Print Management - considering options

[Synkrox]

Hi folks, I'm looking at various options to see if the time is right to shift our on-prem papercut MF to the cloud, I'm looking into papercut hive and Printix.

Any experience of those or other platforms would be gratefully appreciated.

 

We are fully Intune managed and currently deploy a MS universal print queue which the on-prem papercut connects, to pull jobs down.

Mobile devices use mobility print and connect directly to papercut on-prem.

 

Thanks

Chris

[Oaktech]

Big Uniflow lover here.

[MatthewL]

If you are happy with what you have migrate the server to be hosted in Azure, that is what I am doing. I wouldn't use anything other than PaperCut these days.

[EssentialRug]

+1 for UniFLOW Online

[Synkrox]

Big Uniflow lover here.

 

If you have time can you tell me what makes it good in your opinion? and what features you use/ how you have it deployed to your clients?

Thanks

Chris

[ITGuyNW]

If you are happy with what you have migrate the server to be hosted in Azure, that is what I am doing. I wouldn't use anything other than PaperCut these days.

 

What are the costs for that sort of thing?

[midweek]

What are the costs for that sort of thing?

 

I'm looking at this too but the most restrictive cost seems to be the Azure VPN Gateway to get the Azure servers connected to your onsite network since they canned the basic tier. Unless I'm missing something and there is a better way (like a wireguard server?).

[DWilson1997]

+1 For Uniflow. We were papercut MF in 2022, then when we migrated to InTune and used PapercutMF+Printix in 2023 as we were not Azure AD joined we couldn't get papercut SSO to working correctly and we are now on UniFlow Online.

 

Printix was great, so easy to deploy, full single sign on for users - don't think we had an issue. Our copiers were not compatible with PrintixGo so we could not use that feature. Paying for Papercut MF for the print release/budgeting features and Printix became expensive.

 

UniFlow has most of the functionality of papercut in a slightly more basic interface. It does all the account charging, budgets etc and it is a low monthly subscription per MFD per month. The only thing I miss from Printix is the complete SSO process which requires no user interaction - on uniflow you have to click 'Sign in' for it to work the first time you use the device, however people have picked it up quickly.

[Oaktech]

If you have time can you tell me what makes it good in your opinion? and what features you use/ how you have it deployed to your clients?

Thanks

Chris

 

Easy to set up - one enterprise app for identity and one app registration for each Azure service you need to integrate with. Super tight integration with Canon devices and good integration with other brands. Really easy to admin once setup up.

[RobFuller]

I'm looking at this too but the most restrictive cost seems to be the Azure VPN Gateway to get the Azure servers connected to your onsite network since they canned the basic tier. Unless I'm missing something and there is a better way (like a wireguard server?).

 

Same here, don't have enough servers to justify the gateway service , almost more cost effective to run vm with licensed virtual firewall appliance to do a site to site. I wondered if there is a way of setting up a VPN client service on the server itself to connect directly back.

[Accura2k7]

DirectPrint here, nice fast interface, integrates with Google and Microsoft. Just deploy the msi and it sets up the printer for you.

[harold_dawg]

I use PaperCut with our 9 copiers with virtual print ques. For HP desktop and network printers I use Directprint.io. Directprint works great with Chromebooks, Windows, and Mac. Mac and Windows use a print client and Chromebooks use a Chrome ext. You can also sync with Azure AD and Gsuite.

[Edu-IT]

+1 For Uniflow. We were papercut MF in 2022, then when we migrated to InTune and used PapercutMF+Printix in 2023 as we were not Azure AD joined we couldn't get papercut SSO to working correctly and we are now on UniFlow Online.

 

Printix was great, so easy to deploy, full single sign on for users - don't think we had an issue. Our copiers were not compatible with PrintixGo so we could not use that feature. Paying for Papercut MF for the print release/budgeting features and Printix became expensive.

 

UniFlow has most of the functionality of papercut in a slightly more basic interface. It does all the account charging, budgets etc and it is a low monthly subscription per MFD per month. The only thing I miss from Printix is the complete SSO process which requires no user interaction - on uniflow you have to click 'Sign in' for it to work the first time you use the device, however people have picked it up quickly.

How much per MFD?

[DWilson1997]

How much per MFD?

 

MFD's are charged at a higher rate then desktop printers. I can't see the exact breakdown as we pay annually in one payment - but it is somewhere around £10pm per device. MFD's are slightly more expensive (maybe £12-15pm) and smaller desktop printers are (around £8pm)

[gszech]

I use PaperCut with our 9 copiers with virtual print ques. For HP desktop and network printers I use Directprint.io. Directprint works great with Chromebooks, Windows, and Mac. Mac and Windows use a print client and Chromebooks use a Chrome ext. You can also sync with Azure AD and Gsuite.

 

How much is the directprint ? Their website says £8840.00 /year for 2000 users.

[Accura2k7]

You need Direct Print RED pricing, thats device based, not user based.

 

How much is the directprint ? Their website says £8840.00 /year for 2000 users.

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[dhicks]

I'm looking at various options to see if the time is right to shift our on-prem papercut MF to the cloud

 

We're looking at the same thing. We currently use PaperCut, running on an on-site server. It would be nice to be able to do away with that server. I think we've looked in the last at PaperCut Hive, but at the time it didn't support departmental budgets, only individual budgets. Has that now changed, would anyone know, or is that something that PaperCut Pocket handles?