HelloFax 2021 Review

Mitch Avatar By: Mitch | Last updated March 25, 2021

Cartoon image of old fax machine


Introduction

The Covid19 pandemic forced most people to start working from home. On the upside, it means you get to work from the comfort of your home and spend more time with your family. The downside is you'll lose some of the most basic tools from your office that are crucial to your work, such as a fax machine. 

Your office would usually provide a fax machine for you but if you are to bring your work home then you need a digital solution so that you don't have to buy the bulky and rather expensive fax machine. HelloFax is one such service.

Hopefully, by the time you reach the end of this article, you'll be able to decide whether or not Hellofax is the right fit for you.

Email vs digital faxing

If the main purpose of digital faxing is to send and receive documents online, some of you may ask why not simply use email instead? There are two main reasons why fax is preferable to email. They are security, and credibility.

By its nature, emails that travel freely through the internet are vulnerable to all kinds of third party attacks and intervention. There are ways to enhance its security but you'll have to pay quite a steep price for those particular services. 

On the contrary, a conventional fax machine doesn't need the internet to transmit its data so it is way more secure than emails. As for the digital fax services, they do use the internet but their data travels through a secured and encrypted connection. It's quite similar to the secured email, but in this case, you don't have to pay any additional fees for it. A secured connection is a default feature that you will get from any online fax services. 

As for credibility, there are certain kinds of documents, particularly legal and medical documents, that are only credible in the eyes of its recipient if it's sent through fax. As I've mentioned above, emails are not as secured as faxes, which is why for documents as sensitive as legal and medical records, most places prefer to receive them through faxes.

Features of HelloFax
  • Send and receive Faxes online. The main feature of HelloFax is the ability to send and receive faxes without having to physically access a fax machine. This feature makes it easy for you to get the documents that you need even if you're currently on the road.
  • Email to fax. To use this feature, all you need to do is simply attach the document to your email and then send it by putting [the recipient fax number]@hellofax.com into the sent address. Your email will pass through HelloFax servers and immediately be sent to the appropriate recipient. 
  • Edit and sign documents digitally. When you receive a document via HelloFax, it will be in PDF format. Using HelloFax, you could easily edit the documents and with their HelloSign, you could sign the document. This seamless integration enabled HelloFax's users to have a swift workflow in regards to their documents.
  • Fax multiple recipients at once. Just like sending a fax from an email, if you can send a document to multiple recipients at the same time, all you need to do is simply input the fax numbers and send it.
  • Choose local numbers or port your current numbers. For all of their paid members, HelloFax would let you choose area codes for your fax numbers. But keep in mind that they only support area codes from the USA, the UK, and Canada for now. Alternatively, you could also port your current fax number although you should contact them first to do that and they may charge a small administrative fee for that service.
  • Secure and unlimited storage. With HelloFax, you don't have to worry about space for your documents because they offer unlimited storage for all of their paid customers. Not only that, but all of those documents are also secured so there's no way for outsiders to look into your documents. 
  • Signing in with an existing Google account. For every new user, HelloFax allowed you to either register for a new account or use your existing Google account so that you could conveniently manage your HelloFax account under the same umbrella as all of your other accounts. 
  • International faxes. You could send and receive faxes from more than 70 countries around the world. But keep in mind that while you could send faxes from almost everywhere, you could only use the numbers assigned to you based on the area codes from the US, UK, and Canada, as I've mentioned in the previous point. 
Benefits of using HelloFax
  • Affordable price. HelloFax has three kinds of paid plans with the price ranging from $9.99 per month to $39.99 per month. Other than several additional features, the main difference between them is the number of faxes that you're allowed to send/received and the number of senders. But no matter which plans that you end up using, all of them are equipped with all of the necessary features that you need for your faxing activity. Considering all the things that they offer, these prices are very generous and certainly affordable to most people. 
  • Ease-of-use. HelloFax was designed in such a way so that even first-time users could use all of their functions and navigate through their menus easily. 
  • Free plan and free trial. If you're still unsure whether or not you should use HelloFax, they have two ways for you to try it for free so that you could get to know more about their services. The first one is the "free plan". With this plan, you could use their basic online faxes features for free forever but you're limited to only five pages per month. The second one is the "free trial" option. With this, you could enjoy all of the features and benefits of HelloFax's premium plans for 30-days. At the end of the trial period, you could either purchase the paid plans or stop using HelloFax right there and then.
  • Excellent support. For most basic questions regarding HelloFax, you could visit their office and head into their FAQ section to find the answers. If you couldn't find the solution to your particular problem there, then you could always contact them through phone or emails and they will solve your issues as soon as possible.
Final thoughts on HelloFax

HelloFax works better for a small to a medium-sized company but even if you are simply an individual worker who is strapped to your home because of the pandemic, HelloFax could help you to send and receive all of those documents easily. 

The free plan and the free trial period are also great ways to familiarize yourself with what HelloFax has to offer. 

If you're an individual who tries to transition from working in your office to working from your home, then I suggest you start by getting their "free trial" option. If you think their services are a good fit for your job, then you could purchase their "Home Office" plan for a mere $9.99 per month. 

I think that particular plan would offer the best bang for your buck. But of course, if 300 pages a month is still not enough for you, you could always upgrade to the more advanced plans. 

As good as HelloFax is, though, we do have a better option that we have reviewed which was RingCentral. If you want to see our entire list of best e fax providers just click on that link and you will find everything you need to make the best choice for your needs.

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