HP All-In Plan is a new subscription plan from HP. The company’s previous subscription plans focused on printer ink subscriptions. Users could sign-up for a plan to get printer ink delivered to their home before they run out of it.
Called HP Instant Ink and starting at $1.49 per month, it assigned a print quota, measured in pages, to the printer. The cheapest plan is good for 10 pages per month with the option to buy more pages if the need arises.
The most expensive plan, called Business, allows users to print 700 pages for $27.99 per month.
HP improved the plans in recent time. It expanded options to laser printers by introducing Toner Plans. The plan starts at $1.99 for 50 pages of printing per month. The most expensive plan is available for $19.99 per month.
HP added options to add paper subscriptions to the plan recently in the United States.
Now comes the HP All-In Plan, which adds the printer to the subscription.
HP All-In Plan: the facts
HP promises “hassle-free printing with the HP All-In Plan”. Basically, what HP is doing is lending subscribers a printer and providing them with ink based on the selected plan.
HP advertises 24/7 Pro live support and an option to upgrade to another printer model after 2 years.
The cheapest option starts at $6.99 for an HP Envy printer and 20 pages of printing per month. HP does not reveal which HP Envy model users get; it is possible that different models may be provided. The price of a base HP Envy printer is about $70 at the time of writing.
Two additional printer models are available. The HP Envy Inspire printer, that starts at $8.99 per month, and the HP OfficeJet Pro printer, which starts at $12.99 per month.
HP Envy Inspire printers start at about $130 and the HP OfficeJet Pro also at around the same price tag. Some models are sold for more though and it is unclear which models subscribers get.
Note that some page options are only available if a more expensive printer is selected.
The maximum price per month at this time is $35.99. This gets subscribers the HP OfficeJet Pro printer and a quota of 700 pages per month.
There is one caveat: HP wants to bind users for at least 24 months. Subscribers have to pay cancellation fees to get out of plans early. These cost almost as much as the plan for the entire 24 month period.
Here they are:
| Printer | After 30 days and up to 12 months | After 12 months and up to 24 months | After 24 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP OfficeJet Pro Plan | $270.00 | $135.00 | $0.00 |
| HP ENVY Inspire Plan | $180.00 | $90.00 | $0.00 |
| HP ENVY Plan | $120.00 | $60.00 | $0.00 |
If you cancel after the 30-day trial period but in the first year, you pay between $120 to $270 to HP to cancel the subscription.
The fee drops to $60 for the HP Envy plan and $135 for the HP OfficeJet Pro plan in the second year. It becomes free only after the first 24 months of subscription.
Is HP’s All-In Plan worth it?
It is simple math for the most part. How much does it cost to buy one of the listed printers and printer ink, and how does it compare to HP’s subscription service?
Buying a cheap HP Envy printer sets you back about $70. It does come with some ink to get you started right away. If you buy HP printer ink, you pay about $40 for a package with black and color ink. If you buy from third-party suppliers, you pay less or get more ink.
This comes at the risk of HP breaking printing though, unless you block driver updates.
The official ink is good for 200 black pages and 165 tri-color pages, which means 365 pages in total.
The cheapest HP All-In Plan gets you 20 pages per month for $6.99
The math for a 2 year period:
- Cost of HP subscription plan: 24 x 6.99 per month = $167.76
- Cost of buying the printer and ink: $70 + 2 x $40 for the ink cartridges = $150
Note that this does not take into account the ink that is included when you buy the printer nor the money you get when you sell the printer after two years of use.
Things to consider
HP’s offer does not look that bad compared to buying the printer and ink directly on first glance. You can reduce the costs to less than $40 for ink if you buy third-party printer ink cartridges, which increases the attractiveness of buying the printer directly.
Some things need to be considered:
- HP All-In Plan allows you to use color printouts, black printouts or mix and match. The company makes no distinction between black and color printouts when it comes to the monthly ratio.
- You can get a new printer after 2 years of use. If you buy yourself, you would need to buy another printer, but could potentially sell the old one for a discount.
- You pay cancellation fees if you want to cancel the subscription between the second month and 24th month.
- HP subscribers get support when they need it. It is unclear how good support is though.
- HP subscribers will never run into problems with printer ink drying up and becoming unusable.
- Only some unused pages of printing carry over into the next month.
- HP monitors printing on the device and may “transfer information about you to advertising partners”. The partners may use the information to identify devices for targeted advertising. The printer needs to be connected to the Internet all the time.
There is a good chance that HP will raise the subscription price in the coming years. It has done so several times for its Instant Ink subscriptions already.
Closing Words
HP claims that its new All-In plan eliminates “the hassle of owning a printer and running out of ink”. What HP forgets to say is that it is usually not a hassle to own a printer, but to use one.
Lack of printer ink or dried up ink play certainly a role, but there are other factors. One of them is HP trying to block customers from using any ink but the company’s.
Subscriptions are often not the best option for consumers. In this case, it means subscribing for two years and paying more than you would if you would buy the printer and ink directly. It may look less of a hassle, as HP is taking care of sending the printer and ink to you, but it comes at the cost of having printing monitored by HP 24/7 and a loss of flexibility.
Now You: what is your take on HP’s All-In plan?
A printer subscription plan? Never. You have to ask yourself exactly who benefits form this the most? I really doubt it is the consumer.
Personally, I have a Brother laser printer I purchased used from a business many years ago. It still still works flawlessly. and costs virtually nothing aside from occasional toner and paper..
Also all-in on Brother laser printers. Actually, still the first that I bought many years ago. Never failed me once.