When looking for a coworking space, most people will consider printing allocations and whether there is easy printing. After all, the average person who uses a coworking space needs to occasionally print documents. As a coworking space manager, you need to decide how you want to deal with printing. Will you include it as a free amenity for members or charge them for it?

Potential Printing Policies

There are many different ways you can incorporate printing into your coworking tools. Some spaces just include it as a free amenity with unlimited printing allowed, but they factor that into the membership price. This will likely only make a difference of a few dollars a month for members. Others do something similar but change the printing allocations based on the membership level.

Some coworking companies ensure easy printing by providing a base number of pages included for free, then charging for printing that goes above this. Or you could just charge for every page printed. This last option will keep your membership costs down but might turn away some potential members who feel cloud printing should be free. You could even do printing on an honor system and have a suggested amount that members put in a container or pay electronically based on how much they print.

Your Spending on Printing

There is no hard and fast rule about how much you’ll spend on printing as a coworking space owner. This depends on the number of pages printed, the type of printer you use, whether it has additional functionalities, the price of the toner used, and how much maintenance the printer requires. Some calculate that using a commercial printer that can handle about 400,000 pages during its life will cut the cost per page down to about $0.02 to use the printer. Factor in toner and paper, and this could rise by another cent or fraction of one.

Assuming you don’t work on an honor system or provide free cloud printing, you will need to figure out how to track and charge for printer usage, passing on the printing costs to members. Luckily, there are many pieces of software that do this.

Common Software

One of the most popular of these services for coworking companies is ezeep, which uses cloud printing and works with Chrome, Android, iOS, Mac, PC, and more. It includes printing payment and is specifically marketed to coworking spaces. Ezeep is simple to use and set up, and it comes with a 30-day trial for 10 users. Pricing for shared workspaces with ezeep depends on the number of users, starting at $1 for monthly agreements and $0.80 for annual agreements per user per month for 10 users. It drops down to $0.83 or $0.67, respectively, with 30 users.

PrintWithMe is another great service that coworking companies can use. It includes a range of printing options, plus an easy-to-use system. Retail locations pay $0.99 for the first page, $0.39 for pages 2 to 4, $0.29 for pages 6 to 10, and $0.19 for every page after that.

Making Your Choice

Which of the various methods you use to add printing to your coworking tools will depend on your space. If you do not anticipate too many members printing, consider making it free and factoring printing costs into membership. Just remember to think about convenience, as well as the cost and the size of your coworking space.