Online Fax Services – UK – Sending, Receiving, Local, and Freephone Services

Whenever a service opens up its availability across the pond, there is always the question of whether it is well suited to the UK market.

Where most online fax services are US-based, the UK version of the service can have certain nuances that are better to sort out before purchasing.

On top of our regular fax service reviews, we have gone a level further and analyzed them from a UK customer perspective. Because customers in the UK usually have questions like will the service work the same from their locations, are there any quirks or differences with the service, how does billing work, and is customer support available during local hours.

Table of Contents

• Online Fax Services for the UK Comparison
• Differences to Expect From the US Service
• Customer Service Hours
• Local Number Availability
• Review of Each Service from a UK Perspective

Online Fax Services from a UK Perspective

Service	RingCentral	Nextiva	MyFax	eFax
Plan Reviewed	Fax 500	Single User	Best Value	eFax Plus
Outgoing Pages / Month	500	500	100	150
Incoming Pages / Month	incl. in Outgoing	incl. in Outgoing	200	150
Overage Page Cost	5.9c	3c	10c	10c
Customer Support Hours	24 / 7	6-6 MST / PDT	24 / 7	24 / 7
Fax Authority Rating	4.5 / 5	3.5 / 5	4 / 5	3.5 / 5
Mthly Cost	$7.99	$8.95	$10	$16.95
Mthly Cost – Annual Plan	$6.59	$4.95	$9.17	$14.13
UK Features
All Features Available	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
UK Based Subsidiary	Yes	No	No	No
UK Local Numbers	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
UK Freephone Numbers	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
£ Billing	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
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Free Trial
Full Review	RingCentral	Nextiva	MyFax	eFax
UK Review	RingCentral UK		MyFax UK	eFax UK

Differences to Expect from the US Service

For the most part we believe that the UK experience should be the same as the US service that is offered, but with UK tweaks and customizations.

While it may be too much to ask that a service translate all of its literature to “UK English”, and we won’t get into an argument about the spelling of the word “Colour” vs. “Color”, there should be changes like billing in Pounds sterling, as well as freephone and local numbers available.

Of all the services we review, only Nextiva does not extend billing and local number support across the pond. According to Nextiva, this is because their phone based e911 service (which allows VoIP phone users to call 911) is not compatible outside of the United States.

The rest of the services, RingCentral, eFax, and MyFax all are set up to accept customers from the UK, with the changes and customizations that users in the UK would expect from bringing the service across the Atlantic.

Customer Service Hours

While it may not be applicable to every person in the UK, we consider the availability of customer service hours to be an important consideration. Many services operate only on North American time, and this can be a major obstacle to doing business.

Of the four services reviewed, only Nextiva does not have customer support at hours convenient to business hours in the UK. The remainder offer support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Local Number Availability

All services except for Nextiva offer freephone fax numbers, and all services except for Nextiva offer locally based fax numbers for the UK.

We suggest that users looking into a fax service look around at different providers – while the three that offer UK service (RingCentral, MyFax, and eFax) all offer fax numbers in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and England, there is some variance between local number availability, and while most major metro areas are covered, users in other parts of the country may need to be picky about which service they choose in order to get a local (or near local) number.

Reviews of Each Service from a UK Perspective

eFax

eFax brings to the UK everything that it brings to the rest of the world.

Of all the major service providers, it is in our opinion the best when it comes to international service. Users in the UK will find that there are plenty of local and freephone fax numbers available, and that all the features available to the American version of its service are available to UK users.

Full eFax Review – Mac – Linux & Open Source – Canada – UK

RingCentral

Like eFax, RingCentral is a fully featured service, and does a good job of bringing its service across the pond.

All systems are functional for UK users, and local and freephone numbers are readily available.

RingCentral appears to have a subsidiary located in London, as well customer service is available according to local UK time.

Full RingCentral Review – Mac – Linux & Open Source – Canada – UK

MyFax

MyFax brings everything to the UK that it does to the USA and Canada. While the service is based out of North America, support is available 24 hours a day.

UK based local and freephone fax numbers are readily available from many regions across the country.

Full MyFax Review – Mac – Linux & Open Source – Canada – UK

Nextiva

While we really like the Nextiva service in general, outside of the USA, the service leaves much to be desired.

UK users who want this service will only have the ability to choose between US based local phone numbers, and no freephone numbers are available.

There is no foreign currency billing, Pounds sterling or otherwise.

While we have nothing bad to say about the service, most UK users would likely be better off looking for a different provider.

Full MyFax Review – Mac – Linux & Open Source – Canada