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Looking for the best quality, most affordable printer cartridges? Our annual surveys of thousands of printer users show that leading third-party ink brands are valued more highly than genuine ones. Our research shows that third-party ink is typically the least expensive.
Printer manufacturers prefer to use their own brand of ink. However, our research shows that you will be better off spending less on cartridges and choosing cheaper third-party ink. Thanks to our extensive research, we recommend only quality cartridges with good compatibility.
This assumes you know which third-party brand to choose – so you’ll need to check out the results of our in-depth research.
Not only can we help you save on ink, but we can also help you save on your next printer, allowing you to reduce your ink costs even further. Check out our expert recommendations for the best affordable printers to buy and use.
We’ve surveyed thousands of inkjet printer owners and lab tested leading brands to bring you the most comprehensive findings.
We combine ease-of-installation ratings from thousands of real users with lab compatibility testing so you can buy with confidence.
Only brands that pass our assessment become Which? Recommended Suppliers – these are the best ink cartridge brands.
Print quality for all types of prints from leading brands, as well as the number of pages that can be printed with each cartridge and the ink consumption per printed page.
We surveyed thousands of Which? customers who use third-party cartridges and asked them to rate print quality, ease of use, value for money and overall satisfaction. We carried out further lab testing on cartridges from four major brands, and three performed well enough to be recommended by Which? as suppliers. You can use our test results to help you choose affordable printer cartridges from quality brands.
Whether it’s genuine HP, Canon, Epson, or Brother inks, real-world user ratings all placed them near or at the very bottom of our list, showing that most printer users in our survey are happy to switch to cheaper third-party printer inks.
Only registered Which? users can see the ratings for each brand. If you’re not already registered, you’ll see the brands in alphabetical order, but no results. We provide links to each brand’s website. By registering with Which?, you’ll get instant access to our best printer ink deals and all our reviews, covering everything from printers to batteries and laptops.
Table notes: Sample size in brackets. Print quality: Based on our customer satisfaction surveys (not our follow-up lab testing to verify quality). Customer ratings: Satisfaction and likelihood to recommend the brand. Online survey of 7,094 Which? Connect members (March 2025). Cartridge sample size: 4,985.
If you’re in the market for a new printer, check out our experts’ picks for the best home printers and see which models impressed us the most in our independent lab tests.
We conducted extensive surveys of thousands of third-party cartridge users to find the low-cost printer inks that real users recommend. We also subjected our most popular cartridges to rigorous lab testing.
We sent ink cartridges from the four leading brands in our study to our lab, where we conducted further rigorous testing using two representative printers, comparing the quality of each ink directly to genuine Epson inks.
We test the full range of prints, from black text to color office graphics and album-worthy photos on matte and glossy photo paper. We also evaluate the yield of each cartridge.
Every Which? recommended cartridge prints at least 171 more pages than the Epson cartridge (1,012 pages), and the best cartridges print 256 more pages, all for just 6% of the cost. That means you save real money while still getting excellent print quality. Our expert tests show that in most cases the extra cost of genuine ink doesn’t justify the small difference in performance.
Refresh Cartridges sells a wide range of compatible, remanufactured and genuine cartridges. Cartridges and toner on the Refresh Cartridges website come with free shipping and a warranty of up to three years.
Stinkyink offers both genuine and third-party inks for a wide range of printers. The Stinkyink website is easy to use, and all cartridges come with a 12-month warranty. Additionally, if the cartridges are permanently damaged during the warranty period, Stinkyink will repair or replace your printer.
Ink Factory is a family-owned business founded in 1999. All cartridges come with a lifetime warranty and are returnable or exchangeable. For more information, visit the Ink Factory website.
First Call Inks offers a wide range of compatible and remanufactured cartridges on their website Firstcallinks.co.uk. All products are guaranteed and unopened orders are fully refundable.
Inkredible’s online store offers a wide selection of cartridges, as well as compatible ink from its own brand. Inkredible provides a standard one-year warranty covering faults, defects, and damage. If a cartridge is found to be defective within 12 to 36 months of purchase, Inkredible will provide a replacement or bonus credit.
Internet Ink is a Nottingham-based shop that also sells compatible cartridges on its website. Delivery is included in the price of the ink and there is a one-year warranty against defective products.
This year, we excluded Colour Direct from our lab testing. Colour Direct primarily sells ink for older printers—you can find it in the list of compatible models next to each cartridge. The number of respondents who used Colour Direct in our survey was also quite low compared to last year. Unlike many other third-party brands, Colour Direct does not have its own website and sells its products only through its Amazon store.
However, if your printer is compatible and you prefer to use Amazon’s service, Colour Direct is worth a look.
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Buying cartridges online is much easier than in a regular store. Many third-party cartridges are cheaper and are sold only online.
That’s why our survey of printer ink users was designed to rank online retailers. Amazon and eBay are popular platforms for online shopping, but neither scored highly in our survey of thousands of Which? users. Genuine printer ink manufacturers’ websites came in last place again – not considered the best place to buy genuine ink by real users.
We checked and found that the ink on the website of one of our recommended suppliers was 94% cheaper than the original. And that’s not counting the ability to buy cheap printer ink in bulk and save even more.
We’ve compiled a list of the best online printer ink sellers based on how easy their sites are to navigate, membership costs, and customer service. You can use our results even if you’re using genuine ink from your printer manufacturer, as third-party sellers often sell it.
Only registered Which? users can see which shops have the highest ratings. If you’re not already registered, signing up to Which? will give you instant access to search results and all our online reviews, covering products like printers, mobile phones and electric cars.
Table notes: Sample sizes are in brackets. Customer ratings are based on satisfaction and likelihood to recommend the store. The Which? Connect online survey (March 2025) had 7,094 responses. The sample size for online stores selling cartridges was 4,985.
Cartridge Save offers free next day delivery on all products listed on their website cartridgesave.co.uk. If you have any issues with the ink, their branded cartridges come with a three-year guarantee. Plus, in the unlikely event that the cartridges cause damage, they will repair or replace your printer for free.
First Call Inks offer a range of remanufactured ink cartridges on their website Firstcallinks.co.uk. All products come with a guarantee.
Ink Factory claims that ink purchased from Inkfactory.com “will not void your printer’s warranty” and offers free delivery on orders over £10.
Internet Ink is a Nottingham based shop that also sells compatible cartridges via their website. There is no delivery charge, it is included in the price of the ink, and there is a one year warranty against defective products.
This retailer sticks to its motto: just ink and paper. Just Ink And Paper sells ink from four major printer brands: Brother, Canon, Epson, and HP. These inks are genuine, so they may cost more than third-party inks.
Refresh Cartridges offers a Best Price Guarantee on Cartridges promotion that allows you to find a lower price from a supplier before or after you purchase (within 7 days) from Refresh Cartridges. Refresh Cartridges offers cartridges for a wide range of printers, and you can easily find compatible ink by simply searching for your printer model.
Stinkyink offers both genuine and third-party inks for a wide range of printers. The Stinkyink website is easy to use, and all cartridges come with a 12-month warranty. Additionally, if the cartridges cause permanent damage to the printer during the warranty period, Stinkyink will repair or replace it.
Need a new budget printer? Check out our recommendations for the best budget printers.
Printer manufacturers like HP, Canon and Epson want you to use their own ink, and they use everything from nagging to warnings to encourage you to do so.
HP takes an even more aggressive tactic: its Dynamic Security restricts you from using third-party “remanufactured” (refilled) cartridges, while its optional HP+ Service prohibits the use of third-party cartridges entirely (and there’s no way to undo it).
Not only can you save a lot by switching to cheaper third-party inks, but our customer surveys show that most customers are generally happier with third-party inks than with the printer manufacturer’s original inks. What’s more, our lab tests show that in most cases the quality difference is unnoticeable even with the best third-party inks.
When you insert a third-party cartridge into your printer, your printer model may try to stop you with a message like “You have not installed a genuine cartridge” – just accept the message and the ink will usually work fine.
Millions of cartridges are unnecessarily dumped in landfill in the UK every year. While most major brands offer a free postal recycling program, they often do not accept third-party cartridges.
However, some retailers, such as Stinkyink, offer recycling services for all ink and toner cartridges they sell, both original and third-party.
Some large supermarkets and office supply stores have special collection bins for printer cartridges – be careful when shopping. If all else fails, your local recycling centre will likely accept your old cartridges.
Our independent professional printer tests take running costs into account, so you can use our results to avoid overpaying in the long run. Check out all our printer reviews.
Download our app to get the full Which? experience and easily access our reviews on the go.
Post time: Jul-23-2025