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Best Electronic Fax Services for Small Businesses

Today, small businesses around the world are using electronic faxing to save time and money. But with so many different electronic fax providers from which to choose, it can be difficult to know which service offers the best value for your small business.

To help make your decision easier, we’ve chosen the top 5 best electronic fax services available today to serve your small business:

RingCentral Electronic Fax Services

RingCentral FaxRingCentral tends to be the most popular option for today’s small businesses. With international faxing, digital signatures, mobile apps, and competitive pricing, RingCentral is the only electronic fax service your small business needs.

One of the biggest advantages of working with RingCentral is that it’s not just an electronic faxing company: RingCentral offers a full range of PBX services starting at around $25 per month. Many of these plans include online faxing. So if your small business is searching for cloud-based phone systems and online faxing, then you can end up saving a lot of money on both with RingCentral.

Here’s how the prices break down For RingCentral’s electronic fax services:

  • Fax 1500 ($17.99 Per Month): Includes 1000 sent and received pages per month.

All plans come with the full range of RingCentral features, including:

  • International faxing
  • Mobile apps for Android and iOS
  • Digital signature support
  • 5.9 cents per overage fee (5.9 cents for each additional fax sent and received beyond your plan’s coverage)
  • 24 hour customer service by phone and by email
  • Fax filtering to block certain numbers, or to block faxes from numbers with no caller ID

You can sign up for a free 30 day trial on the first three plans, although a free trial isn’t available for the Fax Unlimited Plan.

Ultimately, one of the only real downsides to RingCentral is that its wide range of features might be overwhelming for users. Don’t feel the need to try out everything with RingCentral. Yes, there are lots of things to discover – but you can get your money’s worth even if you ignore these features and just use RingCentral for electronic faxing.

If you’re trying to decide which plan is right for your business, then there are just a few things to consider. All RingCentral plans are virtually identical in terms of features, so the main thing to consider is how many faxes your business sends and receives every month. Once you know your approximate number, you’ll be able to easily choose between the Fax 500, Fax 1000, and Fax 2500 plans.

The fourth plan, Fax Unlimited, is for a unique type of business customer. If your small business wants a dedicated fax number for each employee in the office, then the Fax Unlimited plan might be the right choice. Once you sign up multiple users on the plan, you can send and receive unlimited faxes – which can be a great money saver if you’re sending/receiving thousands of faxes per month.

You can also add certain bonuses onto your RingCentral account for additional business needs. If your small business needs an extra number, for example, then you can pay an additional $4.99 per month per number.

If your small business needs a vanity number or an additional 800 number, then you can pay a one-time fee of $30 – (a single 800 number is included with your plans already).

Ringentral Electronic Fax Services Conclusion: There’s no “catch” to using RingCentral. The plans are rich with features and you’d be hard-pressed to find something that RingCentral doesn’t have. If your small business needs VOIP and PBX systems, then you can save even more money by working with RingCentral. Even if you just need electronic fax services, RingCentral offers considerable value for businesses of all different sizes.

Nextiva Electronic Fax Services

Nextiva FaxWith subscriptions starting at $8.95 per month ($4.95 per month when billed annually), Nextiva is easily the cheapest electronic fax service on this list. The main “catch” to using Nextiva is that there’s no international faxing available: you can only send faxes to numbers based in the United States and Canada.

If you don’t need international faxing, then Nextiva can offer great value. The company has cheap computer faxing plans that get even cheaper when you’re paying on an annual basis.

Even if you do go over your monthly fax limits, you’ll end up paying only a small amount in overage charges. Nextiva charges 3 cents per each overage fax sent and received. That’s not bad.

In any case, here’s how much you can pay for Nextiva’s Electronic Fax Services:

  • Basic ($8.95 Per Month): 500 sent/received pages per month ($4.95 per month when paid annually).
  • Premium ($17.95 Per Month): 1000 sent/received pages per month ($12.95 per month when paid annually)
  • Max ($34.95 Per Month): 3000 sent/received pages per month ($29.95 per month when paid annually)

There aren’t very many electronic fax providers that let you send/receive 3,000 faxes per month within your plan. If your business is a high-volume business that deals with hundreds or thousands of monthly faxes, then Nextiva can help you save a lot of money (as long as you’re faxing to/from American and Canadian addresses of course).

Other key features with Nextiva include:

  • iPhone and Android apps available for faxing on-the-go
  • 24 hour customer service available via toll-free phone, email, or online chat
  • Customizable online interface that makes it easy to send and receive faxes (or just send and receive faxes through your email inbox)
  • 3 cent overage charges on all plans
  • No international faxing available (you can only send faxes to and from the United States and Canada)
  • Works with your existing fax machine and fax number
  • Fax 5 contacts simultaneously, and not all 5 of those contacts have to be fax numbers (as long as the primary contact is a fax number, the remaining contacts can be email addresses)
  • No digital signatures
  • No vanity fax numbers

Nextiva Electronic Fax Services Conclusion: Nextiva isn’t as feature-rich as its two main competitors, RingCentral and MyFax. It notably doesn’t offer digital signatures, vanity fax numbers, or international faxing, for example. Nevertheless, it’s easily the cheapest electronic faxing service and is particularly attractive to small businesses that only deal with customers and clients in the United States and Canada.

MyFax Electronic Fax Services

MyFax

With plans starting at $10 per month, MyFax is a competitively-priced US-based electronic fax service that features a user-friendly interface and all of the bells and whistles you need for electronic faxing.

Those bells and whistles include digital signatures, mobile apps, mobile fax alerts, and full support for Microsoft Office and Outlook.

In fact, the only reason why MyFax doesn’t take the throne from RingCentral on this list is because MyFax has relatively low monthly fax allotments (maximum of 800 included faxes sent/received on the highest plan) and high overage fees (10 cents per page over the limit).

That’s why MyFax is most popular with businesses that don’t need to send out thousands of electronic faxes per month – but still appreciate a good UI and excellent range of features.

Here are the small business electronic faxing plans available through MyFax:

  • Best Value ($10 Per Month): Send 100 faxes, receive 200 faxes per month
  • Most Popular ($20 Per Month): Send 200 faxes, receive 200 faxes per month
  • Fax More ($40 Per Month): Send 400 faxes, receive 400 faxes per month

If you go over the limit on any of these accounts, then you’ll need to pay 10 cents per page in overage charges.

If you want to try out the famously easy interface on MyFax, then you can also sign up for a free trial. That free trial is only available on the first plan (Best Value) listed above. You can send 100 faxes and receive 200 faxes during your free trial. Once your free trial month is over, you’ll pay $10 per month and be able to keep the fax number you received during the free trial. If you like, you can also upgrade to the Most Popular and Fax More plans.

Popular MyFax features include:

  • 30 day free trial available
  • Integrates with ACT customer management software
  • Integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office
  • Mobile support for Android, iOS, and BlackBerry
  • Toll-free 24 hour customer support by phone, email, or online chat
  • No digital signature support
  • No mobile fax alerts

MyFax Electronic Fax Services Conclusion: If you’re not going to miss digital signatures, then MyFax is a good option for its low prices and easy UI. However, it’s not the best choice for small businesses that need to send and receive more than a few hundred faxes per month.

eFax Electronic Fax Services

eFax

eFax is the priciest option on this list, with plans starting at around $17 per month. eFax was one of the first email fax providers on the scene. Today, the company has been undercut by its competitors in terms of monthly pricing, overage charges, and monthly allotments, but it’s still packed with valuable features that make it a popular choice for many small businesses.

eFax’s electronic fax plans work like this:

  • Plus ($16.95 Per Month): Receive up to 130 pages per month/Send 130 faxes per month ($0.15 per page for overages received and $0.10 per page for overages sent).
  • Pro ($19.95 Per Month): Receive up to 200 pages per month, send up to 200 pages per month (after this, you pay the overage fee of $0.10 per page on both sent and received faxes).

The second plan also includes 200 minutes of voicemail to email service. That service means when you receive voicemails, they will be transcribed and sent to your email inbox.

On the Pro plan, you can choose whether you would like a local number or toll-free fax number.

Other eFax features include:

  • Extensive 24 hour tech support over the phone, email, and live chat (as well as an extensive tutorial section at the official eFax website)
  • Full support for Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook
  • Famously intuitive, easy-to-use interface
  • Mobile apps available for iOS and Android
  • Free 30 day trial available
  • Different prices for different countries (you’re charged in your local currency and not always in USD)

eFax Electronic Fax Services Conclusion: eFax has the same wide range of features as other electronic fax services listed here – including easy electronic faxing, extensive compatibility, and an excellent UI across its mobile apps and website. Nevertheless, it’s also one of the most expensive options on the list in terms of monthly fees, overage charges, and monthly allotments. If your small business sends and receives over 400 faxes per month, then eFax is not the right choice.

MetroFax Electronic Fax Services

MetroFaxMetroFax is a no-nonsense electronic faxing service that features cheap pricing and high monthly allotments. The company has decent apps available for both Android and iOS and charges users 3 cents for overage limits (although you might never see these charges considering the plans come with 500 to 2500 included faxes per month).

Speaking of plans, here’s how much your small business will pay for MetroFax’s electronic fax plan:

  • Essential ($7.95 per Month): Provides 500 total incoming/outgoing faxed pages
  • Professional ($39.95 per Month): 2500 total fax pages

You can also save about 20% off each of these monthly prices by subscribing to the annual plan.

Some of the most popular features in MetroFax include:

  • 3 cent overage charges on all faxes sent and received over the monthly included limits
  • You can bring your business’s existing fax number with you
  • Fax on-the-go with MetroFax Android and iOS apps
  • International faxing is available
  • Toll-free and local numbers are available
  • No electronic signature feature

MetroFax Electronic Fax Services Conclusion: MetroFax isn’t the flashiest or most feature-rich option on the list, but it lets you send faxes from almost anywhere using decent mobile apps and a strong web interface. The only real downside to MetroFax is the lack of a digital signature option. If you don’t mind that issue, then MetroFax could be a cost-effective option for your small business.

About Johnson Hur

After having graduated with a degree in Finance and working for a Fortune 500 company for several years, Johnson decided to follow his passion by embarking on a path to the digital world. He has over 8 years of experience with large companies setting marketing strategy.

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