The Best Fountain Pens for Every Budget

There aren't a huge number of fountain pens available for under £10, but there are some good ones. If you're happy with a disposable pen, the Pilot VPen is a classic, and writes really well. A disposable pen may seem wasteful, but it does hold a lot of ink, so it might last longer than you'd think.

But there are refillable pens too, and our pick is the Platinum Preppy.

There are a few other pens in the Preppy range, and some other good fountain pens to consider in the price range, so check out our other picks:

These are all great ways to try out a fountain pen, and see if you like the writing experience. But if you do, we think you get a lot more pen by spending just a bit more, so keep reading...

This is where we start to see many of the most often recommended fountain pens. For between £10 and £50 you can get some really great pens, with no real need to spend more for functionality. The Lamy Safari is probably the pen most recommended, especially for those new or fairly new to fountain pens - it's a solid, reliable workhorse of a pen, with its replaceable nib reducing one of the worries of new fountain pen users - if the nib gets damaged, you can just replace it.

Most of the Kaweco Sport range fits into this price range, too - tough little pocketable pens that use their cap to extend them to a comfortable size to write with, while taking up very little space in a pocket or bag.

But our top pick probably has to be the Safari - there are plenty of good reasons why it's so well liked.

And if you know you're only going to want to use bottled ink, TWSBI's Eco fountain pen is a great option - its built-in piston filling system means it holds a lot of ink, with the transparent body giving you a good view of what's going on inside.

At this point, we're mostly looking at getting better quality materials and more ornamental finishes more than extra functionality. And a good example of that is the Kaweco Sport - the standard plastic models were under £50, by spending more than that, we can get metal versions of the same pen. They'll write in much the same way, and do all the same things, but if you enjoy using them more because of that metal body, it might be worth the extra to you. There's a lot to be said for the things we use every day being a little bit nicer to use.

The brass finish is really nice - natural raw brass, so it will develop a patina with time and use. You can polish it back to a bright shine regularly if you prefer it that way, but most people get it because of that patina.

There are some counter-examples in here too, like TWSBI's vacuum-filled pens - a different functionality that you can't get at the lower price points.

But there are still some really great pens to come, as we move up another step in our budget.

At this point, we're getting into some pretty luxurious pens, and you should rightly expect some beautifully made pens here.

Let's just get straight to our top pick - the Lamy 2000. It's a classic design that looks fresh and modern, but actually goes back to 1966. It's very good German design, inspired by simple Bauhaus design, and the principle that form follows function. And that simplicity is what has made it such a classic. There's no ornamentation, but none is needed. The piston filling mechanism is so perfectly made that it's almost invisible.

Of course, some people will be reading this and finding the very idea of spending over £100 on a pen to be quite ridiculous. Which is ok! Pens at this price point aren't for everyone - but for those of us who love pens, a really nice pen is something quite special, something we enjoy every time we use it. A little bit of pleasure added to something as everyday as writing.

And there are some options here that would be a real pleasure to use - some of the best pens from Kaweco, with piston filling, or beautiful hand-applied finishes; eyedropper-filled pens from Opus 88; and some really beautiful finishes from Nahvalur, Diplomat, Faber-Castell and Laban.

Oh, and the people who were feeling a bit horrified about pens over £100 might want to look away now - but the rest of you are going to love some of the pens coming up...

Heading over £200, we find a lot of very popular fountain pens, including the Pilot Capless - a retractable fountain pen.

It took some serious engineering work to make a fountain pen that can extend and retract with the push of a button, but the first Capless actually launched back in 1964, when Pilot wanted to show off Japanese manufacturing to celebrate the Tokyo Olympics. They've continued to gradually improve the mechanism over the years, so it's very refined and reliable now.

Long after the novelty of the retracting system has faded, though, the Capless remains a favourite pen for many fountain pen fans, because it's just so nice to write with - the nibs are quite lovely, with a bit more softness to them than most modern nibs.

At this point in our budget, though, we find so many great pens, that there are many others we could have picked. Most of Pelikan's famous Souverän range is here, with their pleasingly whimsical designs and their solid and reliable piston filling mechanisms. There are some of Lamy's most luxurious pens, too, with the steel version of the Lamy 2000, and their own retractable fountain pen, the Dialog.

Returning to Japan, Platinum's #3776 Century fountain pens give us a range of finishes, with their beautifully simple styling. And, of course, Sailor's Pro Gear and 1911 ranges, including many special and limited edition pens, are the favourites of many fountain pen fans.

We've already hit many of the best fountain pens money can buy at this point, but we're not quite done yet.

OK, all limits are off, now we're just looking at anything over £500, and things can get pretty amazing. Because, yes, there are pens that cost thousands. But we're going with perhaps the classic for our pick - the Montblanc Meisterstück 149.

If you ask someone to think of a luxury pen, the thing that comes to mind is probably this one.

While many other luxury brands also make pens, Montblanc's history is in pens - they were at the forefront of developing the piston filling system that became so popular for fountain pens. Many other luxury pens look a bit like the 149, but if this price range is available to you, why not have the real thing?

Of course, there are many other luxury pens over £500 too, some for the quality of materials and workmanship, and many for the artistry and craftsmanship that goes into making them. Many expensive Japanese pens, for example, use techniques like Maki-e, with months of work by skilled craftsman going into each pen. The results can be truly beautiful pieces of art.

Many of these are limited editions, and in many cases, it's not just because someone decided to put a number on them, it's because they can only be made by hand, by someone who has dedicated their life to perfecting a traditional craft passed down through generations.

Even if these pens are way outside your budget, as they are to many of us, they can still be beautiful to look at, and we love that they are keeping these longstanding traditions and crafts alive. And if you can afford them? Well, we can think of many worse ways to spend your money.