A complete guide to the best ways to fax with PCs in 2026.
Most people haven’t seen a fax machine for at least 10 years. Except – that isn’t exactly true – the majority of us actually use one almost every day!
While traditional fax machines may no longer be the norm, any Windows computer can send and receive faxes thanks to online fax services and a couple of old-school methods like using a printer or a Windows Fax and Scan app. There are so many ways to do this – let’s go through 8 of the best and easiest services you can use.
Why Fax From Computer?
Digital faxing has replaced physical fax machines, and now anybody can send faxes from their PC in just a few minutes. The ability to fax documents is still important for a huge number of reasons, including:
- Most online fax services come with security features such as E2E encryption as standard (unlike email services such as Gmail or Outlook), making communication very safe for important documents. If you’re handling taxes, healthcare, or finances – faxing is the gold standard.
- Signing documents remotely is considered more secure and legally binding when it’s a signed, faxed document, rather than an e-signature. Even Docusign admits this, and advises caution using e-sign companies in areas like healthcare, banking, real estate, government, and insurance.
- HIPAA compliance and other regulatory factors make faxing sensitive information more secure and legally protected with faxing, especially when dealing with healthcare providers and medical information. This is why over 70% of providers still use fax machines.
The Best Ways To Fax From Your PC
There are a number of ways to turn your PC into a fax machine in just a few seconds,
- By using an online fax service which can be accessed via any internet browser (recommended)
- By using an email to fax service (recommended)
- By downloading a Windows fax app (less recommended)
- By connecting your PC to a fax machine or printer which is capable of faxing (not recommended)
This guide covers 8 top ways to fax, which all allow you to receive faxes and send faxes online straight from your PC. There are pros and cons to each, and each comes at a different price, so all the information you need to get started is below!
1. Fax.Plus
Fax.Plus is a service that Windows users can use to send faxes via web or email-to-fax. It also comes with apps for iPhones or Android phones. Fax.Plus has a good range of features and subscriptions for all types of users, offering good value for basic users and an attractive free trial.
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- Good web browser faxing experience
- Better value than other services for low-cost faxing
- Above average fax quality
Fax.Plus is a Windows-friendly web faxing and email-to-fax service which also offers mobile app support, meaning it can be used on almost any computer or mobile device. Fax.Plus offers advanced features such as scheduled faxes, the ability to optimise a fax for either text or image quality, and special apps for signing and scanning documents (which can cost extra).
The fax quality is above average, whilst not quite on the level of services such as EveryFax, Fax.Plus produces clear, sharp and readable fax transmissions, even for more complicated documents that contain a mix of images and text.
In terms of value, Fax.Plus provides good value to basic fax users in particular, offering a ‘Basic’ plan which is low-cost and covers 200 fax pages per month, and then a range of higher plans which offer more pages and features. All ways of faxing, including email to fax, are included from the Basic plan onwards, unlike other services such as iFax, where email access costs more.
Fax.Plus also offers a free trial of up to 10 completely free faxes (capped at 10 free pages), meaning users can fax for free before signing up to a paid plan.
Value-wise, Fax.Plus does hold some things back which may cost extra, however. For example, many services, such as Dropbox Fax, include document signing in the price. With Fax.Plus however, you need to pay extra to use Sign.Plus, their document signing service. Fax.Plus also won’t guarantee HIPAA compliance unless you’re using the $100 per month plan, their most expensive. Our full Fax.Plus review is here.
2. EveryFax
EveryFax is a web faxing and email-to-fax service, allowing PC users to send and receive faxes via their regular email account or by using any web browser such as Chrome. EveryFax is our favorite web faxing interface, with a simple and intuitive design, great customer support, and high quality of fax, all at great value.
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- Most comfortable web browser faxing experience
- High quality support, featuring live chat with customer support, HIPAA compliant privacy, AI services
- Outstanding fax quality
- Fantastic value, covering over 50 countries with no extra charge (unlike most other fax services on this list), and the only service on this list offering unlimited faxing – no page limits!
EveryFax is an online fax service best used from any internet browser, but can also be used from your email account with email-to-fax or fax-to-email. The best things about EveryFax are the hassle free web faxing experience, the customer support, and the value, which make it our top overall recommendation for faxing from PC.
Signing up to EveryFax takes less than a minute, and once you’ve chosen your fax number, you’re all set to send a fax or view your incoming faxes via web or email.
One of the best things about EveryFax is the user experience on the web browser. Creating a new fax, viewing your inbox, downloading documents or contacting support is all incredibly simple, and can all be done in just a click. You can also integrate it with cloud storage services for faster document download/upload.
Compare EveryFax below to Fax.Plus, another leading web fax provider – both are top services from a user experience perspective, but EveryFax is overall a simpler and cleaner design, with helpful little touches like showing the fax number in the proper format – e.g. +1 (234) 567-8901 – and also by showing a little flag of the country each fax number is based in.
There’s also a speech bubble in the bottom-right of EveryFax’s menu – this is their live chat support – you can ask any question you like!
Speaking of faxing internationally, EveryFax includes this at no extra cost – this is incredibly rare for an online fax service, most of which charge significant extra fees to send faxes to other countries. Value-wise, EveryFax also offers a very basic plan for people who might not fax too often, but also an unlimited faxing paid plan at only a slightly higher price, offering the best value per page of all services in this guide.
This brings us to fax quality – EveryFax provides top tier fax quality, even with complicated documents containing text, images, and graphics – many fax services fail to capture the image quality you can see below, but EveryFax has done an outstanding job of preserving the detail in the pictures, the map, and the shading.
EveryFax also supports highly regulated industries, offering small businesses and large corporate plans for anybody who needs to fax with their company.
3. Dropbox Fax
Dropbox Fax is an ideal fax solution for the millions of Windows users, or the 56% of Fortune 500 companies that already use Dropbox to store their files.
Another service that Windows users can use to send faxes via web or email-to-fax. It also comes with apps for iPhones or Android phones. Fax.Plus has a good range of features and subscriptions for all types of users, offering good value for basic users and an attractive free trial.
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- Low-price extension for Dropbox to fax your files
- Good signing and editing tools
- Free trial
Dropbox Fax (formerly HelloFax) is a built-in Dropbox service which allows users to send and receive faxes through their Dropbox accounts at an extra charge to their regular plan. Like the previous two services on this list, this can be done via web browser or email to fax, but the web platform allows full use of all the features on offer.
Dropbox Fax is a good deal for budget users – you can create a free account and begin a free online trial, sending 5 free faxes. Following this, it starts at $10 per month for 300 pages per month – this comes in at slightly better value than Fax.Plus, which at a similar price only offers 200 pages, and much cheaper (and with more features) than iFax’s basic 200-page plan at $15.
Dropbox Fax also offers good value for corporate customers, with a range of enterprise packages from $70 to $750+ per month which support all sized businesses.
The built-in signing and editing features are very handy, and are covered in the basic price, unlike Fax.Plus. You can easily and quickly make a number of helpful edits or electronic signatures before faxing a document.
Overall, the user interface is very simple and easy to use, with a helpful color-coded menu and an unmissable ‘send faxes’ button to create a new fax. Another differentiating factor for Dropbox Fax is that you can save drafts and come back to them later – something other services such as Fax.Plus do not allow users to do.
Overall, Dropbox Fax is a fantastic service, but does have a few drawbacks – firstly, the fax quality is slightly below average compared to other paid fax services on this list. The image and graphical quality in particular doesn’t come through as well as it does with EveryFax or Fax.Plus. Dropbox Fax gets around this by offering to host a high-resolution color option for all faxes, whereby your fax will send your recipient details of how to access a super high-quality version of all scanned documents on the Dropbox website.
Furthermore, there’s also a poor level of customer support – no live chat, barely any FAQs, and the only way you can contact support is through a form on their website – the TrustPilot reviews on Dropbox Fax are also very negative. This can make sending sensitive faxes a more stressful experience, since you want to know you’ve got help on hand in case anything goes wrong. Our full Dropbox Fax review is here.
4. iFax
iFax is packed with more advanced features than any other service on this list, and comes with top tier security and customer support. Available via Windows app, web or email-to-fax (at extra cost), iFax is a premium-priced service for users who might want to take full advantage of a more expensive subscription.
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- Advanced technical features
- Industry-leading customer support
- Quite expensive
iFax, as the name might suggest, was originally an iPhone app which has since become a leading service on multiple platforms – available to PC owners via a Windows app on the Microsoft store, email, or by using the iFax website.
iFax is packed with super smart features, with a strong range of custom cover pages, document annotation/signing, AI support, a smart dashboard, live support, approval flows for teams, smart templates for regular faxing, and even advanced reports. If you’re super serious about faxing and don’t mind spending more, iFax is a great choice.
The customer support and customer data security is industry-leading, with every security certification you can think of, and live customer support chat at any time – you can even schedule a 1:1 video call with their team when you sign up, to show you how to use iFax properly.
That said, there are a few downsides to iFax – the first being the high price. Most other services on this list will give you more, for less. iFax also doesn’t include basic features such as email-to-fax on standard plans – you have to subscribe to the highest price individual plan, at $40 per month, to be able to fax by email – most other services include this as standard under every basic plan. iFax has a tendency to block features in this way, and upsell customers into choosing a more expensive plan, which can become frustrating if you don’t want to pay that much.
Furthermore, the fax quality is not perfect, and operates on a system where you can pay more ‘credits’ (or pages) for a higher quality fax. We tried each option below, and found inconsistent quality between the various options, which can result in confusion for customers. Full ifax review is here.
5. GeniusFax
GeniusFax is the faxing partner of GeniusScan, a very popular scanning app for mobile devices. Whilst best used on mobile app, you can also fax from the website in a basic, no-frills way. GeniusFax is a value-friendly and incredibly flexible way to fax for occasional / sporadic users.
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- Flexible pricing model that works for occasional faxers
- No hidden charges or extra fees for international faxes
- Average-bad quality
GeniusFax is a mobile-first fax service with a particularly good scanning app to go with it, however for Windows users GeniusFax is a basic, low-price way to fax, which most important provides flexibility for people who don’t fax very often.
Users can navigate to the EveryFax website to create an account and send faxes from their computer. The user experience is basic, but very easy to follow. Whilst it doesn’t have the high level of functionality that EveryFax or iFax offers, you can see all your sent and received faxes in one easy menu, as well as your fax credits, and your current fax plan.
GeniusFax’s pricing plan is slightly more complicated than others on this list – because users must pay to send faxes differently to how they receive faxes. To send or receive a fax, credits can be purchased – these credits last forever and one credit is required to send or receive one fax page – whether it’s a local or international fax. Prices start at $1 per credit, but they get much cheaper if you buy more at a time.
To receive faxes, users can then sign up to claim a fax number for a certain amount of time – this starts at $4 per month, but the value improves if you sign up for a longer time period, for example – 2 years is $70.
Whilst this is a more confusing and possibly an overcomplicated model for pricing, for people who very rarely send faxes it could be better value in the long term. However, if you ever find yourself needing to fax more, then other services are definitely better value.
Apart from the lack of features, the main downside for GeniusFax is the fax quality – in our test, lots of detail was lost in the map, in the person icon, and the images are quite distorted and badly transmitted. GeniusFax is recommended more for text-only documents.
6. GotFreeFax
GotFreeFax is a completely free fax service, allowing any Windows user to send a free fax online, with a limited number of faxes and pages each day. GotFreeFax is the best service you can regularly use without ever spending a penny, however there are huge limitations and downsides including fax quality, page limitations, and security.
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- Completely free online fax service, to send and receive faxes online. See our free fax review to learn more.
- Simple and easy to use website
- Poor quality and insecure customer data
GotFreeFax is a free, no strings attached service accessible via web browser, which allows users to send a maximum of two free faxes per day, with a limit of three pages per fax – only to fax numbers in the US and Canada. A complimentary cover page is included, which helpfully is unbranded and professional-looking.
Navigating the website is simple and straightforward – users simply need to input information about the sender, the recipient, edit the cover page, and attach documents to create the fax, then hit send.
It’s difficult to criticise a totally free service, however there are some obvious limitations to GotFreeFax compared to the rest of this list. Firstly, the fax quality is considerably worse – below is an example of how unclear and distorted documents, and images in particular, can be in the final fax transmission.
Furthermore, the page limitations are severe – at only 3 pages per fax and 2 faxes per day, this service is not an option for anybody who may be sending multiple pages in longer faxes, which is usually the case for important things. What’s more – this service should not be recommended for important documents or sensitive faxes, since it’s unclear on the GotFreeFax website how secure this service is – we can assume that a free service isn’t operating under the highest security standards.
You can receive faxes too with GotFreeFax, but again, received faxes are publicly listed (although you need the sender’s fax number to view them, many people would be able to find this out), and we would not recommend using this as a way to receive any important or confidential information.
For very short and unimportant faxes, GotFreeFax is a very convenient way to fax from computers at no cost to the user. See our fell review here.
7. Faxing From a Printer
Many multi-function printers can send faxes – if they have an internal fax modem and a connected phone line / fax line, this can be an incredibly convenient way of scanning and faxing documents without the need to pay extra for an online fax service. However, unless you already have this set up, it is considerably more expensive than most online fax services.
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- Convenient and powerful way to fax for computer users who already have a multi-function printer and a phone line
- Very secure if connected to a fax line, which are much less hackable than internet communication
- Expensive to set up if it’s a choice between this and an online fax service
Any windows computer can send faxes via a multi-function printer, if that printer supports faxing and is connected to a fax or phone line. To do this, users can check their model of printer in the first instance, and then check that it’s connected to a phone line.
If the printer is fax-friendly and has the right connections, users simply need to place scan or upload their documents, and then open the fax menu on their printer or computer.
Once the fax-capable printer is selected, the recipient’s fax number and other details can be entered the same way you would using an online fax service.
This method is very convenient and lower cost if you already have such a printer and a phone line. However, if you’re starting without anything and choosing the best way to fax from your computer, it is much more expensive to buy a multi-function printer, supply it with ink, and then maintain a landline connection for your phone or fax line. With no setup costs, an online fax service from one of the above options would be much cheaper, more portable, and more convenient.
8. Windows Fax and Scan
Windows Fax and Scan is a native application in any Windows computer, which allows you to scan documents, and send and receive faxes without a fax machine, provided that you have a fax modem or server available to use.
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- Requires a fax modem or fax server to connect your PC to
- Native Windows software – no external download or subscription needed
- Convenient way to fax and scan quickly if you have a scanner
Windows Fax and Scan is a little-known piece of software which is built-in to every Windows PC. To enable it or install it, you can follow a quick guide here, but it is located in Settings > System > Optional Features, and will usually need to be activated in this way before you can use it.
This software is, therefore, totally free to anybody with a Windows computer, and comes with no subscription – however, you must be able to connect the software to a fax modem or a fax server on your network (which many companies may have). A fax modem requires a phone line, and so there is cost required to keep this connected to your provider. Without this, you cannot fax with this software.
Given that Windows Fax and Scan works via a phone line connection, the output quality is usually exceptionally good (but can be affected by the strength of the phone line). Phone lines are also very secure compared to internet communication, given that they are subject to much fewer hacks, and require a physical connection to the line in order to intercept communications, so cybercriminals tend not to target this method of correspondence.
Windows Fax and Scan has a very dated interface, and looks quite like a basic Windows XP email application. All the basic functionality is there – inbox, drafts, sent items, etc., but you won’t get any of the fancy features of advanced customer support that a good online fax service offers.
Windows users have expressed positive feedback about this software, in particular that it is more simple and reliable for scanning & faxing than the proprietary software than comes with many printers, for example, HP printers.
Overall, if you have a fax modem or phone line connection already, this is a free way to send and receive faxes – it may have less fancy features than online faxing, but it works very well. If, however, you are starting from scratch, the cost of setting up a phone line connection is usually much more expensive than the cost of joining an online fax service.
The Best Ways To Fax From A Computer
We’ve gone through 8 of the best ways to send a fax from a PC, including using Windows apps, web fax services, email-to-fax, and from a multi-function printer. We hope that PC users find this guide informative, and understand that faxing is incredibly easy and accessible from any computer or mobile device.
