If you need to print 4-by-6-inch shipping labels for your home or small business, ideally connecting your PC to the label printer over USB, the $199.99 FreeX WiFi Thermal Printer is aimed solidly at you. It can handle other label sizes, as well, but you’ll have to buy them elsewhere, because FreeX sells 4-by-6 labels only. It comes with a standard driver, so you can print from most programs, but there’s no FreeX label design app (at least, not yet), because FreeX assumes you’ll be printing directly from marketplace and shipping-company systems. Its Wi-Fi performance is lacking, but over USB, it works smoothly. As long as your needs precisely match the printer’s capabilities, it can be worth a look. Otherwise, it’s outclassed by its competition, which includes the iDprt SP410, the Zebra ZSB-DP14, and the Editors’ Choice–winning Arkscan 2054A-LAN.
Big Enough for a 600-Label Roll
The FreeX printer looks like a not-quite-square box with an off-white body, a dark gray top that includes a transparent window to let you see the label roll, and a rounded front left corner with a lighter gray feed switch. At 7.2 by 6.8 by 8.3 inches (HWD) by my measurement (the specs on the website are slightly different), it’s roughly the same size as most competing label printers.
There’s enough room inside to hold a roll with a maximum diameter of 5.12 inches, enough for 600 4-by-6-inch shipping labels, which is the largest capacity FreeX sells. Most competitors would need to mount that large a roll in a (separately purchased) tray behind the printer, or would not be able to use it at all. The ZSB-DP14, for example, lacks a rear-feed slot, limiting it to the largest roll that can fit inside.
Early printer units shipped without any label stock; FreeX says newer units will come with a small starter roll of 20, but that will likely go fast, so be sure to order labels when you buy the printer. As already mentioned, the only labels FreeX sells are 4 by 6 inches, which you can buy in a 500-label fanfold stack for $19.99 or in rolls of 250 to 600 labels at proportional prices. The price per label works out to between 2.9 and 6 cents, depending on the stack or roll size and whether you take advantage of quantity discounts.
However, the cost per printed label will be higher, particularly if you print just one or two labels at a time. Every time you turn the printer on, it feeds a label, and then uses a second label to print its current IP address and the SSID for the Wi-Fi access point it’s connected to. FreeX suggests leaving the printer powered on continuously, particularly if you take advantage of the Wi-Fi connection, to avoid waste.
Very much on the plus side, the company says you can print on virtually any thermal paper label in the range from 0.78 to 4.1 inches wide. In my tests, the FreeX printer worked well with various Dymo and Brother labels, automatically recognizing where each label ended and adjusting the feed to match.
No Bundled Label App
The bad news is that FreeX doesn’t provide any label creation apps. The only software you can download are print drivers for Windows and macOS, and a utility for setting up Wi-Fi on the printer. A company representative said it plans to make free iOS and Android label apps available for printing over a Wi-Fi network, but there is no current plan for macOS or Windows apps.
This is not a problem if you’re printing labels from online systems or printing already created PDF files. FreeX says the printer is compatible with all major shipping platforms and online marketplaces, specifically naming Amazon, BigCommerce, FedEx, eBay, Etsy, ShippingEasy, Shippo, ShipStation, ShipWorks, Shopify, UPS, and USPS.
That said, the lack of a label program is a serious impediment if you need to create labels yourself, particularly if you’re printing barcodes. FreeX says the printer is suitable for all popular barcode types, but that doesn’t help if you don’t have a way to create a barcode to print. For labels that don’t need barcodes, the print driver will let you print from virtually any program, including desktop publishing programs such as Microsoft Word, but defining the label format will take more work than it would using a dedicated label app.
Easy Setup for USB (Wi-Fi, Not So Much)
Physical setup is straightforward. Mount a roll inside the printer or feed fanfold paper through the rear slot, and then connect both the power cord and the supplied USB cable (which you’ll need to set up Wi-Fi). Follow the online Quick Start guide to download the Windows or macOS driver and install it. I installed the Windows driver, which followed absolutely standard manual installation steps for Windows. The Quick Start guide does a good job of clearly explaining each step.
Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi configuration is a mess, featuring drop-down lists with choices that aren’t explained and a network password field that doesn’t let you read what you’re typing. If you make any mistakes, not only does the connection fail, but you have to enter everything again. The process can take as little as five minutes—but multiply that by however many times it takes to get everything right on the same try.
The unnecessary clunkiness of the Wi-Fi setup would be forgivable if setup were a one-time operation, but it likely won’t be. Twice in my tests, the printer stopped feeding the labels to the correct position, and once it started printing on only a limited area of the labels. The fix for these and any other unexpected issues is a factory reset. Although that solved the problems I encountered, it also erased the Wi-Fi settings, so I had to set them up again. But as it turned out, Wi-Fi performance is too disappointing to be worth the hassle.
Good Performance…But Only Over USB
Overall performance in my tests was only suitably fast if I used a USB connection. FreeX rates the printer at 170mm per second, or 6.7 inches per second (ips). Printing labels from a PDF file with Acrobat Reader, I timed it at 3.1 seconds for a single label, 15.4 seconds for 10 labels, and 1 minute and 9 seconds for 50 labels, which works out to 4.3ips for the 50-label run. By way of comparison, the Zebra ZSB-DP14 came in on our tests at 3.5ips with its print job going over either Wi-Fi or the cloud, while the Arkscan 2054A-LAN lived up to its 5ips rating.
Performance using the printer’s Wi-Fi and a PC connected to the same network by Ethernet was dismal. A single label took about 13 seconds, and the printer is limited to a maximum of eight 4-by-6-inch labels in a single Wi-Fi print job. Try to print more, and just one or two will come out. Note that this is a memory limitation, not a label-quantity limitation, so with smaller labels you can print more labels at once.
Output quality is more than good enough for the kind of labels the printer is meant for. Resolution is 203dpi, which is common for label printers. The smallest text on the USPS package labels I printed was dark black and easily readable, and the barcode was dark black with crisp edges.
Verdict: Finicky and Demanding
The FreeX WiFi Thermal Printer is only worth considering if you’re going to use it in a very specific way. The Wi-Fi setup and performance issues make it hard to recommend for network use, and its lack of software makes it hard to recommend at all. However, if you’re looking to connect by USB and print strictly from online systems, you might appreciate its performance with a USB connection, compatibility with almost any thermal paper label, and capacity for large rolls. It can also be a reasonable choice if you’re a power user who knows how to tweak formats in Microsoft Word or some other favorite program to make it print the labels you need.
Before you drop $200 on the FreeX printer, however, be sure to check out the iDprt SP410, which costs only $139.99 and has very similar functionality and running costs. And if you need wireless printing, consider the Arkscan 2054A-LAN (our Editors’ Choice pick) for connecting by Wi-Fi, or the Zebra ZSB-DP14 for a choice between Wi-Fi and cloud printing. The more flexibility you require from your label printer, the less the FreeX makes sense.
