Alice
Label printers are well known for the benefits they can provide to small businesses. They keep things in order, designating important files, identifying employees, and pointing out where essential items are stored. However, label printers can also revolutionise the organisation and running of your home, too. An efficient, reliable and versatile thermal machine allows you to create labels for almost any household purpose: doing DIY, crafting, organising kids bedrooms, and making sure things don’t get lost in storage, to name just a few. You can even branch out and make money from your labels, by investing in a machine that creates shipping and barcode format stickers for kitchen-table eCommerce enterprises. Whatever you use your labels for, you’ll need a machine that’s up to the task. That’s why we’ve looked across the market to find you the best model for every purpose. Here are our top five recommended best label printers for home use.
Product Comparison Table: Best Label Printer for Home Use
| Title | Price | Rating (Amazon) | Best in class | Buy | |
 | Phomemo D30 Bluetooth Label Maker | $ | 4.5 stars | Best Bluetooth Printer | Amazon |
 | Brother P-Touch PT70BM Label Printer | $ | 4 stars | Best Value | Amazon |
 | Brother P-Touch PT-H111 Pro Label Maker | $$ | 4.5 stars | Best for DIY | Amazon |
 | Brother P-Touch PTD210 Label Maker | $ | 4.5 stars | Best Customisation | Amazon |
 | Milestone Thermal Shipping Label Printer | $$ | 4 stars | Best for Shipping Labels | Amazon |
Phomemo D30 Bluetooth Label Maker
The pocket-sized Phomemo D30 Bluetooth Label Maker is a thermal printer, capable of printing labels sized between 0.24 and 0.59 inch in width. This means it’s perfect for name and date tags, notes, storage labels and almost any kind of household label you can think of that fits within the stated dimensions. The machine comes with the Phomemo Print Master app, which once downloaded gives you access to a huge range of fonts, icons and images, as well as the ability to save preset label designs for later use. This app also serves as your interface with the printer, meaning you can print from any Bluetooth-enabled smartphone, tablet or similar device. Both iOS and Android will work just fine, as long as your version is updated to Android 4.0, iOS 8.0 or later. It can’t connect with laptops or PCs. As for power, the inbuilt rechargeable battery lasts for 4 hours continuous working time or 30 days on standby, after only 2.5 hours of charging.
Pros
- Wireless connection options
- Comes with Print Master design app
- Long-lasting rechargeable battery
Cons
- Can only print from smartphones and tablets
Verdict
The Phomemo D30 Bluetooth Label Maker is an excellent option for homes that don’t have a traditional family desktop computer setup. Working in conjunction with your smartphone also keeps the cost and size of the machine very low, so you can get great results on a budget. However, as may be obvious by now, you will need a smartphone or tablet to use the Phomemo – PC users should give this a miss.
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Brother P-Touch PT70BM Label Printer
The Brother P-Touch PT70BM Label Printer weighs only 8 ounces, but still boasts a wide range of features: the built-in raised QWERTY keyboard allows you to easily input your label text, as well as customise it with 54 variations on 1 font, 6 size points and 9 styles. You can also add the time and date to your label, text framing and underlining. An 8-character LCD screen makes it easy to read and edit your label before printing. The machine prints on a small range of non-laminated tape widths (both 9mm and 12mm), allowing for 1-2 lines of text. Unfortunately the machine only supports Brother Genuine P-touch M tapes, however these do come in a huge range of colours, and one 13.1fit (4m) Black on White M starter tape is included upon purchase.
Pros
- Prints on a large range of coloured and clear tapes
- Large range of customisation options
- Great value low prive
Cons
- Only prints on Brother branded tapes
Verdict
If you don’t want to spend too much, but still want an efficient, sturdy and reliable label printing machine, the Brother P-Touch PT70BM Label Printer is the perfect machine for you. The small, portable size and intuitive in-built keyboard mean it can handle all the basic tasks with ease. Being unable to use generic label tapes could push up costs, however, so make sure you factor that into your budget.
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Brother P-Touch PT-H111 Pro Label Maker
Described by Brother as ‘a total workspace labelling solution’, the Brother P-Touch PT-H111 Pro Label Maker creates industry-standard quality labels for your home DIY work. THe labels it produces are laminated; this makes them waterproof, UV fade proof, scratch, weather and smudge resistant. Although it only supports Brother Genuine P-Touch TZe laminated tapes, these do come in 4 widths (3.5, 6, 9 and 12mm) and a large range of colours and adhesion styles. With one-touch keys and an LCD screen, you can easily design and preview 2-line labels with 3 fonts and over 300 symbol options. Furthermore, Cable Wrap, Cable Flag, Faceplate and Serialize one-touch keys simplify electrical cable labelling. Lastly, the printer is fully portable, powered by 6AAA batteries, with a wrist strap to protect against drops while working.
Pros
- Prints hardwearing laminated labels
- Built in keyboard and screen
- Cable and DIY specific features
Cons
- Doesn’t come with batteries
- Only supports Brother Genuine tapes
Verdict
The Brother P-Touch PT-H111 Pro Label Maker is our top choice for DIY, allowing you to effortlessly create hardwearing, clear-to-read labels without any dangerous trailing wires. The features designed for electrical cables could prove particularly useful, as well as the secure wrist strap. Although the range of fonts may be limited, this machine should provide everything you need for your DIY projects to turn out perfect.
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Brother P-Touch PTD210 Label Maker
The Brother P-Touch PTD210 Label Maker comes with 14 fonts, 10 styles, 97 frames and more than 600 symbols, making it the ideal machine for scrapbooking, gift tags, kids’ storage and more. Plus, the compatible Brother Genuine TZe Laminated tapes are durable, water-resistant and fade-resistant indoors and outdoors, and come in any colour or finish: photo paper, non-laminated, iron-on for fabric to name just a few. Prints can cover two lines, on labels up to 12mm wide. There are even 27 templates built into the machine if your creativity isn’t spurred just yet, all accessible via the built-in QWERTY one-touch keyboard. The machine is compact and portable, powered by 6AAA batteries (not included on purchase). You can also plug it in with an AC adapter, however this will also have to be purchased separately.
Pros
- Huge range of customisation options
- Durable laminate label tapes
- Built-in templates
Cons
- Power supply sold separately
Verdict
With the Brother P-Touch PTD210 Label Maker, you get the widest range of customisation options out of any machines on this list. Using the plethora of fonts, designs and tapes – including the range of premade templates – you can create an almost endless range of label designs for crafting, kids’ bedrooms or playrooms, journaling and more. Maybe you just want to make your storage look snazzy – whatever you can imagine, this machine can make it happen.
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Milestone Thermal Shipping Label Printer
Capable of printing any width of label from 2 inch to 4.65 inch width, and 1 inch to 8 inch length, the Milestone Thermal Shipping Label Printer is perfect for printing all standard size barcodes and shipping labels at home. It is compatible with all major shipping and eCommerce platforms too, including Amazon FBA, Shopify, UPS and eBay. With its high precision ROHM Japanese print head, the Milestone’s thermal technology can achieve a lightning-fast print speed of 150mm/s – that’s 72 labels per minute, or more than one per second! Plus, auto label detection technology instantaneously recognised the size of fed-in labels, before automatically calibrating the printer to handle them correctly. This prevents misprints and smudges on every print. As for connectivity, it only supports USB cables, no Bluetooth or WiFi. However the machine is compatible with both Windows and MacOS.
Pros
- Superfast printing speed
- Prints a wide range of label sizes
- Automatic label identification technology
Cons
- Only connects via USB
Verdict
A thermal shipping label printer can be a great way to bring down the difficulty and cost of running an eCommerce business out of your home; with one of these machines, you can process hundreds of packages in a blink. The Milestone Thermal Shipping Label Printer could be a big help in launching a kitchen-table business, being such a bargain price and presenting such reliable-sounding printing statistics. This is our top choice for the best shipping label printer for home use.
