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eFax Review: Internet Fax |
| Sign up for eFax | |
Rating: |
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| The big name in Internet faxing is expensive and has fewer outgoing and incoming faxes, but nice faxing tools | |
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eFax is the Coca Cola of Internet faxing, the company whose name is used interchangeably with the entire category. It's definitely comprehensive, but it's not cheap. Does eFax earn the cost and name recognition? It depends on what you're after.
User Interface Besides email, there are two ways to fax: a downloadable application and a web interface. The interface is fine, though it can be counterintuitive (the send function, for instance, is located in the "account" section, and not near your inbox). The PC application allows you to send faxes, and the Windows version of the software lets you mark them up, adding text, highlights, voice notes, and shapes to your documents. There's even a stamp tool that allows you to "sign" your documents with your signature. The Mac version is more limited, and really just acts as a document viewer. Special Features The other advantage with eFax is that it builds faxing into your printing options, so pretty much any document can be sent from the program that created it, just as if you were printing it. Most popular file formats are covered, including DOC, PDF, JPG, PSD, GIF, and more. It's one of only two services that extends this function to the Mac. You also have the ability to add digitized signatures, send large files such as videos and high res images that are too big for email, and it has lifetime unlimited storage — allowing you to save every fax you ever sent and received through eFax. Quality and Transmission Times The fax quality was rather good, about what one expects from a fax machine. Faxes come to your computer as email attachments which you then download to the computer for viewing. By default they're sent as EFX files, which are compatible with the eFax Messenger program. The program allows you to sign and mark-up the files. You can change the format to PDF, but you lose that functionality in favor of wider compatibility. eFax had fast transmission times in our test, taking an average of 2 minutes 10 seconds to receive (MetroFax was the fastest in our tests at 1 minute 15 seconds). On average eFax took 1 minute and 31 seconds to deliver. Differences between fax service transmission times are not huge, but may be important to some users. Pricing eFax is a little pricier than most at $16.95 per month for 150 incoming pages 150 outgoing pages. Faxes beyond your limit are 10 cents per page, both for outgoing and incoming. A year commitment brings the price down to $14.13, which is still fairly high. eFax recently got rid of their set-up fee and now allows users to get a toll-free number at no additional cost. Like most Internet fax services, eFax assumes one page takes a minute to transmit; a graphically complex page may take longer to send and can therefore count as two or more pages. Conclusion eFax's main advantage is its markup tools and Mac compatible printer drivers. Those who need these tools, will find the closest competitor to be RingCentral, which is a cheaper, albeit slightly slower, option. |
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| Annual Plan Price: | $14.13/month |
| Free Trial: | 30-day free trial |
| Pages Included: | 150 receive, 150 send per month |
| Additional Pages: | 10¢ per page |
| Send/Receive Times: | 2m 10s receive; 1m 31 send |
| Toll Free Number: | Free |
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