The idea of sending faxes feels quite old-fashioned to most people these days, and many people wouldn’t even know where to go to find a fax machine. Luckily, it’s now easier than ever to send faxes, and thanks to mobile fax apps and online fax software, anybody can send faxes without a fax machine – all you need is an internet connection.
The ability to fax online is a convenient way for anybody to take advantages of the benefits that fax technology brings – whether you need to securely send documents to your healthcare provider, or physically sign and fax a document, or even send a fax to another country code without incurring huge charges. What’s more, you can even get your own dedicated fax number and receive faxes.
If you want to start using online faxes, read on for everything you need to know.
Different Ways You Can Fax Without A Fax Machine
No fax machine? No problem. Here are all the ways you can quickly and easily send a fax without a fax machine.
- Mobile apps.
Everybody has a smart phone, and thanks to the growing popularity of mobile faxing apps, your mobile device can be converted into a fax machine in seconds. With mobile faxing apps you can scan documents, upload from the cloud, annotate or sign documents before sending and store your received faxes – from anywhere in the world. - Web faxing.
Similar to mobile faxing, online web faxing services allow you to log into your account from a device connected to the internet, and send and receive faxes from your browser. This is very convenient, but lacks some of the smart features which faxing apps offer – it might be a good choice for businesses. - Email-to-fax.
There are now services which allow you to send a fax straight from your email account. This can be very useful for people who might be forwarding emails, or use email a lot for their business.
All three options are incredibly easy to use – you can create your own account and send faxes online in a matter of minutes.
How To Fax Using A Mobile App
Faxing without a fax machine is best with mobile devices – everybody has a smart phone in their pockets, and they’re packed with incredible technology that fax apps can take full advantage of. You can use the camera to scan documents to a high quality, easily preparing multiple pages and creating a cover sheet, all inside the app.
Using our Android app or iPhone app, the process is simple and easy, and you can have your account set up and send your first fax in minutes.
- Download the fax app using your mobile device, whether you have an Android phone or an iPhone, our top-rated app is compatible with all major operating systems.
- Choose a flexible subscription that works for you – it’s much cheaper than a fax machine, and you can cancel anytime.
- Follow the simple instructions in the app to get your own online fax number set up – you can choose any area code that suits you, and once you are set up, you will be able to send and receive faxes.
- In the ‘New Fax’ section, simply enter the recipient’s fax number, add a cover page if necessary, and scan any documents you need to fax. You can also add documents from the cloud, google drive, or any other third-party system. Remember, you can fax unlimited pages with our app, at no extra cost!
- Once you’re ready, hit send. You can view and get a confirmation report for all your sent faxes inside the app, so that you know they’ve been delivered.
- Need to view a fax you’ve received? Just go to your inbox, where all your incoming faxes will be sent. If you lose your phone, you can recover your full account history and faxes if you contact the support team!
That’s it! It’s as easy as sending a text or an email, so check out the best Android app and iPhone app to get started.
How To Fax Using Web Faxing
In addition to fax apps, you can use web faxing on your mobile or computer with services such as EveryFax. Web fax services such as EveryFax are particularly popular due to their enterprise-grade functionality, and many businesses are using them for their ability to send faxes directly from a computer.
Whether you want to use web fax for personal use instead of a mobile app, or to close business deals, here’s how to get started:
- Visit the website and select ‘Start Faxing’ to get your own account set up.
- Choose your fax number – you can browse codes from all local areas to set up your number in a location that best suits you.
- Choose a flexible subscription – you can choose individual plans or team plans for a small or large business, depending on the scale you need.
- Once you’re all set, just click on ‘Send New Fax’ to begin a new fax message. Use the ‘add document’ option to attach any pages, and use the website’s various cover sheet options to customize your fax.
- Click send when you are ready – you will get a confirmation message when the fax is delivered.
- Similarly to mobile apps, you can view sent and received faxes from your account, which is backed up in the cloud in case you lose your device!
Using a mobile app is the more convenient way to fax in your personal life, however businesses are particularly benefitting from web fax software due to the enterprise-grade features, and ability for large teams to fax without needing a dedicated phone line set up. To get started, check out the EveryFax website.
How To Fax Using Email
You can also send a fax directly to a fax machine from your email account, using email-to-fax software offered by EveryFax. Again, there is no need for a telephone line, and using just a computer or mobile device you can get all the benefits of a regular fax machine, with much more functionality.
- Visit a provider such as EveryFax and, similar to web faxing, set up your account and get your fax number.
- Visit your email account once you are set up, and start a new message. Simply write the recipient’s fax number in the sender’s address, and then add “@send.everyfax.com” at the end of the number.
- Attach any documents you want to fax – you can include over 60 different file formats which are compatible!
- Just click send, and EveryFax will handle the rest. You will receive a fax confirmation report once the message is delivered, and view your fax history on the web portal.
Email faxing is another great feature offered by online fax services, which businesses are taking advantage of, since they can utilize existing information technology and seamlessly integrate fax into business-as-usual.
How Secure Is Online Faxing?
Faxing is known for being very secure – security is one of the main reasons why it’s so widely used across healthcare, legal, finance, and government services. So, does online faxing have the same level of security?
The short answer is yes. Online faxing benefits from all the security of traditional faxing, and is far less targeted by cyber attacks than email servers. Our fax app and online fax services go beyond this, encrypting data using 256-bit AES and SSL data protection for transfers.
Not only can it be more secure if you choose the right service provider, but you get all the legal protections too – for example, your healthcare data has more legal privacy protections if you send it using a HIPAA compliant faxing service like ours.
How To Receive Faxes Without A Fax Machine
Another reason online faxing services are so popular is that you can also receive faxes, and get your own personal fax number when you sign up.
With our online faxing services, you can create your own local or toll free fax number using any area code you like. This is an advantage over traditional fax machines, which are forced to use an area code matching the phone line they are connected to.
Once you sign up, you will be able to search for an area and choose your own area code. For example, if you run a business and most of your customers are in a certain area, you can select that area code to establish a local connection to your customers.
Once you’re happy with your area code, simply set up your fax number and share it with your contacts. Every fax you receive will be stored in your inbox, and don’t worry if you lose your phone or computer – you can recover your account history if you contact our team!
Why Use An Online Fax Service?
As you can see, there are so many ways to use an online fax service, whether it’s a mobile app, web, or email. You might be wondering – why not just keep it old school and get a fax machine?
It’s true that fax machines are still widely used across the world, helping people and businesses send important information every day. However, most people are finding huge benefits from moving to online faxing for a number of reasons.
Cost
Fax machines can be very expensive, not only to buy, but to install and connect to a phone line. Not to mention the maintenance, ink and paper costs. Even if you send a fax at the UPS store, you will be charged extra for each page you send, which can add up!
People are saving money by faxing online – with our faxing app, you can get a free trial and then a flexible, low-cost subscription that suits you. All our packages come with unlimited faxing, which can mean huge savings.
Convenience
Mobile and online faxing is just more convenient – it’s as easy as sending a message on your phone, taking over twice as fast as using a fax machine. Even if you have access to a fax machine at home, you have to be at home to use it, and you can’t see all your sent and received faxes from one easy menu, which online faxing allows.
Storage
Speaking of received faxes, a traditional fax machine uses lots of paper, paper which needs organizing and storing! It’s much easier to access your fax inbox and view all of your sent faxes from the palm of your hand, using the fax app.
File Formats
Traditional fax machines can only scan and fax physical documents. This can be helpful for sending things such as signatures, but with online faxing you can go beyond this, faxing dozens of different digital file formats, whether it’s saved on your device, or in the cloud, the fax app can link to all major cloud services.
Functionality
Smartphones and laptops are incredibly powerful and get better every year, and faxing apps are designed to use the technology of your devices to do more with faxing – this means better scanning with your iPhone camera, it means smooth cloud storage connectivity to your faxes, and advanced scanning functionality – such as fixing a typo on a document. More faxing apps are also starting to use AI, making faxing even easier.
Support
Do you know who you would call if your fax machine broke down? Maybe an IT expert, or the store you bought it from. But faxing apps are built by specialists who have fast online support teams. The fax from iPhone app integrates live customer support into the app, letting you speak to an agent in real time if you need help
The Environment
Online and mobile faxing is better for the environment than buying a new fax machine, hooking it up to an electricity and phone line, and using lots of paper and ink to operate it.
How To Get Started
To start faxing without a fax machine today, download the iPhone app or Android app for free. Alternatively, you can start faxing on the web or by using email by visiting EveryFax and signing up.
Sending and receiving faxes is easier than it’s ever been, with unlimited faxing under any of our flexible subscriptions, a personalised fax number, worldwide access, high-quality scanning, and seamless integration with digital files and cloud storage services.
Happy faxing!
