January 15, 2023 | Matt Gerchow People all over the world use online fax services to communicate with clients and business associates. If you work in healthcare, property, banking, or another industry that requires the sending and receiving of confidential documents, online faxing is the best solution. Using email to fax important docs is safe, fast, budget-friendly, and good for the environment.Safer, Faster, and Better: Use Email to Fax Important DocsMany companies prefer fax to email or other communication methods because it's safer. In the past, this meant that you had to buy a fax machine and paper, but now, faxing is as easy as sending an email. Most online providers allow you to send faxes directly from your GMail account. They also offer apps that can be installed on phones and tablets, so you can send and receive faxes anywhere, at any time.Online Fax Is Safer than Email End-to-end encryption is a process that keeps messages secret and prevents third parties from reading them. WhatsApp messages are encrypted in this way, so nobody can read texts that are sent through the app, not even the network's owners.Unfortunately, emails aren't usually protected in this way, so they are easier to intercept. Faxes, on the other hand, are end-to-end encrypted. This is one of the main reasons why so many companies still use fax to send sensitive data.Online Fax Is Faster and More Convenient than Regular FaxSending a message from one fax machine to another can take a lot of time, especially if your equipment isn't brand-new. Delays also happen when the recipient's line is busy. This isn't an issue with online fax because messages can be sent even if the other person is on the phone. On average, email faxes take one to six minutes to arrive.An additional benefit of online faxing is that it's much easier to keep everything in one place. Your faxes are securely stored by the online fax company, and they can also be sent to your email address. This means that you no longer have to keep physical folders in your office. Instead, simply use the “search” function in your inbox to find the relevant documents.Online Fax Is Budget-Friendly Cheap fax machines cost $250-$400, but high-quality ones might set you back $1,000 or more. They need to be replaced around once every 10 years. If your company is large, you might need one for each department. It's also important to consider that you'll use paper to send and receive faxes and to maintain the monthly expense of a dedicated landline for the machine to work on, so there are ongoing costs.Online fax services are more budget-friendly. For a small monthly fee, you can send and receive an unlimited number of faxes.Online Fax Is Environmentally Friendly More and more companies are moving towards environmentally friendly solutions in an effort to slow down climate change. If you'd like to reduce your environmental impact, getting rid of your traditional fax machine is a great first step. By switching to online faxing, you save a lot of paper.Studies have shown that printing documents on paper consumes 10-20x as much energy as reading them online. With online fax, you don't have to print out any documents, even ones that need to be signed. The “Online Signature” feature allows you to create an eSignature from any device. This is legally binding, just like a signature on paper.Online faxing is safe, fast, budget-friendly, and environmentally friendly. Because you can send faxes straight from your Gmail account, there's no need to purchase software or equipment. Get in touch with us at aFax to learn more about the subscriptions we provide, or test-drive our service now. It only takes a few minutes to send your first fax. Matt GerchowMatt Gerchow is an author, marketer, inventor, husband, father and yoga enthusiast. He enjoys travel to distant lands , fine wine, time with his family and dinner with friends.