Many people believe that faxing is an outdated technology, and they’re right–to an extent. The use of traditional fax machines and paper documents is on the decline, but it isn’t leaving without a replacement.
There are plenty of reasons to use digital faxing, including fewer costs and an easier way to send documents. When it comes to selecting a service for digital faxing, two options come up frequently: eFax and HelloFax.
eFax and HelloFax Compared to the Best
eFax and HelloFax are straightforward, reliable faxing solutions for small businesses and individual users. They also both made our list of the best online fax services. But companies that need a higher level of security and features should consider a more advanced solution, like SRFax, the best fax software for rigorous compliance and cybersecurity requirements. You can get started with SRFax for the low price of $9.99 per month.
Here’s our full list of the best online faxing services:
- SRFax – Best Fax Software for HIPAA Compliance
- eFax – Best for Popular and Reliable Fax Service
- MetroFax – Best Standalone Fax Service for Busy SMBs
- Fax.Plus – Best for Flexible Fax Plans
- HelloFax – Best for Small Teams
- FaxZero – Best Standalone Fax Service for Personal Use
- RingCentral Fax – Best for High-Volume Faxing Needs
- FaxBurner – Best for Mobile Fax
- CocoFax – Best Secure Fax For Any Industry
See our in-depth review post for more information on these top fax services.
eFax vs. HelloFax: High-Level Comparison
eFax is an online fax service owned by J2 Global and offers plans starting at $16.95 a month. It is designed for individual users and small businesses with limited faxing needs, but it also offers an enterprise plan with greater scalability.
HelloFax is a service owned by Dropbox and offers paid plans starting at $9.99 per month. It also offers an enterprise plan with more advanced features like fax number porting but with limited customization options.
Products and Services Offered by eFax and HelloFax
eFax offers two plans: a regular plan and a corporate plan (which has a separate website). If there is any sort of brand recognition in the online faxing world, it is eFax.
- eFax Regular Plan: The regular plan is designed for individual users and small businesses that don’t require advanced features. It offers up to 200 sent and received pages per month and the ability to e-sign documents.
- eFax Corporate Plan: The corporate plan is designed for larger businesses that require more advanced features like dedicated fax numbers, higher monthly page limits, and access control. It also offers unlimited online storage and a few additional features like vanity addresses and international faxing.
HelloFax offers a similar deal—cloud storage, editing and e-signature features, and email-to-fax functionality. But HelloFax also offers international faxing coverage across all of its plans, and as a Dropbox company, integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive, and other commonly used business tools.
Company Health and Stability of eFax and HelloFax
eFax is an established company that has been around since the late 1990s. It is owned by J2 Global, which also owns one of the biggest names in web hosting—Bluehost—and a few other faxing platforms. As such, eFax has a long history of providing reliable services and is backed by a large parent company that can help address any issues.
HelloFax is a relatively new company, having only been around since 2010. It has grown quickly but still faces stiff competition from the more established players in the industry. That being said, DropBox recently acquired it, which provides HelloFax with plenty of resources to continue growing and innovating.
As we mentioned earlier, eFax is probably the most well-known name in the online faxing world because it’s been around for so long. But HelloFax is backed by a highly reputable company and offers solid features for a similar target market.
eFax vs. HelloFax Pricing Comparison
Of course, pricing is one of the most essential factors to consider when choosing any software—particularly when both offer similar products. No product in the realm of online faxing will cost you an arm and a leg (i.e., you won’t spend hundreds of dollars on sending a few pages of faxes), but looking at pricing is still important.
In general, we find eFax to be a bit pricey compared to most online faxing solutions. Its faxing plan offers users the most basic features. And although it does so reliably, it does not offer any additional features like international faxing or toll-free numbers.
Pricing Structure of eFax and HelloFax
eFax’s pricing model is simple—one option is available to all users, and it includes all of the standard features that come with the platform. Instead of allowing users to scale up their plans, eFax charges a flat fee for their Pro plan and an additional $0.10 per additional page.
HelloFax has four main pricing options:
- Free: The free plan is a great way to get started for users with minimal faxing needs. It includes up to five fax pages and one sender and allows for international faxes, cloud storage, and Dropbox and Google integrations. It does not, however, allow users to receive faxes or send faxes from their email accounts.
- Home: This plan is designed for occasional faxers who need more than the free plan offers. It includes up to 300 pages, five senders, and the ability to receive and send faxes from email accounts.
- Professional: The Professional plan offers up to 500 pages and 10 senders for businesses with moderate faxing needs. It also includes fax number porting, which is great for businesses looking to keep their existing fax numbers.
- Small Business: For larger organizations, the Small Business plan offers up to 1,000 pages and 20 senders, as well as all the features in previous subscriptions.
HelloFax’s pricing structure is easy for anyone to understand, and since there isn’t as large of an overage fee, businesses won’t need to count the number of pages they send every time.
Cost Comparison of eFax and HelloFax
Compared to HelloFax (and the rest of the industry, really), eFax is costly. $18.95 per month doesn’t sound like a lot, but HelloFax gives users a greater faxing allowance (300 pages from HelloFax vs. 200 from eFax) for almost 50% less. And by the time HelloFax and eFax are the same in price, you’re getting a higher allowance from HelloFax.
One benefit of eFax is that it bundles its 200-page faxing service with jSign for the same price. Since its e-signature platform is usually a separate cost, using them together would be a monthly savings of around $16. But again, HelloFax offers electronic document signing and DocuSign integration for $9.99 per month.
HelloFax charges a $0.05 overage fee for pages after the monthly allowance, half of what eFax charges. For businesses sending a high volume of faxes, this could potentially result in significant savings.
In both cases, the value of these services plateaus and starts to diminish at the SMB level. Businesses with moderate or greater fax needs will almost certainly find better deals elsewhere.
Trials and Guarantees for eFax vs. HelloFax
eFax offers a 14-day free trial with its Pro plan. This gives you two weeks to test the service and ensure it meets your needs before fully committing.
HelloFax offers a 30-day free trial, and it can be used with any of the plans. This gives users more time to test out its features and decide if it’s worth the cost. Whether or not you plan to use HelloFax past the trial period, 30 days is better than 14.
Neither company offers a money-back guarantee, but both companies are highly rated by customers on consumer review sites. This means that users can be confident in these companies’ services.
eFax vs. HelloFax: Core Criteria Comparison
HelloFax and eFax are both reliable services for small businesses with basic faxing needs. Both services offer occasional faxers reasonable plans with per-page costs that won’t break the bank. But businesses with frequent or high-volume faxing needs will probably need to look elsewhere for online fax services.
From a purely objective standpoint, we compared eFax and HelloFax based on the most important criteria of an online fax platform:
- Sending and Receiving Faxes
- Email to Fax Capability
- User Interface
- Digital Signatures
- Integrations with Popular Platforms
- Multi-User Support
- Mobile App
- Compliance and Security
For each of these criteria, we looked at how eFax and HelloFax stack up against one another.
Sending and Receiving Faxes — eFax Wins
Sending and receiving faxes are the core functions of any online fax service. To effectively send and receive faxes, an online fax service needs to make it easy for users to do it from anywhere, anytime. And they must make sure that the faxes arrive intact and on time.
Both eFax and HelloFax have secure, reliable systems for sending and receiving faxes. But eFax edges out HelloFax in this category for a few reasons:
- Archive and retrieval: You can send and store every message and document you receive through eFax for free. Everything is saved to the cloud, meaning you don’t need to worry about saving and organizing your faxes manually. HelloFax’s search features are limited to email and document titles, meaning you may have a harder time finding older faxes.
- Annoying gamification: HelloFax has a gamification element to it…sort of. While faxing, you can expect to see numerous popups offering you discounts, rewards, and other incentives in exchange for sharing the service with friends. I’m not against gamification, but I find this approach to it to be quite obnoxious, especially when all I’m trying to do is send a fax.
- Availability: HelloFax is only available in the US and Canada, while eFax is available worldwide. If you have an international team, you might need to consider a different option than HelloFax.
- Fax Templates: eFax has an impressive selection of fax templates that you can use to customize the look and feel of your faxes. HelloFax also has templates, but not as many as eFax does.
- Recipient Notifications: When you send a fax with HelloFax, you won’t be notified of its delivery status. This makes it confusing for users who are not sure if the fax was sent successfully or not.
- Mass Distribution: Both platforms allow for multiple fax recipients, but eFax is better for mass distribution of faxes.
- Large File Transfer: Both platforms support large files, meaning that they are both viable options for those who need to send rich documents that are dozens of pages long.
Overall, eFax makes it much easier for users to send and receive faxes from anywhere, so it wins in this category.
Email-to-Fax Capability — eFax Wins
One of the features eFax is known for is its email-to-fax capability. This allows you to send and receive faxes via email, eliminating the need for dedicated hardware or software. With eFax, all you have to do is enter the recipient’s fax number, attach the file you want to send, and hit “send.”
With HelloFax, the process is similar. But eFax gives you the highest level of reliability and security when sending and receiving faxes via email.
User Interface — eFax Wins
Functionality is important because it determines whether or not the app can actually do the tasks its users need it to do. But a solid user interface is the icing on the cake—it makes the process of using the app easier, more intuitive, and more enjoyable.
As a Dropbox company, HelloFax’s interface is designed to be familiar and easy to use. The dashboard has a modern layout and straightforward navigation, making it easy for users to find their way around.
But eFax’s user interface is even more straightforward. It features a clean, uncluttered design that makes it easy to find what you’re looking for. Its document organization can be a bit cluttered, but features like notes and easy-access contact integration make it easier to do what you’re using the platform to do: send and receive faxes from anywhere. You can even grab documents for faxing from drop sites and send faxes as PDFs from your mobile app.
Digital Signatures — HelloFax Wins
Electronic signatures are an essential part of the faxing process. There’s no point in sending a document over the internet if you can’t get it signed and returned (and most recipients won’t have a printer or fax machine anyways).
HelloFax is a member of the DocuSign ecosystem, the best-known digital signature platform. This means that sending and receiving digital signatures is a breeze compared to other solutions. And best of all, recipients will already be familiar with it.
eFax’s e-signature platform is effective but not as widely used. This means that many of your clients may struggle to understand how it works. HelloFax brings a certain level of familiarity that can make the process smoother and faster.
Integrations with Popular Platforms — HelloFax Wins
Nobody seems to have the same tech stack these days. And if you’re trying to integrate faxing into your workflow, you need a platform that works with the tools you already use.
HelloFax integrates with many popular services like Slack, Dropbox, and Google Drive. This makes sending and receiving documents from anywhere much easier without worrying about software compatibility or manual uploads. Many of Dropbox’s own products, including Paper and Showcase, also integrate with the platform.
eFax integrates with many popular services and software tools, making it easy to use. But the familiarity and cohesion that the Dropbox ecosystem offers beat out eFax in this category.
Multi-User Support — HelloFax Wins
Even small businesses or families need to have multiple users to fax effectively. If only one person has access, it means that others can’t join in when they need to.
Both platforms offer multi-user support. But eFax only allows up to five users, while HelloFax lets you have ten for the same price. And if you need to boost it to 20 users, you can with HelloFax.
For the smallest of businesses or those with the most limited faxing needs, this probably won’t matter. But if you run a small clinic, family business, or other organization with more than a few stakeholders, this might take eFax out of the equation.
Mobile App—eFax Wins
Mobile app support is a crucial element for any business tool. If you can’t effectively complete a business activity from your phone or tablet, there’s almost no point in using the platform.
HelloFax does not offer a dedicated mobile app for faxing. The mobile UI of its website and the Dropbox ecosystem are fine, but the lack of a dedicated app limits the amount of accessibility you have. If you want to send your fax quickly and efficiently, you’ll need your laptop.
eFax, on the other hand, offers a dedicated mobile app for both iOS and Android devices. This makes it much easier to send and receive faxes while you’re away from your desk. You can even upload documents directly from cloud storage solutions like Google Drive or Dropbox, making the whole process even more streamlined.
Compliance and Security — eFax Wins
Above all, you don’t want your sensitive documents to be compromised, and neither do your recipients. That could mean bad news for your business or even legal repercussions.
With eFax, you can securely store your faxes in a digital folder accessible to you at any time and for the duration of your account. All faxes from desktop, email, and mobile apps are encrypted, making sure that your documents stay secure.
HelloFax also encrypts all data with bank-level cybersecurity measures and offers the same features as eFax in terms of compliance and security. However, it doesn’t have a two-factor authentication process, meaning that anyone with access to your account can view and send faxes from anywhere.
Final Verdict — eFax Wins
HelloFax has a few advantages with its integration capabilities and user-friendly design, but it’s not the best for compliance or security. And because it doesn’t have a dedicated mobile app, multi-platform access isn’t as easy to use as it should be.
eFax is overpriced—paying nearly $20 per month for basic faxing isn’t ideal. But if you need multi-user support, compliance and security measures, and a dedicated mobile app, it’s definitely worth the extra money when compared to HelloFax.
Source: quicksprout
eFax vs. HelloFax