The Brother EcoPro ink subscription convinces with laser printers, with inkjet printers it depends on your printing profile.

Everything today comes in subscription form to increase the user experience for the customer. More importantly, it guarantees the supplier a steady stream of income. Any sector that can implement it in any way is doing so today. The printer market also works in this way, although this market is rather the exception.

Businesses have long had maintenance contracts, where you pay a fixed amount per month to rent the machine and print volume. Today all manufacturers take part.

Those who only print occasionally within their organization often don’t need such a heavy contract with an average of 500 prints or more per month for the cheapest package. For example, if you only make a hundred prints a month, you had nowhere to turn.

A few years ago, HP was the first to launch a consumer variant (also possible for SMEs) with instant ink. Brother followed suit at the end of last year as the second manufacturer with EcoPro. time for a test.

New technology, new printer

If you want to use an ink subscription, you need a compatible printer. You have to buy these first, there are currently no all-in subscriptions where you pay one price per month for ink, paper and printer. Brother EcoPro is an ink subscription; You must therefore provide your own paper and printer.

Do you have an existing printer that you want to activate in a printer subscription? Then, unfortunately, you come home from a bald trip. Since Brother EcoPro requires additional technology (and an internet connection) to monitor your prints, a new device is required. Every Brother mono laser or inkjet printer now supports EcoPro.

The list of compatible devices is currently limited to nine mono lasers and ten inkjet printers. You can view the full list here.

All about the app

In terms of ease of use, Brother couldn’t make it easier. After some bugs a few months ago, the new Brother Mobile Connect app (Android/iOS) is in great shape today. You can configure the printer in no time and then take out the EcoPro subscription. By the way, you are not obliged to start with it.

A compatible printer often comes with four months of free EcoPro, it’s up to you whether you activate it or not. Pro tip: Activate the most expensive formula and save hundreds of pages. After the free period, switch to a cheaper formula until you break even, then choose the formula that best suits your consumption.

Brother automatically detects when ink or toner is low and sends new ink in good time so you never run out of ink. Tired of EcoPro? You can cancel directly in the app. You are not bound by any specific contract. Everything is presented clearly and transparently in the app, so you don’t have to be on the line for hours or turn the app upside down.

Warranty continues

A user-friendly concept is one thing, but what about the subscription price? Brother offers four formulas for inkjet and four for mono laser. The latter category is usually one to two euros cheaper than inkjet, presumably because Brother’s laser printers only print in black and white.

You can always take the double number of the subscription with you into the next month. For example, suppose you have a 100 pages per month subscription and you have two months less printing work but a lot in the third month, then you can roll over up to 200 unused pages into the next month.

Particularly practical: your printer’s warranty period runs as long as the subscription is valid. Each ink delivery comes with an envelope in which you can return the empty cartridges for recycling free of charge. Brother says the carbon emissions of each print are also offset within the subscription, just like the printer itself and the courier who supplies you with extra ink.

Sometimes cheaper, sometimes more expensive

The moment of truth: Is Brother EcoPro more or less expensive than ordering regular ink? Often more expensive, sometimes cheaper, it makes a difference for every printer. The more expensive the purchase of the printer, the less interesting EcoPro usually becomes. On the other hand, a lot depends on how often you print.

If you’re only printing fifty sheets a month, the cheaper XL cartridges are useless and you’re better off with a Brother EcoPro. Sporadic use sometimes leads to a printer not producing good print results. Cleaning a printer costs a lot of ink, which is not included in the subscription.

Below we compare the EcoPro subscription price with the price of the traditional ink (not XL ink). Important: With inkjet printers, we calculate 3/4 black and white and 1/4 color prints and vice versa. Color ink is much more expensive, which you can clearly see in the table.

With laser printers, the comparison is clear because you can only print in black and white:

For this calculation we have not used the recommended retail price of Brother ink and toner, but have used competitive online prices to make the difference as clear as possible.

Laser printers should not hesitate

For laser printers we can make it short and sweet: a Brother EcoPro subscription is more interesting than buying official toner. The difference is minimal and you enjoy a lifetime warranty on your printer. So you never run out of toner and if the printer cleans itself in between, you won’t lose any printouts.

Since only one type of toner is supported in the current range of EcoPro-supported laser printers, the calculation is the same for all models.

We cannot say the same about inkjet printers. Here we see very big differences depending on how big the ink cartridges are. The Brother MFC-J4340DW has a basic ink capacity of 3,000 sheets, making this model much more affordable. The Brother MFC-J6540DW has 550 sheets as base ink and the Brother DCP-J1200W has 750 sheets.

The higher the volume of the standard cartridge, the less interesting Brother EcoPro becomes. With the Brother MFC-J6540DW and Brother DCP-J1200W we already have a cheaper subscription of 100 to 300 prints per month. The cheapest subscription, fifty sheets per month, is very profitable only with laser printers.

Never run out of ink

As you can see, an ink subscription is not black and white. With laser printers, the price difference is minimal and we always recommend using Brother EcoPro. With inkjet printers, a lot depends on how big the printer’s standard ink cartridge is. The more you print in color, the more you benefit from a subscription. Do the math yourself if you want to be sure.

On the other hand, with Brother EcoPro you’ll never run out of ink again, your printer’s warranty continues and you only pay per page printed. Lost ink while flushing the printheads doesn’t count, even if it’s difficult to quantify.

With its ink subscription, Brother offers a competitive formula that in many cases turns out to be cheaper. It’s up to you to determine what your printing habits are, what printer you buy and how important ease of use is. In our particular situation with the Brother MFC-J6540DW, going for EcoPro is an easy choice. The first four free months are a handy bonus.