eFax vs MetroFax

MetroFax and eFax both offer a feature-rich online faxing experience. While the two services have similar features, they do not have similar pricing. eFax is considerably more expensive than MetroFax and its highest level plan offers only 200 faxes per month (compared to 2500 faxes for MetroFax). That being said, each service has unique advantages that will cater to different types of users.

Sending and Receiving Faxes

Sending and receiving faxes is easy with the MetroFax and eFax online platforms. Simply sign into your online fax account at MetroFax.com or eFax.com and you’ll be able to send a fax with under 5 or 6 clicks. Sending a fax with both services is very similar to sending an email.

You can access the eFax and MetroFax web platforms on any internet-connected device. If you’re trying to fax from a smartphone or tablet, however, then you’d be smart to download mobile apps.

MetroFax offers apps for Android smartphones and tablets as well as the iPhone and iPad. Apps are highly rated and available for free from each respective app store. You can send faxes, view faxes, and edit your contacts over your mobile app.

eFax offers similar functionality and is widely regarded as one of the best mobile faxing apps available today. eFax apps are available on the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Both MetroFax and eFax are equally matched in terms of app support.

The only major difference between MetroFax and eFax when it comes to receiving and sending faxes is the lack of cover page editing with eFax: you cannot create a customized cover page for your faxes. You can, however, type out the body of your email and it will automatically be included with your fax as a cover page (the body of the message will appear on the cover page). MetroFax, on the other hand, lets you add a customized cover letter to every fax if you choose to do so.

Ultimately, with both services, you don’t need a lot of technical knowledge to send a computer fax. If you can send an email, then you won’t have any trouble using MetroFax or eFax on any supported devices.

Supported File Formats

eFax wins this category easily. But that doesn’t absolutely mean that eFax is the better option for your business. MetroFax supports all popular file formats, including PDFs, TXT files, Microsoft Office documents (DOC and DOCX), as well as popular image formats. If your business uses specialized software with diverse file formats and unique extensions, then eFax is clearly the better option due to the sheer number of supported file formats.

MetroFax Supports: XSL, PNG, TIFF, JPEG, HTML, RTF, DOC, DOCX, PDF, TXT.

eFax Supports: PDF, PS, PSD, IFF, DXF, CSV, GIF, SHW, WPD, P5, WP6, EFX, JFX, EPS, HTML, JPG, JPEG, 123, WK1, WK3, WK4, LWP, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, PUB, WRI, DOC, DOCX, DOT, DOTX, WPS, ODG, ODP, ODS, ODT, PCX, TXT, DOC, LOG, ERR, C, CPP, H, PNG, QPW, WB1, WB2, WB3, RTF, SXD, SXI, SXC, TIF, TIFF, TGA, VSD, BMP, WPG.

Pricing

MetroFax

Essential: Includes 500 faxed pages each month, 3 cents per additional pages, phone-based tech support, and costs $7.95 per month ($6.63 per month on the annual plan) with no setup fee.

Value: Includes 1000 faxed pages each month, 3 cents per additional pages, phone-based tech support, and costs $12.95 per month ($10.79 per month on the annual plan) with no setup fee.

Professional: Includes 2500 faxed pages each month, 3 cents per additional pages, phone-based tech support, and costs $35.95 per month ($29.96 per month on the annual plan) with no setup fee.

eFax

eFax Plus: Includes 150 faxed pages each month, 10 cents per additional fax, and phone-based tech support for $16.95 per month plus a $10 setup fee.

eFax Pro: Includes 200 faxed pages each month, 10 cents per additional fax, and phone-based tech support for $19.95 per month plus a $19.95 setup fee.

Other Points of Comparison

Tech Support: MetroFax is relatively weak when it comes to tech support. MetroFax’s tech support is available during normal North American business hours over the phone and online. However, the MetroFax website itself features hardly any helpful articles about online faxing: there’s only about 15 FAQs to read through and that’s it. There are no tutorials or instructional articles available online. eFax, on the other hand, offers excellent tech support online, over the phone, and on its website.

Mobile Apps: MetroFax and eFax are equal in terms of mobile apps. Both services offer apps for Android smartphones and tablets as well as the iPhone and iPad. Apps are well-designed and fully-functional and users can easily edit their contacts and perform other management functions.

Multi-User Support: In most businesses, more than one employee needs to send and receive faxes. If that’s the case with your business, then both eFax and MetroFax will be a good option because both services have multi-user support. You can add up to 5 email addresses to your account. These 5 email addresses will have full send/receive faxing privileges. All incoming faxes will be sent to all 5 email inboxes and each user can send faxes via their own email inbox.

Monthly Allowances: These two services aren’t even close in terms of monthly allowances. eFax’s largest plan allows 200 faxed pages each month with a 10 cents per page overage fee. The most basic plan offered by MetroFax includes 500 faxed pages each month. Here’s the most important part: MetroFax’s basic plan costs $7.95 per month while eFax’s most basic plan costs $16.95 per month with a $10 setup fee. For many companies, that pricing is too high and those monthly allowances are too strict.

Multiple Types of Numbers Available: One of the major advantages of working with eFax is being able to pick local, international, and toll-free fax numbers from all over the world. No matter where your business is based, you should be able to find a number that suits the need of your business. MetroFax lets users pick toll-free numbers and local numbers, although toll-free numbers cost an extra $1 per month.

Digital Signatures: eFax offers digitized signatures while MetroFax does not. This makes MetroFax a comparatively poor choice for any business which signs a lot of faxed documents. Instead of manually signing each document, eFax lets you simply crop and paste a pre-written signature onto every incoming fax. That’s a huge advantage for many businesses.

Our Verdict

eFax is considerably more expensive than MetroFax. In fact, eFax is the most expensive major email fax provider available today. The 10 cents per fax overage fees, high monthly pricing plans, and pricey setup fees only give you 150 to 200 faxes per month, which isn’t enough for many businesses.

On the flip side, you have MetroFax, which lets users send or receive 500 faxes each month at a cost of $7.95 per month plus 3 cents per additional page.

The only provider that comes close to eFax in terms of pricing is MyFax, which makes sense because MyFax and eFax are owned by the same company. MyFax, however, comes with free faxing to 48 countries – which is a huge cost-savings advantage for international businesses. With eFax, there’s no similar feature to justify the higher price tag, and users have to pay international surcharges when faxing international numbers.

MetroFax easily wins this comparison due to its lower pricing, higher monthly allowances, useful apps, and easy online interface. The only real advantages eFax has over MetroFax are a more diverse range of supported file formats along with digitized signature support. If neither of those things is important to your business, then MetroFax is the better option.