Last Updated on November 5, 2021 by ronnie
Shipping label printers are a great choice for printing labels to reduce costs and save time. It is important to invest in the right one so that you don’t have to worry about the quality of printers. For small businesses, they can’t afford to try the shipping label printer and buy a new one if they don’t like it. Because their top priority is minimizing the production cost to get as much profit as possible.
A good shipping label printer can print at a high speed and reduces the time and cost while packing products. Then there are thermal shipping label printers that use no ink or toner to print saving more cost in terms of production. This kind of printer uses heat and thermal sheets that are cheap to print labels at high speed.
Our Top Picks
To help you choose the suitable label printer for yourself we have put together the ten best shipping label printers after testing 100s of printers. We hope that this article will help you in choosing the right label printer for your personal or business use.
10 Best Shipping Label Printers 2022 Reviewed
1. Brother QL800 HighSpeed-Best Professional Label Printer
- Print amazing black/red labels using DK-2251
- Create cost-effective paper labels for packages, envelopes,...
- Super-fast, printing up to 93 standard address labels per...
Specifications:
● Product Dimensions/weight: 4.9 x 5.6 x 8.4 inches; 2.4 Pounds.
● Print Speed: Up to 93 labels per minute.
● Print Resolution: 300 DPI with 300 x 600 resolution.
Brother QL-800 is a high-speed and multi-system label printer capable of printing labels in red and white. Unlike other label printers, it allows users to print in red and white with the high speed of 93 labels per minute with text on 300 dpi allowing you to save time while working on large projects. Furthermore, the printer uses thermal printing to help print labels without the need for ink, ribbon, or toner.
All you need to do is put the rolls in the printer and plug it in with a power source and with your device and just press print and it will print labels at astonishing speed with clear text.
You can connect the printer with your computer using a USB cable and even with mobile using Brother’s app that is available for both iOS and Android. For a computer, it requires no software or drivers just plug it in and start printing.
With automatic cutter and high-speed printing, it can print 3 ft. long labels saving a lot of time. You can customize the labels on Microsoft word, Excel, and outlook and print directly from there.
However, if you are new to technology then setting up the printer with MAC would be a hassle as their software is not as user-friendly as expected. The printing speed is good but the red stickers are a bit costly for smaller brands so they should stick to black and white.
2. DYMO 1755120 -Best shipping label printer for customizing Labels
- PRINT XL SHIPPING LABELS: Shipping label printer, prints 4"...
- PERFECT FOR ECOMMERCE SELLERS: Compact printer prints...
- NEVER BUY INK AGAIN: Direct thermal label printer—no...
Specifications:
● Product Dimensions/Weight: 10.25 x 10 x 10 inches; 1.82 Pounds.
● Printing Speed: up to 53 standard labels or 129 high capacity labels per minute.
● Printing Resolution: Thermal printing with 300 dpi and 4’’ x 6’’ labels.
DYMO 4XL makes printing shipping labels are famous for their easy usage. With a large size of “4 x 6,” it can print labels for any use including eBay, Amazon, or some bulk mailing company. It comes with software that allows you to select from over 60 professional label templates and customize them for free. The text and graphics on these labels can be edited and customized according to your needs and you are one click away from printing them.
You can print up to 53 standard 4-address lines labels or 129 high capacity 4-address line labels within a minute saving your time while printing in high-quality. The printer can print 4 inches wide labels without the need for any ink.
The paper labels used by this printer are of high quality and FSC-certified which ensures that the paper comes from a trusted source. It helps you to print labels straight from online sellers like FedEx, USPS, and many more.
The only downside to this printer is that when a jam occurs it becomes hard to clear those jams. However, jams occur rarely but the printer would have been the ideal one if there had been some way to clear the jams.
3. Rollo Label Thermal High-Best shipping label printer for e-commerce
- Works with any Thermal Direct Label including free UPS...
- High Speed Printing at 150mm/s (one shipping label per...
- Compatible with Windows (XP and newer) and Mac (10.9 and...
Specifications
● Product Dimensions/Weight: 7.7 x 2.95 x 3.34 inches; 2.2 Pounds.
● Printing Speed: Up to 238 shipping labels per minute.
● Printing Resolution: 300 DPI with 4’’ x 6’’ labels.
The Rollo Label Printer is famous for its low-cost consumption while printing labels of high quality at an incredible speed. It features advanced thermal printing that is capable of printing labels of high quality without the need for ink or toner.
The label printer prints at the speed of 150mm/s making the printer capable of printing up to 238 shipping labels per minute. Either you want to print 10 or 10,000 labels you won’t see the difference in quality because the printer prints all the labels with the same high quality as the first one.
You can use direct thermal printing to print high-quality barcodes and labels including ones provided by UPS, USPS, etc.
It can also be used to identify or load the label and you can do it by putting the label inside the printer and with the press of one button, it will automatically detect the size and characteristics of the labels that you can further use for printing.
When running a small business, this printer will help you a lot as it prints labels of high quality and you can use it with any thermal printing. This reduces the cost of effort and saves a lot of time with money and the printer is doable and lasts long.
It has only minor issues like website guides are a bit hard to understand and these minor issues can be resolved with ease as you use the printer continuously. Overall, the shipping label printer is ideal for small businesses as only one printer can help you print thousands of labels with ease every day.
4. ArkScan 2054A Thermal-Best shipping Label Printer for connectivity
- A multi-functional printer to print shipping label, product...
- Come a free software of BarTender UltraLite Label Design...
- Arkscan offers 5-star U.S. based real time tech support via...
Specifications
● Product Dimensions/Weight: 24 x 16.61 x 21.11 inches; 3 Pounds.
● Printing Speed: Up to 60 4 x 6 labels per minute.
● Printing Resolution: High resolution of 203 DPI.
The ArkScan is a modern shipping label printer that can print labels for multiple purposes at high speed without compromising on the quality of labels. Either be barcode labels, product labels, shipping labels, this printer can print all types of labels of high quality with ease.
It features free software for printing labels only available for windows and contains frequently used labels with features to edit text and graphics. No doubt, it can print standard labels at high speed and according to the company, it can print up to 60 labels of 4 x 6 size.
The printer can print labels for almost all major shipping companies from eBay, EasyPost, PayPal, UPS WorldShip, and many more. Furthermore, it can print 4.25 inches labels in width and about 6 inches in length at a high resolution of 203 DPI that is almost 8 dots/mm. It utilizes thermal printing that requires no ink or toner.
The only drawback of this label printer is that it can’t print labels with small font sizes and the smallest font size you can print is 24 pt. On the whole, the printer can print thousands of labels with high-quality throughout a day but it only is compatible with Windows.
5. Sanford Dymo Label 450 Printer-Overall best shipping label printer
Specifications
● Product Dimensions/Weight: 7.2 x 4.8 x 5.7 inches; 2.16 Pounds.
● Printing Speed: 51 labels per minute.
● Printing Resolution: 300 DPI.
The Dymo Label 450 printer makes use of direct thermal printing and comes with software that helps to print labels with a speed of 51 labels per minute. With the help of software, it supports direct printing from Microsoft Word, Excel, and other programs that can be used for normal prints.
Furthermore, you can customize the label in any way you want and the printer will print it without the use of any ink or toner. The text quality is 300 DPI(dots per inches) making the print look high quality and easy to read with the naked eye.
It creates labels of a variety of sizes and you don’t have to worry about the barcodes as the printer prints barcodes of high quality so that machines can easily identify the barcode.
The sheet size of 2.35 is used and you can use Dymo labels or die-cut paper or LW label rolls as printing sheets. To work, it requires 1 lithium polymer battery that can be easily replaced when needed.
The only drawback to this printer is that it doesn’t have a dual-rolling capacity and only uses Dymo or LW labels rolls for printing and requires a battery to print. To summarize, the printer uses direct thermal printing to print high-quality labels at high speed with the use of a battery and can print for long hours without any problems.
6. Phememo-M110-Best Commercial shipping Label Thermal Printer
- Easily Label Printing- Phomemo-M110 thermal label maker has...
- Powerful Function Printer- OCR-Optical Character...
- Save Money and Time- Black and White Print thermal printer...
Specifications
● Product Dimensions/Weight: 1.69 x 3.86 x 3.23 inches; 0.85 Pounds.
● Printing Speed: 5 inches per second.
● Printing Resolution: 300 DPI.
This label thermal printer comes with a speedy Bluetooth connection, within 2 seconds any desired device can be connected to this mini printer. No ink is used as the whole printer is thermal, and any label from garments labels to electronic cable labels can be printed in various templates.
The templates come in lots of designs, and the width of the labels ranges from 20mm to 50mm, where the maximum printing width of the label is 48mm.
It only prints in monochrome colors meaning only black and white, however, this printer can flawlessly notice labels and takes no time in printing neatly. This mini printer has an attached paper adjusting holder which maintains the printing proportions and saves time plus expenses. The labels are easily printed and less energy is consumed due to its miniature design and lofty options like paper holder and label recognition.
Good choice for commercial use as it connects with one click. The Bluetooth 4.0 with an almost 33 feet range is a convenient option not found in most printers. In addition to all this, you can design your template and choose from already built templates for your label. Moreover, optical character recognition is also one of the main features of this printer. Images can be easily recognized and converted into text.
7. Micmi Thermal-Best multipurpose Shipping Label Printer
- Shipping Label Printer is A multi-functional printer to...
- Come A free software of bartender ultralight label making...
- High speed shipping label printer, support Windows XP newer,...
Specifications
● Product Dimensions/Weight: 7.09 x 8.66 x 12.6 inches; 4.81 Pounds
● Printing Speed: 6 inches per second.
● Printing Resolution: 300 DPI.
Micmi thermal shipping label printer comes with a bold design and exceptional printing methods. The type of paper does not matter much when it comes to this printer, it can print on thermal roll paper as well as folder thermal label paper. It can be supported by PC only, and it comes with a built-in common dimensional barcode, two-dimensional barcode, and software.
The software is of bartender ultralight label that uses various standard printing labels design, as well as a wide variety of designs for texts or graphics barcodes. This software also has a remarkable feature to choose between 5 different fonts.
Great speed of almost printing two to five inches in a second. The shipping label of 4×6” can be printed in this printer in only 1 second. It comes with the latest technology of thermal printing, no need to refill the ink numerous times as it prints directly by thermal force, moreover, it can bear all types of shipping label papers from Amazon, eBay, to UPS FedEx and other shipping labels varying from 4×6″, 4×8. 25″ to 4×6. 75.
It gives output in high resolution, it can print a minimum of 1.02″ Maximum of 4. 64″ In width, Max.5.11” in diameter. Aside from this, the paper can be printed in different four-angled directions. It can also be zoomed in to ten times or less.
It is not supported by MAC and can print shipping labels on PC for ship wire, UPS world ship, and many more.
8. MUNBYN Thermal-Best portable Shipping Label Printer
- [One minute to set up, Money and Time Saver] We made it -...
- [Easy Learning Labels] MUNBYN 4x6 label printer Auto Analyze...
- [Multi-Compatibility] MUNBYN thermal label printer...
Specifications:
● Product Dimensions/Weight: 8.46 x 7.09 x 5.31 inches; 3.3 Pounds.
● Printing Speed: 150mm/s, 72 labels per minute
● Printing Resolution: 300 DPI.
The MUNBYN printer is not as famous as DYMO or Rollo printers but this thermal printer is a great choice for designing custom labels that can be used for eBay, Amazon, and other e-commerce websites. It is a small printer capable of printing labels of 4 x 6 at a speed of 72 labels per minute and can work continuously if a label roller is provided.
Furthermore, it comes with a label roller add-on which allows you to put a label roller and the printer automatically cuts and prints labels using direct thermal printing, requiring no ink or toner.
The printer can work continuously for long hours with the same result as the first print if a suitable amount of rolls are available. However, to work continuously you will need to provide a single-size print to the printer.
Moreover, the printer is compatible with Windows and Mac systems and works with only a USB connection, and accepts customized labels. If you are looking for a printer to print a bulk of same-sized labels then we will highly recommend this printer.
To protect the printer from overheating when printing continuously, it prints for five minutes and stops and then starts printing again and continues like this. The printer accepts all kinds of direct thermal labels or uses the adjuster to adjust the size of labels.
The downside to this printer is that it can only be connected with a USB cable. Also, the machine is made by a Chinese company, and software configuration may be required in MAC OS.
9. ZEBRA GK420d Direct-Best selling commercial shipping Label Printer
- Easy to use: Connects via USB, Serial, Parallel and is...
- Direct Thermal Technology: Requires the use of direct...
- Dependable performance: Designed for durability and frequent...
Specifications:
● Product Dimensions/Weight: 12.95 x 9.13 x 8.07 inches; 5.7 Pounds.
● Printing Speed: 5 inches per second.
● Printing Resolution: 300 DPI.
●
The ZEBRA has been known widely and was used in every store in old days but as modern technology started progressing the ZEBRA failed to develop with it. This label printer would have easily be called the best shipping label printer if its software was developed as other printers in this list. As it has the highest demand for commercial printers, so it is the best selling commercial label printer.
It prints at a speed of 5 inches per second with 203 DPI of resolution that makes it the ideal choice for medium-volume printing. As said earlier, it lacks in technology since it only connects with windows by a USB cable. It can print labels of 5 inches in diameters and 4 inches in width at a high speed.
Furthermore, it uses only thermal media and requires not even thermal ribbon saving more money than any other label printer out there. In terms of doing what it is supposed to do, this printer will never disappoint you as it prints labels of high quality whenever you use it.
The printer uses direct thermal printing and is popular among small businesses that require low to medium volume printing.
The only downside to this printer is that it lacks software development and is old in terms of other label printers but it prints of high quality and is the best choice for you when looking for printers with more manual and commercial use.
10. Brother QL-820NWB-Best Flexible Shipping Label Printer
- Flexible connectivity the QL 820NWB network label printer...
- Also offers a USB host interface for use with a peripheral...
- Ultra fast, up to 110 standard address labels per minute...
Specifications:
● Product Dimensions/Weight: 9.2 x 5 x 5.7 inches; 2.5 Pounds.
● Printing Speed: 110 labels per minute.
● Printing Resolution: 300 DPI.
This shipping label printer is the upgraded and enhanced version of QL-800 that is already reviewed above, it has all the features that the old model has but has some new features that make it worthwhile. It prints with the speed of 110 standard address labels per minute with the text quality of 300 DPI.
The printer can be connected to a network for multiple devices use and it can also be connected via Bluetooth making it a versatile printer. You can also connect using a USB interface letting you use a scanner or peripheral devices. Furthermore, it has a backlit LCD that shows the current status of the printer.
It can print up to 2000 black texts or 850 colored texts before you need to recharge it again and the battery can be fully recharged within 2 hours.
The print is capable of printing high-quality graphics and barcodes at a high speed and requires no ink or toner. You can recharge it and re-use it again at a low cost saving money and time while continuously delivering labels.
Moreover, the printer comes with a 2-year warranty that lets you exchange it for a new one in case of any faults. The only downside to this printer is that it is relatively expensive than all other printers on our list so if you can afford it then this would be the best one for you.
Best Shipping Label Printers – Buyer’s Guide
Choosing a suitable shipping label printer can be hard as there are a lot of variables that you must be aware of before buying a shipping label printer. These variables show whether the printer is good for you or not. We have written those factors that you must know or at least confirm before you shop for shipping label printers.
Compatibility
For buying a label printer you need to know two types of compatibility; one is compatibility with the device and the second is compatibility with distribution services. If you want a printer that you need to connect with an Apple device then you should first see if the printer is compatible with Apple or any device of your choice.
The printers come compatible with many distribution services like USPS, UPS, Amazon, Etsy, and many more. You should choose the printer that is compatible with your preferred distribution service as it saves a lot of costs while printing.
Speed
Printing speed is one of the most important factors that you should know before buying a label printer. When you own a small business you need to lower the cost as much as possible so you should choose a printer with a high speed. The speed is measured by labels per minute or inches per second, labels per minute mean how many labels can be printed within a minute while inches per second is the size of label printed per second.
Normally, the normal printer can print with the speed of 50+ labels per minute while some of the best printers print 90+ labels in a minute. The cost is saved depending upon the speed of the printer as the faster the printer is the lower the time it takes to print and save energy.
Connection
If you want a printer that you can use while walking or wants to print without the use of wire then you should choose a printer with a Bluetooth connection. It all depends upon you as if you only need a printer for one use and want to connect to one device then you can choose a USB-only printer.
Furthermore, some printers can be connected to a network so that every device on a network can use it. So, depending upon your business needs you can choose the type of connection you are looking for.
Print Color
Almost all the shipping labels are printed in black and white as it saves cost and requires less time to print. But if your brand needs color labels then you can opt for a printer that can print multiple colors. For small businesses, we would recommend black and white labels as it saves a lot of time and cost while printing labels.
Label Size
The last variable you need to be aware of is the label size. If you are only printing shipping labels then a one-size printer would be sufficient but if you need to print barcodes, graphics, and other labels with shipping labels too then you should choose an auto-cutter printer that can print 4 x 6 labels.
With this, you can easily choose the size however you want using an auto-cutter and print the same size continuously and when changing size you will need to repeat the process.
Conclusion
In the end, after carefully reviewing many label printers for shipping we have put together and reviewed the 10 best shipping label printers that perform well while saving you time and cost. It is easy to use them and the printer gives you a variety of choices to print the labels of your choice.
According to our testing, the best shipping label printer overall is the Rollo label printer for its wide use for e-commerce and online sellers. While in terms of versatility Brother’s QL model would be the best choice.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
What printer should I buy for printing labels if I want to minimize the production cost?
You should choose a printer that does direct thermal printing as it requires no ink or toner to print while these types of printers print fast and label of high quality despite no use of ink.
Can I print shipping labels for specific distribution services like USPS?
Yes, you can and printers come with compatibility with most online e-commerce websites like Amazon, USPS, UPS, eBay, etc.
Is it worth shipping label printers?
Yes, shipping label printers are worth buying because of ease, productivity, and time-saving options.
