Sometimes you need to send a fax. But not many people have a fax machine or even access to one. There is a simple solution: online fax services. Online fax services, sometimes called fax apps, are convenient to use and easier to work than a physical fax machine. The best online fax services make your life easier whether you send faxes regularly or hardly ever. And if you have just one fax to send occasionally and don't want to pay, you can absolutely send a few fax pages for free.
What about receiving faxes? If you're still hanging onto an all-in-one printer that includes fax service, you may be able to get rid of it if you transition to an online fax service. You need to have a paid account to receive incoming faxes using all the fax services we've seen. You retrieve the incoming files digitally by logging in to your online fax service account, or you can have them delivered to your email inbox in some cases.
Faxing is still a pain, but the best faxing services modernize the experience. So here is a list of the best fax services, followed by more information you may need if you're learning how to send or receive a fax without using a fax machine.
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What Is Online Faxing?
Online fax services enable you to send and receive faxes without a traditional fax machine. To send a fax, you typically need to combine the pages you want to send into a single digital document. Next, you upload the file (usually a DOC, JPG, PDF, or PNG) to the fax service. You fill out additional information, such as the recipient's name and fax number, and optionally add a cover page. The online fax service handles the rest. The recipient receives the documents just as if you had fed them into a fax machine. Sometimes, you can send a fax via email.
To receive faxes through an online fax service, you need a paid account with an associated fax number. In most cases, you either log into a web portal to retrieve digital versions of faxes you receive or access them via email. Many services automatically send incoming faxes to cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive as well.
How to Send a Fax Online
All the fax services we tested offer a web interface, but they vary in usability and features. Among the services we tested, Dropbox Fax offers the most clear-cut design. However, all the services we recommend are more than usable.
When you send a fax from a web portal, the service transmits all your attachments (that is, the fax pages) as images. All the fax services we tested support a generous range of file types, though the file size limit varies. The majority of services allow you to preview attachments before sending them. Dropbox Fax and Fax.Plus also include tools for creating and applying digital signatures.
How Much Does Sending Online Faxes Cost?
Most online fax services push you to sign up for a subscription and pay a monthly fee. We like Dropbox Fax because you can pay as you go—$0.99 per fax for up to 10 pages, with each additional page costing $0.20. If you regularly send faxes, a subscription is a better value—Dropbox Fax also offers subscriptions, so it’s the most flexible service we tested. Each subscription typically includes a page allotment you can use each month. Some companies distinguish between how many pages you can send and receive. Others offer a pool of pages, which is a more flexible approach.
Pooled-page plans also make it easier to avoid overage fees, which are per-page fees you incur when you exceed your monthly allocation. These fees range from 1 to 10 cents per page, depending on your service and plan. Dropbox Fax charges 5 cents per page for overages, for example.
Depending on your service, your plan might not include international faxing. However, faxes from the US to Canada and the UK are sometimes exempt from extra costs. Some paid plans include international coverage. It's not unusual for an online fax company to charge an additional fee to send an international fax, sometimes on a graduated scale, depending on the recipient's location, and usually per page.
What Is the Best Free Online Fax Service?
If you rarely send faxes, consider a free faxing service, such as FaxZero. It allows you to send five faxes per day for free, with each fax including up to three pages and a cover. FaxZero's business model is based on advertising.
Dropbox Fax provides five free pages when you sign up, and you can earn 15 extra pages by performing basic tasks like syncing your Gmail contacts. Fax.Plus gives you 10 free pages when you sign up, too. If you just need to fax a few pages one time, you can get away with Dropbox Fax or Fax.Plus. If you need to receive faxes, you need a paid plan.
How to Fax From Your Phone or Tablet
The majority of online fax services offer ways to send faxes from an Android or iOS device, either via an app or a mobile website. Of the services on this list, Fax.Plus and RingCentral offer dedicated mobile apps, which we prefer. With a mobile faxing app, you can just take a picture of a document and send it on its way. Dropbox Fax's, FaxZero's, and SRFax's websites are usable via mobile browsers, however. You can also send faxes via email with every service on this list.
How Can You Receive a Fax to Your Email (and Vice Versa)?
In practical terms, fax services convert faxes you receive into email attachments and, conversely, turn email fields and attachments into their fax equivalents. As you can send and receive email from anywhere, this approach makes a fax service more universally available.
The process of sending a fax via email is fairly straightforward and largely consistent across different services. You type the fax number—including country and area code—into the address line, followed by an email domain specific to the fax service (for example, 12345678910@samplefax.com). The subject line and body text appear on the fax cover page, while any attachments appear as separate pages. Your fax number appears as the sender, so there's no confusion about the message's origin.
How to Choose a Fax Number
Most services allow you to select an area code and either assign you an available phone number for receiving and sending faxes or provide you with a list of available numbers to choose from. Most also let you port over an existing fax number if you have one, although they might require a more expensive plan for this feature.
If you don't want people to have to pay to fax you, consider getting a toll-free fax number, which is usually included with a paid plan. Fax.Plus and RingCentral also offer vanity (custom) numbers.
Alternatives to Fax Services
Some industries still rely on faxing for various reasons, and knowing where to turn online when you need to send a fax to one of them is much easier than running out, pages in hand, to find a business that offers in-house faxing.
However, faxing isn't the only way to deliver documents, so be sure to explore the various secure methods for sending encrypted emails, files, and private messages.