Free Internet Faxing

Free Internet Fax Services

Dump your fax machine, the Internet has made this dinosaur obsolete. Think of the savings on toner, paper, and time when all you really need these days is a cell phone, PDA, or PC. I have a big list of sites for you that offer free Internet faxing services. Some of them are completely free, while others offer free or limited trials. Pick the online fax service that suits you best...

FaxZero lets you send free faxes from a simple web-based interface. Just enter the sender and recipient info, type in your message, and hit the "Send Free Fax Now" button. You can also fax a DOC or PDF file from your hard drive. And yes, it's really free to send a fax to anywhere in the USA or Canada. You can send two free faxes per day, each with a maximum of three pages. To make this free service possible, a sponsor ad will appear on the cover page of your outgoing fax. I've written more about FaxZero in my Send a Free Fax article.

• Sign up with K7, a messaging system that will send free faxes and voicemail to your email address, with an option to view or listen to your messages via the web. You get a free fax/voicemail number which you can give to your family, friends, and business buds. Just sit back and wait for the faxes to start dropping into your inbox as email attachments. My companion article Free Inbound Faxing goes into more detail about Faxaway, an almost-free service that forwards incoming faxes to your email.
• The site Drop.io is for those who want simple. Set up a private space and drop files by fax, email, Internet, phone or widget, then share with your friends and family. Drop.io recently added the ability to send faxes from a drop or receive faxes into a drop. But some glitches have resulted in a (hopefully) temporary scaling back of the service. Currently, Standard (free) drops can receive faxes only, while Premium (paid) drops can send and receive faxes. The cost of a Premium account is $10 per gigabyte per year, so that seems like a pretty low price for a bunch of faxes. Most of my faxes are under 100KB, so that works out to over 10,000 faxes in a GB. If you include a lot of images, the size of the fax will be much higher.
• freeFAX is a free Internet fax service that relies on advertising. If you're willing to give up a third of your fax cover page for a sponsor's ad space, you're good to go. You can send faxes without being a member, but if you sign up with them, you can receive such benefits as speed-dial, virtual fax by email, and group faxing. Each one you send gets routed through the TPC.INT service (see below) and generally takes only a few minutes. But make sure you check the areacode coverage chart, not all areas are serviced by this network. Dozens of areacodes in the US and Canada are covered, along with all of parts of these countries: Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cuba, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Lebanon, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
• TPC (which stands for The Phone Company,) is a collection of fax servers online and has existed as a volunteer collaborative effort for at least 15 years. You can send free faxes from either your browser or email software to locations worldwide in English, Italian, and German. If you like this service, consider getting involved or asking your ISP to join as a server operator.
• eFax claims that they are the largest online network on the planet with over a million subscribers in 2,500 cities and 27 countries. Also known as Zipfax, you can send and receive faxes as email attachments. You simply use the recipient's fax number and eFax's address. The 30-day freebie allows you to receive up to 130 pages and send up to 30 pages. If you don't cancel during the initial month, you will be charged $16.95 per month plus a $.10 fee per page to send and a $.15 fee per page to receive. See also Free Inbound Faxing for more details on eFax Limited Accounts, a free service that forwards incoming faxes to your email.

• If you go with Fax.com, they will issue you a number according to your area code and also attaches the fax to your email address or the Internet. If you have a cell phone, you can send from there. For a mere $9.99, you receive a 300 page allowance without a contract. There is no downloading or software needed for the one-click service. They will also store the faxes for a month and you can actually share with others by adding their email address. Fax.com is customizable with such applications as auto-resend, time zone stamps, and fax forward. You can cancel anytime during the free trial period and your credit card will not be charged.
• UFAX let you send faxes for free for the first month. With the Standard Package, you can send from your PDA, or PC, own phone or any other for $12.95 a month with a 1,500 page limit (1,000 inbound and 500 outbound pages.) UFAX also offers free storage for 30 days. The Premium Package, at $15.95, is the same and they will give you a toll-free number. Go for the Extreme for $19.95 a month for a larger inbound page amount. If you belong the National Association of Realtors you can receive special discounted pricing. Just remember that if you go for the free one-month trial, you will have to remember to cancel before the trial period ends, or your credit card will be charged.
• Let's look at RingCentral Designed for small businesses, not only can you receive and send faxes via email, they can supply you with custom greetings, an auto-receptionist, voicemail, and multiple extensions. They also have a nifty little 60 second "test drive." The company offers a month free, then charge beginning at $9.99 per month, depending on your needs.
• NumbersUSA is quite unique in that you can use the site to e-fax Congress. There is also information on immigration including Congressional bills. You simply register with them, go through their listings of people and issues and click the "Send This Fax." The fax will only have your name on it and you may send an unlimited amount free. They rely on donations, so if you use the service, toss them a stipend occasionally.

Have you used a free Internet faxing service? Which one do you like best? Post a comment with your opinion, or suggest an addition to this list...