“Cheapest” is a slightly dishonest word when it comes to printers. So instead of ranking ten boxes by sticker price, here is a shorter, more useful list: real printers available in the UK, split by how much you will actually use them.
If you barely print anything
A form here, a boarding pass, the odd school letter. If that is genuinely most of your printing, a cheap cartridge printer can be the right answer because you may not buy ink often enough for the higher running cost to dominate.
HP DeskJet 2910
A basic print, copy and scan machine. HP lists it for teams of up to three people and recommends only 50–100 pages a month, which is exactly the sort of genuinely light use where a £40 cartridge printer makes sense.
Canon PIXMA TS3751i
Another straightforward home all-in-one with printing, scanning and copying. It is not quick and it uses standard cartridges, but for occasional documents it remains a reasonable low-entry-price option.
Several budget printers offer optional ink subscriptions. Canon calls its service PIXMA Print Plan, HP has Instant Ink and Brother has EcoPro. They are not automatically bad deals, but they change a one-off purchase into a monthly commitment. For very light users, read the page limits, rollover rules and cancellation terms before accepting a free trial.
Light users also face a specific inkjet problem: leaving a printer idle gives its print head time to dry, and automatic cleaning cycles consume ink. Which? says the worst cartridge inkjets in its tests used up to six times as much ink for cleaning as for actual printing. Leaving an inkjet powered in standby and printing a small page periodically can help it run its maintenance cycle properly.
If you print regularly
Homework, invoices, forms and the occasional photo are where cartridge costs begin to bite. A refillable tank printer costs more at checkout, but bottled ink normally brings the cost per page down dramatically.
HP Smart Tank 5105
HP says the 5105 includes enough bottled ink for up to 6,000 black or colour pages. It prints, scans and copies, and the company positions it for up to 800 pages a month. It costs far more than a £40 cartridge printer upfront, but regular users are buying thousands of included pages rather than a starter set of small cartridges.
Epson EcoTank ET-2820
The ET-2820 is an older EcoTank model, so current retail availability is inconsistent. Epson still lists its 104 ink set at approximately 4,500 black and 7,500 colour pages. It is worth considering when a reputable retailer discounts it, but compare the live price against newer EcoTank models before buying.
If it is mostly documents
When colour barely matters and you want quick, sharp text for invoices, letters and forms, a mono laser is usually a better fit than either kind of inkjet. Toner does not have the same nozzle-drying problem, and one cartridge normally lasts much longer.
Brother HL-L2400DWE
It prints up to 30 pages per minute, supports automatic double-sided printing and has a 250-sheet tray. The DWE version includes a four-month EcoPro trial, but continuing the subscription is optional. Brother also sells the closely related HL-L2400DW, which supports EcoPro with a shorter introductory trial.
Pick the category before the model.
Occasional use can justify a cheap cartridge printer. Regular colour printing usually favours a refillable tank. Mostly black documents often favour a mono laser. The wrong category can cost more than choosing the “wrong” model within the right one.
None of this is a definitive top ten. Prices will move, models will disappear, and new ones will arrive. What matters more than any single price is matching the printer technology to your actual monthly volume.
To compare a specific model against your own printing volume, use the Real Receipt calculator. It combines the purchase price with the ink or toner you are likely to consume instead of stopping at the number printed on the box.
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