Best Small Printers for Your Office Upgrade
The right small office printer is decided by two numbers: how many pages your business prints each month and how many people share the machine. A sole trader printing a few hundred pages is best served by a low-cost ink tank. A team of four to fifteen sharing one device should buy a laser multifunction with an automatic document feeder. Price comes third.
We repair printers across Sydney every week, so this list leans on something most buying guides skip: how each machine holds up once the warranty runs out, and whether it can be serviced when it doesn’t. Here are seven current models worth putting in a small business, and how to choose between them.
What makes a printer right for a small office?
A small office printer suits a business when its recommended monthly page volume comfortably covers real usage, it scans multi-page documents through an automatic document feeder, it connects over Ethernet or Wi-Fi so the whole team can share it, and its cost per page stays low over three years. Purchase price matters least of the four.
Each of those factors deserves a closer look before you compare models.
- Recommended monthly page volume: the number of pages a manufacturer says the printer handles comfortably each month. It is very different from the maximum duty cycle, which is a stress-test ceiling, not a target. A printer run near its maximum wears rollers and fusers far faster.
- Automatic document feeder (ADF): a tray that feeds multi-page originals into the scanner. Without one, staff scan contracts and invoices one page at a time on the glass. A duplex ADF scans both sides in one pass.
- Duplex printing: automatic two-sided printing. It halves paper use on long documents and is now standard on business models.
- Networking and security: Ethernet gives a shared office a more stable connection than Wi-Fi alone. Secure or private print holds a job until the person releases it at the printer, which matters for payroll, HR and client files.
- Cost per page: the ink or toner cost of each printed page. It decides whether a cheap printer stays cheap.
Workshop tip: Buy a printer whose recommended monthly volume is roughly double what you print today. Businesses grow, and machines that run near their limit are the ones we see most often for worn feed rollers and paper jams. [CONFIRM WITH TECHNICIANS]
Laser or ink tank: which is better for a business?
Laser printers suit businesses where several people share one machine, speed matters and most output is text. Ink tank printers such as Epson EcoTank and Canon MegaTank suit sole traders and small teams that print regular colour at lower volume and want the lowest ink cost. Laser also copes better with irregular use, because toner does not dry out.
That last point is the one buyers underestimate. An inkjet left idle over the Christmas shutdown can return with blocked nozzles and streaky output, and repeated cleaning cycles burn through ink. Toner sits in a sealed cartridge and prints cleanly after weeks of rest.
Ink tanks win on colour running cost by a wide margin, which is why they suit businesses that print marketing material, menus or photos in small batches. They are slower, though, and most are rated for lighter monthly workloads than a business laser.
The 7 best small office printers at a glance
| Model | Type | Best for | Speed (A4, mono) | ADF | Fax | Approx. price (inc. GST) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brother MFC-L8390CDW | Colour laser MFP | Best all-rounder for shared offices | 30 ppm | 50 sheets, duplex | Yes | ~$650 |
| Kyocera ECOSYS MA2100cwfx | Colour laser MFP | Compact colour with long-life parts | 21 ppm | Yes, single-sided | Yes | ~$590 |
| HP LaserJet Pro MFP 3101fdw | Mono laser MFP | Document-heavy offices | ~33 ppm [VERIFY] | Yes [VERIFY] | Yes | [VERIFY] |
| Epson EcoTank ET-4950 | Ink tank MFP | Lowest running cost with fax | 18 ISO ppm | 30 sheets | Yes | ~$635 |
| Canon MAXIFY GX7160 | Ink tank MFP | Growing teams, high paper capacity | [VERIFY] | Yes, duplex | Yes | ~$795 |
| Fujifilm ApeosPort Print C3830SD | Colour laser printer | Higher-volume print-only offices | [VERIFY] | No (print only) | No | [VERIFY] |
| Epson EcoTank ET-2950 | Ink tank MFP | Sole traders and home businesses | 18 ISO ppm [VERIFY] | No (flatbed only) | No | ~$425 |
Prices are indicative Australian retail as at October 2026 and change often. [VERIFY against your own pricing before publishing.]
1. Brother MFC-L8390CDW: best all-rounder for a shared office
The Brother MFC-L8390CDW is the machine we’d point most growing offices towards. It prints colour and mono at the same 30 pages per minute, scans both sides of a document in one pass through its 50-sheet feeder, and connects over Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi or NFC tap-to-print.
Brother parts are widely stocked in Australia, which keeps repair turnaround short when something does wear out. [CONFIRM WITH TECHNICIANS: add a line on how often you see this range and what typically needs replacing.]
Watch for: colour toner costs more up front than ink tank bottles, so it is the wrong pick if colour marketing output is your main job.
2. Kyocera ECOSYS MA2100cwfx: best compact colour laser
Kyocera’s ECOSYS design uses long-life drums and imaging components, so routine replacement is mostly limited to toner. That makes the MA2100cwfx a sensible choice for a small office that wants colour laser quality without a heavy maintenance schedule. It prints at 21 pages per minute, includes fax, wireless and Wi-Fi Direct, and has a quiet mode for open-plan spaces.
Watch for: the document feeder scans one side at a time, so offices scanning large double-sided packs will be faster on the Brother.
3. HP LaserJet Pro MFP 3101fdw: best for document-heavy work
If your output is invoices, contracts, statements and forms, colour is an expense you don’t need. The LaserJet Pro MFP 3101fdw is a black-and-white multifunction built for exactly that: fast duplex printing, an automatic document feeder, fax, and HP’s business security features, including firmware protection that suits offices handling client data.
Paralegals, accountants, bookkeepers and real estate offices get the most out of a fast mono laser, because nearly every page they print is text.
Watch for: it is mono only. Keep a small colour device for the occasional brochure rather than paying colour toner prices for every page.
4. Epson EcoTank ET-4950: lowest running cost with full office features
The ET-4950 is the ink tank to buy when running cost matters most but you still need office functions. It has a 30-sheet ADF, automatic two-sided printing, fax, Ethernet and Wi-Fi, and a 250-sheet tray. Epson rates its refill bottles at up to 8,500 black pages and 6,500 colour pages, and recommends up to 1,600 pages a month.
Watch for: at 18 ISO pages per minute in black it is noticeably slower than the lasers on this list. It suits a small team, not a busy shared print queue.
5. Canon MAXIFY GX7160: best ink tank for a growing team
The GX7160 is what an office buys when it has outgrown a desktop ink tank but still wants refillable ink. Two 250-sheet cassettes plus a rear feed mean far fewer paper refills, and it adds duplex printing, duplex scanning, fax, Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Canon positions it for higher-volume small office work.
Watch for: it is larger than a typical desktop printer, so measure the space before ordering.
6. Fujifilm ApeosPort Print C3830SD: best for higher-volume print-only offices
Fujifilm (formerly Fuji Xerox in Australia) builds its smaller ApeosPort models with the same office pedigree as its photocopiers. The C3830SD is a print-only colour laser, a good fit for offices that already have a separate scanner, or that print far more than they scan and want a heavier-duty engine. [VERIFY speed and paper capacity.]
Watch for: no scanner or copier, so check that nobody in the office relies on the printer to digitise documents.
7. Epson EcoTank ET-2950: best budget pick for sole traders
For a sole trader or home-based business printing quotes, labels and the odd colour flyer, the ET-2950 keeps both purchase price and ink cost low. It prints two-sided automatically and uses the same refill bottles as Epson’s larger EcoTanks.
Watch for: scanning is flatbed only and the tray holds 100 sheets. If you scan multi-page documents more than once a week, step up to the ET-4950.
How much should a small business spend on a printer?
A small business should judge a printer on its three-year total cost of ownership, not its purchase price. Total cost of ownership adds the purchase price, the consumables needed for your monthly page volume over 36 months, and expected servicing. A cheap printer with expensive cartridges usually costs more by the second year.
Manufacturers publish page yields for their consumables, so you can work out a cost per page from the cartridge or bottle price and its rated yield. Run the numbers for your two or three shortlisted models and the “cheapest” option often changes.
Warning: Rated yields are measured at around 5 per cent page coverage. Pages heavy with logos, tables or photos use far more ink or toner, so treat published yields as a best case.
Signs your office has outgrown its printer
- Paper jams every week: usually worn pickup rollers or a machine working beyond its recommended volume.
- Queues at the printer: a sign the print speed or first-page-out time no longer matches the team size.
- Staff scanning page by page: an ADF would return hours each month.
- Toner or ink orders every fortnight: a higher-yield model will cut both cost and admin.
- Repairs costing more than half a new machine: that is the point we usually advise replacing rather than repairing.
If several of those sound familiar and you run more than one device, managed print services can bundle the machines, consumables and servicing into one predictable monthly cost.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best small printer for an office?
The best small printer for most offices is a colour laser multifunction such as the Brother MFC-L8390CDW, because it combines 30 pages per minute, duplex scanning through a 50-sheet feeder and wired networking for shared use. Sole traders with low volume get better value from an ink tank such as the Epson EcoTank ET-4950.
Is an ink tank printer good for business use?
An ink tank printer is good for business use when monthly volume sits within its recommended range and the office prints regular colour at modest speed. Models such as the Epson EcoTank ET-4950 and Canon MAXIFY GX7160 add business features like ADF scanning, fax and Ethernet. Busy shared offices are usually better served by a laser.
How many pages a month can a small office printer handle?
A small office printer typically handles anywhere from around 1,000 to several thousand pages a month, depending on the model. The figure to check is the manufacturer’s recommended monthly page volume, not the maximum duty cycle. Epson, for example, recommends up to 1,600 pages a month for the EcoTank ET-4950.
Get the right printer, and keep it running
Write down your monthly page count and the number of people who print, then match them to the table above. That one step rules out most of the wrong choices.
Printer Repair Centre sells all the major brands, including Brother, Canon, HP, Fujifilm and Kyocera, and we service and repair laser printers across Sydney. If you want a second opinion on a shortlist, or a better price on a specific model, see our range of office printers for sale or call us on (02) 9684 0044.
