Free Shipping on orders $88 or more (Contiguous USA only)
Fountain pens can be a very expensive rabbit hole to fall into but they don't have to be.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a unique nib or a vintage pen with a gold nib but there are many fantastic pens under $50 USD on the market and they don’t need to feel cheap. Not all pens are created equally but it is possible to find something both inexpensive and with a good nib, , especially if you’re looking for the best beginner fountain pen.
When talking about things “that don’t feel cheap” I think it is important to talk about what “cheap” means. For me, “cheap” is a combination of look, feel, and how long a product lasts. If a pen costs $20 but has a history of breaking after a few months, I would rather buy a $40 or $50 pen that has a history of lasting. Yes, the more expensive pen is an investment but I hopefully won’t have to replace it.
For this blog post, we are going to look at some of my favourite pen styles in the under $50 price category from most expensive to least expensive.
I have many Nahvalur pens in my collection and in my opinion they do piston pens right. I love how they match all the hardware so everything is the same colour even on their $50 pens which makes it look like a much more expensive pen. This is one of the few brands to offer a stub nib on a sub-$50 pen which is a nice surprise if you love stub nibs and are looking for a pen in this price range.
This may seem like the “cheapest” feeling pen on the list but hopefully the cool factors of this pen convince you otherwise. The TUZU is a fairly recent launch on the market but has quickly become a very popular pen because of its customizable grip section. When you unscrew the body from the pen and remove the metal ring, you are able to rotate the grip section in 10 degree increments making it possible to set the perfect grip angle for how you write. The pen also comes in fine, medium and broad nib sizes which is nice because many of the pens on the lower end of the price scale tend to just come in one size.
With clean lines, multiple colours, and six nib sizes, the Monteverde Ritma is really a great pen. One of my favorite things about it is that it fits size 6 JoWo nibs meaning if you have a custom ground size 6 JoWo nib, you can put it in this pen. In look, it is fairly similar to a Faber-Castell Neo Slim though it is slightly chunkier and heavier which can be nice if you have larger hands.
This is one of two pens on this list that from the outside don’t look very different from a standard cheap ballpoint pen. A new addition to the Pelikan lineup, the Ineo only comes in a medium nib (fairly typical for Pelikan student pens) but comes in six slightly more subtle colours than the TWIST does. The pen doesn’t have a clip but its little cap ridge means it stays quite securely in pen loops.
I collect these like they are jelly beans. I have them in an absurd number of colours and nib sizes and that is really what makes me love them so much. Kaweco offers a huge variety of nib sizes for these pens from extra fine to 2.3 mm stub to their twin nib. They even offer premium nibs in both steel and 14k gold. The variety of colours means that you can pick whichever colour fits your style or office best. These are also my favourite pens to experiment with when it comes to nibs. Kaweco nibs are fairly inexpensive and are fairly easy to swap meaning these are a great pen to experiment with and try out new nib styles on.
Not all the colours of the Neo Slim fall into the under $50 price range but in my opinion it has one of the best nibs on the market and I love the hidden fountain pen-ness of it. It is one of the rare fountain pens on the market that doesn’t look any different from a standard pen from the outside and I adore that. I almost always have a Neo Slim in my bag because it lets me carry a nice fountain pen without carrying something expensive from my collection just loose in my purse. These pens also come stock in everything from an extra fine to a broad but spare nibs are tricky to find so I would only recommend getting one of these if you are fairly sure you know your preferred nib size.
The Pilot Kakuno is my go to penabling pen. It is the pen I got my Mom into the fountain pen world with and the pen I got my best friend into the fountain pen world with; both now have pen collections. It is not a fancy pen by any means but the demonstrator nature of most Kakuno pens on the market means they are also incredibly useful for learning how a pen works and how much ink you actually use up. For the low price tag and nearly always perfect nib (3 sizes available + a happy face on the nib), you really can’t go wrong with picking up one of these but I would recommend the CON-70 as they are the easiest Pilot converter to fill up.
Luckily, if you want something metal, Pilot offers that in the form of the Metropolitan. You get the same great nib as the Kakuno but without the face on the nib. The pen also comes in some more subtle colours if black and silver are more your style.
By far the least expensive pen on the list but one of my favourites. The colours these pens come in standard do definitely make it feel “cheap” but their annual Modern Maki-e special editions definitely stand out as a pen that does not feel cheap. The Preppy comes standard in three nib sizes and all are lovely. Personally, I always eyedropper a Preppy because of the limited cartridge selection and price of converters which I think also makes the pen stand out as “not cheap”.
Hopefully this blog has given you some inspiration for a pen to pick up under $50 or even an idea of what you want to look for when bridging out into some more expensive pens. The world of fountain pens is incredibly vast but there are standout pens at every price point.
Keep in touch by e-mail or social media.
© 2025 Goldspot Pens
