The Real Cost of Buying a Printer Outright (And Why Subscription Is Fuss-Free)
The upfront price is only the beginning of owning a printer. See where the real costs hide with outright ownership, and how a PrintOne subscription bundles it all into one predictable, fuss-free bill.
The price tag on a printer is never the full story. It’s the number that gets you to say yes — and the number that quietly stops mattering the moment you get the box home.
After that, the real costs start: the first set of ink cartridges, the replacement set a few months later, the repair call-out when something jams for the third time, and eventually, the decision to just buy a new one because fixing the old one costs almost as much anyway.
None of that shows up on the sticker. All of it shows up on your wallet.
Where the hidden costs actually come from
Ink is the biggest one. Genuine cartridges for a typical home printer can cost more per litre than some premium fuel — and a printer that looked cheap to buy can become expensive to run within a year, especially once you’re replacing cartridges every few weeks.
Then there’s servicing. A paper jam, a clogged printhead, a worn roller — when something goes wrong, you’re either paying a technician to come out, or paying a courier to send it away and hoping it comes back working. Either way, that’s time and money that wasn’t on the price tag either.
And eventually, wear and tear catches up. Printers aren’t built to last forever, and replacing one every few years is its own recurring cost — just one that’s easy to forget about until it happens again.
Add it up over a year or two, and outright ownership often costs more than it looked like it would — one Print-IQ comparison puts traditional ownership at an estimated $839+ a year between the printer, ink, repairs and miscellaneous costs.
Subscription means one bill, and nothing else to think about
A PrintOne subscription flips that around. Instead of an upfront purchase followed by a string of unpredictable costs, it’s one flat monthly fee that already includes the printer, genuine Epson ink, and servicing.
Using that same comparison, a PrintOne Pro plan runs to roughly $310.80 a year at $25.90 a month — printer, ink, servicing, delivery, installation and official Epson warranty all included, against that $839+ for going it alone.
There’s no ink to reorder before you run out, no servicing appointment to chase down, and no guessing what a repair might cost. It’s already covered.
What “fuss-free” actually includes
- The printer itself — no upfront payment, delivered and installed for you.
- Genuine Epson ink — supplied under the programme as part of your plan.
- Onsite servicing — repairs or exchange handled without a separate bill.
- One predictable monthly fee — the same number every month, for the length of your plan.
Watch the video above for a quick look at what fuss-free actually looks like day to day. Then take a look at the plans and see which one matches how much you print.
One Printer. One Plan. One Bill.