No one gets more frustrated than when someone responds to this question with "It depends." Copier and printer pricing varies much like automobiles, because there are lots of options.  We will try to make this answer as simple as possible.

We are asked quite frequently whether we recommend buying (outright purchase) or leasing the copiers, printers and all-in-one devices we provide to our customers.

Let’s first address the factors which determine a cost per copied or printed page and in order to do this let’s assume an average monthly volume of 5,000 pages.

In a true cost per page, the equipment would be included. If the cost of the equipment is the industry average, $6,500, and is leased for five years this should be approximately $130 per month. At 5,000 pages per month, you will need $.026 per page just to cover the equipment cost.

Toner is a huge factor in determining cost per page. Our example above is a color device. This means it will require four toners at a time: Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. Let’s assume the price for a black toner is $79 and yields approximately 16,500 pages based on 5% coverage. This would make just the black toner $.0048 per page.
The Cyan, Magenta and Yellow toners each cost $120 and yield approximately 5,500 pages based on 5% coverage. Each color toner costs $.022
A Full Color Page is calculated at 20% coverage of the page and based on these numbers, would equate to approximately $.07 just in toner costs.

Now, I am going to throw a wrench out, not to get us sidetracked, but it is something that definitely needs to be addressed. What happens when you want to have an extra set of toners on the shelf but you are only paying a cost per page price?
Toners on the shelf are not actually generating any cost per page revenue for your vendor. In the scenario above, this would equate to $439 in additional costs not factored into the cost per page. In essence, the cost per page for black just doubled to $.0096 per page and $.14 for a full color page just for toner. While there is the argument of having extra toner so you never run out and experience downtime, the fact is the number one cause of running out of toner is human error. The technology today is so advanced, if you sign up for our AutoTech program, you will never need those additional toners on the shelf nor need to worry about human error. You can read more about AutoTech,

Other consumable items would include the following:
Photoconductor or Development Units are often referred to as drums. In a color device, there will also be four of these units: Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. They often range from $100 - $200 each.
Transfer Belts are also in the $100 - $200 range, as are Fusing Units or Fusers and Exhaust Filters.

Doing Better Business began creating custom Printer Fleet Management programs in 2004 to help our clients measure, right-size, optimize, manage and constantly work towards improving business processes with the main emphasis on continual evolution towards a more paperless office.

There are seven main buying criteria to consider when evaluating office equipment and an office equipment partner.