Online fax service cost for a small office

An online fax service for a small office costs a flat monthly fee that covers a fax number and a page allowance. With Faxy that starts at 49 USD a month for one number and 1,000 pages, or 24.50 USD a month on annual billing. A machine looks cheaper on paper until you add the phone line, supplies, repairs and the staff time spent walking to the tray.

What a fax machine really costs

The machine itself is the smallest part. The recurring items are what add up, and each office has its own numbers, so write yours down before you compare anything.

• The dedicated phone line or analog adapter, billed every month whether you fax or not.
• Paper, toner or ink, and the occasional service call when the machine jams.
• Staff time to collect incoming pages, scan or file them and carry outgoing paper to the machine.
• Long distance or international call charges on some lines.
• The cost of a missed fax when the machine is out of paper or the line is down.

Take the monthly line charge, add a realistic figure for supplies, and estimate the minutes your team spends on faxes in a typical week. Multiply those minutes by the hourly cost of whoever does the work. That total is the number an online plan has to beat.

What an online fax plan includes

A plan bundles things you would otherwise buy separately. Faxy plans include a fax number, a monthly page allowance, sending from a browser or by email, incoming faxes delivered as PDF, a searchable archive and a delivery receipt for every fax.

• Starter at 49 USD a month for one number and 1,000 pages.
• Business at 129 USD a month for five numbers, 5,000 pages, roles and a REST API.
• Team at 299 USD a month for 15 numbers and 20,000 pages.
• Annual billing takes 50 percent off the monthly price on every plan.

The full breakdown is on the pricing page. Prices are in US dollars, and a plan renews until you cancel it.

How to size a plan by page volume

Pages are counted when they are sent or received, and the allowance does not roll over. To choose a plan, look at a typical month. Count the faxes your office sends and receives, multiply by the average page count, and add a margin for busy weeks such as month end or open enrollment.

A small practice or a two person firm that handles a few dozen faxes a month sits well inside 1,000 pages. An office that exchanges referrals, orders or records all day should look at the 5,000 page tier. If you are unsure, start one tier up. It is easier to see real volume for a month and adjust than to hit the limit mid month.

Costs that do not show up on the invoice

Some of the best savings are not on a bill. Incoming faxes arrive in the inbox, so nobody has to check a tray. Every sent fax has a receipt, which saves the time you would spend phoning to ask whether a document arrived. Several people can share a number with their own permissions, so one machine does not become a bottleneck.

Security is part of cost too. A page left in an output tray is a privacy incident waiting to happen, especially for medical and legal offices. Named accounts and an activity log reduce that risk. See the security page for what Faxy records.

Monthly or annual billing

Annual billing takes 50 percent off the monthly price, which makes the yearly commitment worth considering once you know your volume. Start on monthly for the first cycle if you are not sure how many pages your office really moves, then switch to annual when the numbers settle. Compare the annual figure against twelve months of line charges and supplies, not against one month.

What a switch looks like

The move is smaller than most offices expect. You create the account, choose a new number or port the one you use now, and add the people who send or receive faxes. Senders upload a file or email it to the service, and receivers get a PDF in their inbox. Once the port finishes you can cancel the phone line and retire the machine.

If you already send from several desks, set up user accounts first so every fax has a name attached. That is what gives you the activity log later, and it removes the shared tray that causes most privacy problems in small offices.

Questions to ask before you pick a service

• Is the page allowance per month, and what happens when you pass it?
• Can you keep your current fax number by porting it?
• Do you get a delivery receipt for each fax and can you download it?
• Can you add users with different permissions without paying per seat?
• Is there an API if your software needs to send faxes on its own?
• Is there a business associate agreement for healthcare use?

A simple way to compare

Put the two options in one table with the same rows: line, supplies, staff time, and monthly total. For the online column, use the plan price you would pay on monthly billing, then recalculate with annual billing. Most small offices find the gap is not the headline price but the time that stops going into handling paper.

Offices that exchange signed agreements by fax often also need a place to keep and track those contracts after sending. A tool for contract management software handles that side, while the fax service handles delivery and proof.

Ready to run the numbers with your own volume? Open the demo on the Faxy home page or read how sending a fax online works, then pick the plan that matches your pages.