Email Fax Service vs. Fax Machine Comparison
| Typical Email Fax Service | Typical Fax Machine | |
|---|---|---|
| Free Trial Period | 30 Days | None |
| Monthly Cost | $10 | $40 |
| Equipment Cost | $0 | $89.95 |
| Customer Support | Phone, Live Chat, Email |
Top Email Fax Service Brands
1. 
Price: $10/Month, FREE Set-up
Click Here to Get Your 30 Day Free Trial with Absolutely No Hidden Fees
MyFax is the fastest growing email fax service and boasts over 300,000 subscribers. It's very simple to use, and you can choose to have either a local or toll free fax number at no additional charge. MyFax also gives you 300 fax pages free per month: 100 send fax pages and 200 receive fax pages. We highly recommend MyFax.
2. 
Price: $12.95/Month, $9.95 Set-up
At $12.95 per month and a $9.95 setup fee, MetroFax is a more expensive email faxing option than some of its competitors. However, MetroFax gives you 1,000 fax pages free per month and you get to choose whether to use them to send or receive. A local number is included in the plan, but a toll free number costs an additional $2 per month.
3. 
Price: $9.99/Month, FREE Set-up
Try RingCentral for Free for 30 Days - No contract, No commitment
RingCentral is a competitive email faxing option but lacks quality customer support. Their customer service just isn’t up to the standard of North American based customer support. However, RingCentral’s fax product itself is very good. RingCentral gives you 300 fax pages free per month and you get to choose whether to use them to send or receive. You can choose to have either a local or toll free fax number at no additional charge.
Top Fax Machines
1. Brother® IntelliFAX® 4100e Business Class Laser Fax
Price: $299.99
The Brother 4100e fax machine is very simple to setup and is quiet in its operation. Faxes come through with a high quality, and the machine has the memory to store up to 500 pages if you’re out of paper. The machine also has a 30-page automatic document feeder, so you can send multi-page faxes with ease.
2. Brother® IntelliFAX® 2820 Laser Fax
Price: $179.99
The Brother 2820 is a reliable fax machine that caters towards those who work from home or own a small business. Faxes come through clear, and the machine can also make up to 15 copies per minute. Aside from acting as a fax machine and copier, you can also hook it up to your computer and use it as a laser printer.
3. HP 640 Plain Paper Fax
Price: $79.99
At $79.99, the HP 640 is a very affordable fax machine. Sometimes it costs more to fix a fax machine than it does to purchase this one. Although it only has a 10-page automatic document feeder, this feature should be more than adequate for the casual fax user. One upside to this fax machine compared to other machines is that it takes up less space.
Fax Advantages
Email Fax Service Advantages
- Simple
It only takes 3 steps to send a fax over the internet.
- Inexpensive
Internet fax services typically cost around $10 per month which is very inexpensive compared to traditional fax. With traditional fax, you must buy the fax machine, pay for an additional phone line, pay for paper, pay for toner, and pay for repairs when your fax machine breaks down.
- Convenient
Internet fax is very convenient as you can fax from anywhere – all you need is an internet connection. And since you receive faxes directly in your email inbox, there’s no more waiting around at the fax machine for your fax to arrive.
- Efficient
Internet fax saves you time. Unlike a fax machine where you may have to manually retry to send your fax two or three times, if your fax doesn’t go through when using an internet fax service, many services have an auto resend feature. Many internet fax services also email you a delivery confirmation when your fax was successfully sent.
- No maintenance
Internet faxing doesn’t require any maintenance on your end. There is no hardware to repair or replace.
- Paperless
Internet fax allows you to go paperless and only print the faxes you want printed. All of your faxes will arrive in your email inbox as attachments where you can then decide whether you want a hard copy of the fax. No longer will that 50-page spam fax be printed out and waste paper and toner.
Fax Machine Advantages
- Doesn't require an internet connection
A traditional fax machine doesn’t require an internet connection to work. If your internet goes down, you can still receive your faxes if you use a fax machine.
- Fax number won't change
From time to time, some internet fax providers may need to change the fax number they assign to you. This can be very costly to you and is one of the main drawbacks to an internet fax service. With traditional fax, you own your fax number and are in control of what happens to it. There is always the option of porting a number you own to an internet fax service, though.
