Introduction
eFax is run by J2 Global Communications who additionaly own Fax.com, Send2Fax, DataOnCall, jConnect, RapidFAX and SmartFax amongst others. eFax is - at the time of writing - the biggest provider in the internet faxing field with in excess of 11,000,000 members. eFax is available in 42 countries around the planet with toll-free and local numbers in more than 3 thousand locales and handles BILLIONS of faxes every year.
eFax incorporates a excellent selection of features on their web portal and excellent application integration via their desktop application called eFax Messanger.
Their standard package - eFax Plus - allows you to receive 130 and send 30 faxes every month. You can have up to 5 email addresses associated with every fax number for sending and receiveing and an unlimited number of fax numbers (for example, 1 in each country / city you do business in) can be attached to an individual account. There are also free, pro and corporate packages available.
On the downside, overage is rather costly and customer support is abysmal in some areas. Some people also have reported occasional slow send times.
Overall eFax is a great product backed by a company that has been in the internet faxing industry for over 20 years.
Features
Both the desktop program and the online portal are easy to navigate and use. The desktop software sets up a 'fax printer' which allows sending of faxes from any program that has a print function. There is also an option to 'Scan and Fax' if there is a scanner attached to your computer.
Faxes are sent in monochrome and there are 2 grades: standard and fine. Fax receipts can be sent to any of the email addresses registered with the account. Cover pages can be included and this can be changed and customized in the preferences. Up to 5 documents can also be attached to each fax. Inbound faxes can be viewed online, via the eFax Messenger client or via email. Faxes with the .EFX extension can only be read via eFax Messenger. Most faxes arrive in either PDF or TIFF format. The quality is very good. Inbound faxes can also be password protected.
Fax reports can be tracked online and faxes can be resent from the sent faxes log.
Multiple fax numbers and email addresses can be associated with each account which makes management of multiple fax numbers very straightforward.
- Cost to Send Faxes:
eFax Pro and Plus: $0.10 / page
eFax Free: cannot send
- Fax File Formats:
eFax Pro and Plus: PDF, TIFF, EFX
eFax Free: EFX
- Overage Cost for Receiving Faxes:
eFax Pro and Plus: $0.10 / page
- Overage Cost for Sending Faxes:
eFax Pro and Plus: $0.15 / page
- Hidden Costs: If you choose a toll-free fax number then the cost to receive faxes is $0.20 per page.
- Corporate Plans: Yes
Ease Of Use
You can be setup in less than five minutes by way of the web portal and nearly as fast if you download and install the client software called eFax Messenger.
Both are very easy to setup and use. Customizing a cover page is a little trickier and required a good root through the online help however there are plenty of pre-prepared cover pages already available to use as templates. Fax traffic tracking is simply managed via the online logs and faxes can even be resent from the sent log.
Customer Support
Some people have reported bad customer service from eFax. However, our experience of them has been exellent. The live chat was helpful and the telephone support was good. In both cases the techies answered all our questions. . The online documentation and FAQ sections are informative and reasonably expansive. It would be good to see some tutorials or webinars but that is more a 'nice to have' rather than a major omission.
Even the cancellation process - via a toll-free call - was pleasant and the operator offered us an additional 2 months free service if we stayed with them.
In Summary
eFax provides an excellent service. The coverage is the best there is with more cities covered than any other product available. The interface is straightforward and easy to use from the start. The option to have multiple fax numbers and emails on a single account is also very useful. However, eFax has the most expensive packages we have reviewed and gives the least included pages. It is a shame that the largest supplier in the internet faxing arena could not provide more attractive pricing for their customers. That being said, if you want to use the best service that has the greatest coverage and largest customer base then eFax is for you.
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