Laser printer
Top pick
With low operating costs and acceptable print quality, this is the best laser printer for casual home use — say, printing recipes and the occasional invoice. But it can’t scan or copy, and it prints only in black and white.
The Brother HL-2460DW is ideal for people who don’t print every day, but still appreciate having the option for the few times a year when they need to print. With a price that typically hovers around $180 and a print cost per page that averages 3.1 cents, this printer is cheap to own and operate.
Although it’s a budget model, it isn’t short on features. This monochrome laser printer stays on Wi-Fi reliably, prints cleanly and quickly, offers automatic duplex printing capability, and is small enough to sit out of the way on a bookshelf, too. However, it doesn’t print in color and can’t scan, copy, or fax. If you need that capability, consider the all-in-one Brother MFC-L3780CDW.
For more, read our guide to the best laser printers.
All-in-one printer
Top pick
If you need a color printer that can also scan and fax, this inkjet is a good option. It’s relatively inexpensive and can handle a variety of jobs.
We recommend the Brother MFC-J4355DW because it’s one of the most affordable AIO printers we’ve tested, and the printer doesn’t gouge you with high printing costs in exchange. It comes with a year’s worth of ink, and upgrading to Brother’s super-high-yield cartridges allows you to print for as little as 1.5 cents per page for monochrome and 8.2 cents for color. You can also use Brother’s Refresh EZ Print subscription, which allows you to pay based on how much you print.
In our tests, this printer reliably produced crisp text and sharp, realistic glossy images. On the downside, it uses archaic push-button navigation, it’s noisy in operation, and its scans aren’t as bright or detailed as those from competing machines. But even with those downsides, it’s enough printer for most people.
For more, read our guide to the best all-in-one printers.
Cheap scanner
Top pick
Simple to set up, simple to use, and capable of producing great scans right out of the box, this is our go-to inexpensive scanner.
The Canon CanoScan LiDE 300 provides ample resolution, fast-enough scans, and all the same software features as its more-expensive stablemate. In our tests it produced excellent results with a wide variety of items, from office docs and photos to books and children’s drawings.
We also liked its simple, one-cord setup and compact, lightweight design. You have to deal with Canon’s clunky, outdated software, but that’s par for the course with scanners — and it’s actually better than what you’d get from Canon’s chief rival, Epson.
For more, read our guide to the best cheap scanners.
Portable document scanner
Top pick
This scanner is fast, accurate, and reliable, but what really sets it apart from the competition is how easy it is to use.
Simple to set up, easy to use, and portable enough for you to bring it along anywhere, the Brother ADS-1350W is the best choice if you need good-looking scans on the road or at a remote work location. Its text recognition ranks among the most accurate we’ve seen, and its Wi-Fi connection is reliable.
This scanner isn’t the smallest model we’ve tested, and it doesn’t include a battery, but it’s still plenty portable and capable of drawing power from your laptop or a portable USB-C power bank that outputs 15 W or more.
For more, read our guide to the best portable document scanners.
Document scanning app
Top pick
Free and refreshingly straightforward, this is the best app for turning documents into clean, easily shareable, organized PDFs.
If you need to occasionally create clean-looking PDFs of physical documents — and do it for free — there’s no better option for a scanning app than Adobe Scan (Android, iOS).
Adobe Scan’s simple design and limited options may seem like a negative in comparison with more complex apps like Scanbot and CamScanner, but we found that the app’s simplicity made it easier for us to get the results we wanted.
This app produced the cleanest-looking scans in our testing; it also has the ability to fill in scanned forms, and it provides excellent text recognition. And it automatically stores all of your scans in Adobe’s cloud, at no additional cost.
For more, read our guide to the best mobile scanning apps.
Online fax service
Top pick
This service lets you send high-quality faxes for free or a low flat rate. No monthly subscription is required, unless you also want to receive faxes.
If you need to send occasional faxes — to request a copy of your medical records, for instance — use Dropbox Fax.
It starts you with five free outbound pages, and you can earn additional free pages by completing trivial tasks like tweeting about the service. After that, it’s 99 cents to fax your next 10 pages and then 20 cents per additional page.
In our tests, Dropbox Fax (HelloFax at the time) sent perfectly legible faxes, and it reliably received all the test faxes we sent. Its straightforward interface makes the occasional chore of sending a fax quick and painless, too.
For more, read our guide to the best online fax services.
