy to manoeuvre body, this Lexmark printer is one of the standout options for small and medium-sized businesses.
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The best budget laser home printer
Quick colour printing and an affordable price tag make this Brother a terrific option for those on a budget. It's not going to be the best for photos, but for everything else, it's great.
- Also check out our best small business printers roundup
The best home printers in Australia 2024
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Below you'll find more in-depth information for each home printer we've selected. You can then either view the latest best prices using our price comparison tool or click through to read the full review.
The best home printer overall
The initial cost of this Canon MAXIFY inkjet may be high, but you'll soon start saving that money back when you realise how economical it is to run. Included in the price of this 4-in-1 colour inkjet is a complete set of six ink bottles, good enough for 18,000 mono pages or 14,000 colour pages. Even the busiest of home offices will take their time going making their way through all that.
You get two deep paper trays good enough for 250 sheets each, along with a separate rear tray that holds another 100 sheets. Packed with features, including scan, fax and photocopy, along with built-in Wi-Fi and Apple AirPrint, this is tremendous printer that should suit virtually every home office in the land.
Read our full Canon MAXIFY GX7020/7050/7060 review
The best budget home printer
While this printer might not be much to look at, the Brother DCP-J1200W nonetheless offers low cost yet high yielding cartridges. The odd shaped bulge on the side of the printer houses its unusually large inkjet cartridges. Brother calls this an INKvestment Tank printer, and it’s the company’s answer to Canon and Epson’s refillable ink tank printers. It’s more economical to run than a standard ink-jet printer thanks to these high capacity ink cartridges.
With the Brother DCP-J1200W, you won’t be getting an LCD screen or auto-duplex mode, but you will still get all the features necessary to print, scan and copy your documents and at a decent speed of 16 black and white pages per minute too.
It can hold up to 150 A4 sheets in its main tray, and has a flatbed for scanning/copying documents as well, making it a confident and competent all-rounder option.
Read the full Brother DCP-J1200W review
The best printer for working from home
This all-in-one A4 inkjet is aimed at home workers or a small office, so it’s compact and efficient and comes with essential business features such as auto duplex printing, high-res scanning and integrated wi-fi with AirPrint. While this is fairly basic printer with with limited features and no front input tray, it's a great option if you do a lot of printing.
It’s not the cheapest printer to buy, but when it comes to CCP (cost per page), this efficient EcoTank is hard to beat, and with so much bottled ink in the box, the price is justified.
Read the full Epson EcoTank ET-2850 review
The best home printer for photos
The Epson EcoTank ET-8550 relies on the brand's six-colour Claria system in a refillable, eco-friendly EcoTank format. Six inks is better than four when it comes to photo printing, and so the results this Epson printer is able to deliver are nothing short of outstanding for a home printer.
It's relatively economical too and comes with enough ink to print 2,300 photos, but do note that due to the fact it can support up to A3 size photos, it does mean it's a pretty big machine that you'll need to make space for. Although, it must be said it is easier to accommodate than some other A3 printers due to its low height.
If you do wish to print out photos at home, this Epson should be your first port of call. Although, if you don't need the A3 size support, then ET-8500 performs in much of the same way, but just supports up to A4 size instead.
Read the full Epson EcoTank ET-8550 review
The best home printer for speed
This stout laser printer takes up relatively little space, something slightly surprising given its high capacity for paper and toner. This means you can keep printing quickly and efficiently with lower running costs than an equivalent inkjet.
The display is rather fiddly, but in all other respects, this colour printer is easy to use and can be relied upon for immaculate mono and colour documents time after time.
Read the full Kyocera Ecosys P5026cdw review
The best home printer for SMBs
If you want all the functionality of a photocopier-style four-in-one, but can’t justify the expense of a premium machine, then the Lexmark MB2236ADWE is likely to fit your needs.
The smaller size of this one is an advantage, the price is attractive, printing is fast enough and so is the quality (provided you stick to dedicated laser paper). It’s a pity there’s no Wi-Fi Direct facility, or an active front USB input, but that aside, you're getting a lot for your money here.
Read the full Lexmark MB2236ADWE review
The best budget laster home printer
If you can live without more premium features such as a touchscreen or NFC and instead just want your home printer to print quickly and efficiently, this Brother laser could be the best option for you. Capable of churning out up to 25 pages each minute, and continued fast speeds when duplex printing, it's a highly capable performer.
There's enough toner included in the box for 1,000 black and white pages and 1,000 colour and replacement toner isn't necessarily the most economical around, so this isn't a home printer we'd recommend for heavy users.
The Brother HL-L3230CDW isn't always available in Australia for a decent price, so also consider the more basic (and cheaper) Brother HL-L2445DW instead.
Read the full Brother HL-L3230CDW review
Best home printers FAQ
What is a home printer?
Home printers have been designed for ease of use within a household, often offering printing options for multiple devices and versatility in what can be printed.
A lot of home printers will offer all the capabilities of an office printer in a more compact build, removing the need for multiple devices, though not all come with scanning beds or the ability to act as a fax machine. Across the board, printing quality is generally good, with some even offering photo printer capabilities, which means you can print out quality photos without leaving your home.
Just note that home printers aren’t built for the high capacity of a standard office printer. However, every printer on this list will offer a good printing experience for the home office, something that’s become even more important when working from home.
How to choose the best home printer for you
With the increase of hybrid working options, having a decent printer in your home office has never been more important. An essential device for anyone who has to work from home, there’s a stack of makes and models on the market so you can find exactly what you need. Not only do you have a choice between massive manufacturers such as Espon and HP, but you can also decide whether you’re after an inkjet or laser printer, and if you want a printer that can print in colour or only black and white.
There’ll even be instances where you need a printer with specific features, such as portability or wireless capabilities or even a printer that is specifically built for a Mac.
While the amount of options available can be good, it can also be very overwhelming and tricky to navigate through. That’s why we’ve popped this best printer guide together, to help narrow down the field and make finding the perfect printer that little bit easier.
On this list you’ll find the best home printers available in Australia. From all-in-one printers with a huge array of features, to more basic and compact printers that get the job done, you can find a printer that’s just right for you on any budget.
What are the different types of home printers?
There's a lot of options when it comes to printers, and they all have different advantages. Inkjet printers use liquid ink to create prints and are well suited for printing coloured documents and good for photo printing. Laser printers on the other hand use toner to create prints and are better suited for printing text documents and graphics. Finally, multifunction printers combine all the capabilities of a printer, copier and scanner, though with some models, it can even support fax machine capabilities in the one device.
What should I consider when choosing a home printer?
When choosing a home printer, you want to consider what type of printing you want to do at home (eg. photos, documents). You'll also need to take into account your budget, including ongoing maintenance and ink or toner costs, connectivity options, size and weight. You might also need to consider how often you'll be using the printer, as some models will be better when used on an everyday basis when compared to others.
How do I maintain my home printer?
Home printers will need to be regularly cleaned, and ink or toner replaced when necessary. You'll also need to make sure that you don't overcrowd the printer with paper and keep it in a dust-free environment to avoid clogging the machine.
What is the cost of ink or toner for home printers?
Ink or toner costs will vary depending on the printer itself and how it's used. There are high-capacity ink or toner cartridges that can last a while longer and save you some money in the long run. Other printers will have smaller cartridges which might not cost as much as a high-capacity cartridges initially, but will need to be replaced more frequently. The ongoing cost of ink or toner replacements are important to consider when purchasing a home printer, as this is the most significant ongoing expense for the devices. There are some subscription or bulk purchasing options available to reduce the cost, so it's a good idea to shop around and compare the ongoing costs before picking out a new printer for your home office.
Best home printers: how do we test them?
Unlike smartphones, printers don’t necessarily go through massive changes year on year. Printers launched last year are unlikely to be significantly different from ones launched five years ago. There hasn’t been many changes in printing resolution, connectivity or features, and as such our printing tests haven’t changed much either.
We test printers against our bench test, and critically compare the results with every other model we’ve reviewed previously. We time how long it takes to print ourselves, rather than relying on the manufacturer’s quoted figures, with tests on both single page and duplex printing where available.
We also print out the same test documents on every machine to compare the quality of the resolution. These twelve test pages offer a mix of colour, text and images as well as photos and patterns so we can assess the printer’s sharpness, colour fidelity, grey scale and contrast.
With any printer we review, we calculate the running costs, compare the functionality and also consider the product's design, versatility and build quality, with the overall score reflecting all these parameters.
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