Best Shipping Label Printers 2024

AirTrack IP-2A: Best Overall Shipping Label Printer

Print Volume: Medium/High

Print Side: Front and Back

Full Color: Yes

Price: Starting at $1,659

The AirTrack IP-2A tops the list of shipping label printers if you had to pick just one.  It has the right balance of performance, support, and cost to keep your labels printing and your packages shipping, no matter what the application may be.

Printing demands tend to ebb and flow depending on seasonality, business cycles and changes in overall company trajectory. For companies with varying cycles of needs for labels, you want a printer that can meet the needs of your business, yet still be flexible for your budget. The AirTrack IP-2A is a light industrial barcode printer and is designed for medium-to-high-volume printing. It is not overly massive but is sturdy, because it is built with an aluminum base.  Depending on the business, some logistics operations can be in a rugged environment and this printer can stand up to most elements.

The printer is rather easy to operate and configure. It has a nice operator interface with an LCD color touchscreen and can be programed to fit the needs of your label design. This shipping label printer can print labels up to 4” wide and handle most media types (although paper labels will tend to be the most common for shipping labels). The IP-2A comes standard with USB, Serial and Ethernet connections. AirTrack offers a unique support model for the industry. The AirTrack IP-2A printer comes with a standard 2-year warranty, but also offers AirSupport services for an additional cost. The AirSupport includes extended warranty coverage against defects, comprehensive coverage if the printer gets accidentally damaged, and expanded technical support. One other cool feature is the ability to get your device replaced right away with AirSpare. If the device stops working due to a manufacturing defect, AirTrack will send a new one out while they evaluate it, so operations are rarely down.

In conclusion, the IP-2A is a nice balance of rugged design aesthetics, ease of use, and attractive price. It will be your best friend for most shipping label needs.

IP-2A Pros

• Rugged and Durable
• Useability
• Service Options

Zebra TX600: Best Home Office Shipping Label Printer

Print Volume: Medium/High

Print Side: Front and Back

Full Color: Yes

Price: Starting at $1,079

Constantly on the go, small business owners don’t have time to waste. The newest offering from Zebra, the TX600 shipping label printer gives you a solution that is stress-free. The printer is extremely lightweight and compact to fit in any home office or small business. It can be carried in the palm of your hand, which is unlike any other label printer out on the market.

What makes the Zebra TX600 unique is the quick setup and on-the-go printing. Setting up the printer the first time is a breeze. Zebra offers a step-by-step guided approach, and the printer is set up in what seems to be a matter of minutes. With the printer being portable and potential to be moved around, it is nice to know that it can be easily configured to match the next environment. Zebra has created a print solution that create labels from anywhere and on any device using your phone, app or web browser. You no longer need to be tied to your office laptop or wireless network, which adds some freedom and flexibility to this printer.

Unlike most label printers, the TX600 printer uses label cartridges. Each label cartridge is set up to support various use cases including shipping labels, address labels, mailing labels, multipurpose labels, etc. The cartridges take the worry out of printing the wrong label or label compatibility between applications. Another unique feature of the Zebra TX600 printer is the eco-friendly nature of the cartridges, which can be recycled to eliminate unnecessary waste.

The Zebra TX600 printer labels are compatible with all major shipping carriers, shipping services and key e-commerce platforms. The printer can print labels up to 4” wide and connects via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The TX600 is a nice fit for low volume, on-the-go printing and is the perfect shipping label printer for any small business.

ZSB Pros

• Compact
• Mobile
• Plug and play

Honeywell PC42: Best Low-Volume Printer

Print Volume: Low

Print Side: Front and Back

Full Color: Yes

Price: Starting at $366

This year, our choice for printing lower shipping label volumes is the Honeywell PC42. The printer is smallin size, and its double walled plastic frame weighs only 5.5 lbs. The printer is small enough to fit onto any desk or work surface, giving you access to powerful thermal barcode printing anywhere. Although small in size, the printer does not lack the ability to perform. The PC42 can print in both 1D and 2D barcode symbologies. It also has the capability to print labels up to 4” wide, which is ideal for shipping, retail, warehouse, and distribution applications.

The printer comes standard with USB, RS-232 Serial and Ethernet connectivity interfaces, but also offers an options to customize with Bluetooth technology. The PC42 can also be used with all of the major label design software. Design and print are easy through a standard PC to printer connection. So, whatever the design, the Honeywell PC42 makes it easy to print on die-cut, tag, and fan-fold labels.

The PC42 is covered by the same services, warranties, and technical support from Honeywell as other printers.

PC42 Pros

• Efficient
• Size
• Reliability

Zebra ZT421: Best High Volume Shipping Label Printer

Print Volume: High

Print Side: Front and Back

Full Color: Yes

Price: Starting at $3,012

This is truly the workhouse of the Zebra family, built to withstand high print volumes and rugged environments. Zebra is well known for their position in the barcode printer industry. The company was founded based on their print technology and gradually expanded into mobility and scanning, to become the market leader in the space.  The rugged industrial printers from Zebra tend to stand above others in terms of quality and durability.

Zebra makes it really easy to add this shipping label printer as the initial unit in your operations or to drop this printer into an existing fleet of printers. It is backwards compatible, so it accepts the same label formats and applications used with existing printer applications.

The ZT421 has also made some nice advances with their intuitive icon-based interface. It was only a few years ago, where programming a printer would take significant effort to configure and adjust settings. The Zebra ZT421 4.3-inch full-color touch display allows you to quickly navigate printer settings with the user-friendly icon menu system to change languages, printer settings, connectivity options and more.

Another nice advantage of the ZT421 is the ability to print 6” inch labels for your larger label needs. The printer comes with multiple print resolution options (203 and 300 dpi), and is able to be connected via Serial, USB, Ethernet, and Bluetooth Interfaces. Wireless is optional if you are looking to network a series of printers over your network.

ZT421 Pros

• Reliability
• User Interface
• Backwards Compatible

Printronix T6000e: Best RFID Shipping Label Printer

Print Volume: High

Print Side: Front and Back

Full Color: Yes

Price: Starting at $1,210

In fast-paced environments that require speed, print quality, RFID, and real-time barcode verification, the T6000e industrial printer series sets the benchmark for productivity and versatility. One of the most versatile printers, the T6000e can print 10,000 labels a day at high speeds and high resolution.

600dpi tiny label printing, support for all major rival printer languages, many connectivity choices, remote printer management capabilities, and automatic warnings to maximize enterprise efficiency and productivity.

The award-winning T6000e RFID prints and encodes conventional and on-metal RFID labels and has an automated overstrike capability for misencoded tags. RFID upgrade kits for the T6000e standard model allow customers to implement RFID technology without a large upfront expenditure.

The T6000e’s barcode validator eliminates compliance fees and charge-backs from badly printed barcodes. This integrated solution automatically retracts, voids, and reprints faulty labels. Data is recorded with PrintNet Enterprise remote printer management software to verify labels and create an audit trail.

The T6000e prints, encodes RFID labels, and inspects barcodes simultaneously. Two machines can now execute two different functions, increasing production and cost savings.

T6000e-RFID Pros

• Built in Verifier
• Precise Printing
• Multilingual interface