Faxing is not what it used to be during the 80s and 90s.  The emergence of digital communication channels dramatically changed the way and speed in which we communicate, making a huge impact in both our personal and professional lives.

Although many offices around the World still rely on traditional fax machines to share documents, there’s a better alternative that doesn’t require you to spend extra cash on a machine or a dedicated fax line: online faxing.  As you send a fax online, you enjoy the benefits of faxing but communicates through a digital line, unlocking many functions that weren’t available before via the traditional way.

If you still haven’t made up your mind yet about trying out Internet fax, here are some of the biggest benefits you should know about.

1. A Free Fax Number Ready to Be Used in Minutes

All online fax providers give you a free online fax number to receive faxes.  This is a digital number, so instead of working through a phone line, it will do it through an Internet connection.  According to GoogleOnlineFax.com, it works exactly like VOIP, but this line is used exclusively to receive faxes.

Another difference with traditional faxing is that you won’t need to “answer” incoming faxes.  The line will grab them automatically and then it will convert them to a file that you can read on your computer or laptop screen, usually a PDF which is a format that can be opened on pretty much every computer or device.

2. Send and Receive Faxes from Anywhere

A digital line means that it is available anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection.  Remember those times that you had to wait for fax to come next to the machine, or when you had to rush to the office just to send a quick fax? Well, now you just download your fax provider’s app, enter with your login info and send a fax either by uploading a file or by taking a picture of a document with your smartphone’s camera.

Faxes arrive automatically to your email, you just need to turn on the notifications of either your fax app or your mobile email client. Once in your inbox you can simply open the attachment on your phone.

3. Fax Using Your Email Account

If you are accustomed to communicating via email, you’ll be happy to know that you can send faxes this way.  There are only some minor differences when sending a fax by email, like for example the way you format the fax number, but it’s very easy to understand. Once you send your first fax, you’ll get the hang of it.  All the files you attach to your message will be converted to fax and will be received by any fax machine without problems.

4. Speed

Traditional fax always takes time.  The whole process is just slow, and things can get pretty frustrating if you come across a problem while sending or receiving a fax.  Although many fax machines and multifunction printers have a feature to re-send a fax, most of the times you’ll need to take care of things manually.

Faxing online on the other hand is a breeze.  Once you press Send the service takes care of everything, no more printer malfunctions, no more paper jams.  And if there’s an error during the transmission it will re-send the fax until it’s successful. This will be detailed on your fax’s confirmation message.

5. Cost

Adding a fax machine in the office can be more costly than you may initially think.  Just to get started you need a fax machine/printer and a dedicated line. If you work at home you could use your phone line, but as we said before this has inconveniences.  Dedicated line installations for offices can even be more expensive.

If you want to fax online you just need your computer and an Internet connection.  The cost of a service is very low starting from $15 to $16 a month depending on the provider you choose and the best of all is that it lets you fax just a few minutes after creating your account.

6. Advanced Features

Besides just sending and receiving faxes, online fax technology lets you enjoy some pretty cool features that were impossible to have with a common fax machine. Some services for example, let you broadcast a fax, this means that you can send a single fax to up to 200 recipients at the same time.

Another useful feature that has recently been introduced by some online fax providers is the ability to integrate faxing with the most popular cloud storage services like Box, Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive. This gives you the possibility to just grab your documents from the cloud, improving workflow in your office or business.   Other features include custom cover pages and fax scheduling.