EssentialFax is a notable fax software solution that includes all the faxing tools you’ll need to streamline and simplify your fax transactions. While this software is simpler in design, it is just as effective in sending and receiving faxes as the other top-rated products included in our fax software lineup.
EssentialFax software offers all the fundamental basics needed to turn your PC into a powerful fax machine. In addition to offering a printer driver that allows you to fax from any open document or Windows application, you can scan any document and send it as a fax using the software’s Scan-To-Fax tool. With this tool you can also edit the quality of scanned documents and save scanned pages as an attachment to add to a pre-existing fax.
If you’d like your fax software to answer all incoming calls and treat them as a fax, EssentialFax comes with the useful Receive Mode to ensure no faxes being sent to you or your business are missed. To turn Receive Mode on, click the arrow on the Receive button in the main interface and select Receive Mode.
The ability to forward received faxes is another convenient feature EssentialFax provides. After receiving a fax, you can forward it to someone else by clicking the “Forward” button within the main interface. On the “Forward Received Fax” screen, you can add the recipient, subject, cover sheet and other required information before forwarding the fax. After being sent, the fax will appear in the outbox folder.
EssentialFax’s feature set would be near perfect if it included Outlook integration and the ability to email faxes directly from the interface. Outlook integration would allow you to import all your contacts into the software without having to manually add each one.
To create cover pages to your liking, EssentialFax software comes with a handy cover page editor. The editor can be found under the file menu and allows you to create completely unique cover pages using pictures, shapes and a wide variety of font and color choices. Additionally, premade templates are available that require you to just insert the appropriate contact information.
What the software doesn’t have is a caller ID (CSID) that allows you to receive faxes only from known, identified senders. While this functionality isn’t essential for fax software to operate, it’s highly advantageous because it allows you to block unwanted or junk faxes.
What we like about EssentialFax is it mimics the layout of Windows, which makes the software familiar to and easy to navigate for most users. Given the simplicity of the software, you should have no problem finding your way around the software, especially since it only offers basic functions.
EssentialFax offers several different help documents to answer any questions you may have about using the software. Help contents and two tutorials on creating faxes can be found under the Help menu. Email support is also available on their site.
Despite having only basic functionality, EssentialFax provides all the essentials you need to fax directly from your PC and proves to be an affordable contender in the field of faxing software.
