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As a small business owner, you are constantly looking for ways to streamline your operations, cut costs, and improve efficiency. One area where you can achieve all three of these goals is by investing in a shipping label printer.
What is a Shipping Label Printer?
A shipping label printer is a specialized printer that is designed to print shipping labels and other related documents such as packing slips, invoices, and receipts. These printers are typically thermal printers, which means that they use heat to transfer ink onto the label or paper, resulting in a clear and durable print.
How To Choose A Shipping Label Printer:
Getting a label printer for shipping your items can help save time and costs, as well as make your labels more professional. There are plenty of shipping label printers available online, but which one is the right one for you? Here are a few things to consider when shopping for a printer for your shipping labels:
- Print Quality – Look for printers with a high dpi resolution for the clearest printing.
- Printing Speed – You’ll want a printer that can keep up with your demand, so look for ones that are “high speed.” If you print a lot of shipping labels at once, consider getting a model with a tray, which can prevent jamming.
- Connectivity Options – Just about every printer has USB connectivity, but some also can connect wirelessly or via Bluetooth.
- Compatibility with Shipping Software – Make sure you can use the printer with whichever shipping platform you use. Fortunately, almost all of these printers can be used with most major eCommerce and mailing sites.
- Cost – As always, set a budget for yourself and stick to it. While a shipping label printer is a good investment, there’s no need to pay for unnecessary features or extras if you don’t need them.
Shipping Label Printer Options for Your Small Business
There are a lot of options to choose from for a thermal shipping label printer, so we scoured Amazon to bring you our ten favorites. These picks are based on product features, brand reputation, and customer reviews. Take a look at our picks below and get ready to find your next time-saver.
Best Shipping Label Printers on Amazon
- Top Pick – Brother Ultra-Fast Label Printer with Wireless Networking
- Runner Up – LabelRange High-Resolution Thermal Label Printer
- Best Value – Nelko Bluetooth Thermal Shipping Label Printer
Brother Ultra-Fast Label Printer with Wireless Networking
Top Pick: The name Brother is synonymous with quality printers, so it shouldn’t be surprising they’re our #1 pick. This printer can be shared over a wireless network, making it convenient if multiple people need to use it. It offers ultra-fast, high-resolution (up to 300 x 600 dpi) printing, for crisp text, graphics and barcodes. You can use it with Windows or Mac and easily integrate and manage it over a wireless network with Brother’s free software.
Brother Ultra-Fast Label Printer with Wireless Networking
LabelRange High-Resolution Thermal Label Printer
Runner Up: Our second choice pick has its fair share of great features too. This printer is designed with 300DPI resolution and can create quality 4×6” shipping labels, as well as multiple sizes of nametags, address labels, barcode labels, and more. It is compatible with most major e-commerce platforms such as eBay, Etsy, and PayPal, as well as major shipping platforms including USPS, and others. The printer also comes with 100 sheets of 4×6” fan-fold labels.
LabelRange High-Resolution Thermal Label Printer
Nelko Bluetooth Thermal Shipping Label Printer
Best Value: Nelko’s thermal label printer aims to make printing labels even easier – you can now print labels from your Smartphone! You can connect via a USB cable, or use Bluetooth to send print commands. It also features high-speed printing – 150 mm/s or up to 72 sheets of 4×6 labels/min. Instructions, printer drivers, and troubleshooting videos come with the unit to make setup a breeze. All this and a low price point, too!
Nelko Bluetooth Thermal Shipping Label Printer
ZEBRA ZSB Series Thermal Label Printer
The Zebra ZSB thermal label printer allows the user to print a variety of label content from anywhere, on any device with wireless mobile PDF printing. It can print up to 73 labels per minute and works exclusively with eco-friendly compostable ZSB Series label cartridges.
The printer works for eCommerce and shipping sites, is compatible with Mac and PC, and also lets you create your own labels with their browser-based Label Designer.
ZEBRA ZSB Series Thermal Label Printer
JADENS Bluetooth Thermal Shipping Label Printer
This highly-rated printer features a high-tech thermal print head, 203 DPI high printing quality, a label holder and comes with extra labels. You can print wirelessly or via USB, depending on the device and/or browser. Its wide usage enables you to print from various platforms and sites, and it comes with easy-to-follow instructions, drivers, and a 1-year warranty.
JADENS Bluetooth Thermal Shipping Label Printer
Rollo Commercial Grade Direct Thermal Shipping Label Printer
This high-speed printer works with any Thermal Direct Label including free UPS labels. It can print labels from 1.57″ to 4.1″ wide with no height restriction, and is ideal for 4″ x 6″ shipping labels, warehouse labels, barcode and ID labels, bulk mailing labels, and more. It connects via USB and is compatible with Windows and Mac.
Rollo Commercial Grade Direct Thermal Shipping Label Printer
POLONO Thermal Label Printer
This shipping label printer is easy to use on computers or laptops by installing the printer driver from the included USB or from their official website. It features high-speed printing at 150mm/s, an intelligent paper return function, and 203 DPI resolution. It can print 72 labels per minute.
iDPRT Thermal Label Printer
This printer supports print widths of 2” to 4.25” and can print various types of labels. It can print 72 sheets of 4×6 labels per minute and has a high 203 DPI resolution to prevent blurry or pixelated printing. Compatible with Mac and Windows, this printer is also compact for easy transport.
DYMO LabelWriter 5XL Label Printer
Featuring its own software, this DYMO printer lets you create and customize over 60 label types through a USB or LAN network connection. Automatic label recognition, 300 dpi resolution, and wide compatibility round out the features of this popular label printer for shipping.
DYMO LabelWriter 5XL Label Printer
MUNBYN USB Thermal Printer for Shipping Labels
Unlike many other shipping label printers, this one is compatible with Chrome OS, as well as Windows and Mac. This 230 DPI printer features a one-click setup, multiplatform use and multi-size printing.
MUNBYN USB Thermal Printer for Shipping Labels
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When starting any small business, owners must find the most cost-effective and efficient way to be successful. One of the often overlooked tools for any small business is a shipping label printer. A shipping label printer can save owners time, money and stress on managing shipments.
Having a shipping label printer allows you to print labels directly from your computer without having to hand write them, ensuring accuracy, speed and cost savings. When deciding which printer to purchase, you’ll want to consider power and size, as well as connectivity, cost and speed.
The size of the printer and power requirements should be evaluated depending on how you’ll be using it. If you are only using it at a single location, size and power requirements are less important than if you plan to use it on the go. For a mobile setup, a portable printer makes more sense.
You will also need to consider the type of interface you will use for your printer. Most of the available printers support USB connection, which is the most common type of interface, but there are also network offerings for those businesses that have multiple computers.
Cost is always a factor for any small business purchasing and one of the most cost-effective options for shipping label printers is a thermal or direct thermal printer. These use heat instead of ink to produce labels, allowing the user to quickly and cost effectively print labels with no waste.
Finally, printing speed should also be considered. If you are printing multiple labels at once, you may want to choose a printer that allows you to print larger batches quickly. Conversely, if you print only a few labels, you’ll want to choose a printer that operates quickly to save you time.
Finding the right shipping label printer for your small business should now be much easier. Taking the time to evaluate your power, size, communications, cost and speed needs will help you find the printer that best fits your business needs.
