Actually, I am quite happy with using my budget HP all-in-one printer; private usage. I also chose to subscribe to the Instant Ink service. I took the smallest one with 10 pages p.m. This plan was, and still is for me, free of charge. So I have not payed for ink in the last 6 yrs. If I print more than 10pages, which happened once, I pay 1€ for another 10 pages. Also why I am happy with HP, is that there is quite decent support in linux (hplip). All in all at least I am happy.
One drawback is, that the printer needs to send some telemetry back to HP. But that is the service, if the ink get low, they'll send me cartridges without my interaction.Thus, I never ran out of ink and did not face the situation of a non working printer/scanner. And I got blinded by the good working service, that I did not realize the lock-in situation I am in. I dislike vendor-lock-ins like these, but for home printing I got used to it, due to the many benefits.
yencabulator|2 years ago
If so, then you're special, because the cheapest tier is $0.99/month, and has been since 2020.
https://instantink.hpconnected.com/
https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/12/hp_free_printing/