6 Best Online Fax Services for Small Business (2021)

Are you looking for the best online fax service for your small business?

Upgrading to an online fax service offers your business more security, speed, and can improve communication across the board.

In this article, we’ve hand-picked some of the best online fax services you can use along with your WordPress website.

Why You Need an Online Fax Service?

With traditional fax machines you’re limited by the older technology.

However, faxing is still one of the most secure ways to send and receive information. Online fax services combine the power and ease of email with the security of traditional faxing.

Plus, there’s no need to have a physical fax machine or fax modem.

For our business, we often have to send fax when communicating with the government, IRS, and sometimes for high-level bank information.

Online fax services can streamline your faxing process and integrate with the software you’re already using. You can even send faxes directly from your email client of choice.

This means less time spent with your faxing needs, and more time growing your business.

Moving from traditional faxes to an online fax service can help your business in a lot of ways:

• Can quickly sign documents electronically with a single click
• Manage, store, and search through faxes in one place
• Receive and send faxes on the go from your mobile device
• Save time by filtering out spam and junk faxes
• Enhance your document storage and security
• Streamline communication by integrating your faxes with other digital communication

The best part is that online fax is made for remote teams. You don’t need to be in an office to send or receive fax.

That being said, let’s take a look at the best online fax services that you can use to support your small business.

1. Nextiva

Nextiva is the best online fax service for most businesses. It has affordable pricing, flexible plans, and an extensive set of features.

It’s commonly known for its suite of business communication tools and business phone services.

However, Nextiva also offers an excellent online faxing service that’s an excellent fit for most small business owners.

Note: We use the Nextiva business phone service and communication platform on WPBeginner. They service is always reliable, and they have incredible customer support.

What we really like about Nextiva is that it’s perfect for remote teams. You can send and receive fax documents via mobile, desktop, and tablet without being in the office.

If you have a traditional fax machine, Nextiva can also integrate with that as well. They allow you to migrate your existing fax number to their platform.

With that said, a free toll-free number and local phone number are included when you sign up.

If your company is growing and you need additional numbers, you can add numbers from your dashboard with a couple of clicks.

Online storage is automated as well. Nextiva will save all of your incoming and outgoing faxes for 6 months. You can easily download and share your faxes with other members of your team.

Nextiva is used by organizations like Taco Bell, Stanley Steemer, and the Buffalo Bills. However, the plans are well-suited for small businesses as well.

We recommend getting the their unified communication platform that starts at $18.95 per month, and it includes unlimited fax, unlimited voice & video calling, auto-attendant, toll free numbers, and more.

You can also purchase vFax separately starting at $4.95 per month which includes 500 pages, but this plan is limited and doesn’t let you use the full power of Nextiva.

Overall, it’s the best business phone & fax app for growing businesses.

Expert Review: We believe Nextiva is the best online fax service for small business owners. Along with fax, you also get their full business communication platform.

2. RingCentral

RingCentral is another great online fax service for small and growing businesses.

RingCentral is a leader in providing business communication services like phone lines, instant messaging, video conferencing, and of course, online faxes.

RingCentral Fax can work as a standalone service or integrate with the business VoIP and communication platform.

This fax service is best suited for businesses who send a high volume of faxes, like legal offices, or universities. If your company uses outdated physical fax machines, RingCentral can integrate and upgrade your existing fax system.

You’ll also find standard fax features like online cover pages, cloud storage service integration, encryption, and the ability to addon unlimited fax numbers.

There are many integration options available, including Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft Outlook, and more.

It’s also a truly mobile solution. You can set up text messages to alert you of incoming faxes. Or use the mobile app to send, receive, view, and store faxes.

There’s even a built in option to block spam faxes and reduce the total number of junk faxes you receive.

With RingCentral, you can get a large number of pages at an affordable price. The Fax 1500 plan is $17.99 per month for 1500 pages, which breaks down to $0.012 per page.

But the best value is their Standard bundled plan for $24.99 per month. This plan lets you fax an unlimited number of pages per month, plus it bundles business phone calls, video meetings, audio conferencing, business text messages, and more.

The only real downside is that their fax storage is limited to the last 200 faxes. You’ll either need to delete existing faxes, or store them externally.

Expert Review: We believe RingCentral Fax is best for companies who need to send a high volume of faxes or want to bundle business communications together.

3. SRFax

SRFax is an online fax service that offers the highest levels of security, privacy, and compliance.

The high security standards make it the best choice for healthcare providers. Security is a must when transmitting sensitive information like patient records and medical information.

You’ll be happy to know that SRFax is fully HIPAA compliant for US-based healthcare practitioners and PHIPA compliant for those based in Canada.

Many online fax services offer HIPAA compliance, but usually, these services deliver the bare minimum. The security features that SRFax provides end up exceeding the HIPAA regulations.

For example, you’ll find application security, hardware and organizational safeguards, user authentication, backups, and around the clock physical security.

Plus, faxes are sent using 2048-bit encryption, while the industry standard is 256-bit.

Beyond security, you’ll find standard features like unlimited storage and cross platforms integration.

There are also Windows and Mac-specific clients that let you send and receive faxes from your preferred programs.

The pricing is a little higher, starting with the Lite plan for $7.95 per month for 200 pages. However, if you need strong security the price is worth it.

You can also send international faxes. The international fax rates are based on the country you’re sending or receiving faxes from.

Expert Review: We believe SRFax is the best online fax service for businesses who need the highest levels of security.

4. Fax.Plus

Fax.Plus is one of the best online fax services for small teams. It’s simple to use, and the goal of the service is to save you as much time as possible.

If you’re looking for a way to upgrade your existing fax process while keeping things affordable, this is a great option.

You can even keep your existing fax number for free or add new toll free and local fax numbers.

There are dozens of integrations to manage your faxes within the platforms you’re already using. This means no complicated setup process or wasting time learning the ins and outs of new software.

For example, it integrates with platforms like Microsoft Office, Google Chrome, Slack, Google Drive, G Suite apps, and more.

You’ll also find a bundled iOS and Android app, so you can read, download, and send faxes on the go. The mobile app is as easy to use as the web portal.

It lets you scan documents from your phone, add digital signatures, add notes, organize your archives, send faxes, and more.

You can also optimize faxes with a single click, which makes them easier to read and will send faster.

If you have simple needs and only need to send a handful of faxes every month, then there’s a free plan you can use. This plan lets you send up to 10 pages per month. However, you can’t receive faxes, only send.

Although Fax.Plus is well suited for very small businesses, you’ll find a variety of plans to cater to all types of business needs. The Basic plan is $5.99 per month and lets you send up to 100 pages.

If you’re looking for the best deal, the Business plan lets you send 800 pages every month for $19.99.

Expert Review: We believe Fax.Plus is the best online fax solution for small teams.

5. eFax

eFax is a well-known name in the online fax services space. It’s feature-rich, easy to use, and places a focus on fax archiving and storage.

This makes it a great choice for organizations that need to store faxes for a long time, like financial and legal institutions, universities, real estate offices, accountants, and more.

Although other fax providers offer fax storage and archiving, none go as deep as eFax. This provider offers unlimited storage for your faxes, plus in-depth fax archiving and organization features.

When faxes are saved, additional information is stored, like the transmission time and date, the recipient and sender name, and more. This makes it easy to sort and find the exact information you’re looking for.

Your faxes are stored automatically, plus older faxes won’t be deleted to make room for new incoming faxes.

Basically, with eFax, you’ll never lose a fax, ever again.

The included mobile app is available for both iOS and Android. It lets you archive, search, download, and forward directly from your phone.

Another great mobile feature is the ability to take pictures of documents and send them as a fax, all while you’re away from the office.

You’ll also find standard functionality like support for electronic signatures, multiple users, cloud storage integrations, and the ability to send a fax to up to 20 recipients.

Plus, there’s support for international faxing, and every fax is sent through an encrypted SSL connection.

eFax has some of the highest pricing on this list. But, for companies who need advanced search, storage, and archive features, it’s still a great choice. Plans start at $16.95 per month for 150 inbound and 150 outbound faxes.

The best value plan is the Pro plan which costs $19.95 per month and lets you send 200 fax pages and receive 200 pages every month.

However, there is a one-time $10 setup fee on both paid plans that you’ll want to be aware of.

Expert Review: We believe eFax is a great choice for businesses who need advanced search, storage, and archive features.

6. MyFax

MyFax is an excellent online fax service for small businesses and work from home businesses that send and receive a low volume of faxes.

You could use a free fax service to send faxes every once in a while. However, free services can be unprofessional since you can’t change the cover sheet, and you usually can’t receive faxes either.

We recommend using an affordable service like MyFax instead. MyFax is very simple and can also be used to send faxes anywhere in the world.

All plans come with unlimited fax storage, a free fax number, and a library of pre-built cover templates you can customize to match your brand. You can even search through your fax archives.

There’s also an Android and iOS app to take your faxes on the go.

Smaller teams can take advantage of the Home Office plan for $8.33 per month, which lets you send 100 pages and receive 200 pages every month.

There are also more expensive plans if you need to send or receive additional pages. If you go over the page limits, there’s an overage charge of $0.10 per page.

Expert Review: We believe MyFax is the best online fax service for businesses on a budget.

Which is the Best Online Fax Service for You?

After researching all of the top online fax service providers, we believe that Nextiva is the best online fax provider in the market.

You can send a high volume of faxes for a low price. Plus, it comes with powerful features like business phone, video calls, and other collaboration tools.

Those reasons and more are why Nextiva is the best online fax service and business communication platform in the market. This is also why WPBeginner uses Nextiva.

In our research, RingCentral came in a very close second. The online fax service offers a lot of the same features as Nextiva, for a great price. However, you don’t have the same level of flexibility.

You really can’t go wrong with either of these two online fax services.

We also looked at other fax service providers like MetroFax, HelloFax, FaxZero, GotFreeFax, J2 Global, mFax, and more.

However, our goal is to make it easy for you to choose the best online fax provider without causing choice paralysis, so we didn’t review them all here.

Online Fax Services FAQs

After helping hundreds of business owners find the best online fax services for their needs, we’ve come across a lot of questions.

Below are some of the most frequently asked questions we’ve received about online fax service providers.

How does online faxing work?

Online faxing turns your documents into a file format that’s readable by a fax machine and vice versa.

If you’re sending a document to a fax machine, you’ll enter your recipient’s fax number in your online fax dashboard and attach your file.

The online faxing services translate the document into a file type the fax machine can read and sends it to the recipient over a phone line.

The document is then printed and read as a standard fax or viewed with their online fax service provider.

What is the best free online fax service?

We don’t generally recommend using a free fax service provider, especially in a business setting. Free online fax services allow you to send faxes, but you generally can’t receive faxes or customize the cover sheet.

If you only need to send up to 10 pages a month, then we recommend the Fax.Plus free plan.

This also gives you the ability to upgrade if your faxing needs increase.

What is the safest fax app?

All fax apps are incredibly safe and use encryption to ensure your transmissions are protected. Faxing is one of the most secure forms of communication.

However, SRFax has the highest security protocols out of any online fax app. Their primary focus is providing a secure fax service for healthcare professionals, which needs to comply with HIPAA.

SRFax has strong encryption, spam blocking, user authentication, automatic fax deletion, and more.

Can I fax without a fax machine?

Yes, you can fax without a fax machine. Online faxing services like Nextiva and RingCentral allow you to send faxes via the internet, tablets, and even mobile devices.

You can also send online faxes to a traditional fax machine with an online fax service.

We hope that this guide helped you choose the best online fax service for your small business. You may also want to see our comparison of the best email marketing services, and best AI chatbot software for small business.

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