Faxing Without a Fax Machine
Fax machines aren’t common household items, and this makes sending and receiving fax troublesome for most people. After all, fax machines use paper and toner, and they also require a landline number and need to be maintained.
Not long ago, if you wanted to send a fax, you had to either buy a fax machine or go over to use someone else’s. Luckily, we live in the golden age of the Internet.
Thanks to this, sending and receiving fax can be done through the Internet, using online fax service providers and without an expensive fax machine.
Sending Free Online Fax
There are plenty of websites that allow you to send and receive fax without a fax machine. Most of these websites will enable you to send a free fax to any number you choose, as long as it’s in the USA or Canada.
However, free as they are, they usually come with some sort of a restriction that you’ll have to pay to lift. For instance, a limit on the number of pages you can send each day or an ad on the cover page of your fax. Here are a few services you can use:
GotFreeFax
GotFreeFax is a free web service that allows you to send free faxes to any number in the USA or Canada. You can either type the fax on the website or upload it as PDF/Doc/JPG files. With the free services of GotFreeFax, you can send 3 pages per fax and 2 faxes per day.
You’ll have to use the Premium services for more pages per fax and more faxes per day. You can fax 10 pages for 0.98$, 20 pages for 1.98$, and 30 pages for 2.98$. There’s also a business plan available, where you can buy credit and use the provided pin to fax large numbers of pages.
FaxZero
FaxZero is a simple-to-use fax service with a good number of free daily faxes. You can send 3 pages per fax and 5 faxes per day for free, making a total of 15 pages per day. FaxZero supports PDF, Doc, and JPG files, and you can fax to any number in the USA and Canada with the free service.
However, with the free service of FaxZero, all your faxes will have a cover page containing the FaxZero branding. This is excluded in their paid services called Almost Free Fax.
You can send 25 pages per fax plus your custom cover page with the paid services of FaxZero. As previously mentioned, the FaxZero branding is removed in the paid service. At 1.99$ per fax, you also get priority delivery.
FAX.PLUS
FAX.PLUS gives you much more than just sending a fax. You can use FAX.PLUS on your web browser, as well as the Android and iOS apps. The free plan of FAX.PLUS lets you send 10 pages of fax for free, but if you want to send more pages, you’ll have to either pay for each page separately or purchase a paid plan.
Fax.PLUS has four paid plans: Basic, Premium, Business, and Enterprise. You can send a monthly number of 100, 300, 800, and 3000 pages with each of these plans, respectively. There is the option to purchase extra pages if you need them, and extra pages become more affordable as your plan gets expensive.
You get a dedicated fax number and your own inbox with the basic plan, so you can send and receive faxes. By purchasing the Enterprise plan, you gain access to advanced features like Slack integration and data residency.
Receiving Online Fax
If you want to receive faxes online or via a fax machine, you need a fax number. Numerous websites offer this service, some for free, others for a fee. These websites also allow you to send faxes and provide you with an inbox where you can see your sent and received faxes.
FaxBurner
FaxBurner is a free-to-use faxing service that allows you to send and receive a fax for free. Once you sign up for a free account, you’ll be granted a disposable fax number and inbox where you can access your fax.
You can send 5 and receive 25 faxes with the free account. The disposable fax number that’s been granted to you will expire in 24 hours, so it’s better if you don’t use it for long-term correspondence.
If you want to keep the fax number and send more faxes, you can switch to the FaxBurner paid plans. The Professional Account gives you 500 pages, and the Premier Account gives you 2000 pages of monthly faxing. Both these plans include a permanent fax number.
FaxBetter
FaxBetter lets you receive and view incoming faxes for free. With FaxBetter, you can also send 50 pages of fax each month, free of charge.
However, these services come with a catch. In order to enjoy them, FaxBetter requires you to install a browser extension that occasionally displays ads in your browser while you’re working.
You can get a premium subscription which will remove the ads and provide you with a dedicated fax number and unlimited fax storage. There are three subscription types available: a month for 9.95$, a year for 95.40$, and two years for 142.80$.
CocoFax
CocoFax is a fax service that you can use along with Google Drive, DropBox, or OneDrive. With CocoFax, you can send a fax through Email, the CocoFax web application, or the smartphone app. Find out how to send a fax using CocoFax without a fax machine in our guide.
CocoFax offers five paid plans: Lite, Basic, Premium, Business, and Enterprise. All of these plans include international coverage and unlimited storage.
eFax
eFax offers a free trial of the eFax Plus plan, which lets you send 200 pages per month and also receive 200 pages per month. With this free trial, you can access your sent and received faxes and search through them with the free eFax app.
If you want more than what the eFax Plus plan offers, you can upgrade to eFax Pro, allowing you to send and receive 300 pages per month for 16 euros. There is also an eFax Corporate plan available for bigger businesses. All of these plans come with unlimited storage and toll-free numbers.
Online Fax Sending Made Easy
With the internet, you no longer need an expensive fax machine to send or receive a fax. There are plenty of services that allow you to send and receive faxes. Some will enable you to integrate your faxing service with popular apps.
For small businesses, you can now fax without a faxing machine, but to print, you’ll still need a printer.