Direct ink writing (DIW) is a promising additive manufacturing technique for processing complex ceramic components, due to the ability of printing a wide variety of materials, achieving complex shapes while reducing time and cost of post-processing stages. Ceramic inks for DIW can be prepared by colloidal or gel-based routes. The colloidal route depends on the particle-particle interaction, which raises challenges in the formulation of stable suspensions, demanding a fine control over dispersion and flocculation processes. On the other hand, gel-based routes have been explored since the viscoelastic properties of the inks depends on the disruption of the polymeric network (steric stabilization) and not on the interparticle interaction (electrostatic). Thus, in this work, a comparison between the colloidal and hydrogel routes in the printing behavior and final properties of robocasting parts was done. For it, an Alumina Toughed Zirconia (ATZ) ceramic composite was chosen as object of study due to its interesting properties for dental applications. For the colloidal route, an optimization of the rheological properties (flow curves and viscoelasticity) was done by modifying the amount of dispersant, binder (and thickening agent. For the hydrogel route, Pluronic F127 was used as gel-matrix. Cylindric samples (? = 20 mm; h = 2 mm) were printed with the optimized inks, dried at room temperature, and sintered at 1600 °C for 2 h. The sintered samples were analyzed by Archimedes principle, scanning electron microscopy, Vicker’s hardness, indentation fracture toughness and piston on three balls flexural strength test. The obtained results were compared with those reported on the literature for other processing methods, namely conventional and AM technologies.