The single most important pricing factor to remember when buying a color printer is that the ongoing cost is much more than the initial purchase price. The least expensive color printers – inkjets – have far more expensive per-page costs, and will wind up costing you significantly more in the long run.

As an example, consider a small office that prints 50 pages per day, which works out to 15,000 pages per year. A typical inkjet printer cartridge might be rated at around 1,000 pages and cost $30 – that’s $450 per year in ink costs alone, for a printer that only cost $150 to buy. Cartridge yields are frequently overstated by manufacturers, as well – they are often based on unrealistic page coverage – so $550 to $600 might be a more realistic estimate.

Consumer inkjets start under $100, but even if you’re buying an inkjet for very occasional color printing, you should avoid these cheap rigs. Business inkjets priced between $150 and $300 can produce good results at a somewhat more expensive per-page cost than lasers – but if you’re disciplined about only using it when you actually need to print in color, it’s a great way to save some money. If you choose an inkjet, make sure you choose one that has separate cartridges for each color ink.

Color laser printer costs
Prices for small business color laser printers have dropped steadily over the years, and you can now find reasonable printers for as little as $300. Your expected monthly volume will be the single biggest contributor to cost: a machine capable of handling the printing needs of a medium-sized office can go for $1,000 to $3,000. At the high end, networked copier printers double as color copiers and network laser printers, and cost $5,000 to $10,000 or more. See what other BuyerZone users have paid for color printers.

Toner cartridges for laser printers are typically more expensive than inkjet refills, but they also last much longer. Many cartridges have listed yields of 2,000 to 5,000 pages or more. Again, those yields are based on unrealistically low page coverage – 5% in many cases – so you won’t get quite the listed performance, but toner is significantly cheaper per page than inkjet refills.

Because of the significant costs of medium and high-end color printers, leasing is a very popular financing option. Instead of a capital expenditure of thousands of dollars, you’ll have a much more manageable monthly fee. A color printer lease will also include regular maintenance, and you get the ability to occasionally trade up to a new model. Avoid leases that lock you into a specific printer for more than a year or two: technology moves quickly, prices fall, and your printing needs may evolve, so the flexibility to change models is important.