Stop Buying
HP Printers.
They're expensive. They're hostile. They treat you like a subscription, not a customer. Here's everything you need to know.
Tell me why ↓The Problem
HP doesn't sell you a printer. They sell you a recurring payment device that sometimes prints things.
DRM Ink Cartridges
HP printers use chips on their cartridges to verify you bought "official" HP ink. Use a third-party cartridge? Your printer may refuse to print entirely. They call this "dynamic security" and push firmware updates that retroactively disable cartridges that used to work.
Source: Ars TechnicaSubscription Trap
HP Instant Ink and HP+ tie your printer to a monthly subscription. Cancel it? The cartridges you have stop working, even with ink still in them. They're now pushing printer rentals. Their CEO publicly stated their "long-term objective is to make printing a subscription" and called customers who don't buy HP ink "a bad investment."
That was 2024. In May 2026 HP's CFO told investors that subscriptions "make these customers more profitable over the long term versus a regular traditional print customer." The strategy hasn't changed. The phrasing just got politer.
Bloomberg · PC Gamer · HP Q2 FY2026 callForced Accounts & Internet
Many newer HP printers require an HP account and active internet connection just to finish setup. A printer. Needs the internet. To print a piece of paper. In your own home.
Which means HP's servers are a single point of failure for hardware you own. In May 2026 a Quebec owner whose five-year-old OfficeJet stopped connecting filed a privacy request and pulled an internal HP alert titled "Gen1 printers losing connection to Web Services". It blamed a server update, and printers "likely at end of service life." HP's advice was to buy a new one.
Tom's Hardware · The RegisterEnvironmental Waste
A remanufactured cartridge is a cartridge that didn't get thrown away. HP's firmware is the thing stopping it. In December 2025 the Global Electronics Council launched EPEAT 2.0, whose criteria bar certified printers from using firmware to disable remanufactured cartridges. In January 2026 HP shipped an update doing exactly that on at least 11 models. The imaging industry's trade council says the two can't coexist. As of March 2026, no printer had registered under EPEAT 2.0 at all.
TechSpot · Ars TechnicaRenting, Not Owning
HP's All-In Plan starts at $7.99/month on a two-year commitment. HP's own paperwork calls it a lease. Cancel early and you owe up to $270. Cancel at all and, in HP's words, "your ability to print will end, and you will need to return your printer and ink supplies to HP". You have 10 days to send it back, or you're billed for the printer you've been paying for all along.
Source: HP's own All-In Plan FAQAn Actual Cartel
This one isn't an accusation from a blog. In July 2026 India's Competition Commission fined HP ₹1.39 billion (~$14.4M) after finding HP India facilitated a bid-rigging cartel with 16 resellers on government tenders for PCs and printer supplies, coordinated over WhatsApp between 2017 and 2020. To be precise: this was procurement bid-rigging, not retail price-fixing. HP filed for leniency, which is what a company does when the evidence is real.
Source: The RegisterThe Math
Let's compare what you're actually paying. These are black-and-white pages, and the laser column includes drum wear, the consumable most cost comparisons leave out.
HP Inkjet
- Printer: $60–$180
- Ink cartridge: $22–$65
- Pages per cartridge: 120–240 on the home models
- Cost per page: 15–35¢ black. Consumer Reports measured 48¢ to $1.26 in color
- Cartridge lifespan: Expires even if unused
- Third-party ink: Blocked by DRM
- Subscription required: Increasingly yes
- Buying cartridges: Good luck. 50+ series (HP 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 902, 910, 952...), 4-5 colors each, standard vs XL, and none are cross-compatible
Brother Laser
- Printer: $160–$180, often $120–$150 on sale
- Toner cartridge: $61 genuine, $98 genuine XL, $30–$50 third-party
- Pages per cartridge: 1,200 standard, 3,000 XL
- Drum: DR830, ~$100–$130, lasts ~15,000 pages (adds under 1¢/page)
- Cost per page: ~2¢ on third-party XL toner, ~4¢ on genuine XL, ~6¢ on genuine standard, drum included
- Cartridge lifespan: Lasts for years
- Third-party toner: Works fine
- Subscription required: No. Never.
- Buying cartridges: One toner (TN830 / TN830XL), fits 18 current Brother models
Ink cost-per-page figures from Consumer Reports' printer testing, which measured 18¢ per black page on an HP DeskJet 2952 and 34.8¢ on an HP Envy 6555e. Toner and drum figures are current Brother and third-party street prices against Brother's published ISO yields. Prices checked August 2026.
If you print 500 pages per year:
Do You Even Need Color?
Seriously. Think about it for a second.
When was the last time you printed something in color at home?
Was it a photo? A school project? A flyer?
How long ago was that? A month? Six months? A year?
Most home printing is black and white. Things like...
You know what prints all of that perfectly? A $180 black and white laser printer that costs a few cents per page and never clogs, never dries out, and never asks you to create an account.
But what about my photos?
Your phone takes incredible photos. You know what does a terrible job printing them? Every home printer. Photo printing services use commercial lab-grade printers with calibrated color profiles on real photo paper. Better quality, cheaper, no hassle.
Where to print photos & color documents
- CVS Photo: ~42¢ per 4x6, cheaper in bulk, same-day pickup
- Walgreens Photo: from 29¢ per 4x6, ready in about an hour, promos constantly
- Walmart Photo: from ~9¢ per 4x6 shipped, ~25¢ for 1-hour in-store pickup where available
- Your local library: color printing typically 25-75¢ per page, black and white for pennies
- Staples / FedEx Office: 59-76¢ per color page, self-serve. For anything bigger or fancier
Be honest with yourself about the math: at 60-75¢ a page, Staples and FedEx are more expensive per page than the HP inkjet you're trying not to buy. They win because you print in color four times a year and own nothing the rest of the time. That's the actual argument.
What to Buy Instead
If you need a home printer, get a Brother black & white laser. That's it. That's the recommendation.
Every link in this section goes straight to the retailer or the manufacturer. No referral links, no tracking attached. Both Amazon and Brother are listed because plenty of people would rather not buy from Amazon, and that's a perfectly good reason.
Brother HL-L2460DW
Wireless. Duplex (prints both sides). No subscription. No account required. No DRM on toner. Third-party toner works fine, and an XL cartridge runs $40-50 for 3,000 pages.
It's boring. It's a gray box. It prints things when you tell it to. That's exactly what a printer should be.
- $160-180
- Wi-Fi built in
- Auto duplex
- No subscriptions
- No DRM
- Toner lasts years
Amazon Brother Or buy it anywhere else. Staples, Best Buy and Walmart all carry it. It drops to $120-150 a few times a year.
Other options & supplies
More Brother printers, plus the one toner cartridge that works with all of them:
Brother HL-L2400D
~$135, USB only, no Wi-Fi. Stock is thinning. The HL-L2405W or HL-L2420DW are the current entry models.
Brother MFC-L2820DW
~$280 if you also need a scanner and copier. That's a real jump. Only worth it if you'll use the scanner.
Brother TN830 Toner
~$61 genuine for 1,200 pages, ~$98 for the 3,000-page XL. Third-party runs $30-50.