The Best Multifunction Printers and Copiers of 2023

As a staple of most small businesses and offices around the country, multifunction copiers (MFC) have helped companies send, receive, print and duplicate documents for decades. Since these machines take up important real estate in your office, it’s important to consider not just its size and weight, but how proficient the copier is at its job when it comes to print speeds, copy and print resolutions, and overall usability. After considering products from 10 of the world’s top MFC manufacturers, we compared each device’s functionality, price and ease of use to determine our best picks.

When it comes to pricing out a copier for your office, you need to consider what features you need. Though most MFCs function the same, there are many product lines with varying degrees of functionality. That level of stratification within the copier market means that prices can vary wildly from one machine to another. It’s also important to keep in mind other, ongoing costs, including extended service and warranty plans.

Through our information-gathering efforts, we found models that cost as low as $300 for the more budget offerings, while the more high-end machines ran as high as $50,000. While the machines on the higher end had significantly more complex feature sets with a focus on serving niche businesses, many manufacturers offer a lease option to ease the sticker shock.

Ink, Toner and Paper Will Add to Operating Costs

It makes sense that the initial cost of a copier is what commands your attention, but you also need to consider the overall operating costs. As a business owner, you will need to maintain paper and ink supplies regardless of whether the device uses inkjet cartridges or toner.

Replacement ink cartridges come with high price tags, so replacing them on a scale will cost you. Toner tends to last longer but is largely used for monochrome printing only. Some copiers have built-in ink reservoirs that manufacturers say reduce ink costs, since you only need to buy bottles of ink rather than replacement cartridges, and the ink lasts longer. Whether that’s a feature you need will depend largely on how often you and your employees rely on the machine.

Remember the Additional Costs

Along with traditional operating costs associated with MFCs, consider the extra costs that come with operating such a machine. Sunk costs that come from poorly constructed or prohibitively slow machines take a toll on a business. It’s for that reason that you want to avoid purchasing the cheapest machine; rather, go for the one that fits your budget and can provide the best functionality.

Low-cost machines that seem inexpensive and appear like a benefit can cause problems later. Similarly, factors like copy speed can help or hinder worker productivity and collaboration from an operational perspective. Memory capacity is another factor, since higher memory means the machine will be faster at processing each job.

It’s just practical business sense to conduct a cost-benefit analysis before committing to a specific copier. For a copier that will serve as the workhorse for many employees, speed may be the top deciding factor. For design-centric businesses, such as ad agencies or architectural firms, ink cost and image quality are more important. Or perhaps a color copier won’t fulfill your needs, in which case, you might need a wide-format printer.

Contracts and Customer Service

While you can buy a copier for your business outright, some models have rather large price tags. In those instances, it may be best to lease the machine and add its monthly cost as an operating expense. Known as “managed print” in the printing world, leasing has become a more popular option, since newer models with more advanced features frequently enter the market, pushing even modern machines closer to obsolescence.

Capital leases allow you to claim the machine a business asset, and operating leases permit you to mark the machine as an operating expense. Managed print services generally bundle things like ink or toner, paper and maintenance, into a monthly cost. Most leasing agreements last between three and five years, which is just enough time to consider upgrading to a new machine if you need to.

While leasing may be an attractive option, it comes with some downsides. You may not need to make a large down payment on the copier, but you will pay interest on it, which increases your overall costs.

Conversely, you can keep the copier for as long as you want if you buy it outright, potentially resulting in an overall savings, if you own it for a long time and don’t feel the need to upgrade every few years. Buying outright also means you’re not tied down to a multiyear contract, allowing you some more flexibility in your decision-making.

The decision to purchase or lease a copier depends on your cash flow situation and which option benefits you the most in terms of maintenance and service, features, accessories, and supplies.

Repair Costs

Depending on how you obtain the machine, you may not have to worry about repair and maintenance costs at all. Most leases include some regular maintenance within their terms. In some cases, however, an additional extended warranty or service agreement will be offered for an added cost. What’s covered under those plans can vary from one manufacturer to another, so you may be left holding the bag for any repair costs that fall outside of the agreement’s terms.

Multifunction printers and copiers are extremely versatile machines when it comes to creating and distributing documents. As such, it’s hard to think of a small business that wouldn’t benefit in some way from adding such a machine to their office. Depending on a business’s needs, the type of machine may vary.

For example, a small healthcare provider may need an MFP or copier to scan and print patient documents at a moment’s notice while using the machine’s data security functionality to keep that information safe. At the same time, a small printing company would need a high-duty machine to quickly and reliably output documents.

Because of their highly versatile nature, MFPs have a widespread appeal to small business owners everywhere.

As with most business technology solutions, the features present in certain copiers or MFCs will likely make or break its usefulness to your company. After all, what may work for a design business may not work for an architectural firm. Modern copiers are rife with important features that not only increase their overall efficiency but bring some needed quality-of-life functionality that can help every employee deftly use the machine despite their level of capability.

When deciding on a copy machine to buy or lease, keep the following factors in mind before taking the plunge.

Printing Speed

Speed counts when it comes to copiers and printers. No one wants to wait minutes on end for a printer to spit out a presentation or brochure. And for organizations that have a larger number of employees, a slow printer has a negative ripple effect on productivity across the office.

Speed is measured in pages per minute (ppm). In our reviews, we have listed the ppm rate of each printer. Many, if not most, copiers today have the same speeds for both black-and-white and color copies. Laser copiers generate a faster output than inkjet models.

Many copiers offer flexible paper choices, allowing you to easily change paper sizes and feed the size of paper you need through the tray. A related feature that most businesses consider a must is automatic duplexing, where your color copier automatically copies (prints, scans or faxes) two-sided documents. This feature is a major time-saver. Without it, you’ll be manually feeding pages into the machine, flipping them, inputting them back into the machine and repeating the process ad nauseam.

High-speed printing

During our research, we found printing speeds that varied wildly from model to model. If your business needs lightning-fast speeds, look for a higher ppm value associated with the machine. According to our data, the fastest print speed we found was 85 ppm from the Toshiba e-Studio8515A.

Paper Capacity and Duty Cycle

We’ve also included the monthly duty cycle in each review. The duty cycle is simply the number of pages that your color copier prints each month. Monthly duty cycles may be as low as 10,000 pages or as high as 150,000-plus pages.

Think of the duty cycle as an indicator of a printer’s endurance over time. And like speed, depending on the number of employees you have and projects you typically work on, you’ll want to pay close attention to a printer’s duty cycle when shopping for a copier.

Connectivity

In today’s world of multiple devices and the cloud, the more options your digital copier offers for connections, the better.

USB connection is still standard, but modern machines offer mobile connectivity and options for users to connect to their cloud drives, such as Box or Microsoft OneDrive. These options give users one-touch accessibility to print files that are stored anywhere, from almost any device.

Wireless printing, allowing a user to print directly from their tablet or smartphone, is also important. Many copiers are equipped with the ability to scan directly to a cloud-based service. This can benefit businesses that receive a lot of paper documents and want to save them in an online drive or application for future reference or access.

Size and Weight

Though multifunction printers and copiers come in varying sizes and weights, most of them can be placed on a desktop. Many of the higher-end or enterprise-focused models can be significantly larger. A machine’s size can also be affected by any additional add-ons and accessories added to the machine.

Do not overlook the weight of a copier. How important is portability? For smaller copiers, weight is an important factor if you plan to place it on a desk or if it is meant to be portable.

Accessibility

To make the workplace more accessible to those with disabilities, many copier manufacturers have included features like embossed marks, motion sensors, touch screens with easy-to-use applications and voice control. Some copiers with voice control can link with Amazon’s Alexa and allow users to use voice commands to complete print or copy jobs.

Security

In the age of the cloud and internet of things, security has become very important. Many copiers now come standard with password controls, centralized print policy controls and user-level access to restrict who can use the copier.

Copiers are no longer viewed as a mundane office accessory; rather, they are now viewed as another endpoint vulnerable to the same threats as laptops and mobile phones.

Copiers Are Offering More ‘Green’ Features

Printer manufacturers have also been hard at work on designing products that are sustainable and environmentally friendly. Energy use (and costs) are an important factor for many business buyers. Some copiers come equipped with energy-saving modes and are made of recycled plastic. Many manufacturers offer recycling programs for toner cartridges and other accessories or supplies.

Adding a business copier to your small business requires careful consideration before committing to the purchase. Copiers are expensive, they require regular maintenance, there are recurring supply costs, and they can occupy a fair amount of space – especially in a small office.

Before shopping for a MFP or copy machine, you should have the following four details decided upon ahead of time. By coming up with a list of features that matter to you and your business, and reviewing the checklist below, you can rest easy knowing you’ve done your due diligence before making your final decision.

1. Consider your company’s needs.

No two copiers are alike – the features and the printing/copying tasks vary. If you’re copying and printing text documents without color images, then a black and white MFP/copier will suit your needs. If you regularly copy and print a large number of pages at a time, you need a machine with a high duty cycle and fast print speed.

2. Decide on the accessories you’ll need.

Today’s MFPs and copiers use several accessories that expand the machine’s overall functionality. Whether it’s larger paper trays or built-in staplers, the accessories you want your machine to have depends largely on your company’s needs. One reassurance is that most accessories can be added later, though you want the copier to ultimately support any accessories you want.

3. Be mindful of the type of paper you want to use.

If you use a type of paper other than standard printer paper – say you print business cards on card stock, or you print proposals or presentations on special paper – check with the retailer and the manufacturer to ensure the copier can accommodate special types of paper.

4. Remember your office space.

Many entrepreneurs’ workspaces are very small.  Make sure that the MFP you choose isn’t an enterprise-grade behemoth that occupies a large area. Most MFP manufacturers list the printer dimensions, so you can measure your workspace to ensure a good fit. And, most of the time, you can can add a desktop MFP or copier without any worry.

Given the nature of this category, we did not physically evaluate every copier on the market. To provide an in-depth look into today’s best MFCs for small and midsize businesses, we reached out to some of the top companies in the industry to see what models best fit our use cases.

Over several weeks, we sought information from Canon, Ricoh, Konica Minolta, HP, Xerox, Sharp, Brother and Toshiba. In our query, we asked each company to provide us detailed specifications to machines that would fit the use cases: Best Copier/MFC for Small Business, Best Color Copier for Small Businesses, Most Accessible Copier and Copier With the Highest Duty Cycle. Each company was given the same criteria to help determine which machines would best fit those use cases.

After compiling the list of devices, we noted the pros and cons of each machine, weighing them against each other. Here are the main criteria we used to evaluate each multifunction printer and copier:

• Pricing: In most cases, price is the most important factor for small business owners before even looking at the other qualities of a copier. However, we didn’t remove a machine from consideration if it had a large price tag. In many cases a leasing option was available, thus making it more affordable for small businesses.

• Features: The overall functionality of a copier or MFC is what separates one model from another. Duplexing, AI-capable features and internet connectivity are just some features that today’s copiers employ.

• Ease of use: Ease of use is an important factor in a color copier. It must be intuitive and convenient to use. This presents itself in many forms, such as touch screens that mimic the interface of a smartphone and workflow solutions, like scanning or faxing, that are easy to navigate. Ease of use also applies to the system setup and initial user training.

• Footprint: MFCs are physical machines, so their footprint in an office environment is an important consideration. While some machines are small enough to fit on a desk, they may not have all the features a small business may need. On the other side of the coin, a massive machine can take up too much space in an office, which can cause other problems.

• Speed: How fast a copier can duplicate and print a document is incredibly important to its overall usefulness in a business setting.

• Duty cycle: Like most machines with moving parts, copiers generally have an expected monthly allotment of how many pages it can churn out in a month.

• Accessibility/UI: We evaluated copiers to see if they included helpful features like embossed marks, motion sensors, touch screens, easy-to-use applications and voice control.

• Connectivity: We assessed the availability of features that allow users to pull files from the internet to duplicate them just as well as physical sheets of paper. We also considered built-in security measures, such as password controls, centralized print policy controls and user-level access to restrict who can use the copier.

• Warranty: Copiers covered by a strong manufacturer’s warranty will help cover those unforeseen incidents and help ensure you have a working machine for the duration of the warranty.

While most of the companies got back to us in time for publication of this review, we did not receive any data from Canon, Ricoh or HP.

Since the world of copiers is so varied, we reached out to small business owners to see which copier brands and models they trusted.

While many businesses use copiers to handle important documents, others rely on them for their entire business model. For Lisa Jaspers, the owner, publisher and graphic artist at stationery business A Country Girl’s Life, her 2010 Canon Pixma copier has worked wonders.

“I have a small business that is 100% paper-based. Our little Canon Pixma all-in-one office printer gets a workout every single day with test runs and products that we sell in our online shop,” she said. “Since day one I’ve been impressed with the quality and reliability of this machine. We’ve had every other major brand at one point or another during the last 20 years, and they’ve all broken down after about two years.”

For Mike Charles, owner of Unified Pest Control, the answer was simple: His office’s Ricoh MP C307 ensures that his business’s printing needs are sufficiently met.

“The [copier’s] footprint is on the smaller size, so it does not take up too much room in our office,” he said. “The user interface is very easy to use, and it has been a reliable machine for our needs. Supplies are relatively inexpensive, and our printing costs have actually decreased compared to the HP machine we had before.”

While size and reliability mattered for Charles, Xerox’s WorkCentre line of copiers received significant praise from the small business owners we heard from. Different people praised the product line’s reliability and functionality, with Adam Korbl, CEO of iFax, calling his office’s machine a “part of the team” and a “knight in shining armor.”

Allan Borch, founder of DotcomDollar.com, praised his office’s Xerox WorkCentre 6515 for its ease of use, reliability and data security measures.

“We use smart multifunction printing and copying machines from Xerox,” Borch said. “The Xerox WorkCentre 6515 comes equipped with mobile printing functionality, cloud-connected apps, and environmentally friendly features. On top of all of these features, it has a handful of color-management tools … that [ensure] business collaterals are reproduced in uniform, consistent colors.”

In 2023, expect the same big names to dominate the copier market, including companies like Canon, Kyocera, Toshiba and Xerox. Also in the mix for market leaders are companies like Brother International, HP, Konica Minolta, Samsung, Epson and Dell. As they operate in a relatively established industry, these market leaders are unlikely to change much in the future.

As cloud-based technology has proliferated, though, the printer and copier industry has not been immune to the shift toward a digital-first mentality. Modern printers and copiers must exhibit connectivity with digital devices through the cloud, allowing users to print files directly from their mobile devices. Look for this trend to continue, as copiers that emerge in 2023 and beyond without this function are likely to fall behind.

Copiers have also been scrutinized by the movement toward a “green” office culture. Expect copier manufacturers to continue to prioritize energy efficiency and recycled materials to reduce their environmental impact in 2023.

As manufacturers seek to protect their patents, it may be harder for consumers to find third-party ink cartridges. We expect to see manufacturers become more aggressive in their attempts to remove off-brand ink cartridges from the market.

Additional reporting by Brian Nadel.