If you can purchase a single device that solves many problems, you may wonder why you'd ever want to buy multiple devices to perform those same tasks. Various manufacturers sell a variety of multifunction printers, also called all-in-ones, that also have the ability to scan, copy and even fax documents. Before settling on a printer, weigh their advantages and consider your processing needs.

Features

When reviewing multifunction printers, you'll discover various models that have different features. If you intend to use the equipment for business, you may choose a model that has faxing capabilities, while you might look for models that simply print and scan if the unit is for basic home use. If you're a graphic artist, you may prefer a multifunction printer that produces high-quality color graphics. It is important to compare features when shopping for multifunction printers because they can vary in speed, print quality and other functionality.

Printer Types

Like single function printers, multifunction printers come in two basic types: inkjet and laser. Laser printers are good at printing large volumes of text documents while inkjets excel at producing high quality color graphics. Inkjet printers also cost more to maintain than laser printers. Regardless of whether you need a fast laser printer for business use or an inkjet printer to print photos, you'll find a multifunction printer that produces laser or inkjet printouts.

Multifunction Printer Benefits

You may appreciate the money you save by plugging one device into your wall instead of three or four. You might also spend less money buying a multifunction printer than you will purchasing multiple machines. Computer Shopper, for instance, reports finding monochrome laser printers for less than $150 and simple inkjet multifunction printers that cost less than $100. Multifunction printers are also useful if you have limited office space since you can place a single unit on a desk or in the corner. If you ever need to take your equipment with you or move it to a new location, you can do that quickly.

Multifunction Printer Disadvantages

Because multifunction printers combine everything into a single unit, you can lose your scanning, printing, copying and faxing capabilities if the unit fails. A multifunction printer’s unified component structure can also be a disadvantage if you ever want to sell one component, such as the printer, to upgrade to a better one. You would either have to sell your multifunction printer and lose all its features or keep the unit and wind up with two printers – one of which you do not need.

What Type of Printer Should I Get?

Determining the type of printer that best meets your needs requires identifying your budget, the quality of output you need, and the type and volume of printing you'll be doing. After considering these factors, you will be able to identify whether a single-function or multifunction unit is appropriate, and whether a laser or an inkjet printer is your best option. With so many printers on the market, a decision like this can seem overwhelming. Approach the decision in a calculated way to ensure you get a printer that fits your operation and doesn't break your budget.

Multifunction vs. Single-function Printers
Multifunction printers incorporate several features beyond standard printing. These devices may also scan, photocopy, and function as a fax machine; many multifunction printers offer all four of these features. If you need a fax machine, scanner or copier, a multifunction device may save money and office space by replacing two or more machines with a single unit. On the other hand, if you only need to print, investing in a multifunction printer costs you extra for features that you are not likely to use. If you need to perform specialized printing tasks that require high-quality images, a specialized single-function printer will probably be the better option because single-function devices tend to offer higher quality at the upper end of the price range than their multifunction counterparts.
Volume
If you plan on doing only a small amount of printing, a standard consumer inkjet printer is probably well-suited to your needs. However, for offices where several people use a single printer, or where large print runs are required regularly, a laser printer is recommended. Laser printers are better at handling large-volume print jobs, and they are also more cost-effective when dealing with large-scale printing needs. Laser printers are usually larger and have print trays that accommodate large print volumes; they also print much faster than inkjet printers. This is particularly important when printing documents that are hundreds of pages long.
Quality
Laser printers are better suited to printing high-quality text pages, especially documents that use very small font sizes. For photos and images with complex colors, however, a high-end inkjet printer produces better quality. Inkjet printers blend colors together seamlessly, while lasers sometimes have delineation or lines that can be seen where the colors change.
Cost
Inkjet printers are typically less expensive than laser printers. Their cost of maintenance is also lower because there are fewer consumables within an inkjet machine. However, the cost of ownership over the lifetime of the printer needs to be considered. For high print volumes, or if you plan on using the printer for a long time, a laser printer is the better investment cost-wise. The actual cost-per-page of a laser printer is usually lower than that of an inkjet printer due to the relatively high cost of inkjet ink cartridges.
Networking
When purchasing a printer for an office environment, networking features can be important. If you prefer to minimize the wires in your office to make it simple to interconnect all the devices in the network, look for a printer that allows wireless networking. If you only need to connect the printer to a single computer in a small office, don't pay extra for fancy networking and wireless capabilities.

Is Having a Separate Scanner & Printer or Having a Three-in-One Better?

Multifunction printers, or MFPs, combine the capabilities of a printer, scanner, copier and a fax machine into a single piece of hardware. In their earliest incarnations, these devices sometimes earned the nickname "hydra" after the nine-headed snake slain by Hercules in classical myth. Today's MFPs can find a home in small offices that want to limit the number of computer peripherals and other pieces of office technology they require.

Equipment Footprint and Cost
Especially in an office with limited square footage, you'll appreciate how much space you can save by replacing three separate devices with a single multifunction unit that requires only one electrical outlet. Within the price range of these devices -- starting below $100 and ranging to $400 or above -- you may find a unit that can enable you to provide your employees with their own hardware. At higher price points, expect devices with more features, higher scanning resolutions and better output quality.
Duty Cycle
Unlike the big color copiers whose multifunctional talents these desktop units emulate, MFPs typically target workflows that involve lighter demands on hardware. For example, lower-priced units often lack an automatic document feeder, which can simplify scanning multiple-page documents. Because many of these devices rely on inkjet mechanisms for their printouts and copies, you can run through multiple ink cartridges to accommodate heavy output needs. Finally, MFPs designed for low volume won't break any speed records, which may prove problematic in an office with multiple people.
Specifications
For the cost of one MFP, you'd be hard pressed to buy all three of its technologies in standalone hardware units. If you need high performance from one or more of these functionalities, however, you may not find it in an MFP. Manufacturers inevitably make compromises to create three-in-one designs at attractive prices. For graphic-arts scanning quality, high-volume printing or scanning, you may find an MFP falls short and a standalone, single-purpose unit makes a better fit for your needs.
Consumables
Because an MFP uses one set of inks or toner to supply the output of a combined printer and copier, you only need to shop for one set of consumables. That doesn't mean you can cut your supply costs in half. In fact, unless you rely heavily on documents that don't require physical output -- email messages, electronic invoices in PDF form and digital documentation -- you're likely to place more demands on an MFP than you would on either of the output devices it replaces.
Downtime
With MFPs, the good news of combined capabilities becomes the bad news of combined downtime. If an MFP's printer fails, it takes your scanner and copier with it. Unless you're willing to replace the entire unit if one of its functions fails or live without all of the features it offers during the time the unit undergoes service, you need a contingency plan to cover your bases in the event of downtime.

Pros and Cons of All-in-One Printers

When deciding to buy a new printer for your business, it's important to weigh the benefits of a multifunction device that not only prints but scans, faxes, and copies documents compared to the stand-alone variety.

Many small and mid-sized businesses today are opting for laser printers for large volume jobs, as opposed to an inkjet they might have at home for the occasional photo printing. At the same time, the multifunction printers can also handle scanning, copying, and faxing. Here are some of the pros and cons of a laser-based all-in-one printer.

Pros of all-in-one printers

Buying a multifunction laser printer can save your company space, money, and aggravation. Many small businesses simply don't have the room for three or four dedicated machines for printing, scanning, copying, and faxing -- nor do they likely have the funds to purchase three or four separate devices. An all-in-one printer consolidates all these important office features into one box, so you can better manage all your document management activity in one place.
Having one machine that does it all also makes it easier for maintenance. Such things like downloading just one driver update (opposed to up to four of them) and purchasing "consumables" such as ink or toner, paper, and other supplies. One machine also consumes less power than three or four printers.

Cons of all-in-one printers

As with any converged device, a clear downside is if something goes wrong with your product, you'll likely be without everything. In other words, if the scanner in your all-in-one device fails to work and you send it out to be fixed, you're now without a printer, copier, and fax machine, too.
When it comes to quality, there isn't a clear difference between standalone products and multifunction ones anymore. Multifunction printers used to be a generation or two behind its single device counterpart when it came to quality, but this is not the case anymore.

The Best All-in-One Printers for 2021

HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e: Easy-to-use software, affordable ink, a long warranty, and plenty of thoughtful touches make this all-in-one less annoying than the competition. Results look sharp, too. is likely to be the easiest printer you’ve ever had to set up, and that alone is enough to recommend it. But it also prints beautifully (and quickly), scans well, has great apps for PCs and mobile devices, and prints for an affordable 2.2¢ per page in black or 8.9¢ per page in color. If you print a lot of photos, you can opt for HP’s Instant Ink program (a six-month trial is included with your initial purchase), which brings the cost of each color page to as little as 2.9¢, including glossies. It looks great in any office, thanks to a clean, compact design, and it comes with a two-year warranty that’s twice as long as what you’d get with most competing printers. The 9015e replaces our former pick, the OfficeJet Pro 9015, but it’s identical from a hardware perspective; the only differences are the longer warranty, the longer Instant Ink trial, and some added software features that are bundled into the new HP+ printing ecosystem. If you’re not interested in the extras HP+ has to offer, the older 9015 is a great machine that you might be able to find at a discount.

Brother MFC-J805DW: Brother’s entry-level AIO isn’t the fastest, best designed, or easiest to use, but it is cheap to operate, and it still produces great-looking prints and scans. If you just want the cheapest prints possible and don’t care about speed, fancy apps, or looks, the Brother MFC-J805DW is an excellent choice. At a mere 0.9¢ per black-and-white page and 4.7¢ for color, it’s one of the most cost-efficient printers you can buy, and the results look great, too. You’d wait longer to get them than you would with the HP 9015e, but for casual use that isn’t a big deal.

HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw: This business-class machine checks all the boxes for a home office or small business: It’s faster, sharper, more durable, and more secure than our other picks. f your work finds you printing and scanning all day, every day, you should be willing to upgrade to a business-oriented color laser AIO like the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw. It prints and scans faster, sharper, and more reliably than inkjet alternatives, and it includes robust admin and security settings designed for situations that may involve sensitive data. We don’t think it’s necessary for most homes or even the average home office. But if you run a business with modest printing and paper-handling needs, or if you’ve grown exasperated with your inkjet AIO’s failings, the M479fdw should hit the sweet spot.

Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5850: The Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5850 AIO prints well and inexpensively, and it offers generous input capacity, lofty volume ratings, and two years of unlimited free ink. It's an incomparable value for small businesses and workgroups. The Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5850 is an all-in-one printer designed to churn out 3,000 to 4,000 pages per month in today's busy small and midsize offices and workgroups. The ET-5850's high input capacity, relatively high volume ratings, excellent print quality, low running costs, and a strong lineup of productivity and convenience features make it a shoo-in as our current favorite midrange color AIO printer.

Recommended Review: Kyocera Multifunction Printers

If you’re considering a high-quality multifunction printer for your business, it’s critically important you understand what’s available and how they can boost the look of your brand, every piece of collateral you print, and communications with employees. Kyocera may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of this kind of equipment, but it should be…

The Kyocera Difference

Kyocera has focused on making their hardware serviceability and running costs the most impressive in the industry. They use ceramic parts for their toner cartridges and drums. Ceramic parts are more durable than other materials, so they require less servicing. They add ceramic particles to their toner, so it is constantly cleaning the drum as it prints.

Their printers feature “toner lock,” a brilliant system that locks the door to toner, so it is not replaced until it is completely empty. The door automatically unlocks when it is time to replace the cartridge. All these safeguards make operating these printers cheaper than other brands. When a toner cartridge is empty, you can toss it into your recycling bin.

Top 5 Kyocera Multifunction Printers

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Kyocera TASkalfa 8003i A3 Monochrome
The Kyocera TASKalfa 8003i offers printing, copying, color scanning and optional faxing. The monochrome laser copier MFP has a rated speed of 80 ppm that is suitable for enterprises and small to mid-size organizations.

Kyocera TASkalfa 4053ci A3 Color
High-capacity without compromising quality, this printer will fit seamlessly into your workflow, thanks to its HyPAS solution platform or optional Fiery controller. You and your staff can print, scan, copy, and fax from one workstation.

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Kyocera TASkalfa 5003i A3 Monochrome
Targeted to “even the most demanding offices, this printer provides standard hard disk drive overwrite and encryption, a large touchscreen, standard wireless connection, and security features to keep business information confidential.

Kyocera Ecosys M3655idn Monochrome
Created to meet the need for a black & white MFP that is small in size but big on features, this printer offers impressive performance, with full print, copy, color scan and fax capabilities. All features are accessible by a 7" color touch screen interface.

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Kyocera ECOSYS P3155dn Monochrome Network Printer
This printer delivers desktop power and productivity at lightning speeds! Businesses that demand exceptional performance, reliability and versatility in a black & white printer need look no further than this compact, yet powerful, workhorse.