Have you sent Fax recently? A lot of us might say “NO” or perhaps recommend sending some documents via email or from a multi-function printer as an email attachment. Pundits have announced the death of fax quite some time ago, but, on the contrary, fax is very much alive and in fact growing.
Here are some reasons why fax is still very much alive and will continue to be a demanding mode of document transmission for consumers and businesses across the globe:
1. Technology:
With the advent of cloud services, there has been a paradigm shift in the way the businesses and consumers share information. Cloud-based technologies have now enabled its users to convey documents from anywhere, anytime. Cloud faxing too is no exclusion. Cloud faxing has progressed over the recent years and has become more convenient; with e-mail based faxing over cloud networks, you can send faxes from any connected internet device or multi-function device or printers.
2. Worldwide reach:
With the emergence of new cloud technologies faxing has become an important mode of business communication across the globe. Many companies are in fact adopting a cloud-based fax system to ease their existing workflows.
Secure: Most of the recent online fax providers provide TLS encryption to ensure that the fax you send is secure. The fax can also be stored with 256 Encryption on your cloud networks which is sure to give you peace of mind.
3. Omnipresence:
With the progress of technology, cloud-based faxing has become more ubiquitous and has become an integral part of many business processes. electronic faxing has become an inevitable choice when it comes to transferring medical records or financial information and unlike emails, the receiving fax needs to acknowledge the successful delivery of the document, that serves as a proof that your document has been delivered successfully.
4. Essential for regulated industries:
Probably out of fear of cybercrimes, most of the highly regulated industries like legal firms, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, government bodies require you to fax the documents. You still might be required to fax signed documents especially those related to contracts, deeds, sales and agreements when you confront a legal dispute.
Having said all that, you might be wondering what could be the benefits of switching from a fax machine to online faxing. Let’s look at some of the major benefits of faxing online.
Top Benefits of using Online Fax
- Convenience: With internet fax services you can transfer and receive documents from anywhere, anytime. Gone are the days when you needed a fax machine and paper to send a fax. As mobile technologies have evolved, you can now easily send or receive signed documents from your mobile phone.
- Environment-friendly: Go green and save trees by cutting down on the usage of papers. Online fax not only saves your time and space, but it also eliminates the need for printing out a copy for future records.
- Storage: Fax machines used to take up some of the space from your counter or desk. This problem has been minimized greatly, thanks to electronic fax. You no longer have to keep a fax machine which can eat up your space. All you need is an email address and that’s it.
- Affordability: Internet fax is far more cost effective than buying and maintaining a fax machine; it also cuts down the recurring expenses related to phone lines.
- Scalability: Electronic faxes can scale from home office workers to small, medium and enterprise businesses. Perhaps it is due to this feature that makes electronic fax so popular and ranks it no 1 on the priority list of document conveyances.
- Ease of use: Online fax is easy and if you are comfortable with using emails and internet, you will find this easy and intuitive
In this digital age, faxing is becoming more affordable and there are a lot of companies out there who offer free services to send and receive faxes online. For sending fax, these service providers allow you to enter a text or upload documents that are already stored on your computer. You can also use a scanner for converting the hard copies to digital documents for faxing. Here is our pick of some of the popular and convenient online free fax services available today:
Top Free Online Fax Services
1. Fax Zero
If you want to send faxes across the USA or Canada then this is one of the best services available. You can upload a document or PDF file or enter text to fax. Free services, however, places an ad on the cover page and are limited to 3 pages per fax up to 5 faxes a day. You can, however, send fax up to 25 pages with priority delivery without an ad on the cover page for just $1.99.
2. Got Free Fax
If you do not like to have an ad on the cover page, this is the e-fax service that you can consider. GotFreeFax does not add any branding on the cover page and you can send faxes online to anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. You can send up to 3 pages per fax, with 2, free fax every day. If you are required to send more than 3 pages online, GotFreeFax allows you to transmit up to 10 pages for $0.98. 20 pages will cost $1.98. The premium pay-per fax services also provide encrypted connection and priority delivery. Although they have very limited number of free faxes, they have a very reasonable fee structure.
3. FaxBetter Free
This is a great online fax service for people who are looking for consistent but low volume fax requirements. FaxBetter Free provides a dedicated toll-free fax number for receiving up to 50 pages per month. You will also receive email notifications every time you receive a fax. FaxBetter Free service, however, has a catch, you will need to receive at least one fax every 7 days to keep your fax number. The fax to email service only has a 30 day trial period.
FaxBetter Free Fax can store up to 1000 pages on its site and you can access the faxes online it also have OCR and document search capabilities. If you feel you cannot receive faxes regularly as required or want to avail the fax to email or searchable faxes up to 500 pages per month then you can opt for FaxBetter rental services that start at $5.95 per month.
4. MetroFax
There are very few services that make it easy to send and receive faxes as MetroFax does. MetroFax provides a very simple and easy to navigate portal and brags about the best mobile apps present today. You can tag and search faxes. You can avail the 30 days free trial before you choose their monthly rental services. Priced at $7.95 a month for 500 pages, the price drops by more than a dollar if you pay annually.
5. eFax Free
This is good for small volume fax requirements. eFaxFree plan gives you a free fax number for incoming faxes which are delivered via emails. You can view up to 10 incoming faxes a month however if your needs are more than 10 incoming faxes, you have to upgrade to eFax Plus plan which is $16.95 per, month, a bit costly though, plus a one-time setup charge of $10. They have an option where if you pay annually you can get two months of service free which can bring down your average monthly cost.
6. PamFax
PamFax is free to join and new users will get 3 free fax pages free. You will have support for Dropbox, Box.net and Google Documents. In case you wish to upgrade PamFax will provide you with your own personal fax numbers. ParmFax is available for internet available for the internet. If you cross your limit of free 3 pages you can choose On Demand service of $0.11 per page or Professional ($7.15 per month) or go with the basic plan ($4.75 per month and $0.11 per page) Both the Professional and Basic plans will provide you with a personal fax number and will allow you to send multiple documents in a single fax. You can integrate PamFax with Skype.
The advancement in technology and flexibility provided by fax vendors are enabling organizations to automate their fax solutions and has contributed to the growth of the market. Online fax services speed up the transmission of documents, boosts security, and helps in minimizing the paper footprint of an organization. Online fax also reduces maintenance costs and this digitization of your fax needs brings a positive impact on your bottom line and will help you to rationalize a component of your office life.
Once an American newspaper wrongly printed mark Twain’s obituary while he was alive hearing the rumors about his death. On reading it, Mark Twain quipped, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated”, and same can be said about the fax. Contrary to what the pundits are saying, fax is there to stay and is constantly evolving.
