Xerox vs. Ricoh: Which Printer Brand Is Best for Me? 

Submitted by Mary Shamburger on Wed, 07/20/2022 - 09:00

When it comes to the world of printers/copiers, there are numerous brands on the market. 

Because of that, it can be difficult to decide which one to go with for your office’s next machine. Truthfully, there is not a lot of good information on brand competition in the printer industry, which is why we feel the need to step up and change that trend.  

For almost four decades now, we have kept ourselves up to date on the latest office technology developments, including which manufacturers make up most of the industry. 

We do this because we sell Xerox products specifically, and as most businesses would admit, keeping a close eye on the competition is a fundamental aspect of sales and marketing. 

That is why we’ll be using this article to discuss two of the major brands in the printer industry, Xerox and Ricoh, to give you an outline of what you need to know when it comes to the competing companies’ products and services. 

However, don’t mistake this article as a “Xerox is better” piece just because we sell their products. We have a strict company policy of adhering to the truth and being honest in every interaction we have with consumers, including the content-making process. 

Xerox might be the best fit for you. Ricoh could be the perfect match for your printing goals. Or Xerox and Ricoh both might not be adequate enough for your requirements. 

Whatever that solution is, we’re going to give you the information and let you decide for yourself what is best for you. 

With that out of the way, let’s get into the comparison, starting with a brief overview of each company before diving into the similarities, differences, cost and a printer model comparison to give you a comprehensive look at the two brands.  

Need a printer/copier? Download your free copy of the Complete Guide to Purchasing or Leasing a Printer for Your Business and become informed on everything you need to know before purchasing.

Overview of Xerox 

Xerox was founded in 1906 in Rochester, New York, and is credited with being the first printing company to manufacture and sell xerographic plain-paper copiers—with their first xerographic image made in 1938.         

Today, Xerox has over 13,000 active patents for innovation, and its products reach 160 countries worldwide.             

Their product catalog largely consists of office single-function (print only), multifunction (print, copy, scan and fax) and production printers for a wide array of workgroups.  

Overview of Ricoh 

Ricoh, founded in Tokyo, Japan, in 1936 is a Japanese multinational corporation that presides in the office equipment sector, where they sell an assortment of printers/copiers for workgroups of 1-to-1,000+ employees.  

They currently reach over 1.4 million customers worldwide and maintain a presence in 200 countries and regions around the world. 

To learn more about the top brands in the industry, read our blog listing the five best printer manufacturers in the world today.   

2 Similarities Between Xerox and Ricoh 

While Xerox and Ricoh are different companies, they do compare favorably on a couple of fronts. Below are two similarities between the brands:  

  1. Printing Solutions for Different Workplaces 

Xerox and Ricoh are comparable in an obvious but crucial area: They each contain printers that can meet the needs of multiple workgroups.  

To show this empirically, Xerox currently has 13 single-function printers and 21 multifunction printers in its catalog. Ricoh has even more machines in its catalog, with 14 single-function printers and 32 multifunction printers.    

The options for small workgroups include machines that are best suited for workgroups of up to 10 daily users with a capacity to print up to 800-12,000 pages per month.   

Examples of single-function devices from both brands for small workgroups include the Xerox VersaLink B405 and Ricoh IM 430F machines, which print at speeds between 40-49 pages per minute (ppm).     

Medium workgroup options include printers that can meet the needs of workgroups with up to 20 daily users that print at a volume somewhere in the 1,500-15,000 pages per month range.    

Examples in the medium-sized category include the Xerox VersaLink B615 and Ricoh IM 600SRF, both of which are black-and-white multifunction printers that print over 60 ppm.        

Both brands also have options for large workgroups, which can be defined as workgroups with more than 20 daily users and a print volume of over 10,000-75,000 pages per month.     

Examples in the large workgroup category include the Xerox AltaLink C8170 and the Ricoh IM C6500, which are color multifunction printers with speeds of over 60 ppm.     

Check out Ricoh’s “Business Printers & Copiers” page and read the Xerox review blogs below to learn more about each brand’s office printer options:     

  1. Vast Number of Printer Software and Service Options 

While being known as office equipment suppliers, Xerox and Ricoh also offer a vast number of additional services and printer software options. 

Some of these options include: 

  • Managed Print Services, which allows one source to manage all of your printers, including supplies, service and optimization suggestions, with the goal of cutting print-related expenses and ensuring an efficient print environment.  

  • Cloud and IT services, which can help manage your office technology by securing your data, managing IT infrastructures and allowing for cloud migrations, among others. 

  • Document and Content Management Software, including DocuShare and DocuWare, which can serve as a repository for your company’s workflow of documents. 

Many consumers choose to include some type of additional service, even at the basic level, and both brands share the commonality of offering services that can fit the needs of different workplaces. 

2 Differences Between Xerox and Ricoh 

Now that we’ve gone through the similarities between Xerox and Ricoh, let’s look at a couple of the notable differences: 

  1. Printer User Interface Offers a Different Experience 

The first difference revolves around how you navigate and use the printer itself via its user interface, which on most Xerox and Ricoh machines, will be a 5-10-inch touchscreen. 

How you navigate and complete tasks is a crucial part of buying a printer, and Xerox and Ricoh differ in the experience they offer on the navigation front. 

Both companies have a user interface that is modernized and updated, but Xerox’s touchscreen is built more like an iPhone while Ricoh’s is more similar to an Android. 

It’s not necessarily true that one user interface is better than the other; it just depends on what your preference is when it comes to the look and feel of your device. 

However, you should not discount the difference in navigation. When you’re spending significant money on an office machine, you need to make sure it has the look and feel that you desire, or else it could make it more difficult to execute simple printer tasks.  

One shared trait that each company has is a customer-facing app store, which is important since apps are the fundamental way of completing tasks on Xerox and Ricoh devices.   

Xerox has its Xerox App Gallery, which contains numerous industry-specific and general applications, and Ricoh has its Application Site which has its own assortment of helpful applications. 

Although they each have customer-facing app stores, they differ in the apps offered, and you will need to evaluate what they offer before purchasing if you’re interested in apps as a feature for your next printer.  

Besides the standard applications that come with the device, most additional apps will cost money and they will only be worth it if you use their features consistently. 

Read our blog on the pros and cons of printer apps to see if they could be a useful investment for your business. 

Xerox User Interface 

Ricoh User Interface 

IM 9000 Black and White Laser Multifunction Printer | Ricoh USA

  1. Standard Printer Security Features  

Security has become a prevalent concern for businesses that deal with sensitive data and are aware of the consequences security breaches pose to a company’s reputation and bottom line. 

Printers can serve as an entry point into your network because of their perceived innocuous state and Xerox and Ricoh both approach their devices’ security features in a slightly different way. 

While there is an overlap in plenty of the companies’ security features, such as Encrypted Email, Encrypted Print and Cisco’s Identity Services Engine, there are some standard security features that are offered by one brand but not the other. 

For instance, Xerox offers whitelisting technology through its partnership with McAfee, whereas Ricoh does not. Conversely, Ricoh machines include a Ricoh-specific Operating System (OS) that enhances device security, and as the name implies, is exclusive to Ricoh.

Both brands have multi-layered approaches to security but digging deeper and finding out exactly what features each company offers displays differences worth noting when it comes to their strategy toward printer security.  

Which Printer Brand Has the Best Prices? 

If you’re a consumer, the price of a product is a major, if not the major, deciding factor in choosing which brand or company to go with. 

So, who offers the better price, Xerox or Ricoh? 

Well, it really depends on the type of machine you’re looking into. There’s not a monumental difference in price from either brand’s catalog, but there can be a noticeable difference in cost depending on the specific printer models you’re looking at.  

So, to accurately depict printer pricing, let’s compare two similar printer models from Xerox and Ricoh: 

A Printer Model Comparison 

For this model comparison, we’re going to use the Xerox VersaLink C7130 and the Ricoh IM C3000, since both are color multifunction printers that print at the same speeds (30 pages per minute.)  

Xerox VersaLink C7130 

Ricoh IM C3000 

IM C3000 Color Laser Multifunction Printer | Ricoh USA

The current street price for the Xerox VersaLink C7130 is $12,020 while the Ricoh IM C3000’s street price is $13,959, according to bliQ. 

So, the Ricoh machine in this example is more expensive than the Xerox device. Why is that? What are the differences? 

Once you look into the machines’ respective specifications, there are perceptible differences that will show why the Ricoh printer is more expensive than the Xerox one. 

For one, the Ricoh IM C3000 has a recommended monthly print volume of 50,000 pages, while the Xerox VersaLink C7130 has a recommended monthly print volume of 7,000 pages.  

There’s your major difference right there. Recommended monthly print volume indicates how much you can print or copy in a given month, and Ricoh’s machine has a much higher recommended volume than Xerox’s.  

However, both machines have similar efficiency numbers (print speed) and the Xerox VersaLink C7130 has a higher print resolution (1200 x 2400 dpi) than Ricoh’s machine (1200 x 1200 dpi). 

So, which printer is best for you? Well, the answer will depend on your goals and requirements in an office machine. 

Do you want the bigger machine with the higher recommended monthly print volume? Then, in this case, you would want to go with the Ricoh IM C3000. 

Would you rather have the less expensive, smaller machine with less print capacity but a higher print resolution? If you aligned with the latter, then you would be a better fit for the VersaLink C7130. 

Of course, it’s usually not that simple when deciding on the office machine you want. There is a multitude of other factors, such as the company’s specific features, that play into the final decision on which machine to choose. 

But what this comparison proves is that it takes research to figure out how printers across certain brands compare and contrast with each other. And just because there might be a substantial price difference, you shouldn’t automatically assume that the cheaper option will be the better option. 

Because as showcased in the example above, if you needed a machine to safely print over 7,000 pages a month, but you went with the Xerox one because of the cheaper price, you would likely see an increase in service issues over time because the printer you bought wasn’t built to handle that kind of volume.  

But if you’re not printing over 7,000 pages a month, then you would want to save money and go with the Xerox machine because you don’t need the capacity to print at Ricoh’s recommended monthly print volume.  

For more information on how to choose the right printer for your situation, read these blogs:    

Which Printer Brand Is Right for Me? 

Xerox and Ricoh are two of the leading brands in the printer/copier industry for a reason: They sell quality products and have options that can meet the needs of a vast number of workgroups. 

So, which one is the better brand? That would be up to you to decide. 

We stated in the beginning how we’re going to use our experience in the industry to give you the true and unbiased information you need to inform yourself so you can make an educated decision based on your preferences.  

Take the information in this article and use it to help guide you to your ultimate solution: Is it Xerox? Ricoh? Another brand? 

There’s a chance that Xerox and Ricoh just don’t do it for you, and you want to see what other brands have to offer in the marketplace. 

Or you might just be curious to see how a different brand matches up with one of the brands discussed today to find out how they compare to another manufacturer.  

Read our blog comparing Xerox to another one of its chief competitors, Canon, to see a different comparison that will help further educate you about the brand options you can choose from as you search for your office’s next machine.