Like my cliche headline!

I recently needed to set up a fax service for my business. Hardly anyone I deal with uses fax, but for the occasional client that is in to fax I needed it in place. I have a multi-function printer that can handle this, but I honestly did not feel like giving the phone company an extra ounce of money to have a dedicated line, for a service that I would not use more than a few times a year. Almost all of my SEO clients are fine with swapping PDF proposals and even signed contracts if necessary.

It had been a while since I checked out online fax services. I know that there are several out there that have good reputations, and several that have great prices. I was looking for both — a fine mixture of price and service. My decision was ultimately based on the basic services that were must haves

Basic Services

The particular services I was looking for in an online fax service included:

• Toll-free number - I think I can spring for the cost, if I am getting a client to fax a signed contract back to me
• Complete web interface - I was not looking to have to install some desktop app. I want to be able to get to my faxes or send faxes even if I was not using my laptop (almost never happens, but occasionally when I go to the beach it does)
• Safe online storage - On the chance I lose a fax, I wanted to have an online location to retrieve the fax again
• Digital signature - I wanted to be able to store my digital signature online to send back in a fax
• PDF delivery - I store most of my corporate documents in PDF format, so this was the desired delivery method.

Internet Fax Services

The 3 services that I spent the most time looking at were:

• eFax - They offer a free 30 day trial! You can get a local or toll-free fax number. Of course they allow you to send and receive faxes by email.
• Trustfax - Like eFax, the also offer a free trial. The plans they have fit my specific needs quite well and I ultimately chose them. I prepaid for a year, just under $100 for a toll-free account, and have plenty of capacity for my faxing needs
• MyFax - MyFax actually offered the next most favorite solution for me, and I think I may have been fine with choosing them. It was a coinflip between MyFax and Trustfax. I thought about either their free sign and their buy two months get one free.

Solution

As mentioned in the list of online fax services that I looked at, I chose Trustfax. Again it was strictly because TrustFax was the most like what I wanted. I think I would have been just as happy with MyFax, but you have to make a decision sooner or later.