Local numbers

Local numbers are important if you want to present a “local presence”. But in today’s world local numbers are less and less important since most phone companies continue to add “overlay” area codes to meet the growing demand for numbers due to exploding cell phone usage.  Given this, don’t worry too much about getting a local number. Local numbers are also less important due to the “flat rate phone service” most people have these days. Almost no on is going to have  a toll call to send you a fax.
Having a non toll free number is critical (though it does not have to be local) if you want to do international faxing.

Toll Free numbers.

Toll free numbers are great because the area codes, 800, 888, 877 are so easy to remember. The only downside is that international faxers cannot fax to a toll free number in the US. Toll free fax numbers do work in the US and Canada however.

Size of the Company

The size of the Internet Fax Company does matter. The larger the company the more likely they will have lots of “ports”. Think of ports as individual phone lines that allow the internet fax provider to accept and dial out to send faxes. The more ports the less likely it is that your fax will sit idly in their fax server waiting to be sent.  Most free and many smaller companies have low prices but have very limited number of ports. RapidFAX, MyFAX , eFAX & RingCentral all have large corporate accounts (especially RapidFAX and eFax) which they need to maintain lots of ports to handle. This is good for all users on the system.

Online Interface

Most Internet Fax providers offer the ability to send and receive faxes from an online interface. Although this is convenient it is not necessary to send and receive faxes online. The quickest and easiest way to send and receive faxes online is by using your email to send and receive faxes. You can even set up a Gmail or Yahoo! email account ONLY for faxes. The one advantage of the online interface is that it will only get faxes and never any junk mail. MyFAX, RapidFAX and RingCentral have some of the best web fax interfaces in the industry.

Pricing for using Internet Fax for International destinations varies greatly by provider.  Your best bet is to check with each provider if you plan on email fax for sending lots of faxes.

Formats supported

Internet fax providers can easily take almost any type of document you can attach to an email and turn it into a fax. They do this with conversion software. Most common formats are covered but if you have special software that you’ll need to fax from you should check the list of formats supported by the Internet fax provider before you sign up.  The other option is to save your document in a common format or a PDF before attaching which will insure it will go through. BTW… All Microsoft Office applications as well as most graphics file formats can be sent with Internet Fax

Some companies offer special Internet Faxing software that resides on your computer. In general The Fax Report does not recommend using special software unless you deem some benefit from it. We have not yet seen any faxing software that makes sending and receiving faxes online any easier than simply using email or an Internet fax providers web fax interface.

Pricing for Internet Fax

Flat rate Internet Fax pricing

Most good Internet Fax providers charge a flat rate of $7.95 to 416.95 per month. These package usually include some amount of incoming and outgoing faxes. Check our Internet fax comparison page for details on what the top Internet Fax Providers are offering.

How many received and sent faxes are included in your package.

If you send or receive a 100 to 200 of fax pages online you’ll do just fine with the $9.95 to $16.95 packages offered by the biggest Internet fax providers. If however you need to send or receive more than that you’ll want to be sure they have low price per page cost for overage or purchase a larger package.  Price per extra fax page usually run from 6 – 12 cents per page after you’ve exceeded your package.

Fax Spam

The cold hard fact is that Fax Spam will find you no matter what you do. Providers try to stop it but few succeed. Read more here about fax spam.