Your options
A print shop or office store
Many copy shops, office supply stores and some post offices and libraries send faxes for a fee per page. It works, but you have to go there with the papers, and fees vary a lot by shop.
An online fax service
Online fax services send faxes from a website or by email. Many are built for businesses that fax every day, so they often come with a monthly plan, a fax number of your own and an account to set up. That suits regular faxing; for a form now and then it can mean paying for months you don’t use.
An app on your phone
A fax app turns your phone into the fax machine: the camera scans the pages and the app sends them over the internet. FaxBuddy is one of these, for iPhone. You pay per page with credits that don’t expire, with no subscription and no sign-up.
How a fax gets sent without a fax machine
The fax machine’s two jobs are scanning the paper and dialling the other machine over a phone line. Without one:
- Your iPhone does the scanning: the camera captures the pages, or you use a PDF you already have.
- The pages go over the internet to FaxBuddy’s servers, which turn them into one fax document.
- Our fax provider dials the recipient’s fax number over the phone network and sends the pages, exactly as a fax machine would.
- The receiving machine confirms each page. Only then does FaxBuddy show the fax as Delivered.
For the person on the other end, it’s an ordinary fax.
What it costs with FaxBuddy
One credit per page, the same to every country we fax to. Packs are one-time purchases in the app, from $3.99 for 5 pages down to $0.40 a page in the 100-page pack (in Canada from CA$4.99, down to CA$0.50 a page). Your first page is free, once per iPhone, and cover pages are free. If a fax isn’t delivered, its credits come back automatically. See all prices.
Before you send
- Check it’s a fax number. Offices often print a phone and a fax number side by side. If a person or voicemail answers, the fax fails (and the credits come back).
- Add a cover page if the office expects one: who it’s for, who it’s from, and a short note. It’s free.
- Keep the receipt. When it’s delivered, share the receipt from the fax as proof of when it arrived and how many pages went through.
What about receiving?
FaxBuddy sends faxes only. If someone needs to fax you back, ask whether they can reply by email instead, or use a service that gives you your own fax number.
Questions
Can I send a fax without a landline?
Yes. FaxBuddy sends over the internet; the phone line part is handled by our fax provider. Your iPhone only needs Wi-Fi or mobile data.
Is faxing from a phone legally the same as from a fax machine?
The recipient receives an ordinary fax, the same as from a machine. Whether a fax is accepted for a particular purpose is up to the office receiving it, so ask them if you’re unsure.
Is it safe to fax medical or tax documents this way?
Your pages travel encrypted from your iPhone to our servers in the EU and are deleted from our servers and our fax provider within 24 hours after the fax is delivered or fails. The last stretch over the phone network is an ordinary fax, which isn’t encrypted, as with any fax machine. Double-check the number before you send.
Do I need an account?
No sign-up. FaxBuddy doesn’t ask for your name, email or phone number. It keeps your credits with an anonymous ID stored on your iPhone.