For decades, the fax machine was the most popular way to communicate in the business world. But there’s no denying its decline since digital communication has become the new norm.
With that said, there are still times when you need to send a fax. Or maybe someone needs to send you a fax.
Believe it or not, faxing is not dead. 82% of companies with 500+ employees are continuing to send the same number of faxes, if not more, year-over-year.
Certain documents, especially those requiring signatures, are sent still via fax. While it may not always be your preferred method of communication, this is something that you can’t ignore.
That’s why online faxing is growing in popularity. With an online fax service, you can send and receive faxes without owning a fax machine.
Switching to an online fax service has so many benefits. In addition to the convenience, it’s cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
Traditional fax machines consume roughly 200 billion pages of paper per year in the US alone. If just 5% of those faxes were sent online, it would save 10 billion pieces of paper or roughly one million trees per year. This reduces your carbon footprint and saves costs related to paper, ink, and energy.
If you want to ditch your old fax machine and start sending faxes online, this guide has you covered. I’ve identified the top online faxing options for you to consider.
The 9 Best Online Fax Services
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of online faxing services. It can be pretty overwhelming to find the best one for your unique situation.
Not all online faxing services are the same. I’ve reviewed the top nine options on the market today. While all of them will allow you to send and receive faxes online, some will be more appealing to you than others.
Each review covers the price, benefits, and any potential drawbacks of the faxing service. Use this information to find the best online fax for your business or personal use.
eFax
With over 10 million users across the globe, eFax is one of the most popular online fax services on the market today. The concept is simple; send an online fax from anywhere using your smartphone, computer, or tablet.
You do not need a fax machine to use eFax.
Getting started with eFax is simple. Select an area code based on your location, or choose a toll-free number based in the US. One of the major standouts of eFax is the ability to send international faxes, which isn’t offered by every online fax company.
If you already have a fax number for your business, you can convert it to eFax. It’s worth noting that novelty and custom fax numbers are not available with eFax.
As I mentioned earlier, faxing is commonly used for scenarios when signing documents is required. eFax has an integrated electronic signature feature, which allows you to sign documents without having to print anything.
eFax offers unlimited online storage to safely keep your faxes on file for the lifetime of your account. It’s easy to locate documents by searching for keywords.
Speaking of security, eFax won’t deliver fax content directly to your email inbox. Instead, all inbound faxes are encrypted and hosted securely. So you can download any confidential faxes from there.
If you’re using online cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud, eFax lets you fetch files from there and send them out via your virtual fax.
Here’s an overview of the eFax pricing structure:
eFax Plus — $16.95 per month
- Send 150 pages
- Receive 150 pages
- $10 setup
eFax Pro — $19.95 per month
- Send 200 pages
- Receive 200 pages
- $10 setup
They also offer eFax Corporate solutions with custom pricing based on volume. You’ll need to request a quote from their sales team.
These prices are actually a bit high compared to the competition. You can save some money and get two free months if you sign up for an annual plan instead of month-to-month. If you go over your monthly page allowance, you’ll be charged an additional $0.10 per page with each plan.
Overall, eFax is simple, straightforward, and popular. The mobile app is modern, and you’ll benefit from high-quality faxes.
eFax does fall short in terms of value. There are more affordable options out there, and it’s not great for high-volume users.
HelloFax
If you’re looking for an online fax service with a smooth and modern interface, HelloFax should be at the top of your list.
HelloFax stands out from the competition with its cloud storage integration features and team options, which is great for small business owners.
Another reason why we love HelloFax is because it has a built-in editor. This makes it extremely easy for you to deal with any attachments.
Unlike eFax, which counts sent and received faxes separately toward your monthly allowance, HelloFax groups them together. In my opinion, this is a much better pricing structure.
Here’s an overview of the plans and pricing for HelloFax.
Free — $0
- 5 total sent pages
- No team features
Home Office — $9.99 per month
- 300 pages per month
- 5 team members
Professional — $19.99 per month
- 500 pages per month
- 10 team members
Small Business — $39.99 per month
- 1,000 pages per month
- 20 team members
The free send-only plan is extremely limited. It’s really only intended for someone who needs to send a one-time fax that’s less than five pages. Otherwise, there’s not much else you can do with it.
For just $10 per month, you can send an receive 100 more pages than eFax, for half of the price. Plus, HelloFax won’t hit you with any setup fees.
All paid plans come with a 30-day free trial and discounted rates for annual contracts.
While HelloFax is great, it does have one significant pitfall that’s tough to overlook. There isn’t a dedicated mobile app, which is a bit disappointing. But if you can look past that, HelloFax is still a great option to consider.
FaxZero
The name FaxZero is inspired by its price—zero dollars to use. That’s right; FaxZero is a free online fax service.
More than 20,060,000 faxes have been sent using the platform.
Using FaxZero is simple. Just navigate to the website and fill out the fax form. You don’t even need to create an account. Simply enter your name, company (optional), email address, and phone number. Then enter the name and fax number of the recipient.
Once that information has been filled out, you can send up to three pages by attaching a file. The cover page does not count toward this limit.
You can send up to five free faxes per day, for a total of 15 free pages daily. That’s pretty good considering you don’t have to pay for anything.
The downside of FaxZero is that you can’t receive any faxes. But it’s the perfect choice for an occasional user who just needs to send a quick fax.
FaxZero also offers an “Almost Free Fax” plan, which costs $1.99 per fax. This allows you to send up to 25 pages and removes the FaxZero branding from the cover page.
I probably wouldn’t consider the paid plan unless it was just a one-time occurrence. There are other affordable plans out there that provide much better value and benefits with monthly plan options.
The bottom line is simple. If you don’t have a fax machine and want to send a short fax for free online, FaxZero will be your best option. Beyond that, it’s extremely limited.
Sfax
The “S” in Sfax stands for secure. This online fax service is different compared to other options on our list. It’s an industry-specific online fax option for individuals in the healthcare space.
Any time medical records are being sent, through any medium, privacy and security is a top concern. Sfax is a HIPAA-compliant fax service that allows people to send, receive, manage, annotate, and digitally sign documents without a fax machine or a printer.
In addition to the enhanced security, Sfax will also improve your healthcare workflow process. Printing and manually signing documents is not an effective use of time.
Sfax makes it possible for your remote staff, or anyone who is traveling, to send and receive essential health documents from anywhere.
Since Sfax is designed for the health industry, it offers flexible options for total control. You can manage your users to set access, permissions, and security options for each person.
It’s also easy for groups and teams to collaborate, view, manage, and export documents.
You can use Sfax with multiple locations, multiple numbers, and multiple sub-organizations all on the same plan. You don’t need a separate account for each location, and the number of users for each account won’t be restricted either.
Let’s take a look at the plans and pricing options for Sfax:
Standard — $29 per month
- 350 pages
- Unlimited users
Plus — $49 per month
- 700 pages per month
- Unlimited users
Contender — $99 per month
- 1,500 pages per month
- Unlimited users
Sfax also has custom Enterprise plans for high-volume users needing 2,500+ pages per month. You’ll be charged $0.10 per page for each page over your monthly limit.
As you can see, Sfax is pricey. But it’s worth it for medical practices or any company in the healthcare field. Another drawback of Sfax is that it only supports faxes being sent in the US and Canada.
Biscom 123
Biscom 123 is another top consideration for online faxing. It’s one of the best options for email-to-fax on the market today.
You can send a fax directly from your email app using the following format:
RecipientName.RecipientFaxNumber@biscom123.com
The subject line of the email you send will also be the subject of the fax cover page. The body of the email will be the memo of your cover page. But you can’t customize anything else on the cover beyond that.
Simply attach files you want to fax directly to the email. Attachments get converted into fax image files and transmitted to the recipient.
You’ll receive a confirmation email once all pages have been successfully transmitted and sent.
While Biscom 123 integrates with email, it does have a strange drawback compared to other online fax services. You can’t send a fax from the web interface.
The Biscom 123 mobile app has its flaws as well. But you must use it to link with your existing email platforms. You might experience some glitches and crashes using the app.
Biscom 123 offers two simple plans:
Individual — $7.99 per month
- 30 pages
- One user
- $0.07 per page over 30
Small Group — $14.99 per month
- 300 pages
- Up to five users
- $0.07 per page over 300
You can try Biscom 123 free for 30 days without entering your credit card information. It’s a good options for occasional users, but definitely has its fair share of limitations.
RingCentral Fax
If you’re a regular Quick Sprout reader, you’re probably familiar with the RingCentral name. They recently made my list of the best phone services for small business.
RingCentral Fax is another popular feature that should be taken into consideration if you’re a small business owner or sole proprietor.
I like RingCentral Fax because it has a modern interface, offers fax scheduling, and supports attachments for large files. Another benefit of this provider is that you won’t be charged for a toll-free fax number.
Getting started with RingCentral is simple. Just choose your number and log in online or through the mobile app. Then you can start sending and receiving faxes from any device.
You’ll have the option to send online faxes to groups, receive notifications for all fax activity, and block any incoming faxes without caller ID.
RingCentral Fax keeps an online file log of all faxes sent and received, so it’s easy to go back to access those as a reference.
Here’s the plan and pricing breakdown for RingCentral Fax:
Fax 750 — $12.99 per month
- 750 pages
- $0.059 for each additional page
- Online customer support only
Fax 1500 — $17.99 per month
- 1,500 pages
- $0.049 for each additional page
- Phone and online support
Fax 2500 — $49.99 per month
- 2,500 pages
- $0.039 for each additional page
- Phone and online support
As you can see, the rate for additional pages is lower with each pricing tier, which is different compared to some of the other services we’ve reviewed so far.
You can save up to 33% off with an annual plan and try RingCentral Fax free for 30 days with a trial.
RingCentral Fax isn’t perfect. The quality of the faxes could be a bit better, and you won’t be able to send any international faxes. But overall, the plans offer a decent value.
MetroFax
MetroFax offers online faxing at an excellent value. With plans starting as low as $10 per month, it’s a top option for small business owners as well as personal usage.
Every MetroFax plan comes with the following features and benefits:
- Dedicated local and toll-free number
- Ability to transfer your current fax number
- Fax multiple recipients at the same time
- No long distance charges
- No long-term contracts
- Automatic retries and instant confirmations
MetroFax probably has the best mobile app for faxing online. The web interface is a bit outdated, but it’s a great option if you’re planning to send and receive faxes from your smartphone.
In addition to the great value, MetroFax has exceptional fax quality. Unlike other platforms we’ve seen, you won’t pay any activation fee to get started.
MetroFax has three plans for you to choose from.
- Essential — $9.95 per month for 500 pages
- Best Value — $12.95 per month for 1,000 pages
- Professional — $35.95 per month for 2,500 pages
Each plan is designed to meet the needs of low, moderate, and heavy fax users.
The platform is designed to accommodate large files as well. One customer raves that they were able to send a 500+ page fax using MetroFax with ease, while other online fax services couldn’t get the job done.
Overall, MetroFax is a solid choice for all of your online faxing needs. I wish with the web version was a bit more user-friendly, but stick to the mobile app and you’ll be fine.
MyFax
MyFax is another excellent option if you’re planning to send faxes from your mobile devices. But the overall standout of this online faxing service is its simplicity.
The MyFax setup process is about as easy as it gets. Like Biscom 123, MyFax is a fax-by-email service. You can deliver MyFax messages to recipients with traditional fax machines as well as those with an online fax service.
Although MyFax is simple, it does fall a bit short in terms of security. They also don’t have an option for digital signatures.
So I’d recommend MyFax for personal use as opposed to anything business-related or faxing sensitive information.
Plans and pricing are as follows:
Home Office User — $10 per month
- Send 100 pages
- Receive 200 pages
Small Business User — $20 per month
- Send 200 pages
- Receive 200 pages
Power User — $40 per month
- Send 400 pages
- Receive 400 pages
Each additional page costs $0.10 when you exceed your limits for all plans.
Again, I’d really only recommend MyFax for personal use. Even the Small Business plan and Power User plan are pretty limited in terms of how many faxes you can send per month.
For comparison purposes, you can send and receive a total of 2,500 pages from MetroFax for less than the cost of the MyFax Power User plan. So if you are a high-volume fax user, you can get a better value elsewhere.
A free trial of MyFax is only available for the Home Office plan. It’s worth trying out for a month to see if you like the platform.
Fax.Plus
Fax.Plus is a budget-friendly online fax service. They have a straightforward free plan as well as annual rates starting at $5 per month.
The web interface is modern and the mobile app performs well too. This is definitely a bonus, since so many services on our list seem to excel at just one or the other.
For a cheap online fax service, Fax.Plus offers quite a bit of extra features and benefits at each plan level. Let’s take a closer look at what you get with each plan.
Free — $0
- 10 total pages
- $0.20 per additional page
- Send faxes only
- Unlimited storage
- Multiple fax recipients
- Electronic signature
Basic — $5.99 per month ($4.99 with annual plan)
- 100 pages
- $0.10 per additional page
- Dedicated fax number
- Send and receive faxes
Premium — $11.99 per month ($9.99 with annual plan)
- 300 pages
- $0.05 per additional page
- All Basic features
- Export fax logs as CSV file
Business — $19.99 per month ($14.99 with annual plan)
- 800 pages
- $0.05 per additional page
- Multiple fax numbers
- 5 team members
- Slack integration
Enterprise — $59.99 per month ($49.99 with annual plan)
- 3,000 pages
- $0.03 per additional page
- All Business features
- Unlimited team members
- Zapier integration
- Fax.Plus API
- Priority support
- Advanced security controls
The options are flexible and extensive, to say the least. Fax.Plus has a plan for everyone. But overall, I’d lean toward the Basic or Premium plans for something budget-friendly.
The Business plan is good too in terms of the price, but you’re limited to just 800 pages per month, which won’t accommodate high-volume users.
You can add a vanity fax number to your plan for $19.99. It’s free to sign up for Fax.Plus. There’s no time limit to the length of the free plan. You’ll just start paying per page when you go over the 10-page limit.
How to Find the Best Online Fax Companies
With so many options to choose from, how can you find the best online fax company for your specific needs? There are certain features and benefits that you need to look for when evaluating online fax services.
This is the methodology that we used here at Quick Sprout to come up with our guide.
Document Archives
The best online fax services make it easy for you to access both sent and received faxes after you originally access them. So look for a service that lets you go back and view old messages.
Sometimes these archives will be limited to just a year. So it’s important to know your options before you sign up.
Cloud Storage Integration
In addition to archives within the faxing platform, you can always keep your documents forever by moving them to cloud storage systems like Google Drive or Dropbox.
Another benefit of cloud storage integration is the ability to send faxes from those platforms. This is much easier than the alternative of scanning, uploading, and attaching.
Multi-Platform Access
To get the most out of an online fax service, you’ll want the option to send a fax from anywhere. Computers, smartphones, tablets, iOS, and Android devices.
While most online fax companies offer a mobile app, that’s not always the case. Plus, some mobile apps are better than others. Some companies have an excellent mobile app, but outdated web interface.
So you can make your decision based on what platform you plan to use the most for faxing.
Page Limits
None of the online fax services on our list have the ability to send or receive an unlimited number of faxes. Each platform and plan comes with limits on a monthly basis.
If you exceed those limits, you’ll be hit with a per-page overage charge. You’ll want to find a plan that meets your needs without going over those monthly restrictions.
Whether you’re an occasional user or high-volume fax user, there are plans and page limits at varying price points for you to consider.
Conclusion
Faxing has changed. People are getting rid of bulky fax machines in their homes and offices alike. Online faxing services have changed the way we can communicate via fax.
So what’s the best online fax service? It depends on what you’re looking for.
There are some platforms for small businesses, others for personal use, and even plans for high-volume fax users. Here’s a quick recap of the services on our list:
- eFax — Most popular online fax service.
- HelloFax — Best for small teams and cloud storage integration.
- FaxZero — Best free online fax service (send-only).
- Sfax — Best HIPAA-compliant online fax service for healthcare.
- Biscom 123 — Best email-to-fax service for occasional users.
- RingCentral Fax — Best online fax service for sole proprietors.
- MetroFax — Best mobile app for online faxing.
- MyFax — Best online fax service for personal use.
- Fax.Plus — Best cheap online fax service.
No matter what type of faxing needs you have, I’m confident that you can find a plan using a service in this guide.
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