Carmine

eFax is a worldwide Internet fax service provider which offers fax and voicemail by email to more than 11 million members. Their target revolves around three components: offering the most comprehensive selection of phone numbers, a simple way to send and receive faxes and voicemail, and a reliable, up-to-date communications network. There are three levels from which new members can choose: eFaxPro, eFaxPlus, and eFax Free.

The free version of the service, eFaxFree, allows you to receive 20 faxes for 30 days at no cost. It also includes a unique fax number and the possibility to access faxes anywhere. eFaxFree also has a 30-day storage limit and customer support through email only. However, it does not include a send option, for which you need to upgrade to a paid service.

The least expensive of the paid packages is eFaxPlus, which for $12.95 per month provides you with a large choice of local and toll-free numbers. While the monthly fee is higher than what Send2Fax and MyFax charge their members, it still does not cover all expenses. Every time you send a fax with EfaxPlus, you must pay $0.10 a page, while received pages are free as long as you choose a local number. With the toll-free number, the fee per page doubles - $0.20 for every page you receive.

The eFaxPlus package also includes 5 authorized receive emails, online fax storage for one year and 24/7 customer service by phone or email. The fax file formats feature PDF, TIF, or EFX for both eFaxPlus and eFaxPro. However, with eFaxPlus the user does not get to receive voicemail by email, nor the free fax management software that come with the more expensive eFaxPro package.

One good thing about eFaxs paid services is that they offer a free desktop app, named eFax Messenger, which works both with PC and Mac. eFax Messenger allows you to compose cover sheets and faxes from your personal computer desktop. You can also select various email clients beside Outlook or even take fax numbers directly from your Outlook Contacts agenda and fill the cover page automatically. For printing to fax, eFax has a printer icon. Contrary to Send2Fax and MyFax, eFax also offers an electronic signature which you can use again and again.

If you want to use the Web interface, you will find it quite neatly designed and easy to use. However, it only offers one cover-page template, unlike eFax Messenger, which offers 14 of them. You can also save time by right-clicking on any document on your desktop and select Send to Fax Recipient. eFax Messenger also allows you to fax any document you are working on by click Fax This from the taskbar icon.

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