We got tired of buying the wrong printer.

In 2019, I spent $89 on a printer that cost $40 every two months in ink. Then I bought a replacement. Same mistake. After the third one, I decided to actually research this stuff — and I couldn't find a single source I trusted.

Every "best printer" article I found was either stuffed with affiliate links to whatever paid the highest commission, hopelessly out of date, or written by someone who'd clearly never touched a printer in their life. The useful forums were buried on page four of Google, and manufacturer spec sheets were designed to confuse rather than clarify.

So we started testing things ourselves. Measuring actual ink costs. Running printers until the cartridges died. Tracking which models broke within a year and which were still running three years later. That turned into PrinterStores.com.

Our mission

Make printer buying easy and honest. That means clear, specific recommendations over vague "it depends" answers. It means measuring cost-per-page with real cartridges instead of trusting manufacturer numbers. It means updating our reviews when things change — not just leaving stale picks up for years because they rank well.

How we test

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    We buy the printers. We don't accept review units from manufacturers. Buying retail ensures we're testing what you'd actually get, not a cherry-picked sample.
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    We measure cost-per-page with real cartridges. ISO ratings are a starting point, not a truth. We track actual pages printed per cartridge under real-world use conditions.
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    We track reliability over time. A printer that scores great in the first two months but fails at month 14 is not a good printer. We keep notes and update our recommendations when failure patterns emerge.

Our transparency policy

We don't take money from printer brands. We don't run sponsored posts. We don't let advertising relationships influence our rankings — ever.

We earn a small commission when you buy through our links — that's how the site pays for itself. But our picks are our picks regardless of commission rates. The best printer for you is the best printer for you, full stop.

Who we are

It's just us — a small team of people who print a lot and hate wasting money on ink. We don't have a PR team or a marketing department. We have a lot of opinions about printers and a healthy distrust of manufacturer spec sheets. That's pretty much it.

Have a question? We actually reply.

Printer question, feedback on a review, or just want to tell us we're wrong about something — we read every message.

Get in touch →