Free or Cheap on-line Fax Service?

I was just looking into this yesterday. Here are two worth trying:

FaxZero (http://faxzero.com/)
* Free to send PDF or Word Docs.
* Maximum: 2 faxes per day, no more than 3 pages each
* Attaches its own coversheet ad

Fax1 (http://www.fax1.com/)
* No setup or monthly feeds
* $0.12 per page to the USA

The commentors at Lifehacker have more suggestions:
http://lifehacker.com/software/fax/faxzero-sends-free-faxes-219570.php

I use send2fax; it's about the cheapest I could find which let me have an incoming (650) number. If you don't care so much about incoming in 650/408 there are I think some other cheaper options. iirc there's one in WA state or something which might even be completely free.

Hmm. Send2Fax looks quite good. I just wish there was a pay-as-you-go option.

Thanks for the pointer.

I always had good results from OneBox - http://www.onebox.com/. Did all the faxing back and forth for my home purchase in 2005 using them.

Wait, how's this for the "lazy web?"

I just found a nifty online fax comparator site:
http://www.faxprices.com/

Tell it how many pages you want to send or receive per month and it shows which services are cheapest.

I'd say that pretty much rocks. :-)

Or use TPC Fax - it's free as in beer.

I believe the WA-based service cited above is:

http://www.faxaway.com

I've used them for a few years and have been satisfied.

We use MyFax (myfax.com) and have been very pleased. You can send/receive a bunch of faxes each month. Plus they give you a toll free number.

They support the most formats out of the ones that we tested Tiff, PDF, DOC, and a ton of others.

Another great benefit of them is that you can send the faxes using any email program. You just send it to [phone number]@myfax.com and attach the files, it does the rest. You can also use their website if you prefer.

I've been using TrustFax for a few years now and been very pleased with it. I'm still on the old Power User plan - $20/year for 70 pages sent or received, with a toll-free number. The new Power User plan is $30/year for 150 pages.

It's fairly fast, but during busy times it can take 5-10 minutes for a fax to be processed and sent.

http://www.trustfax.com/

We've been using MyFax.com for about a year, and have had no complaints. They support all sorts of file types, which has pretty much been my only requirement thus far.

It only solves half your problem, but j2.com will give you a free number for inbound fax-to-email (mine's in a Philly area code; don't know if that's the only one available for the free service). $15/mo, though, if you want their outbound service.

I use efax.com to get faxes and have been very happy with the free service I think you can send docs easily as well though I use a real fax and phone to send.

Buy a Brother MultiFunction laserprinter (the MFC line is good). I got the 8840D, which scans/faxes/copies. You don't think you'll use it that much, but you really do.

I'll second eFAX. I have been happy with them for a few years now, good stuff.

Microsoft has a page of providers that will link to Microsoft Office:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/EY010035751033.aspx

Some of the providers listed here might have online forms for your pdfs and tiff files.

Adobe Acrobat 8 also has a built-in "Send to Kinkos" which will fedex longer documents for you.

I'll also recommend MyFax.

I used eFax for some time (couple years maybe?) but because they had no local numbers, I had to get a Nashville number. When they opened up the 865 area code, however, I called to get my number switched. What they did, however, was createa new number on my account, and make my old one "free" for 6 months, just in case people still tried to fax me there. After the 6 month free period, it wanted to bill me double for 2 numbers, but because of how they linked things into my account, they couldn't kill off the 615 number. The only resolution they could give me was to create a new account, with a new 865 number. At that point, I'd had enough and told them to send me to cancellations. After about an hour on hold, they picked up and went through cancelling like pulling teeth, trying to keep me on in some way.

After that, I looked around, and since I needed a solution I could use with a mac, it either had to have mac-native software, or accept faxes via email. I ended up with MyFax, at $10/month, for some odd amount of faxes sent and received. MyFax lets you email a fax to [your fax number]@myfax.com after you've set up an approved sender email list. Just attach the PDF or word doc or whatever, and it does the rest.

Oh yeah, forgot about this till just now. eFax cancellations actually asked me if there was anyone else I knew that I could transfer the account to (friend, family, etc) rather than cancel.

WTF?

If you are on Windows and use IE, check out Skax:

http://www.skax.net/

It's a Skype-based fax service that lets you send faxes right from your PC. They even give you credits so that you can send a 2-3 page fax for free when you sign up.

It saved me from having to take a midnight run to Kinkos! Only downside is that you cannot receive faxes, only send. If you need to receive faxes, I think that there are services that give you free incoming faxes to some weird area code.

@Robert Cole:

If your mac has a modem, you can hook it up to a phone line -- you can send faxes from the print dialog, as well as receive them in Mail.app, I believe. Worked well the one time I ever had to use it. Steve Jobs was making a big deal of it as a NEXTStep killer feature back in the early '90s; why haven't we managed to kill fax off yet?

I've been using faxitnice.com for a while and am happy with their service. I haven't looked around too much recently, but at the time I signed up with them they were one of the few companies that offered pricing that seemed aligned with my usage pattern: higher per-page costs but no recurring monthly fees.

I recently signed up for trustfax.com and like it so far. I don't fax that often (yet still need it), so I get by with the $4.95/month plan.

I can't believe I used an actual fax machine for as long as I did. I now have a "Fax" label in my GMail account that catches all faxes.

It also made me realize that I don't need to print & keep a paper copy of a lot of faxes I get, so that should save a little money on paper & toner. Not to mention, no more waking up to a pile of mortgage company junk faxes!

It's also nice to not have to be by a fax machine to get a fax. Log in from anywhere and read/print as needed.

My answer is similar to Matt Cutts'. I could be sending faxes with my existing j2 service, but for whatever reason, I find it easier to just fax. So I have a brother 7820N multifunction printer fax. Great product.

For inbound I use j2 communications. It is over $100/yr. for having my own fax line but it's worth it for my purposes.
Then again, I run a consulting business so it's a no-brainer to spend an extra few $$.

jwz put a similar question to the lazyweb in may, check the thread:
http://jwz.livejournal.com/758462.html

haven't used it, but I know of ureach ufax:
http://www.ureach.com/home3/ufax_overview.htm

I have been a ureach.com customer for a long time. You can send and receive faxes with a toll free number. There is a lot to the service, but I've never really had a problem.

You can use www.faxsv.com in order to receive your faxes for free. You don't have to subcribe there. Their method is good for occasional users.

The best way to try out something is to not be tied right away with monthly fees, right? well, take it from me. I've been using 101Fax for months now and I only get to pay everytime i send out faxes. it's cheap! it's this pay-per-use service they have.. you should try it. you can even send out faxes to over 10,000 recipients at one time. oh, and yes they do convert files to pdf and tiff. so there. check it out at www.101fax.com.

Oh, and they do have a 7-day FREE trial :)

oh, and i forgot to mention that outbound fax at 101fax.com is only 8 cents per minute!

You can try 101fax. When I tried it, I wasn't really sure if this would finally set the end for searching online fax services for my business. They have 7 day free trial, so I went on ahead and tried it...

So far, I'm still with 101fax. I'm happy with it coz my business works. The catch is that they have pay-per-use fax for people who use fax occassionally.

PAYPERUSE? REALLY? I DIDN'T KNOW THERE WAS SUCH. IS 101FAX NEW?

i signed up for the 7 day free trial and i have no problem with it so far. The faxing service is very reliable,i send 50 faxes a day and all went through...Im upgrading to a permanent subscription...

ditto...i go for 101FAX.COM too.

how is it different from the others?

DOES ANYBODY KNOW if the free servce TPC.int is still working? Their homepage has not beeen updated since 2002 and I cannot send a fax any longer

tpc.int? why don't you try 101Fax. sure will work and regularly updated...i suppose it's new cos there've been a lot of those promos and free trials on this site. working really good. try it.

You www.101fax.com people are scheming little bitches. Nice comment SPAM! For all you fellow hackers out there, don't reward these assholes with your business.

I would suggest you to use www.popfax.com internet fax service. I use it for several years, and never got problems. It is cheaper than other providers. Try it for free!

shareware for mac: pagesender, link to download demo:
http://www.smileonmymac.com/pagesender/download.html

I went to the same place someone recommended above:
http://www.faxprices.com/?type=rs&spages=50&rpages=50&tollfree=nopref&voicemail=nopref&s=unk&submit=Search+Now

and I signed up with RapidFax... Easy and secure. I tried it the minute I signed up and it worked great.

It's cheap and it's one month free and 300 pages inbound or outbound, whichever you prefer. Plus, you can choose PDT for TIFF.

I'd recommend this.

I use faxitnice but I am not satisfied. It often does not work during CA evening hours. I guess they are doing maintenance without shutting down the system completely. So you try and try and try, the system says downloading and fax will be sent shortly but your fax does not appear in your outbox and you are not sure whether it's sent or not

Ditto re: www.101fax.com, it is obvious the previous posts are from www.101fax.com sales people using this site for spam.

A major concern I would have with all of these online fax services is security. What guarantee do you have that your confidential faxes are truly confidential if you're routing them through an online fax service before sending/receiving? What guarantee do you have that they are not selling your confidential data or using it to target you for spam? I would check carefully their privacy policies also make sure they are reputable. If a fax service is free I would be even more suspect.

I'm going to try the other fax services you guys suggested. I've looked up 101fax.com. The deals look good but this company doesn't seem to have a physical address.

At least Faxaway has a physical address. I just wish Faxaway would upgrade its software. It's a pain sending faxes sometimes. If you send the same fax to the same fax number several times, sometimes the fax gets sent and sometimes it fails. So, the transmission success isn't consistent. I've tried eFax and Popfax. Their web interfaces are very easy to use and had not had any botched transmission so far. Additionally, Popfax lets you view the fax before sending and also shows you how much it would cost. Popfax does have a send-only package but you have to buy the $30 package that's good only for 1 year (for 100 pages).

Well, I signed up for 101fax because of its security. faxes that go through their system are encrypted, that's one. 5 months is long already and it's doing me the job

I found this http://www.packetel.com/Fax/faxServicePricing.asp
* One flat rate of $3.95 per month; limited time only
* No per-page charge
* No setup, installation, or any hidden charges
* No restrictions on the number of incoming faxes received per month. You will not be charged extra for receiving too many or too few faxes

The only thing is that the number used for your incoming faxes are not toll free and only certain states are available.

I haven't tried it yet but it looks like the best pricing.

I've recently started faxing at a site called http://www.Payperfax.com for my per use faxing. So far, so good. I only fax once a month so it works for me. There is no sign up fee. They accept Paypal so I feel secure using the service.

You can use packetel's pFax service which is 3.95/month.

www.packetel.com Use coupon code: pplvo43396 for an extra month free.

Not sure if you are still interested in this, but I found a pretty cheap solution that uses 2 companies, and is prepaid for like 9 cents a sheet.

I blogged about it here a few years back:
http://www.werty.net/2006/11/cheap-faxing.html

What I use is efax.com to receive all of the faxes to my email address, then I use an email (with attachment support) to send them. I only use the FREE efax receiving account.

The service I use is called http://www.interfax.com . They allow you to set up a prepaid account, so I throw $10 in there. They then charge like 9 cents per page or something to send a fax. So about once a year or so when I run out of credits I top it off.

So I would say this ends up costing maybe $1 a month for me. Less if you use it less.

saveOnFaxes /./ com has a great service and affordable too.

this is not a comment but a question. i want to sign up for efax free account so i can receive faxes through email but i dont understand which options i should choose.

i am asking you instead of contacting them because i assume i will only be attacked by salespeople who will give me a headache.

1-country= what, the country where i live? (india)
2-find an efax number close to my primary phone=what? i dont have a phone, but a local number for my wireless hookup that can be used as a phone but i dont know how. shall i put "other"?
3-get free number in=what? i will be getting faxes from various states in america but probably only once or twice a year. should i choose america or india?
4-zip code=where? where i live i suppose?

ignore my last comment please-sorry.

i got the account and they gave me a phone number. as far as i can see if i get a fax they will email it to me, is that all there is to it? they gave me a phone number and a pin-what is the pin for?

they are saying something about "Download our free eFax Messenger software to view .efx files" but it looks to me like a trick to get me to upgrade to a paid service.

their customer service option doesnt look very friendly either. i should just go out and fax myself and see what happens i guess...

if anybody knows what i am talking about and can explain it to me i would be very happy...i am getting panic attacks trying to do my income taxes from overseas.

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GotFreeFax.com is another website that lets user send free fax online to the US and Canada. User can either upload a PDF/Word file or enter text to fax. Plus, it does not add Ads to the fax, which makes it more suitable for faxing formal documents.

Following is a list of no signup free fax websites I've tested:

http://www.GotFreeFax.com - No Ad free fax to the US and Canada
FaxZero.com - Free fax to the US and Canada with Ad
www.FreePopFax.com - Free Online fax to 40 countries with Ad
www.FreeFaxButton.com - Free Online Fax to 40 Countries with Ad
www.myfax.com/free/ - Free Online Fax to 40 Countries with Ad

Also, there are several companies, such as eFax, RingCentral, MyFax, provide free trial of their fax service. However, you have to sign up with them first.

I currently use Faxaway and it's suitable, for the most part. Sometimes it fails to send pdf files when the pdf file has been created from a doc with mix of text and graphics. eFax has no problem sending any of my pdf files, no matter how simple or complicated they are. Plus eFax received faxes are of better quality. However, I prefer pay-per-use fax services.

I tried Gotfreefax. The quality of received fax (Free Fax service) is very poor. I don't know if the quality improves if I choose "Premium Pay-per-Fax service." I'm going to try Interfax next and see if the quality of received fax is good.

I actually looked at trustfax.com and I am quite impressed with it. As an independent contractor/business owner,I had been using faxzero to send faxes for free, but an ad is on the cover page and you can only fax 1 document with the maximum of 3 pages. In addition, you can only send 2 free faxes per day. There is a premium service without the ad and it's like 2 bucks per fax and you can pay with a paypal account.

Anyway, my point is that even though this service is convenient, I am limited with the number of faxes I can send out and I can't receive any faxes. BUT someone on here suggested trustfax.com and I love the features it offers. I can get a local fax number or a 1-800 fax number for only $30 a year or $5 a month.

Good thread. Just what I needed. Thanks especially to Annie for her summary.

I've tried eFax both the premium service trial and the free (receive only). Worked okay both ways. Also FaxZero.com (send failed but I believe that's because of problems with the receiving end.)

I only need fax once in a while and am willing to pay a reasonable pay-per-use fee rather than a subscription. I like the sound of GotFreeFax.com

I have a phone line coming into my computer through comcast broadband cable, and an HP Officejet pro 8500 multifuncton printer ie.. fax. I want to recieve unlimited faxes for free to my computer and use the 1 phoneline I use for calls to fax when I need to, without anyone using that number to fax me. Any suggestions on the best service for free, and how to keep anyone from using my regular phoneline to fax me???

I am very convenient with RingCentral's online faxing system. I could even have the capacity to manage my incoming and outgoing faxes even when I'm away.

To Salima:
You asked about:
"Download our free eFax Messenger software to view .efx files" but it looks to me like a trick to get me to upgrade to a paid service.

You are apparently talking about jFax/eFax, they are the same company. Yes, you need the eFax Messenger software to view the faxes that they send to your email. Also, anyone you whom you send emails, using their service will also need to download and install the eFax Messenger software to view emails sent through their service because they use a proprietary .efx format.

eFax Messenger software allows you to view your fax and also allows you to convert the fax to TIFF format (standard format that fax machines use to communicate with each other).

I have used their free receive fax to email service for more than 5 years. They have a 20 page/month limit. Once the limit is exceeded, they require you to upgrade to a monthly paid account. I recently received more than the limit and decided to terminate my account rather than upgrade, since my use really is occasional. I will either obtain a new free fax-to-email account with them using a different email address, or I will find another free service to receive faxes. It is handy to receive faxes to my email while abroad.

Faxes usually arrive same day, but occasionally would take a day or two to appear in my email.

I have been very satisfied with this service and there is nothing to be afraid of with eFax and jFax. The software is really only a viewer/converter.

I hope this helps.

Packettel are cheap, but not reliable. I use to be their client. Currently I am with UnityFax and FaxOrama. Both are good - no complains so far. Pricewise they are very good compare to the big ones like MyFax and eFax.

Free fax services are good for those who need to send one time faxes and only fax rarely and have no need for a fax number or fax machine. You faxes are sent with ads on them being the only disadvantage. If you find your self fax more often or run a small business or home business then faxing over the internet is a no brainer in terms of cost, convenience and efficiency

Online faxing is the trend today. This technique is very cost effective. You can also have easy access to your faxes any time you want as long as you have the internet connected PC.

Like every great internet faxing service Popfax http://en.popfax.com/ is easy to use. You don't need any software or complicated setups. Popfax is available in several countries so you can pay in your currency. For more details:
http://en.popfax.com/Fax%20to%20email%20faq.html

hi

please tell me how the process works and the cost if any to send email to fax

Their web interfaces are very easy to use and had not had any botched transmission so far. Additionally, Popfax lets you view the fax before sending and also shows you how much it would cost.