RingCentral vs Faxage

RingCentral vs Faxage? Your choice will ultimately depend on your specific needs and requirements.

Security

As a business phone system, RingCentral takes security seriously. According to its website, you can trust that it employs the best data practices in each stage of product development. To protect data, it uses industry-grade 256-bit AES encryption and TLS encryption. RingCentral also enforces multifactor authentication and provides administrators the ability to manage users. With 15 global data centers and a secure backup infrastructure, this communications platform ensures its network has redundancy in every location, so you can be assured of 24/7 functionality anywhere you go.

Meanwhile, Faxage uses TSL/SSL encryption for its API and online fax. Email faxing is also secure through TLS/SSL encryption and PGP support to protect your documents from eavesdroppers. Moreover, received faxes can be delivered via a secure link rather than an attachment that anyone can easily open. Each incoming PDF can also be password-protected with AES encryption. To ensure that your data remains accessible even during unexpected incidents, Faxage backs up its facilities with both a UPS and a generator-powered system.

HIPAA Compliance

Both Faxage and RingCentral help healthcare organizations comply with HIPAA. RingCentral offers to sign a business associate agreement with covered entities to ensure their accountability to HIPAA obligations. If you need a BAA, request it from your RingCentral representative when you purchase a subscription. You can also send your request through email.

As a HIPAA-compliant RingCentral alternative, Faxage also offers a BAA. You must email their support team for the document and return the signed BAA via scan or email. Faxage will send back the countersigned copy within one business day or less. Afterward, you must set up Faxage for HIPAA compliance before using it. Failure to do so could result in a violation and potential monetary penalties.

Sending and Viewing Faxes

RingCentral lets you send faxes via email, website, API, print-to-fax, or app. Its app gallery offers PC, Mac, Android, and iOS mobile apps. Its iOS and Android apps are highly rated on the Apple and Google Play stores. Meanwhile, its Chrome extension gives you easy access to the RingCentral message hub.

Faxage also lets you fax conveniently through multiple devices and operating systems. You can fax using email, website, mobile app, Microsoft Office, or API. However, if you believe user reviews, their apps need some improvement. Comments show that the Android app doesn’t have an address book and that some users have problems viewing received faxes. iOS app users agree that the website and email fax features work better than the app.

ESignatures

With eSignature, you won’t need to pull up a third-party app to sign or affix a previously scanned signature to a fax. Unfortunately, RingCentral doesn’t have any built-in capability that would support this. 

Faxage is the better alternative to RingCentral for affixing electronic signatures to documents. This service lets you sign faxes and make annotations from its web and mobile app.

Fax Broadcasting 

Faxage bills by the minute rather than by page, which is the norm for most fax services. Thus, the service describes its volume faxing features in terms of minutes. You can send up to 5,000 minutes per line for a maximum of 3 lines. If you go beyond 5000 minutes per line, you receive a 4-cent discount, cheaper than the 5 cents per minute on their other plan types. You can check out the Pricing portion of this article for more information on volume faxing rates.

As a Faxage alternative, RingCentral’s default settings allow simultaneous faxing to 50 recipients. To send to more recipients, you must ask the fax service to enable its fax broadcasting. When attaching files, they must be within 200 pages and no more than 50MB in size.

Fax Numbers 

Faxage sells both lines and US and Canada numbers. Furthermore, it says you can think of a line as a phone line that plugs into your fax machine. As for its fax number, it’s similar to a second phone number on the same line. If you only have one line, all your faxes will go through the same line. However, if you have two lines, faxes can go through these two lines.

Faxage lines come with a phone number. However, you can have fewer phone numbers than lines. You can also add additional phone numbers to your lines. This feature is handy if you want to give each employee or department a shared fax number.

RingCentral offers more flexibility when it comes to fax numbers. With a Fax 3000 plan, you can choose from phone numbers in over 105 countries. It also provides vanity numbers to businesses aiming to establish hotlines for customer support or sales purposes.

Pricing

Faxage allows volume faxing, but it bills by the minute. It bills a one-minute minimum for answered calls. After the first minute, it then bills in six-second increments. The fax service claims that this billing system helps you save more on faxing costs. 

Volume plans start at $64.95 for 5000 minutes and one line. A Professional plan with a local or toll-free number costs $0.05 per minute with 600 faxes total. A Business plan allows unlimited inbound faxes (except for Business Toll-free 1500, which gives a cap of 1500 faxes) but at the same rate of $0.05 per minute. It also charges an additional $5 fee for setup.

As an alternative to Faxage, RingCentral counts pages rather than minutes. It only offers two subscription plans: $27.99/user/month with 3000 fax pages and one fax number. Meanwhile, its Advanced Plan provides a complete phone system with video, phone, SMS, and eFax features and unlimited faxing at $35/month. You can shave off a significant amount from your bill if you pay annually.