We look at some of the best models in the lower priced category.
If you’re only printing low volumes of staff ID cards or handfuls of plastic cards like visitor badges, you don’t need to spend a huge amount of money on an expensive ID card printer, especially as it’s likely to have features you don’t need.
Similarly, if you need a plastic card printer for a one-off event, or you’re planning on using it irregularly, you’ll be looking for something that does the job without breaking the bank.
We take a look at the most affordable ID card printers on the market.
Pointman Nuvia N10 – around £575+ VAT for a printer bundle.
The Pointman Nuvia N10 is one of the lowest priced ID card printers currently on the market. If you’re printing small runs of cards at a time, it’s an ideal starter printer that prints good quality cards with no fuss. The model is tried and tested and has been on the market for years.
Lightweight and user friendly, it won’t take up much room on a reception desk or at an event if you need to badge attendees.
It also comes with both USB and Ethernet connection which is rare for printers at this level, usually they are USB only.
- Hand feed (you’ll be feeding on each card individually)
- Single sided print only
- Can handle up to 500 cards a year
- USB and ethernet connection
- 3 Year Warranty
- Low priced consumables (ribbons and cleaning kits).
IDP Smart 21 – around £575+ VAT for a printer bundle.
The Smart 21 is IDP’s most affordable ID Card printer yet. Similarly priced to the Pointman N10, its capabilities are broadly similar too; it is hand-feed only, can print up to 500 cards a year and gives a good quality of print.
Unlike the N10, it’s USB-only, which is fine if you’re printing small volumes from one place. It’s one of the smallest and most compact printers on the market, with a frame that’s smaller than an A4 piece of paper.
- Hand feed (you’ll be feeding each card individually)
- Single sided print only
- Can handle up to 500 cards a year
- USB only
- 2 Year warranty
- Medium priced ribbons
Magicard Pronto100 – around £735+ VAT for a bundle.
The Magicard Pronto100 is the next level-up in the affordable ID card printer category. For the extra money, you upgrade from hand feeding each card individually to an automatic hopper, which you’ll want if you’re printing any real quantities of cards at one time.
You also jump up to a printer that can easily handle up to 1000 cards a year and can print around 150 cards per hour.
The Pronto100 is Magicard’s newest printer to the market and brings with it a number of modern features not found in other entry-level models, like digital shredding and the option to include a watermark on your cards for extra security.
It also comes with Magicard’s Clix remote user interface that offers users control of the printer from any device on the same network.
- Automatic feed
- Single sided print only
- Can handle up to 1000 cards a year
- USB and ethernet connection
- 3 Year Warranty
- More features
- Manufactured in the UK
- Medium priced consumables (ribbons and cleaning kits).
Matica MC110 Double Sided – around £829+ VAT for a printer bundle.
The Matica MC110 is currently on offer as a free upgrade to Double Sided, making it the cheapest double sided ID card printer on the market.
If you’re printing volumes of double-sided cards, upgrading to a double sided ID card printer is a sensible choice. You can print on the reverse side of a plastic card using a single-sided printer, you’ll just need to flip the card and reinsert it into the hand-feeding slot. However this becomes a lengthy and onerous task if you’re doing it in any numbers.
The Matica MC110 combines Italian design with German engineering, resulting in a reliable and powerful printer that looks good on your desk. It’s also manufactured in the UK.
- Automatic feed
- Double sided print
- Can handle up to 1000 cards a year
- USB connection
- 2 Year Warranty
- Manufactured in the UK
- Low priced consumables (ribbons and cleaning kits).
All of our entry-level ID card printers come with free starter card design software.
A word of caution – make sure you consider the running costs of the printer as well as the price tag.
It’s easy to be seduced by a lower price tag, but it’s not the whole story. As well as the printer itself, you need to factor in the cost of the ribbons and cards, to give you a ‘per card print’ running cost.
A cheap ID card printer can take a more expensive ribbon with less ‘prints’ per ribbon – meaning you’ll spend more on consumables.
To compare running costs, take the price of the ribbon (e.g. £35 for 100 prints) and the price of blank cards (e.g. £9 for 100) – add them together, and divide by the number of cards. In this case, it would be £44 divided by 100, which gives you a per-card print cost of 44p per card.
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