Kyocera Printers vs HP: Costs, Comparisons and Considerations

MANAGED PRINT SERVICES | 15 MIN READ

If you're looking for direct comparisons of costs, features, and benefits of some of the most popular HP and Kyocera printers for business, you've come to the right place! In this article, you'll find helpful spec comparisons and hidden cost considerations so that your next printer purchase will come from a place of knowledge and confidence. 

Specifications Glossary
Toner Cartridge Considerations
The Dealer Factor
Maintenance Factors

Comparing the Kyocera ECOSYS P3050dn to the HP LaserJet Enterprise M604n:

Comparing the Kyocera ECOSYS P6130 cd to the HP LaserJet Enterprise CP4025n:

Comparing the Kyocera ECOSYS M3540idn to the
HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn:

Comparing the Kyocera ECOSYS M6535idn to the
HP Color LaserJet Enterprise Flow MFP M577z:

Kyocera and HP Printer Specifications Glossary:

Price: Sales price of printers, as found online through eSupply Box. These are retail prices, only, and do not include sales tax. In most cases, purchasing through a printer dealer will result in a more affordable price.

Max Monthly Prints: The maximum recommended number (as determined by the manufacturer) that can be printed before the machine is vulnerable to harm from overuse. 

Configuration/Scanner: 

• Configuration - Whether the unit is a desktop unit (small enough to sit on a desk) or a floor unit (like most traditional copiers)
• Scanner - Whether or not a digital scanner for documents is included with the unit

Technology: Printers come in two types of technology - inkjet and laser. Inkjet uses refillable ink cartridges, while laser uses refillable toner. HP laser printers utilize an all-in-one toner cartridge that must be replaced in its entirety, while Kyocera laser printers can be refilled by adding more toner, allowing for several refills before parts needs to be replaced. Read: Toner Cartridge Considerations for additional information.

Color: Printers can produce either mono (black & white prints, only) or color prints. On average, black & white printers are faster and less costly than color printers. 

Pages Per Minute: The expected speed at which pages are to be printed per minute. A few factors can change the speed of the output, some of which include: black & white or color, print quality settings, and page coverage (how much content is on the page).

Maximum Paper Capacity: The total number of paper sheets the printer can hold. Anything over the maximum capacity will make the printer susceptible to paper jams. 

Maximum Paper Size: The largest width and height dimensions a single piece of paper can be in the printer paper tray. Minimum sizes do exist on all retails models, as well.

Maximum Paper Weight: Each printer will list a range of paper weight that is allowed. Paper that is lighter than this range could be torn up by the machine, and paper that is heavier could cause damage to the rollers within the machine.

Paper jams can become more frequent in cases of the paper being too heavy or light. It is important to know the weight of the paper you will use to print before purchasing a printer. 

Average Refill Costs: Printers print with ink and toner cartridges. For the charts above, the average cost of a single cartridge is listed. Black & white will yield (print) more pages and cost less than color. Color cartridges must be purchased by the color (usually three, but sometimes four).

Average Yield Per Refill: This is the estimated number of pages that can be printed with a single cartridge at 5% page coverage. 

Toner Cartridge Considerations:

Inkjet printers are incredibly cheap so that they look more attractive to consumers. Manufacturers of inkjet printers make their money on ink refills which can be very costly over the life of the printer. 

Manufacturers like HP and Kyocera also make much of their money on toner sales, but there are some sizable differences between HP and Kyocera that should be considered.

HP toner cartridges are similar to their ink cartridges. The entire unit (all parts of the toner cartridge) must be removed and discarded (or recycled). This means you'll often throw away perfectly good components simply because the unit's components can't be separated.

Kyocera fixed this issue by creating a patented component that allows a user to refill toner directly into the machine. Kyocera is an extremely environmentally conscious company, and their ECOSYS line solves the problem of cartridge waste.

If the toner bottle wears out, it can easily be removed, recycled, and replaced. This patented system also reduces the costs that would otherwise be passed on to the consumer.

The Dealer Factor

Even though the HP printer is cheaper and offers a seemingly convenient online ordering option for most units, the total cost (or both money and time) is not a better value. In many cases (as seen in the charts above), the HP printer will require a toner cartridge replacement more often than the that of the Kyocera when looking at page yield with 5% coverage. If you aren’t sure what 5% page coverage will get you, read our article: How Much Does A Printer Really Cost? You may discover that 5% doesn't get you as much mileage as the box indicates.

Dealers have greater buying power with manufacturers, and as a result, their toner supply costs are significantly lower than that of retail. Dealers will charge you a penny or less per page printed. When you breakdown the cost of a cartridge replacement at retail value, the difference is shocking.

Just to make things easy, let’s say the HP cartridge costs $190 per cartridge (cheapest price from the table above). At 10,5000 pages per cartridge, that brings your printing costs to nearly 2 cents per page.

That doesn't seem like much, but by not choosing to use a dealer to provide you with managed print services, you are choosing to spend 200% more on the cost of your printing! Do the same math for color. The cost can be 5x higher! 

If you print at least 1,000 pages a month with that printer (which is easy to do in a busy office), that’s a difference of $120 per year, per printer. Imagine what your company's printer fleet looks like from a cost standpoint. Do you know what your print volume looks like? If you don't, how would you find out? Managed print services does that for you.

These are honest numbers generated by comparing models currently on the market. Ultimately, you must decide what is right for your company. If you are only using a single printer, then signing a service contract won't be worth it (unless you also have multifunction copiers on that contract, too).

Keep in mind, there are other factors that change the total cost of the equipment. Dealers can get you a better equipment price because of their buying power. But there's also maintenance to consider. 

What happens when your printer breaks down?

The Maintenance Factor

Imagine a scenario where you purchase a printer at a big-box store. You decide to purchase 30 of the HP products listed above for your office. It isn’t the most expensive model, but it is nicer than a lot of other options. You don’t need it for that much printing, after all.

As the printers begin to be used, you are tasked with ordering cartridges, but that starts to get tedious because the printers don’t run out of ink at the same time. To fix this time consuming (and a bit annoying) problem, you decide to buy a larger order. You even used a coupon to save some money!

The machines continue to have increased wear on them. Eventually, one stops working. Do you send it back to HP? Does the big box store I purchased it from 10 months ago do repair? Is there a warranty? What do we do while we are waiting for the printer to get fixed?

In this situation, most people without a service contract from a dealer send the printer(s) back to the manufacturer to be serviced. In the meantime, their remaining printers experience increased workloads, which creates a decreased life expectancy for them. The alternative solution is to simply purchase a new printer – after all, it’s only a few hundred dollars.

You can see where this eventually gets to be a very expensive process if you have a small fleet of these printers in your office. Perhaps you're already experiencing some of these issues.

Hope is out there!

The benefit of signing a service contract with a dealer to manage your printer fleet is that it offers you a monthly rate that is significantly lower than that of purchasing toner at a retail store or online (and don’t get me started on the knock-off cartridge brands).

The additional benefit comes from the service, so that when your machine goes down, you have a service person visiting your location and fixing your machine much faster than sending it back to the manufacturer. What was once days or weeks of downtime becomes only hours.

Companies like Standard Office Systems offer competitive services like this with the added benefit of an auto-toner renewal program and full managed print services. This allows you to focus on more important tasks at work by taking away the burden of having to place toner supply orders and organize the fixing of malfunctioning or broken machines.

The solutions are out there if you know where to look. Saving your company money and you a lot of headache can be a simple click away.

Want to Learn More:

How Much Does A Printer Really Cost?
What Are Managed Print Services?
Instant Benefits of Managed Print Services
How Much Does A Copier Cost?