The short answer
- Buy a printer if you issue badges every week, need a card in someone's hand within minutes (a new hire's first morning, a replacement at the front desk), or encode access cards for door readers.
- Outsource if you print in batches: a new school year, a hiring class, a season, an event. You skip the equipment, supplies and upkeep, and every card has a known price.
What an in-house printer costs
Typical US prices for a desktop dye-sublimation card printer setup (they vary by brand and model):
| Single-sided card printer | $1,000 to $2,000 |
|---|---|
| Double-sided card printer | $2,000 to $4,000+ |
| ID card software | Free basic versions, or a few hundred dollars |
| Color ribbon | About $0.15 to $0.40 per card printed |
| Blank 30 mil PVC cards | About $0.05 to $0.20 per card |
| Cleaning kits, replacement printheads | Ongoing; a printhead can cost several hundred dollars |
| Your time | Setup, driver updates, color calibration, jams, staff training |
Supplies alone run roughly $0.25 to $0.60 per card, so a printer is cheapest per card at high volume. The catch is the up-front cost: printing 200 cards a year on a $1,500 printer works out to more than $7 a card in the first year once the printer is included.
What outsourcing costs with CredentialCore
Our current prices for full-color 30 mil PVC cards, including printing, with shipping calculated at checkout:
| Batch size | Per card | Setup fee | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 cards | $4.75 | $25.00 | $262.50 |
| 250 cards | $4.00 | None | $1,000.00 |
| 1,000 cards | $3.50 | None | $3,500.00 |
No equipment, and a different name, photo and barcode on every card is included. See full pricing.
Questions to decide
- How many cards a year, and how spread out? A few hundred in two or three batches favors outsourcing; a steady stream every week favors a printer.
- How fast do you need a single card? Same-hour badges need a printer on site. If a few days works, outsourcing does; Rush orders placed by 11 AM ET on a weekday ship the same day.
- Do cards need door-access chips? Proximity and RFID access cards are programmed for your building's system and usually come through your access-control provider. We print photo ID and badges, not access credentials.
- Who will run it? A printer needs someone who keeps it clean, stocked and calibrated.
Many organizations do both: a small printer for one-off replacements, and outsourced batches for the big runs.