A printable planner is judged in the listing on how it looks. It is judged in real life on whether it survives being printed, filled in, and opened again the following week.
A large, pre-bound full-year set assumes a level of printing and filling-in that most buyers do not sustain past a few weeks. A single weekly or monthly layout, printed as needed, matches how most people actually plan on paper. Check whether the file is one repeatable template or a fixed multi-month set you commit to all at once.
A planner with large decorative borders and small writing boxes photographs well and holds little. Look at the actual writable space in the preview relative to the whole page, not the overall design.
A planner built with full-color backgrounds and pastel blocks costs meaningfully more to print at home than a black-and-white or single-accent-color layout, every time you print a page. If you print weekly, that cost repeats weekly. Check whether the design also works in black and white.
A dated planner locks you into starting exactly when the file assumes, and any gap wastes pages. An undated layout, where you write the date in yourself, can start any week and pause without losing pages — usually the more forgiving choice if you tend to fall off a routine and restart.
Some planners are built to be filled in on a screen with a stylus or keyboard and never printed at all; others are purely for pen and paper. Check which one is being sold — a planner marketed as "printable" that turns out to be fillable-only is a genuine mismatch with how you intended to use it.
If you have not sustained a paper planning habit before, a single month or a repeatable weekly page is the lower-risk choice. You can always print more once it is actually working.
Only if you intend to reuse the same page with a wipe-off marker. A planner meant to be filled in permanently does not need it.
It depends entirely on whether you write things down better on paper or on a screen. Check which one matches a habit you already have, not one you are hoping to start.
Part of our guide to Buying guides: how printables work.