Wide Format Printers: Leasing, Renting or Buying?

If you’re in the printing business, then you already know how important it is to get high quality printing equipment in order to provide unparalleled service to your customers. There’s a lot that goes into finding a printer that meets your needs while not driving up costs unnecessarily.

Deciding to Lease, Rent or Buy Wide Format Printers

There’s a fine line between top of the line equipment for high quality printing and a set of wide format printers that cost more than they need to be. Since we’re not professional printers, we can’t help you differentiate between the two, but we CAN help you figure out the best way to lease wide format printers.

With wide format printer financing, you can gain access to a large selection of wide format printers than you might not have otherwise been able to afford. That’s the beauty of printer leasing.

Depending on where you’re at in your business, industry, and market, you can afford to introduce virtually any wide format printer you want into your business. As long as you have printer leasing on your side, you won’t have to worry about saving up money for months or years to get the wide format printer you’re yearning for.

Wide format printer leasing companies typically ask for little to nothing down and have payment programs such as $0 for the first 3 months or $99 for the first 6 months.

So let’s explore the three primary ways of acquiring a wide format printer: printer leasing renting printers, and buying printers.

Which one is the best? Like most major financial and business questions, there’s no one-answer- fits-all.

It is going to depend on you, your business, your market, your goals, and so on.

Leasing a Wide Format Printer for My Business

Wide format printer leasing comes in handy for businesses that want to gain full access to a wide printer, but don’t want the full responsibility of having to own one.

Pros of Large Format Printer Leasing

• You get a lot of control over whether or not you “keep” or “get rid of” your wide format printer at the end of your lease so you can upgrade to the latest technology.
• There are great tax implications to going the wide format printer leasing route, which can save money for your business in the long run. Potentially write off 100% of your printer leasing payments off your taxable income.
• The regular payments you make will be predictable. Less “cost guesswork” to deal with for wide format printer financing.
• Printer leasing can oftentimes be easier to acquire than other forms of wide format printer financing.
• Wide format printer financing prices are very low because the manufacturers give them a 10-30% residual value because they can refurbish them and resell them.

Use our printer leasing calculator to calculate how much your printer lease payments could be and how much of a wide format printer you can afford to buy based on your monthly budget.

Cons of Wide Format Printer Leasing

• Less flexibility in cancelling an agreement. You may have to pay the aggregate amount of payments on your printer lease if you buy out before the end of the term.
• While printer leasing may be a good cashflow option for some businesses, it’s still oftentimes more expensive than buying equipment outright, depending on the agreement you enter into, and your usage.

Printer leasing is great for businesses that need access to a wide format printer, but don’t want to deal with actually owning an expensive piece of equipment (and all the hassle that can come with one breaking down). Leasing large format printers can also be a great option for businesses that don’t yet have the funds or revenue to actually purchase a printer on their own.

Renting Wide Format Printers for Business

Renting a wide format printer, rather than buying outright or using printer leasing can make sense for some businesses that may not be planning on using them on a daily basis or as their main source of income. With a large format printer rental, you can ultimately get the equipment you need without spending more than is needed.

Pros of Renting a Wide Format Printer

• Most notably, you may potentially pay less in the long run for your printer. You only pay for it when you’re actually going to be using it (such as on large projects).
• The owner (not you) of the printer will have to deal with maintenance costs and the burden of maintaining the printer. This means that if something goes wrong with the printer, you’re off the hook and won’t have to deal with the effort or the cost that goes into fixing it. Most rental agreements come with ink and paper so you won't have to buy ink and paper all the time.
• Renting can, in some cases, have tax benefits, such as deducting rental payments off of your business income as a business expense.

Cons of Large Format Printer Rental

• Depending on how regularly you use a wide format printer, this can potentially be the most expensive option. If you plan on using a wide format printer a lot, then it may not make sense to actually rent a printer, and instead look for printer leasing or buying a printer outright.
• You won’t have immediate access to the wide format printer at all hours of the day. This means that if you suddenly need to get a large printing project done, but you haven’t rented it for that week, then you’ll be out of luck until you can get your hands on one. This puts you at the mercy of the printer’s owner if you’re in a time crunch.

Renting wide format printers generally makes sense for businesses that won’t utilize a wide format printer on a regular basis.

Buying Wide Format Printers for Business

Buying a wide format printer outright is generally going to be the best option if you have a lot of cash, but this option is not always the best option to all businesses.

Pros of Buying Wide Format Printers

• Lower total cost of the wide format printers (as there are no additional financing charges or interest to deal with).
• Greater flexibility in the actual wide format printer you choose (e.g., brand, size, etc.).
• Can have section 179 tax advantages, depending on your situation.

Cons of Buying Wide Format Printers

• You’ll immediately deplete available monetary resources that could have been spent on other business pursuits.
• You won’t have as much (or any) financial protection against products becoming obsolete or damaged.
• You’re fully responsible for the equipment if something goes wrong with it, including the cost of repairs and maintenance. You'll have to buy all of your own ink and paper.

Buying wide format printers may make sense for businesses that have a surplus of funds not being utilized and for businesses that want to save money in the long run.

What’s the Verdict? Rent, Buy, or Lease Large Format Printer?

A wide format printer is big and expensive and isn't just some inexpensive office printer lease. Like we said in the beginning, there’s no one-size- fits-all approach to a wide format printer lease. If you’re considering printer leasing, you need to evaluate the status of your business before committing all of your resources into one single form of printer financing.

Generally speaking, a business that doesn’t need to use a wide format printer on a regular basis should at least consider renting.

If a business needs to use a printer on a regular basis or for their main source of income, leasing is a great option to consider if that business would like to invest their capital into things that appreciate for their business (or doesn’t want to deal with the responsibility and burden of maintaining one).

If a business instead has a surplus funds to spend and is willing to take on the responsibility of maintaining and repairing a wide format printer, then buying the printer outright can make the most financial sense in the long term.

As always, every situation is unique, so it’s worth talking to a financial expert at Trust Capital about your options to lease large format printers. We invite you to call Trust Capital at 866-458-4777 to discuss your wide format printer leasing options.