Though you might be tempted to ditch your office fax machine, you probably have to send out at least a few faxes every year. Windows lets you fax from the OS
itself; but it requires you to use a landline that your small business
may not want tied up, and it lacks security and mobile features that
your business may need.
Luckily, a number of services can keep you covered even if you don't
have a fax machine connected to an old telephone line. I took three Web
fax services for a quick test drive. Here's how they fared.
FaxZero is a bare-bones fax service, with no options for receiving faxes
or for faxing from your mobile devices. Nevertheless, as long as your
fax is less than three pages long and you don't need to send more than
five faxes a day, FaxZero is free and doesn't require any type of
sign-up process. Just enter your contact information and the fax number
you want to send to, and then upload the document you want to send.
FaxZero should send your fax in a matter of minutes. When I tested the
service with a two-page document, I received a confirmation e-mail about
3 minutes after I pressed Send that my fax was on its way. The fax
arrived at its destination moments later.
If you plan to fax a lot of documents, however, FaxZero isn't your best
option. It charges $2 for each fax that exceeds three pages in length
and for each one beyond the company's limit of five free faxes per day.
That isn't much of a burden if only a fax or two each week aren't free,
but if you plan to use the service as a replacement to a regularly used
fax machine, the overage fees can add up quickly.
MyFaxMyFax
is a feature-rich fax option that's great for users who need more than
an occasional fax machine replacement. The company makes sending even
international faxes by email easy; all you have to do is address your
fax to @MyFax.com. When you sign up with MyFax you automatically get a
fax number in your local area code for receiving incoming faxes. The
service automatically converts faxes into PDF files and stores them on
MyFaxCentral, the company's easy-to-navigate Web dashboard. When I sent
my two-page test document from MyFaxCentral to myself, I received the
fax along with a confirmation email message almost immediately after
pressing Send.
If you don't want to use MyFax's site for some reason, you can arrange
for all incoming faxes to go to your email address as well as to five
other email addresses you choose. MyFax even has mobile apps available
that let you send and receive faxes on the go via your Android or iOS
smartphone.
MyFax's base plan, which costs $10 per month, lets you send 100 faxes a
month and receive another 200 faxes. If you exceed those limits, the
company charges 10 cents per page for the surplus faxes--but it also
offers $20-per-month and $40-per-month plans that establish higher send
and receive ceilings.
eFaxeFax
offers many of the same features as MyFax. The two companies have
almost identical sign-up procedures that involve first picking your free
incoming fax number, then tying your account to an email address, and
finally providing billing information. eFax's methodology for faxing by
email is nearly identical to MyFax's. too. Both companies have Web-based
dashboards that support faxing even to international numbers, and both
offer Android and iOS mobile apps.
My test fax with eFax yielded a nearly instantaneous transmission plus an email message confirming that my fax had been sent.
Despite the similarities, eFax has some powerful features that MyFax
doesn't. One is that eFax supports digital signatures, which can save
you time and trouble if you often have to sign forms and return them via
fax. The company also lets you digitally encrypt your faxes for an
extra layer of SSL/PGP security over traditional faxing. That feature is
particularly important if you work with sensitive information and must
comply with regulations such as HIPAA, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. eFax permanently archives all of your sent and
received email messages, too (MyFax deletes older faxes after one
month), and it offers storage for files as large as 1GB.
[Related: "Digital Signatures Let You Ditch That Old Fax Machine"]
On the other hand, to use advanced features such as digital signatures,
you must download eFax's eFax Messaging Software (Windows or Mac
version). The application is fairly easy to work with, but having to
open it is a minor hassle. eFax is also significantly more expensive
than MyFax: The lowest-level eFax Plus account costs $17 per month for
150 incoming and 150 outgoing faxes a month. The higher-volume rate is
$20 per month for 200 incoming and 200 outgoing faxes, for $19.95 per
month. A 10-cents-per-page overage fee kicks in if you exceed the limit
on either plan.
The Verdict
If
you're in a hurry and just want to send occasional short faxes, FaxZero
is your best option among these three. It's easy to use, it sends faxes
quickly, and it's free. If you need to send longer faxes regularly,
however, MyFax probably delivers the best bang for your buck. MyFax's
$10-per-month price is significantly lower than eFax's for many of the
same features. But if your business requires secure transmissions, eFax
may be the way to go, since it allows encrypted faxing. (And as a bonus,
it lets you store larger files.)
