About Pick a Printer
Printers are hard. We make them simple.
Pick a Printer began in 2019 when our founder, Matt Harlem, spent three weekends trying to help friends and family choose "just a printer." He realised the entire category was drowning in jargon, dishonest specs, and reviews that read like sales sheets.
So he built the site he wished existed — one where every model is bought or borrowed at retail, put through the same 30-day test protocol, and rated on real-world use rather than glossy brochures. Seven years later, more than 12 million people have used our guides to pick a printer.
Today we're a team of five: two full-time testers, an editor, a customer-support specialist and a repair tech. We don't take money from manufacturers, we buy our own consumables, and we publish our full methodology so you can question anything we say.
Printers tested
Readers helped
Years in review
Would recommend
Four principles we never compromise on
The rules we set when we started — and haven't broken since.
Independence First
No sponsored placements, no vendor-supplied units without disclosure, no "top 10" lists shaped by affiliate rates.
Real-World Testing
Every printer runs the same 30-day protocol — 5,000 pages, real photos, actual home Wi-Fi, everyday hiccups.
Plain-Language Advice
If our grandparents wouldn't understand it, we rewrite it. Nobody reads a printer review to learn new acronyms.
Living Content
Every guide is revisited at least once a year — models get replaced, firmware changes, ink prices move. So do our picks.
The humans behind the reviews
Five people who spend more time with printers than any sensible person should.
Matt Harlem
Former IT lead who's set up more office printers than he cares to remember. Tests every laser and multifunction we cover.
Sofia Reyes
Working photographer who benchmarks inkjets against her real portfolio prints. Owns more paper types than most stationers.
Jordan Whitfield
Mechanical engineer who reviews FDM and resin printers. Runs a small workshop testing filament brands.
Ana Novak
Turns raw test notes into readable guides. Ex-tech-magazine editor with a soft spot for correctly-used semicolons.
Diego Kim
Handles our reader support and maintenance service. Has fixed more paper jams than the average print shop.
How every printer gets a fair test
Repeatable, transparent, and the same for every unit we cover.
Fresh unit
We buy the printer at retail — no cherry-picked review samples — and unbox it on camera.
30-day soak
5,000 pages of mixed real-world jobs: documents, photos, spreadsheets, envelopes, cardstock.
Cost per page
We measure real ink/toner yield with a lab scale — never trust the manufacturer's number.
Verdict
Only after the full test does anyone write a single word. Then it gets peer-reviewed by two team members.