Despite what you may have heard, faxing is still commonly used in modern homes today. While most homeowners no longer own a traditional fax machine, many take advantage of an online fax service to receive and send fax documents.
9 Best Online Fax Services
- FAX.PLUS
- eFax
- FaxBetter
- FaxZero
- FaxBurner
- MetroFax
- SRFax
- CocoFax
- MyFax
Despite being an older technology, faxing is not yet outdated. Even now, faxing is a convenient, reliable way to transmit documents between an individual and another party, such as a government agency, doctor's office, or attorney.
Thanks to the internet, most people no longer need to have access to a traditional fax machine to fax a document. With online faxing, homeowners can engage in the benefits of fax communication without having a physical fax machine.
Can You Fax Without a Phone Line?
Yes, you can fax without a traditional phone line. While faxing remains a popular way to transmit documents, one major aspect of faxing has changed. Thanks to the internet, it is no longer necessary to have a dedicated second phone line or even a physical fax machine in order to be able to send or receive faxes from home.
How To Get a Free Fax Number
Several online fax services allow you to send fax documents for free. However, most charge money for the ability to receive a fax message with a dedicated virtual fax number. Paid digital fax services offer tiered subscription plans, but you may be able to take advantage of a free trial to get a temporary free fax number.
That said, there is a secret to getting a 100% completely free fax number…
Here are two ways to get an entirely FREE fax number:
FaxBetter: The FaxBetter Free plan allows you to reserve a free fax number and keep it indefinitely as long as you use it. You can receive faxes online for free, though the free account does not let you send faxes. When you receive fax documents to your free virtual fax number, a digital fax copy is forwarded to your email address. The only catch is that you must receive at least one new fax every 7 days or else you lose your virtual number.
Pro Tip: Set a weekly reminder and use a free service like FaxZero to send yourself a new fax once a week. As long as you don’t forget, your FaxBetter number will remain active indefinitely — for completely free!
FaxBurner: FaxBurner offers a “disposable” free fax number that only lasts 24 hours. If you ever need to receive a fax, you can simply activate a disposable virtual fax number, and any incoming fax will be delivered to your email inbox for free. The only downside is that you aren’t able to keep the same fax number with the free FaxBurner plan. However, there are paid plans available that make your fax number permanent.
9 Best Online Fax Services
If you're wondering how to fax without a fax machine, look no further than internet fax companies. There are a growing number of online fax services (both free and paid) that allow you to send fax documents using your home connectivity and receive fax copies to your email. All you need is a good home internet connection to start using a virtual fax service right away.
1. FAX.PLUS
FAX.PLUS is a secure, cross-platform online fax service that is used by over 2 million customers. It works on multiple devices, including iOS and Android products, and integrates with a range of platforms, such as Microsoft Office and Google Suite products, like Google Docs or Google Sheet.
FAX.PLUS offers a free plan for individuals who wish to send up to 10 free fax pages. Any more will cost you $0.20 per extra page. To receive fax documents, you will need to upgrade to one of their paid plans.
Their cheapest Basic plan starts at $4.99 per month (billed annually) or $5.99 (billed monthly). With the Basic plan, you get 100 free pages per month and a dedicated fax number, through which you can both send and receive faxes online.
If you need to send more faxes every month, you can upgrade to the Premium plan, which costs $9.99 per month (billed annually) or $11.99 (billed monthly) and gives you 300 free pages per month.
FAX.PLUS also offers two pricing plans geared towards businesses. The cheaper Business plan is priced at $14.99 (billed annually) or $19.99 (billed monthly) gives you 800 pages every month, includes multiple fax numbers, and lets you add up to 5 users to your account.
Their Enterprise plan is the most expensive, at $49.99 per month (billed annually) or $59.99 (billed monthly.) It includes 3,000 pages per month, multiple dedicated fax numbers, and unlimited team members.
2. eFax
eFax is another popular online fax solution. With eFax, you can send and receive fax documents through email, a mobile device via their fax app, or their online portal.
A unique feature offered by eFax is the option to save electronic signatures by swiping a finger on their mobile app to sign a fax document. eFax also gives users an Enhanced Security option, whereby the received fax is encrypted and stored on a secure fax server instead of being delivered to your email client.
There is no free eFax plan, but there is a 14-day free trial. All of the eFax plans include a virtual fax number, multiple users, unlimited storage, the ability to edit and sign faxes online, and the option to deliver incoming faxes to your email inbox.
The eFax Plus plan is their cheapest, at $15.83 (billed annually) or $18.99 (billed monthly.) There is a $10 first-time setup fee, and you can send 170 pages and receive 170 pages every month.
If you need to send or receive more pages a month, you can upgrade to the eFax Pro plan, which lets you send 375 pages and receive 375 pages per month. This plan costs $24.99 (billed annually) or $29.99 (billed monthly.)
3. FaxBetter
FaxBetter's internet faxing service is rather unique. With the FaxBetter Free plan, you get a dedicated virtual fax number that is yours for entirely free, no credit card required. At this number, you can receive 50 pages of faxes per month for no charge. Inbound faxes are sent to your email inbox. The trick is that you have to receive a new fax at least every seven days, or else you forfeit your fax number. The free plan also does not let you send faxes online.
If you want to send fax documents as well as receive them, you will need to upgrade to the FaxBetter Premium plan, which starts at $5.95 per month. This plan gives you a dedicated fax number that never expires, as well as the ability to send faxes over the internet. You also get unlimited storage space, as compared to enough storage for approximately 1,000 pages with the free plan. The Premium plan also includes an allotment of 500 pages per month, with a $0.02 charge for each additional page.
4. FaxZero
FaxZero is an online fax service that lets you send fax documents for free to anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. Sending an international fax costs a fee, which varies in price depending on the country.
There is no credit card required to send a free fax online. You just need to fill out the form on FaxZero's website to send faxes. You will need to input your email address and phone number along with the fax receiver's information to send a fax of up to 3 pages.
You get a maximum of 5 faxes per day with FaxZero's free plan. If you send a free fax with FaxZero, there is a FaxZero logo branding on the cover page of your fax.
FaxZero also offers an Almost Free Fax plan. You pay $2.09 per fax you send, and faxes can be up to 25 pages. There is no logo branding on the cover page with the paid plan, and you can send as many faxes as you want.
FaxZero does not currently support the ability to receive fax documents.
5. FaxBurner
You can both send and receive faxes for free with FaxBurner. The online fax service works by giving you a virtual fax number. Incoming faxes are sent to your email inbox, and you can send fax documents right out of your email as well. You can also sign and send faxes from the free fax app.
There is a drawback, however. With the free online fax service, your virtual fax number is only yours for 24 hours. You can't keep the same fax number with FaxBurner's free plan.
If you want a dedicated virtual fax number, you can pay to upgrade your account to FaxBurner Professional or Premier. The former costs $12.95 per month, and you get 500 fax pages each month. The latter is $22.95 per month for 2,000 pages. Both of these paid plans grant you all the same features as the free fax service, plus a permanent number.
6. MetroFax
Another digital fax service that lets you send and receive fax documents straight from your email is MetroFax. There is no free plan, but all plans include a dedicated fax number that allows you to send and receive faxes using a web browser, email, or fax app downloaded from a mobile app store. All typical Windows fax documents are supported, such as a PDF files.
There are three different price plans at MetroFax. The lowest-priced Essential plan includes 550 pages per month at a monthly cost of $11.95 (billed monthly) or $9.96 (billed annually.)
If you need more fax pages every month, you can pay for the Best Value plan, which includes 1,050 pages per month. It costs $14.95 each month (billed monthly) or $12.46 (billed annually.)
The Professional plan includes even more fax pages. You can pay $37.95 (billed monthly) or $31.63 (billed annually) to get 3,000 pages per month.
MetroFax offers a 14-day free trial for their online faxing services.
7. SRFax
SRFax offers a security-focused, simple solution to online faxing. Their internet fax service employs the use of end-to-end SSL HIPAA-compliant encryption to ensure your documents stay secure.
All plans include a virtual fax number, unlimited online storage, multiple users, and a portal that integrates with your email client. There is no free plan, but a 30-day free trial is available.
SRFax's tiered subscription plans start with the lowest Basic Plus plan at $9.95 per month (billed monthly) or $8.95 (billed annually.) This plan includes 200 pages per month.
The second cheapest is the Standard Lite plan, which costs $12.95 (billed monthly) or $11 (billed annually) per month. It gives you 500 fax pages every month.
If you want more pages, you can upgrade to the Standard plan. For $18.95 (billed monthly) or $16.10 (billed annually) each month, you can get 800 fax pages.
If you need even more fax pages, there is the Standard Plus subscription. With this plan, you get 1,500 pages every month for a monthly cost of $32.95 (billed monthly) or $28 (billed annually.)
8. CocoFax
CocoFax is another online fax company that allows you to easily send fax documents over the internet. All you need is the recipient's fax number.
If you sign up for the CocoFax free service, you can send up to 10 fax pages per month for free without using a credit card. You are assigned a fax number that lasts 24 hours.
To get a permanent, dedicated fax number, you will need to subscribe to a paid plan. The cheapest Lite plan is only $4.99 (billed annually or $7.99 (billed monthly.) With this plan, you get 60 pages a month and all of CocoFax's basic features, including unlimited storage and access to the iOS/Android mobile fax app.
For $12.99 (billed monthly) or $9.99 (billed annually), you get 200 pages per month with the Basic Plan.
There's also a Premium plan, which gives you 400 pages per month and additional features, including access to the Mac and Windows fax software. With this plan, you can also send faxes straight from popular applications like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Google Drive, and Google Sheet by installing add-ons. The Premium plan will cost you $16.99 (billed monthly) or $19.99 (billed annually.)
A Business plan is also available, which gives you all the Premium features, 1,200 pages a month, plus the ability to add 5 team members. It costs $29.99 (billed monthly) or $24.99 (billed annually.)
9. MyFax
With MyFax, you can both send and receive faxes through your email, with the MyFax portal, or their fax app. MyFax allows up to 5 email addresses of your choosing to send and receive fax documents with one account. It also lets you send a fax to 50 different recipients' fax numbers simultaneously. All MyFax plans additionally include unlimited storage and fax archiving.
There is no free MyFax plan. Plans start at $10 (billed annually) or $12 (billed monthly) with the Home Office subscription. This plan includes the ability to send 100 and receive 100 pages per month and all of MyFax's features, including a dedicated fax number.
Their Small Business User plan gives you 300 outgoing and 300 inbound fax pages per month, at the cost of $20.83 $25
MyFax also has a Power User plan that lets you send 600 and receive 600 fax pages per month for $37.50 (billed annually) or $45 (billed monthly.)
Even though it has been around for decades, faxing is widespread even in present times. Though the basics of fax technology are still in place, the internet has made faxing easier.
Send and Receive Faxes Without a Fax Machine
Online fax services have removed the burdens associated with traditional fax machines, like dealing with ink, paper, and slow speeds. Virtual fax companies allow you to better communicate with your doctor, insurance company, attorney's office, and other organizations by giving you the ability to send and receive fax documents over the web.
Since it is simpler and cheaper to use an online fax service, homeowners no longer need to purchase a physical fax machine, extra phone line, or fax modem. Just like with the best satellite TV and home internet providers, internet fax companies offer various features and price tiers to meet the needs of their customers. There are a variety of online fax service plans and subscriptions available on the internet to suit any budget, giving homeowners a wide range of options to fax without a fax machine.
